Apple M1 hands-on comparison: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini

Apple’s Mac M1s are on the loose now, but before the holidays, you might still be trying to figure out which one to buy, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else. We have all three new Macs available, so we thought we’d give MacRumors readers a practical overview of each machine in our latest YouTube video.

Price wise, the Mac mini is the cheapest of the bunch at $ 699, while the MacBook Air starts at $ 999 and the MacBook Pro starts at $ 1,299. With the ‌Mac mini‌, of course, you need to provide all of your own peripherals, including the screen, mouse, and keyboard at a minimum.

If you already have them on hand, the ‌Mac mini‌ is potentially the way to go. For laptops, the ‌MacBook Air‌ is lighter, but there is not a big difference in size between the Air and the Pro.

The entry-level ‌MacBook Air‌ has a 7-core GPU while the entry-level MacBook Pro has an 8-core GPU, so the price is a bit higher. If you get the 512GB SSD with the ‌MacBook Air‌ it automatically upgrades to that 8-core GPU.

There are some thermal differences between the Mac M1s, but most people may not be able to tell them apart when it comes to performance. The ‌Mac mini‌ has more space to dissipate heat, while the MacBook Pro has a fan for better thermal management.

The ‌MacBook Air‌, meanwhile, is fanless. You might see slightly better sustained performance when performing intensive system tasks on better-cooled Macs, but there isn’t a huge difference between them. In most benchmarks, they’re all pretty much the same and they’re all big updates over their Intel counterparts. See our M1 MacBook Pro vs MacBook Pro 2020 test below to see it.

As for updates, there are not many available. You can increase SSD storage, which is a good idea if you plan to use onboard storage and want a machine that will have enough space for years to come, but you can also work with external SSDs if you go for the 256GB minimum. .

You can also upgrade the RAM in each Mac M1 from 8GB to 16GB. If you have the extra $ 200 it’s a good idea to do it for future security and because you can never go wrong with extra RAM. This year’s Macs have a unified memory architecture, which basically means that all components on the chip can be pulled from the same memory pool, bringing some speed and efficiency improvements.

Apple is great at optimizing RAM usage and there are no exceptions here. You may not even need 16GB because, in our tests, the Mac M1s are super fast even with the 8GB built in.

All Mac M1s offer incredible performance for their price, and in our tests, they have all outshone their Intel counterparts. macOS Big Sur works great on Mac M1s, and applications built for Apple Silicon are fast and efficient. Even applications that are not designed for ‌Apple Silicon‌ and that run under the Rosetta 2 translation layer are almost as fast as on Intel machines.

If you rely on Windows-specific applications and use Boot Camp regularly, the Mac M1s are not for you. There is no way to run Windows on a Mac M1 at this time. CrossOver allows the use of some Windows applications, but this solution may not be worth it for regular Windows users.

Touch ID also appears to be faster on M1 Macs compared to Intel Macs, and even small tasks like waking up from sleep or changing resolutions are instantaneous. All Macs are close to whispering. The ‌MacBook Air‌ does not make any sound, while the ‌Mac mini‌ and MacBook Pro rarely activate their fans, even during intensive tasks.

Apple has made some serious promises of battery life with the Mac M1s, and the MacBook Pro can last up to 20 hours. We’ve seen that impressive battery life in everyday use. Intel Macs have never been able to resist editing a video with a decent amount of battery to spare, but the Mac M1s have no problem.

The Mac M1s are amazing so far, but it’s worth keeping in mind that they are first-generation machines. Apple is upgrading the entire Mac line to ‌Apple Silicon‌ chips, a process that is expected to take two years. These are low-end Macs that have been updated, and there are some more exciting high-end Mac updates in the works that could be a reason to wait for a purchase right now.

Another consideration is the design. Apple did not update the design of the new Macs, and it is rumored that some design changes are in the works for the MacBook Pro at the very least. A fresh design might also be worth the wait.

If you need an affordable Mac for everyday tasks, the Mac M1s are a solid choice. The ‌Mac mini‌ is the one to get if you want a desktop computer, and if you need a laptop, the ‌MacBook Air‌ will work for most people. The MacBook Pro has an additional GPU core in the base model, a brighter screen, and better speakers, which is a consideration. We have a comprehensive guide on the ‌MacBook Air‌ versus the MacBook Pro if you are trying to choose between them.

Do you have a Mac M1 or are you going to buy one? Are you looking forward to next year’s ‌Apple Silicon‌ deals? Let us know in the comments.