I have been meaning to write a travel-based review of my MacBook Pro for a while but have not gotten around to it yet. I still will do that but will do a quick mini-review here to let you know how good they are!
Save $100 on New MacBooks
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The Deals
- MacBook Air – sale price $899 (regular price $999)
- 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM
- MacBook Pro – sale price $1,199 (regular price $1,299)
- 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM
- MacBook Air – sale price $1,099 (regular price $1,249 – save the extra $50 at checkout)
- 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM
- MacBook Pro – sale price $1,349 (regular price $1,499)
- 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM
Best Buy has the same price on them and you may be able to save even more with an open box version. My wife’s MacBook Air was just $549 this way!
The Mini Review
Last year, Apple introduced their latest advance in technology – Apple-designed processors for computers. The first computers to receive the new “M1″ processors were the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini, and the 13” MacBook Pro. By inserting their own processors into their computers, they now control the manufacturing chain of their laptops and are no longer reliant on Intel’s progress and roll out.
The new M1 chip has the processor, graphics processor and the RAM all on the same chip. This allows them to make it much smaller and make connectivity between these integral parts more real-time (it also makes any repair of these chips not possible by a consumer). At the same time, battery life and heat production increased and decreased, respectively.
For me, having a 13″ MacBook Pro has been my go-to machine for a while. It is small enough to travel with and use in economy on aircraft but I can also plug it in to my 24″ monitor at home. Before, it was a compromise as the machine, despite having the word “Pro” in its title, really did not do a great job at the video editing I was trying to do on it. But, it was a compromise that worked for me at the time.
Now, that compromise is gone. The processing power competes even against the real 16″ MacBook Pro that has a dedicated graphics card, larger processor, and more RAM. Not only that, but I actually can get 17-18 hours of use out of the MacBook Pro on one battery charge! That is just ridiculous!
My wife has the MacBook Air, base model, and it has performed better than her Mac Mini in many respects. It is actually probably the portable computer answer, for sure the answer for anyone that wants an Apple computer.
With the new M1, there are some things that need to change a bit in how you assess a machine’s capability. The base models of these laptops come with 8GB of RAM. In the past, most would shy away from it for any kind of photo/video work. But the way the new Apple chip utilizes the RAM on their SoC (system on a chip) makes 8GB fully sufficient for many kinds of work. Many people have found it to be equal in many tasks to up to 32GB of RAM in a MacBook Pro (16″).
Apple will be releasing new MacBooks later this year, expected to be a newly designed MacBook Pro 14″ and MacBook Pro 16″ and these will have upgraded versions of the new Apple chips. For now, most people will be very happy with the current MacBook Air and 13″ MacBook Pro M1 for a few reasons:
- Huge battery life (rated at up to 18 hours of battery life for the Air and 20 hours for the Pro)
- Great performance to size ratio (the performance can chase larger laptops with faster Intel chips)
- Size (still the same size as before but with far fewer compromises in performance which make them ideal for travel)
