The $999 M1 MacBook Air represents the sweet spot of price and performance, but we’d recommend splurging on a little extra storage since 256GB is a little skimpy and you get a more powerful GPU to boot. That usually costs an extra $250, but today Expercom (via Amazon) is selling the 512GB MacBook Air for $1,170, good for $79 off and the best price we’ve seen for this configuration.
The M1 MacBook Air looks the same as the Intel version it replaced last November, but inside it’s a completely new machine. It’s one of the first machines to feature Apple silicon. Speeds are massively improved over its predecessor and are basically as fast as the 13-inch MacBook Pro for regular work. It has a completely silent fanless design along with an excellent keyboard, great display, and a pair of Thunderbolt ports. And it’s got amazingly good battery life to go along with it.
In our 4.5-star review, we called the M1 MacBook Air “an absolutely stunning debut for Apple silicon” and “a truly incredible feat” of performance. So unless you want to spend way more on a MacBook Pro, this is the one to buy.
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.
