The M1 MacBook Air, M1 MacBook Pro, and M1 Mac mini are officially here. It didn’t long for the reviews to go live and a ton of them have positive remarks regarding all three models. Looks like Apple’s custom 5nm M1 chip has done wonders here, so let us check out this review roundup in more detail and see if any of these models are worth your time.
M1 MacBook Air Review Roundup
According to The Verge, the M1 MacBook Air is the most impressive laptop they’ve used in years.
“The MacBook Air performs like a pro-level laptop. It never groans under multiple apps. (I’ve run well over a dozen at a time.) It handles intensive apps like Photoshop and even video editing apps like Adobe Premiere without complaint. It has never made me think twice about loading up another browser tab or 10 — even in Chrome. Coming into this review, I had a catalog of potential pitfalls that Apple could have fallen into when switching from an Intel chip to its own processor. Chip transitions are devilishly hard and don’t usually go smoothly. This MacBook Air not only avoids almost all of those pitfalls, but it gleefully leaps over them.”
However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows, because there are some areas where the M1 MacBook Air doesn’t impress, and that’s the webcam, as well as running iPad apps.
“Not everything is perfect, of course. Apple’s insistence on using dumpy webcams continues to be a bummer, and running iPad apps is a mess. But as I used the MacBook Air, I often found myself so impressed that I had a hard time believing it.”
M1 MacBook Pro review Roundup
TechCrunch tested out the M1 MacBook Pro and was greatly impressed with its performance. Considering that it’s portable and powerful, you’re also getting much better battery life.
“I personally tested the 13” M1 MacBook Pro and after extensive testing, it’s clear that this machine eclipses some of the most powerful Mac portables ever made in performance while simultaneously delivering 2x-3x the battery life at a minimum. The M1 MacBook Pro runs smoothly, launching apps so quickly that they’re often open before your cursor leaves your dock.”
However, the publication did mention that the iOS experience wasn’t that great.
“The current iOS app experience on an M1 machine running Big Sur is almost comical; it’s so silly. There is no default tool-tip that explains how to replicate common iOS interactions like swipe-from-edge — instead a badly formatted cheat sheet is buried in a menu. The apps launch and run in windows only. Yes, that’s right, no full-screen iOS apps at all. It’s super cool for a second to have instant native support for iOS on the Mac, but at the end of the day this is a marketing win, not a consumer experience win.”
M1 Mac mini Review Roundup
A review conducted by The Verge again is greatly impressed with the Mac mini, particularly with how powerful and quiet it is.
“Like that machine, the mini has a fan for cooling, but it also has the most efficiently cooled chassis of all the new M1 Macs. As a result, it’s technically the best performer — even if only by a smidge.”
However, when buying this machine, there are two major hiccups users have to be careful of, and these are highlighted below.
“There’s still a speaker inside the Mac mini, but it’s the kind of speaker you’ll never, ever want to use. It’s tinny, hollow, and just plain bad; even the macOS Big Sur startup chime sounds embarrassing compared to my thunderous 16-inch MacBook Pro. Considering the speaker advancements Apple has made with its laptops, I wish it would put in some more effort here — even if the vast majority of people will plug external speakers into the mini’s headphone jack or use Bluetooth audio.
I’ve also got to point out that getting up and running with the Mac mini can be a hassle. For initial setup, you need a wired keyboard and mouse; my Logitech ergonomic keyboard and MX Master 3, which both connect over Bluetooth, were useless. They work fine after setting up the machine, but just be aware so you don’t run into this initial headache like I did.”
You can also check out some video reviews below and let us know down in the comments on what yout think.
