MACBOOK AIR

The M1 processor is a bit of a monster, and Apple has put it to work with excellent effect in its new line, including in this ultrabook

At first glance, the M1 MacBook Air doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from the throngs of other Apple laptops available right now. That’s by design, of course: MacBooks are instantly recognisable thanks to their iconic brushed silver design and black keyboard.

The chassis is largely identical to the previous Intel-powered Air, with no flashy touch bar to be found. The trackpad is nice and broad, and the built-in ‘Magic Keyboard’ feels great to use thanks to sophisticated scissor-switches under every key. The Retina display is gorgeous, with excellent brightness and a higher resolution than the Galaxy Book Pro.

Inside this machine, though, Apple’s ARM-based M1 chip is the beating heart of what makes the MacBook Air great. Intel and AMD laptops running integrated graphics will be blown out of the water by the M1’s eight CPU and eight GPU cores, and multitasking should be a breeze. Navigating the OS and all your favourite software feels smoother than ever.

This might be a lightweight ultrabook, but it’s got the performance to measure up against heavier hitting laptops. Gaming is – somewhat surprisingly – a valid option here. The M1’s single-core performance is solid compared to Intel-equipped competitors, but it absolutely dominates in multi-core workloads.

The M1 chip works wonders for heat generation and battery life too, making us feel bad for anyone who recently purchased an Intel MacBook Air, which can get hot and noisy rather too often. Battery life isn’t quite as good as the Galaxy Book Pro, but it’s a close call. The M1 uses a fanless thermal solution, which makes it virtually silent. Samsung’s offering, on the other hand, does experience a bit of fan whine under heavy loads.

Neither of these ultrabooks has a touch display, but the lack of touch controls is more sorely felt on the MacBook Air than it is in the Galaxy Book Pro (or any other Windows 10 notebook). The screen bezel on the Air is also much chunkier than that found on Samsung’s ultrabook, a hangover from older MacBook designs that we think really needs to be nixed for future models.

The webcam here is a pretty bog-standard 720p affair, which is adequate but not impressive. Other than that, though, the overall build quality of the Air remains among the best in the business, with a sleek outer casing available in silver, gold, or ‘space grey’ (it sounds better than just ‘grey’…).

With the M1 processor on its side, Apple’s newest ultrabook decisively has more power than Samsung’s competing model. It’s also a bit cheaper at £999 to £1,199, although both of these laptops sit closer to the high end when it comes to ultra-compact laptops. The Galaxy Book Pro has superior flexibility, though, running Windows 10 and offering greater connectivity, as well as smart phonecompatible features.

From £999, apple.com

The overall build quality of the Air remains among the best in the business