Apple's 'M1' equipped Mac review summary, 'computing revolution' and 'unbelievable feat' storm of acclaim & expectations for Apple Silicon in the future

The MacBook Air , Mac mini , and MacBook Pro with the ' M1 ' chip, the first Apple Silicon announced by Apple, are coming soon. Several benchmarks for the M1 chip have been released at once, and reviews of Macs equipped with the M1 chip are also appearing one after another.

Ars Technica, an overseas technology media, compared a conventional Mac with an Intel chip using x86 and a Mac with an M1 chip, saying, 'The chip with this new architecture sets benchmarks for Apple and non-Apple. It's very difficult to get it exactly, but I'm confident that this chip is truly a world-leading design. ' 'It's clear that the M1 chip, as announced by Apple, is a world-leading design that combines high performance with high efficiency,' he added. If competitors can introduce more cores and threads than M1 chips, they will say, 'It is possible to exceed M1 chips,' but in that case, we will encounter serious power consumption problems and manufacturing costs. Ars Technica argues that it will also be a challenge. Also, since the M1 chip is the first generation of Apple Silicon, we expect that further variations will appear in future models, saying that there is a possibility that high-performance Apple Silicon with more high-efficiency cores will appear. I will.

Hands-on with the Apple M1—a seriously fast x86 competitor [Updated] | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/hands-on-with-the-apple-m1-a-seriously-fast-x86-competitor/

Apple-related media MacStories said, 'If you use the new MacBook Air for a day, you'll notice an immediate improvement. It's as high-performance as many high-end Intel-powered Macs, with the limitations of the MacBook Air. It's a big update. The M1 isn't an evolution of the Mac, it's a revolution in the Mac, 'he said, giving the utmost praise to the M1 chip.

Apple M1 Mac Review Roundup: Big Performance and Battery Gains --MacStories
https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-m1-mac-review-roundup-big-performance-and-battery-gains/

'We overlook the fact that the MacBook Air is a low-end model,' MacStories said of the high performance of the MacBook Air. In addition, 'Apple has a two-year transition period for Apple Silicon, so the M1 chip is only the first step in the transition to Apple Silicon. Many M1 chips will not exist in future Apple Silicon. There are limits, such as having only two Thunderbolt ports, up to 16GB of RAM, not supporting external GPUs or discrete GPUs of all kinds, or a single display. By definition, the M1 chip is the slowest and most limited-featured Apple Silicon to be manufactured, as it is a low-end chip. With the introduction of higher-spec Apple Silicon in the future, the degree of freedom of the Mac will be further increased.

Six Colors, a technology media, said that the MacBook Air and Mac mini equipped with the M1 chip are only low-end models in the Mac lineup. The Mac has much higher performance, which will significantly update the low-end standards on the Mac. ' In all respects, the move to Apple Silicon is described as 'the biggest leap in Mac hardware in at least the last decade.'

M1 Macs review: The Next Generation – Six Colors
https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/11/m1-macs-review/

In addition, Six Colors said that the transition to Apple Silicon has just begun like other media, 'In the future, even faster Apple Silicon will appear, transforming the Mac into a faster and higher performance one. If you buy one of the Macs with an M1 chip, you'll get a Mac that's faster and has a longer battery life than your current Mac. I'm using it. Even the iMac Pro feels slower than a Mac with an M1 chip. '

On the other hand, CNBC, a news media, said that the MacBook Air with M1 operates faster than the MacBook Air released in March 2020, and the chip performance has changed significantly. However, he pointed out that the keyboard is the same, and the biggest change is the display changed to Retina display, saying that the changes other than the chip are insignificant. CNBC reportedly ran a variety of software on a MacBook Air with an M1 and claimed to run twice as fast for some tasks and more than three times faster for others than a MacBook Air with an Intel chip. I will.

Apple MacBook Air with M1 review: Faster than Intel
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/apple-macbook-air-with-m1-review-faster-than-intel.html

PCMag described the M1-equipped MacBook Air as 'much better than its predecessor and comparable to the M1-based MacBook Pro,' and because it's the cheapest to buy, 'notebooks that use macOS.' It is described as 'the most valuable terminal in the PC'.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, Late 2020) Review | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/apple-macbook-air-m1-late-2020

Macworld is reviewing the M1-powered MacBook Air, praising the performance of the M1 chip, stating, 'It's just a processor change, but what a performance this processor is.' 'Apple Silicon's debut was a huge success,' and 'Apple has achieved a truly incredible feat,' while Macworld said it was difficult to review in detail.

MacBook Air M1 review: Stunning debut for Apple silicon in a Mac | Macworld
https://www.macworld.com/article/3596603/macbook-air-m1-review-an-absolutely-stunning-debut-for-apple-silicon-in-a-mac.html

Macworld is also testing to measure battery life, and when using multiple Macs under the same conditions, the MacBook Air with M1 is about 2 compared to the MacBook Air with Intel chip released in March 2020. It has doubled the battery life.

Tom's Guide even describes the M1-powered MacBook Air as a 'computing revolution,' saying it 'has the power and amazing battery life of a MacBook Pro.' In addition, the advantages of the M1-powered MacBook Air include 'extremely fast performance,' 'Rosetta 2 for strong backward compatibility,' 'surprisingly long battery life,' and 'improved webcam.' On the other hand, I mentioned two bad points: 'the display has a thick bezel' and 'there are few ports'.

MacBook Air with M1 review: A computing revolution | Tom's Guide
https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/macbook-air-2020-m1

Overseas media The Verge cites the advantages of the M1-equipped MacBook Air as 'fast', 'Intel-based apps work well', and 'excellent battery life'. On the other hand, the bad points are 'terrible webcam', 'iOS app is capricious', and 'the time has come to admit that the touch screen seems to be better for the Mac'. In particular, he pointed out that developers cannot distribute apps directly to users for iOS apps that can be run natively on Macs with M1 chips. Also, the iOS apps distributed on the Mac App Store are few at the time of article creation, and it seems that many developers are exercising an option to make them unavailable from the Mac. The reason is that we are not developing iOS apps optimized for Mac, so some apps will be greatly corrupted when used on Mac. In addition, The Verge highly evaluates MacBook Air as '9.5' on a 10-point scale.

Apple MacBook Air with M1 review: new chip, no problem --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/21569603/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-price-specs-features-arm-silicon

The Verge cites three great things about the M1 MacBook Pro: 'great performance,' 'good battery life,' and 'great display.' On the other hand, the four bad points were 'only two USB ports', 'cannot install more than 16GB of RAM', 'disastrous webcam', and 'Touch Bar'. The Verge rated the MacBook Pro as '8.5' on a 10-point scale.

Apple MacBook Pro with M1 review: flexing Arm --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/21570497/apple-macbook-pro-2020-m1-review

In addition, The Verge has described the advantages of the M1 Mac mini as 'amazing performance,' 'existing apps work very well on the M1 chip,' 'excellent cost performance,' and 'Wi-Fi 6 support.' I list four. On the other hand, the four bad points were 'USB-C port less than the model with Intel chip', 'Unified memory is only 16GB at maximum', 'Not compatible with external GPU', and 'Really terrible speaker'. In addition, The Verge evaluates Mac mini as '8' on a 10-point scale.

Apple Mac mini with M1 review: over-performer --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/17/21570046/apple-mac-mini-2020-m1-review

AnandTech, a hardware review media, conducts various benchmark tests on M1 chips. AnandTech said, 'The custom CPU microarchitecture in the A-series SoCs on the iPhone has brought impressive and repetitive performance improvements across generations. And today, with the advent of Apple Silicon, Apple is We will continue to compile the results so far, 'he said, praising the policy of adopting the' method of adopting proprietary chips for terminals 'that was adopted in iPhone to Mac. Also, AnandTech said that the M1 chip is just the first step in the transition to Apple Silicon, and there will be chips with advanced software and hardware integration 'at a level that no one else has yet achieved'. I have high hopes for Apple Silicon in the future.

The 2020 Mac Mini Unleashed: Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested