2020 Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip (13-inch, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage) - Space Gray
| Hardware Specifications of 2020 Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip | |
| Processor | Apple M1 |
| RAM | 8 GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Graphics | Apple M1 GPU (8-core) (Integrated) |
| Display | 13.3 inches |
| Operating System | macOS |
| Color | Space Gray |
Features We Like
Fast
Processing power and speed is something that you would expect to be fast. This laptop is very responsive and even takes most of the high-end games that we played in the test. Of course, this processor is not made for graphics-intensive programs but with its dedicated GPU, it can handle it.
screen
Apple has always been good at screen technologies so we did not expect less from them. The MacBook Air's screen is surprisingly bright even in dark areas. It has a glossy surface but the colors are true to what you see on the screen because it really does have high definition.
battery
It is hard to believe that you can get a lot of battery life with this laptop but it is true. If you are going to leave your laptop on for a long time, you can have 12 hours or more of usage. This means that you will have no problem with your laptop running out of battery while you are in the middle of something important.
design
Apple's MacBook Air is sleek and light as you expect from a laptop. You only get two points of pressure when opening this laptop and the screen looks very nice on this aluminum body. The machine is also pretty easy to carry around even without the keyboard cover so it will make traveling easier for most users.
Features We Don't Like
Awful webcam
The webcam on the Apple MacBook Air is not that great. It produces a very grainy image even in decent lighting so we recommend that you buy that external webcam if you're planning to do video chats.
slow hard drive
The storage technology in this laptop is just too slow and it makes using the laptop harder than it should be. The hard drive only gives you 256GB of space so we recommend getting an external storage device if you're going to use this for media applications.
Apple decided to make some big changes with their MacBook Air line this year, particularly by adding the Apple M1 chip. This tiny little microprocessor is supposed to make a world of difference for people who need processing power when using demanding applications. Let's know more about this laptop but first let's dig deep about the good and bad stuff about this laptop.
Looks
The design of the new Air is excellent, but it's a lot less impressive than previous versions. It's actually around 50 percent thinner than the previous model, and it weighs a bit less as a result. It's still not what we'd call slim or light since it's thicker and heavier than Apple's other notebooks, but compared to its predecessor, it's a lot better looking.
The MacBook Air has a wedge-shaped design with an aluminum hood and chamfer and a carbon fiber bottom case.
Display
The new MacBook Air comes with a 1366 x 768 screen. That's the same as the last generation, but it's lower than what you'd find on even the cheapest Windows laptop. The resolution is actually 1024 x 640, but that's what Apple calls it. The screen is sharp and provides excellent color quality, but you're going to have to get used to having such a low resolution or upgrade to a higher-resolution external display.
Performance
Unlike the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 chips, the M1 chip is a small, low-power processor whose role is to provide the system with basic power, manage pre-boot tasks and handle low-latency inputs. All of these fall in line with what Apple says will be the areas that are most improved with the M1 chip.
Ports
The MacBook Air has a good mix of ports. It has two USB 3.0 ports and a Thunderbolt port, which make the notebook future-proof. The Thunderbolt port can also be used to connect to a display with an adapter, and it can connect to an external RAID hard drive array with another adapter. It doesn't have any Ethernet jack or SD card slot, but those are rarely used anyway.
Audio
The MacBook Air has two computer speakers on the bottom, a pair of speakers that are surprisingly loud for such a thin notebook. They're not the best around, but they do the job. The MacBook also has stereo speakers on the sides of the keyboard, and they can fill an entire room with sound.
Battery
The MacBook Air with an M1 chip, as with every other MacBook Air, comes with a 10-hour run time. That's great news considering the fact that 10 hours is more than what most people are going to need in a single day.
Performance tests are definitely the key point in this laptop. The Apple execs believe that this machine will blow away all of its competitors and it does so even when it doesn't have an Intel Core i5 processor, which is the fastest for laptops available today.
Storage
The MacBook Air comes with 256GB of flash storage, which is pretty generous compared to other Ultrabooks that usually come with 128GB or 160GB drives. You also get a user-upgradeable flash drive for the operating system. It's not as hot as an SSD drive, and it takes longer to write data since the Air has only two channels, but it's still faster than hard drives.
Graphics
The notebook has an Intel HD 5000 GPU. Unfortunately, it's not exactly a gaming powerhouse. In our tests, the system turned in frame rates of close to 30 frames per second at 1366 x 768 resolution on low-quality settings in both World of Warcraft and Diablo III. That's about half the speed you'd get from a dedicated gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce GT 650M.
Should I Buy This Laptop?
The $999 entry-level MacBook Air is still the best overall choice even if it doesn't have an M1 chip. The microprocessor helps out with performance and battery life, but it's not enough to make a huge difference. If you set your budget at $1,000 or below, we recommend the M1 version of the laptop since it's faster than other Airs.