Apple Unveils Fastest M1-Powered MacBook Air Ever

During Apple’s “One More Thing” event on Tuesday 10 November, Apple launched a range of new MacBook laptops which are powered by its own M1 Silicon processor.

The first Mac device to ship with this new chipset is the new Apple MacBook Air, which is more powerful than ever.

The 13-inch notebook delivers up to five-times the graphics performance of the previous generation thanks to the Apple M1 chipset.

“With the new M1, MacBook Air is faster than 98% of laptops sold in the last year,” Apple said.

It is also completely silent as it has no built-in fan, and its battery life has been vastly improved – offering up to 18 hours of video playback on a single charge.

The device sports an improved 13.3-inch Retina display and greatly enhanced camera quality.

The MacBook Air is priced at $999 and is available to pre-order from today. The device will begin shipping from next week.

Massive boost in performance

The new MacBook Air boasts the same lightweight design as the previous generation along with a big step up in performance.

Apple states that compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered MacBook Air can:

Export a project for the web with iMovie up to 3x faster.
Integrate 3D effects into video in Final Cut Pro up to 5x faster.
For the first time, play back and edit multiple streams of full-quality, 4K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro without dropping a frame.
Export photos from Lightroom up to twice as fast.
Use ML-based features like Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro to intelligently frame a clip up to 4.3x faster.
Watch more movies and TV shows with up to 18 hours of battery life, the longest ever on MacBook Air.
Extend FaceTime and other video calls for up to twice as long on a single charge.

The laptop also supports Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and sports two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support.

“With its sleek wedge-shaped design, stunning Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and astonishing level of performance thanks to M1, the new MacBook Air once again redefines what a thin and light notebook can do,” Apple said.

Apple M1

Apple said that M1 is the first system-on-chip built for its Mac devices.

This chipset features unified memory architecture, which unifies high-bandwidth low latency memory into a single package, dramatically improving performance and power efficiency.

It is the first computer chip built using 5nm processor technology and combines high-performance and high-efficiency cores for maximising efficiency and performance.

Apple also said the M1 chipset offers the world’s best CPU performance per watt, outpacing all of its rivals in power efficiency.

The system-on-chip also sports a graphics processing chip with eight physical cores that combine to deliver 2.6 teraflops of performance.

Apple said that when it comes to personal computers, M1 has the world’s fastest integrated graphics.

The company’s latest desktop operating system – macOS Big Sur – is designed around the capabilities of this chipset, delivering exceptional desktop interface performance and improved responsiveness.

Apple said that M1 is just the first iteration in a new chip lineup which all of its Mac devices will adopt in future.

Many flagship apps have already launched “universal” applications that run on both Intel and Apple Silicon-based Mac devices.

“We are developing a family of chips and will transition the Mac lineup to these chips over the next couple of years,” Apple said.