
This is potentially an issue, but it's still pretty seamlessly handled by macOS. In particular, media professionals will need to grapple with the Universal apps issue the most, and are the users most affected by the performance differences in the first place. That leads us to our next group of shoppers.

This is an issue that applies to the MacBook Air, too, but is more likely to apply to MacBook Pro and Mac mini users. These emulated versions are still usable, but efficiency is lost. Major apps like those in Adobe’s Creative Suite and Microsoft Office do not yet have Universal versions, meaning they (and many others) run through a layer of emulation. At the moment, only Apple’s first-party apps and a handful of third-party programs are written to run natively on the M1 chip, and these are called Universal apps.

Things get even trickier when considering a (temporary) issue with applications running natively on M1-based Macs. (There are some caveats for professional users, so read on for the media professionals section below.) Again, also check out the performance piece linked above for the specifics on how the M1 handles existing software. The M1 is a performance shift compared to the Intel-based MacBooks, so even if we’d still say the new MacBook Pro is meant for the same type of users, those users will have a much better time. Going from that generation of chip to M1 will be a major leap.įor MacBook Pro owners, while the new laptop doesn’t fully bump it up a whole class, it is absolutely faster than the previous models. Apple resisted moving on from this nigh-ancient CPU until just a couple of years ago in the Air. Plus, if your MacBook Air is more than a couple of years old, it's likely running the "Broadwell" (5th Generation Core) version of Intel's mobile CPU. This is simply a much better deal than it has been before, and you'll be rewarded for your patience by going for this model. The improved battery life (nearly 30 hours on our video rundown test) also helps. If upgrades to the keyboard and more modest component improvements in recent years weren’t enough to get you to buy a new model, this was the one worth waiting for. This transforms the Air into a near-pro-level laptop despite its slim build. The M1 chip will deliver a breath of fresh air, especially if you’re a current MacBook Air user-the smallest MacBook is now just about as fast as the MacBook Pro, no longer the second-string counterpart.

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