Apple’s new M1 processor has taken the world of laptops by storm, with many claiming to have put an end to their entire computer career.
Bending hyperbole and irrational fanatic, the Apple M1 is really a powerful chip. But to feel better against his contemporaries, we sat down and tested again a bunch of current Windows 10 laptops to get an idea of where the M1 MacBook Air 13 lands in the order of laptops.
Although we do not have direct access to a MacBook Pro M1, our sister publication, Macworld has, so we took out of its brilliant review the 13-inch MacBook Pro M1. Macworld also kindly performed a few additional tests for our analysis. For two other results, we relied on published results from Puget Systems, a custom systems builder that produces workstations and runs its own productivity-focused benchmarks.
The laptops I tested
Apple’s MacBook Pro M1 has a new M1-based SoC / CPU, a 512GB custom SSD, 16GB of LPDDR4X / 4267 memory, a 13.3-inch 2560×1600 display and a 3.1-arm lbs.
For our comparisons with computers, we decided to choose from similar laptops in size and weight:
- MSI’s Prestige 14 Evo it is equipped with a quad-core Core i7-1185G7, 11th generation, with Iris Xe graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR4X / 4267 memory, a 512 GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 14-inch FHD screen. It weighs 2.7 lbs.
- MSI’s old Prestige 14 is equipped with a six-core Core i7-10710U, 10th generation, GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics, 16GB of LPDDR3 / 2133 memory, a 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 4K display of 14 inches. It weighs 2.8 lbs.
- Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7 has an eight-core Ryzen 4800U with Radeon graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR4X / 4267 memory, a 512 GB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 14-inch FHD and a 3.1 lb.
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 includes an Ryzen 9 4800HS with eight cores, GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics, 16 GB of DDR4 / 3200 memory, a 1 TB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 14-inch FHD display and a weight of 3.6 lbs.
Before you object to having your Zephyrus G14 laptop here, pay close attention to the weight and size of the laptop. At 3.6 lbs., It’s actually very close to the weight of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 and Apple MacBook Pro 13, which are each 3.1 lbs. We think there are indeed some people who might consider the Zephyrus G14 to get the extra power that the GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q offers. Yes, the 180-watt power brick adds even more G14 weight, but maybe it’s just worth it for those people.
We think discreet graphics are one of the most overlooked features of the older MSI Prestige 14 – a laptop that weighs less than the Lenovo Slim 7 and MacBook Pro M1, but has a GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU inside. There are indeed several trade-offs in the old Prestige 14 to get that GPU, which we detailed in our original review, but the weight is usually the big equalizer.
That’s why the final laptop I included is really there for a rough comparison of performance, because no one would consider it. from a distance from the above laptop class:
- Acer Predator Triton 500 with a 10-generation six-core Core i7-10750H processor, GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics, 32GB of DDR4 / 3200 memory, a 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 15.6-inch 300Hz FHD display 4.6 lbs.
We wanted this laptop especially for its Core i7-10750H CPU, which is very similar to the 8th and 9th class “H” Intel CPUs, which found larger laptops. such as the MacBook Pro 16. Apple. Processors, so we wanted to see how well M1 and other chips in smaller laptops compared to a chip that sucks a lot more watts.
Of all the chips here, the Apple M1 uses TSMC’s most advanced 5 nm process, with the two Ryzen laptops using TSMC’s 7 nm. Core i7-1185G7 11th Intel’s “Tiger Lake” is on Intel’s latest 10nm process, while Core i7-10710U is like Core i7-10750H and built on Intel – how can we say that politely? –wise 14nm process.
Next page: performance standards