Apple produces one of the best performing laptops in the industry. With only three in their lineup; Macbook Air, Macbook Pro 13 and the Macbook pro 16, one of them really stands out as the best value for your money. I am talking about the Macbook Air.
The Macbook Air has been the best selling Macbook for a long time and last year after the M1 revamp, the Air was selling like crazy. The Macbook Air is the best in its class due to these three crucial factors. It is light, portable and packs a ton of power considering that price point. In this article we are going to discuss why the Macbook Air is the best value you can get from an Apple laptop.
Specs
- 8GB/ 16GB unified memory.
- 256GB/ 512GB/ 1TB/ 2TB Storage.
- Two thunderbolt 3 USB 4 ports.
- Touch ID Embedded into the power button.
- Retina display with true tone
- 8 Core GPU
- 8 Core CPU
- 16 Core Neural Engine
- Backlit Magic Keyboard
- Aluminum Chassis
- 60Hz refresh rate
- Keyboard uses scissor mechanism
- Three studio quality microphone array
- 720P Webcam
- Battery Lasts up to 20Hrs
- No fans
- Display Resolution of 2560 X 1600 Pixels
- 13.30-inch display
- Weighs at 1.29Kg
- Starts from $999
Design language and portability
The M1 Macbook Air is undoubtedly one of the sleekest ultra-books in the market. It weighs in at 1.29 Kg with an all-round aluminum chassis. The Air comes in three color options unlike the Macbook pro 13 which only comes in two; Space Gray, Silver and Gold. The Gold one, which I find it more of rose gold, is my favorite one.
Owning a Macbook has become more of a fashion statement and an indication of financial success (well, sort of). That’s how well Apple as a brand has influenced our daily lives. On the left side we have two thunderbolt 3, USB 4 ports and on the left side we have a 3.5mm headphone jack. And that’s it for the port selection in this device.
The keyboard on the Air is the Magic keyboard with the scissor mechanism which is a huge improvement from the butterfly keyboard. The screen is a Retina display with a resolution of 2560 X 1600 pixels. At the top of the Retina display we have a 720P webcam and three studio quality microphones.
Performance – No fans no problem
Apple managed to revamp the whole Macbook Air last year, making it more powerful than ever. In addition to that, Apple managed to make it fanless. That’s right, the Macbook Air is fanless and it is as quiet as it can be. All this is thanks to Apple’s M1 chip. I know most of us have heard the term M1 being thrown around but if you are still not sure, here is an easy-to-understand explanation.
The M1 features one chip that integrates major components of a PC which would otherwise be scattered all over the motherboard. The M1 chip features the RAM ( also unified memory), an 8 core CPU, up to an 8 core CPU, a 16 core neural engine, 16 billion transistors (35% more than the A14) , media encode and decode engines, Thunderbolt / USB 4 controller all in a 5nm process.
This simply means that efficiency is greatly improved since most of the components needed are on the chip rather than on different parts of the motherboard making communication among components better and faster.
The M1 chip is an ARM based chip meaning it uses less power and is more efficient as compared to it’s X86 counterparts, hence it is referred to as RISC. (Reduced instruction set computer). The power that the Macbook Air offers is more than enough to the average user. You can be able to run most Apps on this machine including the most demanding creative Apps.
But it is worth noting that heavy usage of apps like final cut pro and Adobe Premiere pro can chug the machine and since it has no fans, it can easily over heat and thermal throttle.
The App compatibility issue
Since Apple transitioned to M1, it is going to take some time for developers to optimize their Apps to run natively on the M1 machines. Apple of course considered this setback and resulted to using an emulator known as Rosetta 2.
This is the same emulator Apple used when they transitioned from Power Pc to intel back in 2005. What Rosetta does is that it translates apps and programs which are optimized for Intel based macs to the M1 based macs. In simple terms, the Rosetta 2 is more of a translator.
Consider apps developed for Intel being in a different language and M1 can’t understand that language. This is where Rosetta 2 comes in. It translates intel optimized Apps in a simplified manner to the M1 based machine. The good news is that Apple has developers working round the clock to optimize their apps for M1 based machines. This shouldn’t be a hurdle but just a minor setback.
Camera, Battery life, security and Microphones
The M1 Macbook Air comes with a 720P webcam which is enough for video conferencing. It is not the best but it will definitely get the job done. It would be better if they upgrade it to a 1080P.Speaking of video conferencing, Apple produces the best microphones in any laptop, period! The microphones produce crisp and crystal-clear voice quality. Definitely the best in the market.
In terms of security features, you can unlock your Macbook using either the embedded fingerprint or using your Apple watch. Either of them works just fine and both methods are as secure as they can be. Last and not least, we are going to look at the battery life. This is one area that Macbooks have nailed for a very long time. The M1 Macbook Air takes it a notch higher. The battery should last you up to three days if you are doing light tasks. Apple claims up to 20Hrs of battery life which is just incredible.
Final thoughts
The Macbook Air is a well crafted machine and is suitable for anyone looking for a less expensive way of getting into the Apple ecosystem. This machine is also suitable for students and anyone who does light tasks on a daily basis. The addition of the M1 SoC to this machine was just the best move that Apple could make last year. Would you consider buying the M1 Macbook Air. ( late 2020)?
Nice one