After announcing its new M1 silicon for Macs, Apple announced two new MacBooks powered by the new processor. The first is the MacBook Air and the other is the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
MacBook Air (2020)
The new MacBook Air is the first to be powered by an Arm-based processor. The laptop which boasts impressive upgrades in performance and battery life also keeps the $999 ($899 for education) starting price tag of the last generation.
With the new M1 processor, the MacBook Air comes with up to 5x faster graphics, 3.5x faster CPU, up to 9x faster machine learning, and a battery life that goes up to 18 hours on a single charge, the longest ever on a MacBook Air. Apple says it has also removed the cooling fan so it’s silent but it remains to be seen how well it keeps cool.
Faster than 98% of PC laptops sold in the last year – Apple
The new MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch Retina Display with a P3 wide color gamut. It can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage which Apple claims is 2x faster. It has Touch ID, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6, and a secure enclave.
There are two USB-C ports which can be used for charging, and also support DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3, and USB 3.1 Gen 2. There is also an audio jack on the right side of the laptop. It runs macOS Big Sur out of the box.
The new MacBook Air comes in Gold, Silver, and Space Gray can be preordered immediately ahead of its release next week on November 17.
13-inch MacBook Pro
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro also features the Apple M1 processor and also boasts big boosts in performance.
The CPU is said to be up to 2.8x faster, the GPU is up to 5x faster, and it also has up to 11x faster machine learning than the previous generation powered by an Intel processor. Its battery life is up to 17 hours of web browsing and up to 20 hours of video playback, the longest ever of any Mac.
The new laptop has a 13.3-inch Retina Display too with a touch bar above the Magic Keyboard. It comes in 8GB and 16GB RAM configurations with storage capacity going up to 2TB. All configurations have the same -core CPU and 8-core GPU.
It has two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, an audio jack, an HD camera that takes advantage of the M1 chip to reduce noise and to adjust white balance and exposure, a studio-quality three-mic array, Touch ID, and Wi-Fi 6.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1299 ($1199 for Education), comes in Space Gray and Silver, and is already available for pre-order. It will go on sale on November 17.
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