Apple MacBook M1

amazon Apple MacBook M1 reviews

From the outside, the MacBook M1 is almost no different from the versions equipped with Intel processors launched earlier this year. Both have Retina True Tone screens with a P3 color range and a Magic Keyboard with a scissor mechanism instead of the old butterfly keyboard. Both have two Thunderbolt 3/USB4 ports and a 3.5mm jack.

However, there is still a slight change in appearance on the MacBook Air located in the keyboard part. If you look closely, you will notice that instead of the Launchpad key and the two keys to increase and decrease the keyboard brightness, it is now changed to Search, Dictation, and Do Not Disturb. In addition to those changes, the Fn key in the bottom left corner of the keyboard also acts as an emoji key, allowing you to invoke an emoji that pops up when tapped quickly.

This difference cannot be seen on the MacBook Pro because the Touch Bar and the Fn key, with the Intel MacBooks, all have the same feature after updating to macOS Big Sur.

The rest of the differences between the Intel MacBook and the MacBook M1. Here’s what you’ll get with the MacBook M1.

Instant “Wake Up”

Like iPhone, iPad, MacBook M1 can wake up instantly while in sleep mode. If you own an Intel MacBook model, you may have noticed that after opening the lid, you will need to wait a few seconds to be ready to work, although not too long, sometimes annoying us when there is a problem urgent work.

Quiet activity

The MacBook Air 13-inch M1 is completely fanless and a great choice for those who prefer a completely quiet laptop. Even with fans maintaining high performance for long periods, the MacBook Pro M1 and Mac mini M1 are extremely quiet even when running continuous performance tests. Thanks to the very efficient use of power from the 5nm ARM chip possible.

Great quality screen

The MacBook Air display is increasingly similar to the MacBook Pro’s screen. With the MacBook Air 2020 models, both Intel and M1 are equipped with Retina screens, supporting True Tone technology and the same P3 color space as MacBook Pro. The only difference lies in the screen brightness; the MacBook Air can achieve 400 nits while the MacBook Pro can reach 500 nits. But in general, for indoor use, we only use 150-300 nits, but rarely higher.

Still has a 720p webcam.

The 720p FaceTime camera is probably a problem that MacBook users have always been dissatisfied with for many years now. Apple could have fitted a much better 1080p camera than it did with the iMac.

Apple M1 chip – a game-changer on MacBook M1

Without the M1 chip, the new MacBook duo is not worth mentioning because they are almost no different from the old Intel MacBook. Like the A-series processors in iOS devices, the M1 processor also contains all the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and unified memory components. In addition, there are storage controllers, Image Signal Processors, Secure Encryption, and more.

The Apple M1 is a processor with 8 CPU cores, which is unthinkable, especially on the MacBook Air. The 8-core CPU is divided into four high-performance (p-cluster) and four energy-efficient cores (e-cluster). Depending on the type of workload, each cluster will work together to be as efficient as possible.

Below is a test in MacBook Air M1, with four power-efficient cores named CPU 0 – CPU 3, 4 high-performance cores including CPU 4 – CPU 7.

According to the above test, it is easy to see that the M1 processor has the highest clock speed of 3.2GHz, which is interesting when comparing it with the MacBook Air 2020 with Intel Core i3 configuration with a clock speed 1.1 – 3.2GHz.

7 core GPU

The entry-level MacBook Air comes with a 7-core GPU, while higher versions and all MacBook Pro models come with an 8-core GPU. Apple’s integrated GPU is still better than the discrete GTX 1050 Ti card. For proof, let’s look at the tests with Final Cut Pro, Unigine, and Geekbench. Remember that Unigine tests run using the Rosetta 2 engine, leading to degraded performance.

Final Cut Pro performance

HEVC (H.265) is a high-ratio compressed video codec, resulting in low video size but still excellent quality. However, for encryption and decryption, you need powerful enough hardware to use it. Apple has proven that the iPhone 12 can easily record and play 10-bit HEVC 4K video; of course, the Mac M1 is the same.

On the Intel MacBook Air, 10-bit H.265 video playback is quite difficult, sometimes stuttering and rendering time is…

As a result of the image above, it can be seen that the ability to render 10 bit 4K HEVC video on the MacBook M1 is amazing. In some cases, render times were even faster than the Mac Pro 28-Core with dedicated W5700X graphics. That’s not to say Apple’s silicon Macs are a complete replacement for high-performance machines, but the results are truly incredible for a laptop that’s thin and fanless.

Neural Engine 16 cores

Thanks to the 16-core Neural Engine, Machine Learning-powered operations can be faster and more efficient on Apple’s new Mac hardware. For example, Final Cut Pro’s Smart Conform function, which uses machine learning to automatically rescale clips with aspect ratios different from the project’s aspect ratio, is significantly faster on the Mac M1. Professional apps like Pixelmator Pro can upscale images while maintaining sharpness and clarity even faster than before.

In the future, the Neural Engine could be used for features like automatic captioning and transcription, among other potential applications.

Unified Memory

With these new Macs, Apple has placed RAM right on the M1 die, which means that the Mac mini is no longer upgradeable. But in return, this consolidation makes for much faster data access speeds, and RAM can be accessed directly from the GPU and faster Neural Engine.

MacBook M1 is equipped with a high-speed SSD

Apple says the SSD inside the MacBook Air M1 is nearly twice as fast as the SSD in its predecessor.

Wi-Fi 6

MacBook Pro is Apple’s first computer equipped with Wi-Fi 6, which offers many advantages such as higher speed and lower latency.

Thunderbolt/USB4

Not Thunderbolt 4, but USB 4 to be exact; it’s the same as Thunderbolt 3. This port is backward compatible with virtually any Intel Mac compatible device. USB4 has the same 40Gbps data transfer capabilities as Thunderbolt 3, supports outputting displays to 6K@60, and powers the MacBook.

Really impressive MacBook M1 battery life

The results obtained are really impressive, not only comfortable for an 8-hour working day but even for you to work from morning to night or until the next day to need to plug in the charger. If the future 16-inch MacBook Pro retains the current battery capacity, the battery life will perhaps exceed the above results.

Ending

Although, at the moment, there is still a lot of software that cannot run directly on the MacBook M1, most office users who are not too professional can fully respond. When buying MacBook M1, users will receive a product with excellent performance when running optimized software. Of course, still powerful enough with software running through Rosetta 2, especially the ability to operate extremely quiet, great battery life, and a price comparable to the basic configuration of the predecessor Intel MacBook.

where can you get a Apple MacBook M1 online

2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage, Backlit Keyboard, FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID. Works with iPhone/iPad; Space Gray: Buy it now

2021 Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, Apple M1 Pro chip with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) – Silver: Buy it now

Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip (13-inch, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage) – Space Gray (Latest Model) Z11B000E3: Buy it now

MacBook Pro Apple M1 chip 8GB Memory 256GB SSD Space Gray: Buy it now