The updated entry-level iMac (2021) now sports a beautiful 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, which is a big step up from the 21.5-inch before it.
However, not because it's the most feature-packed Mac on the market. The MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is the best Mac of the year. Because of this, a dock is one of the must-have accessories for new Mac owners. Another negative: both 2020 M1 MacBook models have only two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. You get 8GB or 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB of storage. Like the similar-sized Pro model, the Air doesn't offer many choices when it comes to configuration. It's also the only Mac that comes in gold (and space gray and silver). And yet, the MacBook Air is lighter, and again, has the same parts inside as the Pro model. The savings means Touch ID over Touch Bar and slightly less battery life. The least expensive MacBook Air is $200 cheaper than the entry-level MacBook Pro. With the same 13-inch display found on the smaller MacBook Pro and the same internals, you might wonder why this is the one we recommend the most. Combined with its impressive battery life, which is a little less than the 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020), the MacBook Air lets you work all day comfortably and into the night without requiring a charge. Without one, this is probably the quietest MacBook to date. Perhaps the current MacBook Air's biggest surprise is that it doesn't come with a fan. The combination means the RAM can perform better with less of a performance hit. The Air also offers faster LPDDR4 RAM and SSD 5-10% faster than previous models. Moreover, it does so while retaining the same unified architecture that lowers latency compared to discrete components inside most laptops. The difference here is the inclusion of two additional high-performance "Firestorm" cores that work with the four existing "Icestorm" cores found on the iPad Air (2020) and iPhone 12 series.Īs we explained in our MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review, the M1 can burst to 3.2Ghz in single-core and 3Ghz in multi-core environments. The Apple M1, which is also found on the 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) and Mac mini (2020) (see below), is a variant of the A14 Bionic chip.
It's an amazing beast that's lightweight and built with the Apple M1 SoC inside. The well-reviewed MacBook Air with M1 is also our favorite Macbook.