Apple updated the MacBook Air twice last year. The first update was a minor upgrade with newer processors, better keyboard, and some more slight enhancements. However, the second update was a major upgrade as it introduced a completely changed the MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air released in November 2020 runs on M1 chip – Apple’s first chip for the Mac. The performance has improved drastically and also the battery life has improved immensely. The other major change is that there is no fan in the new MacBook Air, it will run completely silent.
Old outside, new inside
The design or the build of the MacBook Air has not changed as there is nothing wrong with it. Smaller bezels around the display would have been a nice change but it’s not a major problem. The aluminium body still feels very premium to the touch and the construction like always is of high quality.
The display quality on the MacBook Air is very good to look at. The colours look fantastic on the MacBook Air as it now supports P3 wide colour gamut. The screen gets upto 400 nits of brightness levels which is 100 nits less than the MacBook Pro. Macs have always had fantastic displays.
The M1 chip in the new MacBook Air is very power efficient. As a result, the battery life is stupendous on the M1 MacBook Air. Apple promises 15 hours of battery life and in my testing, I have seen very similar results.
The new MacBook Air with the M1 chip is the best all around laptop. The pricing starts at $999 for 8GB of unified memory coupled with 256GB SSD. Buyers can of course bump up the memory and storage while purchasing for extra cost. Also, students and teachers can avail an extra $100 of the M1 MacBook Air which makes the deal even sweeter.
