Along with macOS 11 Big Sur pre-installed at release, any MacBook Air M1 you buy now should either ship with or get a free upgrade to the new macOS Monterey, it’s among the most powerful thin and light laptops around. It offers performance improvements as well as better power efficiency and longer battery life, while remaining on par with its predecessor, the MacBook Air (2020), in terms of price. So, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) offers improved innards at no extra cost. So if you weren’t convinced by the Intel-based model, maybe this one will change your mind. It also remains our favorite for the best notebook in the world right now. Apple has also been accused of caring more about the aesthetics of its products than the actual features and functions, but with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020). Because while the MacBook Air has some big changes on the inside – the most noticeable being the M1 chip – nothing has really changed on the outside. All the applications you normally run in macOS on Intel-based MacBooks should work fine on the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), thanks to some software wizards that use Apple’s Rosetta 2 tool, which allows apps to run on the new architecture. Not only can the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) run pretty much any existing Mac app, but thanks to the M1 chip, which uses a similar architecture to the iPhone, it can also run any iOS app and game. This brings a huge amount of new tools to the MacBook, and it’s really exciting. iOS apps and games are more feature-rich and graphically impressive than ever before, and having access to them could be a game changer. Apple claims the MacBook Air is three times faster than other notebooks in its class and faster than 98% of PC notebooks sold last year. The neural engine is nine times faster than the previous MacBook Air and the SSD is up to twice as fast thanks to the M1 and the latest flash technology.
