The M1 MacBook Air was among the first 2 commercially available Apple notebooks with an Apple Silicon chip. For $999, you get a front row seat on how mobile CPUs have progressed over the years to be powerful enough to run macOS. The new Apple Silicon MacBook Air features 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, Thunderbolt 3 with USB 4 support, a brand new 16-core neural engine, and an integrated 7-core GPU. This model also completely does away with any sort of internal upgradeability, any changes would need to be done at time of purchase. The M1 MBA was released alongside the final generation of new 13″ Intel MacBook Pros. Fun fact: The 4-Thunderbolt port 2020 Intel MacBook Pro is the only Mac to ship with a 10th-gen Intel CPU!

This new ‘Book was among Apple’s first computers to use AS graphics, and continues the trend of “vampire video” (that’s where the video bites into system memory). The 2006 Mac mini was the first Mac in a long, long time to do this, and most Intel Macs with HD/UHD graphics do this as well. The M1 GPU shares the unified memory which the chip also uses as RAM for applications, changing the traditional views on CPU/GPU memory.

On the exterior, the M1 MacBook Air looks identical to the 2018-20 model. This machine’s design dates back to when Kaby Lake CPUs were still being made, macOS High Sierra, and the time of AMD’s Polaris architecture in Macs.

What You Need to Know

• If you’re someone who’s transitioning over from an Intel Mac, or will be using Intel Mac apps, Apple has an app called Rosetta 2 for Apple Silicon Macs. Once installed, this isn’t something you directly interact with. Rather, you may simply open an Intel app, and it’ll open. Rosetta 2 does an Intel to Arm “ahead of time” translation, using an instruction set in the M1 chip. The first time the Intel app launches it’ll be noticeably slow, as Rosetta caches and stores code. Once this process is done, the App should work just as normal.
• These ‘Books shipped with 8 GB of RAM which is fine for basic tasks, but is increasingly impractical these days. For a serious speed boost, opt for 16 GB of RAM, and more storage. Multiple NANDs allow for parallel processing/RAID, increasing Read/Write speeds.

Closed Lid Mode: All ‘Books support “lid closed” (or clamshell) mode, which leaves the built-in display off and dedicates all video RAM to an external display. To use closed lid mode, your ‘Book must be plugged into the AC adapter and connected to an external display and a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you might also want to consider external speakers). Power up your ‘Book until the desktop appears on the external display and then close the lid. Your ‘Book will go to sleep, but you can wake it by moving the mouse or using the keyboard. The built-in display will remain off, and the external monitor will become your only display.

To resume use of the internal display, you need to disconnect the external display, put the computer to sleep, and then open the lid. This will wake up your ‘Book and restore use of the built-in display.

Battery life is claimed to be 15 hours of wireless productivity, 18 hours Apple TV App movie playback.

Details

• Announced 2020.11.10
  • Arriving 2020.11.17
• Model Identifier: MacBookAir10,1
• Model: A2337 (EMC 3598)
• Order Number: MGN63LL/A (Space Gray)
  • MGND3LL/A (Gold)
  • MGN93LL/A (Silver)

Mac OS

• Requires macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (Build 20B29) or later

Core System

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache

• The 2020 MacBook Air bucks the trend of having user-upgradeable RAM, opting instead for a soldiered Apple Silicon “chip” at time of purchase, which cannot be removed or replaced except potentially by soldiering.
• CPU: 8 Cores, 4x 3.2 GHz “Firestorm” High Performance Cores: 768K L1i, 512K L1d, 48MB L2, 8MB System Level Cache
  • 4x 2.0 GHz “Icestorm” energy efficient cores: 512K L1i, 256K L1d, 16MB L2, 8 MB SLC
• 16-Core Neural Engine
• 8/16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR4X-4266 SDRAM (68.25 GB/s)

Video

• Integrated Apple M1 with 7/8-Core Metal 3 Hardware Accelerated GPU
• 16:10 13.3″ TFT IPS LED-Backlit LCD, 2560 x 1600 @227ppi, 400 nits
  • P3 Color
  • True Tone
  • 8-Core GPU must be configured
• Simultaneous support for: internal display @native resolution and:
  • a single 6K60 display

Drives

• Drive Bus: 256GB PCIe SSD ~3.3 GB/s, 2x 128GB NANDs in Parallel
• Configurable to: 512GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB

Expansion

• 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 (up to 1.2 Gb/s)
• Bluetooth 5.0
• Two USB-C style Thunderbolt 3 Ports
  • Support for: USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Up to 15 hrs battery life
• Touch ID Sensor

Physical

• size: 0.16-0.63 x 11.97 x 8.36″ (0.41 – 1.61 x 30.41 x 21.24 cm)
• Weight: 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg)
• Power supply: 30W USB-C charging Brick