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New MacBook Air Announced as First Apple Silicon Mac With M1 Chip and Fanless Design

Newjackboy said:
what is the key difference now between the 13 air and pro? If chip and screen is exactly the same?
Click to expand...

Screen not the same. Performance of the Pro will be much greater. Why?

Becuase this new M1 is designed to work across multiple lines, according to how is implemented.

One chip to fit them all. The cooling will allow the Pro to keep it going at peak levels, whereas the Air will do it’s thing at a lower pace.

Before Intel gave us multiple chips for various stuff. It’s apparently different now. Seems sort of simple also.
 
batfink said:
As a novice, will this edit Final Cut videos with graphics?
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If you want the answer to that, might I suggest attending this online event. Next Thursday, engineers from Apple's FCPX team will be available live and I'm willing to bet money they will talk about FCPX running on Apple Silicon Macs.

Meet The Apple Pro Video Team at the 2020 FCPX Global Virtual Summit

We are two weeks away from the FCPX Global Virtual Summit. On the Thursday, all Apple presentations will be streamed live from Apple Park.
www.fcp.co www.fcp.co
 
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Since 2012, I have purchased numerous MBAs for my family and myself. They have all been terrific and incredibly reliable computers. I currently have the early 2020 base MBA, and it has been flawless.

I am excited about this next generation of MBAs with Apple silicon. However, I am not compelled to replace my current unit. I will give it some time. Let the bugs (if any) get worked out with the new processors. Also, I suspect there will be a design change in a year or two with smaller bezels and a better camera. I wonder if Apple will use a smaller battery in the future, since 18 hours might be overkill for many people. Most of the weight is in the battery, so a future form factor might be lighter and more portable.
 
I've never owned an Air before and am not in the market, but what I really like about these conceptually (assuming that the M1 is roughly on par performance-wise with the A14 per core) is that we went from "You can buy the cheap, slow one; or you can spend more and get the faster one, or you can spend even more and get one that's just a hair faster." to "They all have the fast CPU."

It's exactly like with the iPhones--doesn't matter whether you get a Mini, a regular cheaper 12, or a 12 Pro Max, or even an iPad Air; they all have the same, extremely fast, CPU, which has been the case for several generations now. We're not really used to that with laptops, but I was very much expecting to see something along these lines with AS, since Apple has many reasons not to have a huge, complicated line of CPUs and some significant advantages to a simplified product line.

Obviously the M1 isn't equipped take over the higher-end MBPs yet (no surprise to me at least), but essentially anything at the low-to-medium end now has the same, apparently very fast, CPU. Makes shopping way easier, simplifies the product line, and while it's a new paradigm for computer shopping, I like it.
 
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I'm surprised that so many were actually expecting these macbooks to be $200+ cheaper. Even if they are less expensive to produce, I don't think Apple would want to price them too closely to the ipad pro.
 
So the low-end Air has 8 cars and a 7-core GPU; the higher-end model has 8 & 8. Is the only difference in these two chips just that one has one less GPU? Same clock speeds?
 
Just to be clear, can all of the usual applications run natively on these silicone Macs? the FULL Office Suite, various browsers, VPN software, etc. ?
 
A little underwhelming, was hoping for a redesign, but the chip performance makes up for it. I’ll consider with a redesigned 12 inch MacBook.
 
smulji said:
www.parallels.com

Parallels Desktop for Mac with Apple M1 chip

Best way to run Windows on Mac - Parallels Product Blog - Run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac. Helpful tips and tricks, Apple macOS and Mirosoft Windows news
www.parallels.com
Click to expand...
Well, virtualization isn’t QUITE ready yet according to the site. But, still, it’s not a market that Apple gives any attention to anymore. As long as Parallels exists, they’ll always have something to sell, which is good for those folks that need it.

Makosuke said:
I've never owned an Air before and am not in the market, but what I really like about these conceptually (assuming that the M1 is roughly on par performance-wise with the A14 per core) is that we went from "You can buy the cheap, slow one; or you can spend more and get the faster one, or you can spend even more and get one that's just a hair faster." to "They all have the fast CPU."

It's exactly like with the iPhones--doesn't matter whether you get a Mini, a regular cheaper 12, or a 12 Pro Max, or even an iPad Air; they all have the same, extremely fast, CPU, which has been the case for several generations now. We're not really used to that with laptops, but I was very much expecting to see something along these lines with AS, since Apple has many reasons not to have a huge, complicated line of CPUs and some significant advantages to a simplified product line.

Obviously the M1 isn't equipped take over the higher-end MBPs yet (no surprise to me at least), but essentially anything at the low-to-medium end now has the same, apparently very fast, CPU. Makes shopping way easier, simplifies the product line, and while it's a new paradigm for computer shopping, I like it.
Click to expand...
This is one of the big differences I was expecting we’d see and was happy to see it. No more i3, i5, i7, i9 (each potentially at a different speed). If you like the performance in the Pro? Good, you’re getting it in the Air, too :) Your choice becomes RAM, storage, and what form factor you prefer.

towmissed said:
I'm surprised that so many were actually expecting these macbooks to be $200+ cheaper. Even if they are less expensive to produce, I don't think Apple would want to price them too closely to the ipad pro.
Click to expand...
Isn’t the Pro version cheaper?
 
Precursor said:
When has Apple ever dropped prices permanently for a Mac?
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Well, the new Mac Mini is $100 cheaper than the previous one released. So it does happen. Of course they go the other way too on things increasing the cost as well sometimes. Depends on the market for chips and how much engineering work they did on the product.
 
mcfrazieriv said:
Simply boring. :|

I feel so disappointed with this CEO's bean counting innovation.
Click to expand...

If the claims are true, there is some nice performance improvement plus way better battery life - all due to the chip advancements they made. Under Cook that is, of course.
Sounds like plenty innovation to me.
 
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smulji said:
How many different ways do you honestly expect a laptop to be redesigned?
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FaceID, Micro-LED display, other tweaks & improvements...

Maybe even baked-in 5G making it an always-connected machine.

Basically, I expect them to keep innovating which is not unreasonable for machines that cost £1200-£3000+. For that kind of money I expect them to be at the cutting edge of design. You know, like how they used to be.
 
I was really hoping for a lighter MacBook Air, 2.8 lbs. is on the high end for "ultralight" laptops these days.

And disappointed they didn't bring back the smaller, lighter 11" model as a 12" with no bezels.

Overall, great updates, but it's not a win across the board.
 
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