Let me just say it out loud, OK? Apple is full of it. I\u2019m referring to Apple\u2019s claim that its fanless, Arm-based MacBook Air is \u201cfaster than 98 percent of PC laptops.\u201d Yes, you read that correctly: Apple officials literally claimed that the new MacBook Air using Apple\u2019s custom M1 chip is faster than 98 percent of all PC laptops sold this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Typically, when a company makes such a claim, it publishes a benchmark, a performance test or actual details on what it\u2019s basing that marketing claim on. This to prevent lawyers from launching out of missile silos across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apple\u2019s website restates the claim by stating: \u201cM1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.\u201d The site also includes a detail note that states: \u201cTesting conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 chip and 16GB of RAM. Performance measured using select industry-standard benchmarks. PC configurations from publicly available sales data over the last 12 months. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect approximate performance of MacBook Pro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apple is so full of it<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, not only does Apple not say what tests it\u2019s basing its claims on, it doesn\u2019t even say where it sources the comparable laptops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does that mean the new fanless MacBook Air is faster than, say, Asus\u2019 stupidly fast Ryzen 4000 based, GeForce RTX 2060-based Zephyrus G14? Does it mean the MacBook Air is faster than Alienware\u2019s updated Area 51M?
The answer, I\u2019m going to guess is \u201cno.\u201d Not at all. Is it faster than the miniLED-based MSI Creator 17? Probably not, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what is that \u201cperformance\u201d claim hinged on? CPU performance? GPU performance? Performance running Windows? Is it using the same application running on both platforms? Is it experiential? Is this running Red Dead Redemption II or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War? Is it running CyberLink\u2019s PowerDirector? Is it running Fortnite?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I have absolutely no idea what Apple is basing its claims on, I can tell you that I am 98 percent sure that any of the above laptops listed will wreck the MacBook Air doing any of the tasks I just named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Apple makes its claims, my guess is they are comparing the new M1 to Intel-based processors ranging from Atom to Celeron N to Core i3 and up, all with integrated graphics. But by not defining the word \u201cperformance,\u201d all this becomes just pure marketing spin. And is it really fair to compare a $999 MacBook to one that costs $150? Because $150 PCs are included in the 98 percent of laptops sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe Apple should compare its own $150 MacBook Air against a $150 Chromebook or Windows-based laptop. Of course, that would mean Apple would have to sell a product that most people can afford. I have no doubt the M1 will be impressive, but do I think it\u2019s going to compare to 8-cores of Ryzen 4000 performance or a GeForce RTX 2060? No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have some dignity, Apple<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what really infuriates me is there\u2019s just no reason for Apple do go to such absurd levels to make the case for its new Arm-based M1 in the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13 and MacMini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The M1 chip, built using TSMC\u2019s most advanced 5nm process, looks to be a truly solid tour de force of technical prowess that one should expect of one of the richest, for-profit corporations in human history. It\u2019s simply going to sing\u2014just sing\u2014for applications that are optimized for it. And, yes, there will indeed be like-for-like applications where it is indeed faster than many, many x86-based, Windows laptops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there will also be many, many tasks that you can\u2019t simply run on these Macs too. And there are likely to be cases where performance might just suck too compared to an x86 PC laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, if you are into Macs and all that Apple offers, you should definitely consider the new Macs over older Intel-based Macs. I say that because I\u2019m pretty sure buying an Intel-based Mac is like buying a ticket to stand on a deserted island so you can wave at Apple as it sails away in a party boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, have some dignity Apple, and stop with the trolling just to get attention and hopefully sway the 93 out of 100 people who prefer to buy Windows laptops over MacOS laptops every year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let me just say it out loud, OK? Apple is full of it. I\u2019m referring to Apple\u2019s claim that its fanless, Arm-based MacBook Air is \u201cfaster than 98 percent of PC laptops.\u201d Yes, you read that correctly: Apple officials literally claimed that the new MacBook Air using Apple\u2019s custom M1 chip is faster than 98 percent … Continue reading “Sorry, but the new MacBook Air is not faster than 98% of PC laptops”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2165],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laptop","tag-macbook-air"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2868,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}