To buy, or not to buy the new MacBook Air and Pro 2020

Recently Apple released their new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with the their new M1 chip. In the following article you would be introduced with MacBook Air (M1, 2020) and MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) and whether you should buy it or not.

The New MacBook Air and Pro 2020

A new MacBook Air was introduced this year 2020 which has fixed many problems in previous versions. It has more powerful inner parts, a better keyboard and extended space for storage. But the screen is much the same and the battery life isn’t very high. If you’re among Mac lovers and search for a relatively cheap MacBook, we suggest that you buy the New MacBook Air.

MacBook air M1 2020 specs:

Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

RAM: 8 GB (unified in the chip, no extension slot to add RAM)

display: Retina with True Tone

Input: Magic Keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, Touch ID

Ports : 2 Thunderbolt, 4 USB

storage: 256 GB 512 GB

Official price: 413 OMR 517 OMR

A Quick Review:

Apple is advertising MacBook Air (M1, 2020) as a complete internal redesign of its thin and light laptops. Because in contrary to previous models, Apple has removed Intel processors and replaced it with their own ARM-based chip called Apple M1. Also it has the new macOS 11 Big Sur installed on all its new MacBook.

Apple claims that this new chip makes MacBook Air faster and less battery consuming. Furthermore, it has more positive effects on performance. Surprisingly, the new model is launched for the same price as the previous. It seems that is because of using their own hardware; Apple is using their own hardware instead of buying it from Intel. This is competitive price relative to premium Windows 10 laptops like HP Spectre x360 2020 and Dell XPS 13 Late 2020.

You can also get a better MacBook Air with more storage with 300 dollars more. There are also more options to choose from and a more customized laptop with even more memory and storage.

Formerly Apple was accused of selling laptops expensively relative to laptops with similar specs from other manufacturers. But this time it isn’t.

Something else Apple was accused of was that they worry about aesthetics more than other realistic capabilities. But it differs in the case of MacBook Air (M1, 2020). Because this time Apple has changed the device’s innards especially its CPU and replaced it with M1 chip but no change has happened in its outer design. But we would like it if Apple would make its MacBook Air lighter or with less bezels.

Merits and Demerits:

Among its merits, we can mention a relatively low price, and a better keyboard relative to previous versions. Someone may say against this laptop that the screen colors are a little muted, Battery life isn’t very high, and that its webcam is just 720p.

To buy, or not to buy, that’s the question!

If you want a MacBook with a relatively cheap price, it would be the best choice. It’s more powerful than you think. If you consider buying MacBook Pro for its power test MacBook Air perhaps it suffices your requirements. It should be noted that the battery life isn’t very high but is high enough to make you buy it because of its battery consuming efficiency.

But if you want a cheap laptop don’t buy it. There are good laptops offering high performance by less expenses. Apple didn’t try to absorb Windows users by very revolutionary features, so this laptop is Mac anyway and if you don’t like Mac and prefer Windows don’t buy it.


New MacBook pro 2020

The New MacBook pro MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) is considered the most amazing laptop Apple has manufactured. Its new chip which is called M1 leads to extraordinary battery life, and it is proved itself to have great performance in third party testing.

The New MacBook Pro 2020’s features:

Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

RAM: 8 GB (unified in the chip, no extension slot to add RAM)

Display: 13-inch Retina with True Tone

Input: Magic Keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, Touch ID

Ports: 2 Thunderbolt, 4 USB

Storage: 256 GB 512 GB

Price: 532 OMR 614 OMR

A Quick review

It is the second time Apple upgrades MacBook Pro in 2020. The first time it came with partial upgrading in some specifications, but this time it has promised to be revolutionary.

MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) was announced with MacBook Air (M1, 2020) and Mac mini (M1, 2020) which were also introduced at One More Thing event of Apple on November 10 2020. All these three devices don’t use Intel processor with integrated graphics but use the 5nm M1 chip which is designed and customized by Apple.

Apple claims that their new chip makes the new MacBook have a better performance and less battery consumption in comparison with previous MacBook versions.

It is said in Apple’s promotions that this laptop is the world’s fastest compact pro notebook. It can be used for machine learning with any speed. It is triple faster than Windows notebooks and 2.8 times faster than the preceding MacBook Pro version. 

But is it really so good? The simple answer is yes. It is proved by testing done by third party that it has really great performance in almost all aspects. Perhaps someone thinks that by putting Intel hardware apart and using their own chip, Apple won’t be able to maintain its devices performance. But it is not true. Definitely Apple have been waiting to reach a chip better than Intel’s chips or as good as those, before the replacement.

Its prices start at 1299 dollars for 256 GB SSD/8 GB RAM. It is the same as the previous version! The new MacBook Pro’s price is so competitive. For example, it is 100 dollars lower than the new Dell XPS 13 which is one of its important competitors.

This revolutionary laptop delivers great performance and battery life. It can run all Mac apps, new iOS application software. All this with a competitive price make this laptop a very suitable 13-inch laptop for working.

But again, Apple don’t care about the device’s appearance and it’s like previous MacBooks. It would be better for Apple to improve its outer design as well. But it seems that offering a price the same as the previous models prevented Apple from going beyond inner hardware to outer design.

Merits and Demerits:

Among its merits, we can mention a very long battery life, high performance, capability of running iOS apps, and the Magic Keyboard to enjoy typing and navigating with. Someone may say against this laptop that its design is no novel and still lacks some ports.

To buy, or not to buy, that’s the question!

If you want a very powerful MacBook but small, buy this laptop and enjoy Apple M1’s extraordinary performance. If you want a very high battery life, buy this laptop that lasts more than the whole working day. Generally, powerful laptops need a high amount of energy and have less battery life, but in the case of Mac Book Pro (M1, 2020) it isn’t the case. It enjoys an intelligence system reducing battery consuming and making it last longer. Also we recommend you to buy it if you want process huge amount of data like editing 4K and even 8K videos.

But if you want a cheap laptop don’t buy it. Although it is an affordable MacBook Pro, it is expensive to an extent. Perhaps MacBook Air (M1, 2020) with less expenses would suffice you. Also it isn’t really a graphical powerhouse and of you want one don’t buy it. This laptop runs on integrated graphics i.e. it hasn’t a separate graphical cart and cannot be extended in RAM and graphics and even storage. And lastly if you dislike Apple’s outer design in the previous years don’t buy this MacBook Pro either it has the same outer design.