New MacBook Air Costs the Same, but Is 3.5x Faster

Credit: Apple

At this year’s WWDC, Apple announced the move to their own Apple Silicon chips for the Mac computers, and sure enough, the first generation using the chips are now here.

Last night, Apple announced that the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini are available to order right now from the Singapore Apple website. They will be available in select Apple Store locations and authorised retailers from next week onwards.

One thing to take note of is that the computers all max out at 16GB of RAM and don’t support external GPUs, since they’ve moved away from Intel chips. There’s an integrated GPU in the M1 chip though, which Apple is claiming is the world’s fastest integrated graphics.

Let’s take a look at what the M1 chip does for each of the computers.

MacBook Air

Credit: Apple

With an eight-core CPU, Apple claims the new MacBook Air will breeze through tasks like exporting a project with iMovie, which will be up to 3x faster, export photos from Lightroom, which will be up to twice as fast and more.

Apple also claims that the MacBook Air will last up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback, thanks to the better power efficiency of the M1 chip.

The laptop will start at S$1,449. More information is available here.

13-inch MacBook Pro

Credit: Apple

With the M1 chip, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is said to be 2.8x faster than the previous generation, and even 3x faster than a comparable Windows laptop.

Apple claims the new 13-inch MacBook Pro will last up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to a staggering 20 hours of video playback, which makes it one of the longest battery life ever on a Mac.

Video editors will be happy to hear that Apple claims it will be possible to play back full-quality 8K ProRes video in DaVinci Resolve without dropping a single frame.

The laptop will start at S$1,849. More information is available here.

Mac Mini

Credit: Apple

This tiny computer is also benefitting from the change to Apple’s M1 chip. The 8-core processor results in a 3x increase in performance compared to the previous generation, and up to 6x increase in graphics performance.

Apple claims that the Mac Mini delivers up to 5x better performance than a comparable Windows desktop in the same price range, while being 1/10th the size.

Likewise, Apple claims that graphics-intensive games like Shadow Of The Tomb Raider can be played with up to 4x better frame rates, and complex projects in Final Cut Pro can be rendered up to 6x faster.

The Mac Mini will start at S$979. More information is available here.

All the computers announced today will be running on Apple’s macOS Big Sur, and iPhone and iPad apps will now be able to run directly on the mac.