The new MacBook Air will be one of the first Apple laptops to be powered by the tech giant's ARM-based M1 chip. Apple boasts that the new-gen MacBook Air is three times faster than its predecessor, but test results reveal the Air outpaced another unexpected counterpart.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro, one of the highest performing laptops on the market, got smoked by the M1-equipped MacBook Air. Don't believe me? Check out these wild benchmarks that blew us away (via Neowin).
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MacBook Air with M1 chip outperforms 16-inch MacBook Pro
At Apple's One More Thing showcase, the tech giant bragged about its ARM-based M1 chipset, claiming that it offers the world's highest performance per watt. You may assume that the MacBook maker is simply blowing hot air, but recently leaked benchmark results prove that the M1 chip is, indeed, an industry-leading SoC that's poised to disrupt the market.
The M1-equipped MacBook Air served up spectacular single-core and multi-core scores of 1,687 and 7,433, respectively. The 16-inch MacBook Pro, packing an Intel Core i9 processor, got smoked by the Air with single-core and multi-core scores of 1,096 and 6,870, respectively.
The benchmarks unveiled that the eight-core M1 chipset has a base clock speed of 3.2GHz while the octa-core Intel Core i9 CPU inside the 16-inch MacBook Pro has a base frequency of 2.3GHz.
With the MacBook Air smoking the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple's bold claims that its M1 chipset is faster than 98% of all PC laptops sold last year might not be so far-fetched. However, I'm still skeptical — I'll have to see how the Air fares against other worthy opponents. Stay tuned for our upcoming reviews of the M1-equipped MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, which will feature our own slew of tests results on the new, highly anticipated laptops.
The MacBook Air with the M1 chipset is available for pre-order now, starting at $999. The fanless laptop will hit store shelves on Nov. 17.
