13-inch MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air powered by Apple M1: Which is better for you?

 

(Pocket-lint) - Here are the latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air (alongside a new Mac mini). All three are focused on the latest M1 processor from Apple, part of its Apple Silicon undertaking to convert the Mac to its own Apple-designed processors based on ARM.

So here we are going to pit Apple's new 13-inch M1-based laptops in a straight-versus-battle against each other. Air MacBook vs Pro MacBook.

Intel models of the 13-inch MacBook Pro remain on sale, sitting above the two Apple Silicon versions, it should be noted (there are two 10th generation Core i5 versions, also with Core i7 options).

The MacBook Air has gone to Apple Silicon entirely - but some Intel models will still be available from resellers, so if you're interested in those, check out our Intel version of this post, comparing the new Intel versions of both laptops released in early 2021.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch vs MacBook Air: Design and build

• All models have Touch ID
• All MacBook Pro models retain the Touch Bar
• New style keyboard across all models

The two new Macs are almost the same in style as the ones they are replacing. In silver and space grey, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is available, while the Air is also available in gold.

In size and weight now, the Air and Pro are very comparable. The MacBook Pro 13-inch measures 304.1 x 212.4 x 15.6 mm and weighs 1.4 kg, while the MacBook Air measures 304.1 x 212.4 x 16.1 mm and weighs 1.29 kg (4.1 mm at the thinnest edge).

After mass criticism of Apple's previous Butterfly design, the keyboard has been entirely redesigned on both versions. In all portable Macs, the older keyboard design remains the target of an ongoing recall programme.

Even though there is an update, you can get two USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports on all these versions, supporting the current USB 4 standard. For super fast data transmission between more devices, USB 4 effectively includes Thunderbolt 3 and they use the same USB-C connector that we are now used to.

Both the models keep their headphone jacks of 3.5 mm and - even! -have 720p FaceTime HD cameras, although, according to Apple, the M1 chip improves the picture. This is due to a modern image signal processor (ISP) that eliminates noise and has improved face detection and auto white balance for machine learning.

For video calls on the Pro, too, there is slightly better audio. "studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming"studio-quality three-mic directional beamforming array,"three-mic array with directional beamforming "directional beamforming three-mic array. The Air and Pro are both capable of Dolby Atmos playback, while the Pro adds "stereo speakers with high dynamic range"

In all these notebooks, the so-called Magic Keyboard is a major enhancement to pre-2019 versions. Both Macs now have Touch ID for fingerprint login and Apple Pay authentication, much like their predecessors.

As a replacement for a touchscreen, the Touch Bar remains on the 13 inch MacBook Pro. Apple tends to stick to its guns and not allow touch on the Mac, which we think is a bit of a miss, but Apple doesn't just want to be a do-anything device for your Mac, it just just wants to sell you an iPad.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch vs MacBook Air: Display

• Same display in both
• 13-inch size and resolutions remain the same 
• Wide colour (P3) now on the Air as well as Pro

In both versions here, the same display is used. Although there were very minor variations in previous models, they are now the same now, with the only exception being that the show of the Air is capable of 400 nits of brightness, while the Pro will achieve 500 nits. The 13-inch display, the same as the older 13-inch MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels (227ppi).

One thing that has changed is that the broad P3 colour gamut is accepted by both models; this was historically the preserve of the Pro. Both have True Tone, as before.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch vs MacBook Air: Processor, graphics and storage

• MacBook Air now completely Apple Silicon
• 8th generation processor MacBook Pro models now replaced by Apple M1 models
• 10th generation Intel Core processor models still available on Pro

An eight-core 5nm CPU - four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores - is available on the latest M1 platform. For fast machine learning processing, there's also a graphics processor (see below) and the Apple Neural Engine on board. And Apple claims that, like an iPhone or iPad, the Mac now wakes immediately from sleep.

With two M1 models that are very similar, the MacBook Air has now switched completely over to Apple Silicon - with more capacity and a slightly stronger GPU being sold for $250/£250 more.

The MacBook Pro range, though, isn't quite that easy.

Four different basic 13-inch MacBook Pro models are available that can be further modified. The Apple M1 processor has the bottom two MacBook Pros. These models replace models with 8th generation Intel Core chips (originally launched in 2019).

The two still available Intel models have 10th generation chips and sit above the two M1 models. The 10th gen Core i5 quad-core chips are 2.0Ghz models, coincidentally. You can also customize up to 2.3 GHz Turbo Boost speeds of 4.1 Ghz for the 10th generation Core i7.

Unfortunately, on each of these Macs, there is no discrete graphics option - unlike the 16-inch Pro. All the power for graphics comes from the M1 chip. The GPU is an eight core unit.... except if you purchase the MacBook Air base level, in which case it has seven cores. Yes, to begin with, this tiny gap between the models is baffling. Chip binning, a technique where faulty parts can still be sold as a lower specification version, offers the solution.

And so, indeed, those M1 GPUs that have defects in a single core will still be disabled in an Air with that defective core. Odd, but valid.

The major winner of the M1-powered laptops is battery life. Power efficiency is at the heart of things, as we see with other ARM-based computing devices, and the Air Low boasts of 15 hours of web surfing - an increase of four hours compared to the Intel model and up to 18 hours of TV viewing (a six hour improvement).

With about two hours extra on top of the air, the Pro has an even more impressive upgrade. That means 17 hours of web surfing vs. 10 hours of web browsing on the old Pro equivalent and 20 hours of TV viewing - vs. 10 hours again.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro can have up to 32 GB of memory, but the higher-end versions are standard with 8 GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 memory and 16 GB of 3733 MHz LPDDR4X. The memory caps out at 4 TB but begins with at least 256 GB. Adding more internal storage at the time of purchase greatly increases the cost.

One drawback of the M1 is that it can only accommodate 16 GB and, although this is not a step backward with any of these models' standard specifications, the 13-inch Intel-based MacBook Pros models can be updated to support up to 32 GB.

Both M1 Air and Pro models come with 8 GB of memory as standard, while 16 GB is standard for the Intel Pro models. Both the Air and Pro now have a common minimum of 256 GB of capacity, with a limit of 2 TB to be specified (at huge expense).

Both these models have the new Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 specifications enabled.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch vs MacBook Air: Software

• Both come with macOS 11 Big Sur
• Desktop app compatibility could be an issue 
• Will run selected iOS and iPadOS apps

With the new Mac operating system - macOS 11 Big Sur, M1 Macs can come pre-loaded. Once again, Siri is completely assisted by Hands-Free. Big Sur has a brand new design and is designed to take advantage of the additional power provided by M1. It will still be familiar, but with iOS and iPadOS in mind, it has clearly been planned.

But the jury is out on software usability - after all, new processors suggest that apps need to be made compatible, and when we test these Macs, this will form a core tenet of our reviews. IOS and iPad applications will now now be available on the Mac, but not all of them will be usable because developers can opt out of providing them on the Mac if, for example, they want users to view their website on a conventional desktop computer via a browser.

It's support for conventional web applications, however, which is actually most unknown. Apple's own Mac programme is now universal and runs natively on M1 systems, but for other apps such as Adobe, Microsoft, Affinity, Avid and so many more, how long it will be before that is the case.

Via a translator - named Rosetta 2 - apps that are not ready will be run. This should be seamless, Apple says, but we don't know this for sure yet; the proof is in the pudding.

For the two entry level Apple M1-based models, the 13-inch Intel MacBook Pro starts at $1299/£1299 (same as the outgoing 8th generation Intel Core models it replaces). For the Core i5 models of the 10th generation that reside above the M1, this increases to $1,799/£1,799. Starting at $999/£999, the MacBook Air. As normal, the processor, memory and storage can be fine-tuned, but as always, the larger SSD storage choices are very costly.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch vs MacBook Air: Price

At the cutting edge of processor technology are the latest M1 Macs. There is every excuse to select a newer model over an Intel one if it's an Air that you like.

You need a reasonable reason to plump for an Intel variant over the latest M1 models with regard to the MacBook Pro. But some may need access to niche apps that will not soon be compatible with Apple Silicon at any time, or you will need the power that a Core i5 or i7 higher-end 10th generation will give you. However, by doing so, you buy an outmoded computer and it's just a matter of time before they are also phased out - perhaps within a year.

That's not to suggest that by that date, of course, they will become useless - expect macOS to support Intel systems for at least the next few iterations, maybe even more.

In terms of the ultimate issue of whether an Air or a Pro should be purchased, we will prefer the Air. Currently, unless you really want the Touch Bar, improved audio technology and the extra bit of brightness, there is no incentive to choose the 13-inch Pro over the Air - but it's also bigger and heavier.