THE M1 chip released by Apple in November last year has made its way into a few of the company's products namely the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and the Mac mini.
One of the advantages of having the in-house-designed chip is that it can be catered specifically to the needs of the devices and the system they run on.
In the case of the M1-powered MacBook Air, the presence of the new chip has given a boost to this most popular Apple's MacBook.
While the look and feel of the device is still the same as the Intel-based version, the performance is very different, as developing a chip in-house gives Apple much advantage in ensuring it can fully boost the hardware and software performance.
As a result, the chip is capable of taking advantage of the latest macOS Big Sur and delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before.
Although Apple now has its own silicon, the company said it will continue to support Intel-based Macs for many years to come. So users of the previous generation of MacBook need to worry about support.
More power for the Air
The MacBook Air is no doubt one of the best-selling 13-inch MacBook in Apple's line up. Its light and sleek design makes it easy to carry around and won't add much weight to your bag if you're travelling.
But being smaller, the MacBook Air is not as powerful as its "Pro" brothers, and may be the machine you want to use for number-crunching, graphics-heavy workload. But hey… that was before the arrival of the M1 chip.
Frankly, I never thought that I would be able to watch 8K content (7,680 x 4,320 pixels) on a 13-inch MacBook Air, and thanks to the new M1 chip, this is now possible. And not just that, playing games in 8K is also possible, and without any lag.
I managed to view a number of videos in 8K format and all were played smoothly.
Besides that, the M1 chip, MacBook Air speeds through everything from editing family photos to exporting videos for the web.
Apple said that the 8-core CPU performs up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation, and graphics will be up to 5x faster, which is the biggest leap ever for MacBook Air, so immersive, graphics-intensive games run at significantly higher frame rates.
Viewing gaming content like the Assassin Creed Valhala is also not a problem with this machine.
And if you like shooting games, the Butter Royale offers a classic non-violent arcade game with weapons that shoot ketchup and popcorn. This runs well on the M1-chip-powered MacBook Air.
Work faster
If you're in machine learning (ML) works and apps, you can now do it on this machine as it can do the workloads up to 9x faster. Technically, apps that use ML-based features like face recognition or object detection can do so in a fraction of the time. The M1 chip's storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance, so previewing massive images or importing large files is faster than ever. And in MacBook Air, M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.
If you're wondering what apps are able to take advantage of the M1 chip, there are many already.
Free apps like the iMovie works wonderfully on this machine. This simple-to-use app is faster on the M1 MacBook Air, where you will be able to export a project for the web with iMovie up to 3x faster.
If you are using Final Cut Pro, you can now integrate 3D effects into the video you are making up to 5x faster, and for the first time, play back and edit multiple streams of full-quality, 4K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro without dropping a frame.
You'll also be able to export photos from Lightroom up to twice as fast.
Besides being able to give faster performance on tasks execution, the M1 MacBook Air is also very silent, because there is no fan in the machine, and despite being fanless, the machine managed to stay cool all the time, and of course silent. Having a machine that is able to do "big" loads of work and without any fan is a cool innovation in itself.
Also, you'll realise that this machine could last longer - battery wise. If you're on the road or not connected to a power outlet, you'll be able to surf the Internet for up to 15 hours and up to 18 hours for video playback. Basically, you're good to take it out for a field work the hold day without having to bring a power cable.
Design
On the design, you may not notice almost any difference between this M1 machine and the previous Intel-based generation. There are two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support on the top left side of the device.
The great scissor switch keyboard is still present with the same placement of speakers on both sides of the keyboard.
Besides that, you'll also notice that the Retina display is more vibrant with the support for P3 wide colour.
Also, the Secure Enclave in M1, combined with Big Sur, delivers best-in-class security with features like Touch ID, which makes it easy to unlock the machine.
Conclusion
If you're looking for a new laptop and want something that is small yet powerful, the M1 MacBook Air is a good candidate. With the same price as the previous generation, this machine is a bargain. The M1 MacBook Air with 256GB storage (8 core CPU, 7 core GPU, and 16 core Neural Engine) is priced at RM4,399, while the 512GB storage version (8 core CPU, 8 core GPU, and 16 core Neural Engine) costs RM5,399.