MacBook Pro

Apple's flagship is no longer the big upgrade it once was

$1,299 From Apple, apple.com

Features 13.3–inch Retina display (2560x1600 resolution), Apple M1 chip, 8GB unified memory (16GB available), 256GB storage (512GB/1TB/2TB available), 802.11ax Wi–Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, headphone socket

While there’s a huge difference in performance between the late–2020 MacBook Air and its Intel–driven forebear, the difference between the Air and the new 13–inch MacBook Pro feels more nuanced, chiefly because the two laptops have much in common — at least on paper.

With a starting price of $1,299, the new 13–inch MacBook Pro also comes with an M1 system on a chip (SoC), complete with eight CPU cores and a 16–core Neural Engine, although this time the GPU boasts eight– cores as standard rather than the entry–level Air’s seven. Like the MacBook Air, the entry– level 13–inch Pro also comes with 256GB of storage and 8GB of memory. For more, you’ll either need to up the memory to 16GB, or delve into the configuration options to increase the size of the SSD — to 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB. Even at the upper limit, though, that’s a big step down from the maximum of 4TB of the previous–generation Intel models, which are still available at $1,799 and $1,999, depending on configuration.

Luckily, there are a few other things that distinguish the 13–inch MacBook Pro from the MacBook Air. First, there’s design, of course, which is unchanged from the previous gen and retains the controversial Touch Bar. Second is that — unlike the Air — the Pro includes a fan. This means in theory that the

MacBook Pro is more capable of sustained rather than peak performance, although that didn’t necessarily translate into improved scores in our benchmarks.

In Handbrake, the MacBook Pro transcoded our one–hour Blu–ray–quality video in just under 45 minutes, about the same time as the Air, and in our DaVinci Resolve rendering test it hit the mark at 28 minutes, 42 seconds versus 29 minutes, 16 seconds for the Air.

In Rise Of The Tomb Raider too, the Pro’s 30 frames per second (fps) score matched a practically identical score by the Air, while its Geekbench 5 score was marginally better, achieving 1,729 points against the Air’s 1,705.

The similarity in the test results shouldn’t be too surprising, given that they’re based on practically identical hardware. However, the Pro does have a slight edge on battery life, lasting for up to 20 hours versus the Air’s 18.

Like the MacBook Air, the 13–inch MacBook Pro proves to be similarly quick in operation, with rapid startup times, instant wake from sleep and fast app launches — for the most part. With the difference between the 13–inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air now narrower than ever, the Air will be the better buy for most people.

THE BOTTOM LINE. The M1–equipped Pro is more powerful than the Air, but only just. We still want one, though. ROB MEAD–GREEN