Apple’s new MacBook Air with the M1 chip has a fanless design and starts at $999

Pocketnow

By Nadeem Sarwar

Published Nov 11, 2020

You can pre-order the new MacBook Air powered by the M1 chip starting today and it will start shipping next week.

Apple has just introduced its first Mac powerd by the in-house M1 processor – a 13-inch MacBook Air. The new slim-and-light laptop by Apple starts at $999 and rocks the same design as its predecessor. Aesthetics aside, all the new upgrades are under the hood, and trust me, they are major. For starters, the new MacBook Air ditches the fan. Yes, the M1-powered MacBook Air has a fanless design. Now, let’s talk about the rest of the package.

Apple claims that the new MacBook Air offers 3.5x higher performance compared to its predecessor, and up to 3x boost over the comparable Windows machine. The integrated GPU, on the other hand, delivers a 5X boost in graphics prowess. The company says all that power translates into the ability to edit multiple 4K video streams and some serious boost to gaming prowess. However, it remains to be seen how proper AAA games fare on the Mac, although I am not too optimistic.

As for the battery life. Apple claims that the new M1-powered MacBook Air will last up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and 18 hours of video playback. And since we live in times where online meetings are the norm, Apple says that the new MacBook Air will last twice as long when it comes to video conferencing. Regarding the battery life, Apple says that the new MacBook Air offers the longest battery life ever in the product’s line.

Oh, the Retina display on the new MacBook Air now supports P3 color gamut, which is definitely a welcome change. The Touch ID, on the other hand, is now backed by the secure enclave onboard the M1 chip. As for the storage, Apple says the SSDs aboard its latest sleek laptop deliver 2x faster performance, while the machine learning-based workloads are 9x faster. Here are a few upgrades that Apple highlighted for its new MacBook Air: