How Apple’s M1 chip performs against Intel 11th-gen and AMD Ryzen 4000
Apple’s new M1 processor took the laptop world by storm, with many proclaiming it had ended the PC’s whole career.
Hyperbole and irrational fan boy flexing aside, Apple’s M1 is indeed a powerful chip. But to get a better feel against its contemporaries we sat down and retested a pile of current Windows 10 laptops to get an idea where the 13in MacBook Air (M1) lands in the pecking order of laptops.
THE LAPTOPS WE TESTED
Apple’s 13in MacBook Pro (M1) features its brand-new M1 Arm-based SoC/CPU, a 512GB custom SSD, 16GB of LPDDR4X/4267 memory, a 13.3in 2,560x1,600 screen and lap weight of 1.4kg.
For our PC comparisons, we decided to pick from laptops that are similar in size and weight:
• MSI’s Prestige 14 Evo is equipped with a four-core, 11th-gen Core i7-1185G7 with Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of LPDDR4X/4267 memory, a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 14in FHD screen. It weighs 1.29kg.
• MSI’s older Prestige 14 is equipped with a six-core, 10th-gen Core i7-10710U, GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics, 16GB of LPDDR3/2133 memory, a 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 14in 4K screen. It weighs 1.14kg.
• Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7 has an eight-core Ryzen 4800U with Radeon graphics, 16GB of LPDDR4X/4267 memory, a 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 14in FHD and lap weight of 1.4kg.
• The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 includes an eight-core Ryzen 9 4800HS, GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics, 16GB of DDR4/3200 memory, a 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 14in FHD screen and a weight of 1.53kg.
Before you object to having the Zephyrus G14 laptop here, pay close attention to the weight and size of the laptop. At 1.53kg, it’s actually very close to the weight of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 and the 13in Apple MacBook Pro (M1), which are both 1.4kg. We think there are indeed some people who might consider the Zephyrus G14 to get the extra power its GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q provides. Yes, the 180-watt power brick adds even more weight to the G14, but it may just be worth it to those folks.
We think discrete graphics are one of the overlooked features of the older MSI Prestige 14 too – a laptop that weighs less than the
