A lot of rumors have been swirling about incoming MacBook updates lately, and today we have a particularly juicy report to sink our teeth into. Just as Apple is rumored to be updating the MacBook Pro significantly, so too is it apparently looking to make some big changes to the MacBook Air. The first big change is rumored to be a switch back to MagSafe chargers.
It's hard to deny that Apple hit it big with its new Macs powered by its first-ever Silicon, the M1. That, however, may just be the opening salvo for a series of big changes that the company will be introducing in its MacBook lineup as well as its iPad Pros. According to famed analyst Ming-chi Kuo, Apple will once again revolutionize its MacBooks in the next two years, with no less than three models sporting new mini-LED backlit displays.
Were Charles Darwin here today, once he'd finished screaming at us for tinkering with necromancy and demanding to know what the heck a Lexus was, I think he'd want to see the new MacBook Air. Apple's M1-powered notebook is one of a trio of Apple Silicon showcases and, as the "Father of Evolution" was well aware, some generations take a leap forward, not just a step.
Apple's new generation of M1-powered Macs has definitely been the hot thing in computing these past weeks. They have been proving Apple's claims of performance, giving Intel a lot to worry about. The one drawback to these new Mac minis and MacBooks is that they support one less external monitor than their Intel predecessors, at least on paper. It turns out that they can actually support twice as many but you will have to get some accessories and install some software to make it happen.
The iFixit team has published a teardown of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models featuring Apple's M1 chip. The teardown shows what remains the same and what has been changed, the most notable, of course, being the new Apple Silicon heart powering the machines. The team notes, among other things, that the new MacBooks 'could hardly be any more similar to their predecessors.'
Despite the benchmarks showing how Apple's first-ever Silicon beat 2016 desktop graphics cards, some might still unconvinced about the late 2020 Macs' ability to play games. After all, even the Intel-based Macs had compatibility issues with games that were designed with Windows PCs in mind. It's still too early to make a judgment call, of course, but if CodeWeaver's experience running "emulated" PC games is any indicator, it could be a mind-blowing experience just as well.
All the news about the astounding performance of Apple's first M1 Silicon may have gotten people excitedly grabbing the new Macs and MacBooks left and right. As with any new product, even Apple's, there might be unforeseen teething problems that only appear after some time. Some might be easily fixed with a software update while others might, unfortunately, require waiting for the next-gen iteration. Some might even lead to odd bugs that render the Macs practically useless when you try to reinstall its operating system anew.
The first MacBook Air powered by Apple's first M1 Silicon has started shipping and there's reason to be excited, even if you're not a MacBook or Apple fan yourself. This new breed of Macs represents not just another turning point in Apple's history but, given the company's reputation as a trendsetter, could also make waves in the computing industry in general, tipping the scales away from the likes of Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD. While we take the Late 2020 MacBook Air for a thorough testing, we're just a little bit too excited to share our first impressions of this important milestone in Apple's story thus far.
Apple's announcement of the first generation of Macs running on its own Silicon processors was unsurprisingly filled with bold claims. Given the novelty of the M1 chip and its ARM-based design, there might be some apprehension if the new MacBooks will be able to hold their own against Intel's most powerful processors. Geekbench scores for these new computers have started popping up that does seem to confirm Apple's claims, trumping Intel-based MacBooks except in one case.
While the venerable keyboard itself hasn't changed much in terms of layout, the extra function keys that have been added to computer keyboards tend to move around a lot. Beyond the more standard F1 to F12 keys, additional functions, especially those on top of those F-keys, have been rather inconsistent across manufacturers and models. The latest shift comes with Apple's announcement of new Macs powered by its first M1 Apple Silicon which now ditches rarely used keys and gives them new things to do.
You might be confused if you visit the Apple Store online in the near future looking for a MacBook. Several products were revealed here in late 2020 with Apple's first chipset made for MacOS. It's important that we know which new Mac products have said M1 chip, and which are otherwise running previous-generation silicon.
The first MacBook Pro with Apple silicon inside is the MacBook Pro (late 2020) 13-inch. This device is one of three in the first run of M1 devices from Apple. These devices are able to run MacOS app and iOS (and iPadOS) apps and has significantly more processing power than previous-model MacBook Pro machines.