13in MacBook Pro (M1)

Price: £1,299 from fave.co/3m59RDG

For years, it’s been iPhone this, iPhone that. And for good reason. But now, the Mac – the platform that pushed Apple to the forefront of computing – is back in the spotlight. And for good reason.

While the Intel years were good for the Mac, Apple needed something to take its computer to the next level. That something now comes in the form of Apple’s own system on a chip (SoC), called the M1. Along with macOS Big Sur (the OS built for the M1), the Mac makes breakthroughs in performance and battery efficiency that were never possible with Intel silicon.

This review takes a look at the £1,299 13in MacBook Pro, which has an Apple 8-core M1. This SoC includes 8GB of RAM and an 8-core graphics processor. The laptop also comes with a 256GB SSD, a 13.3in LED-backlit display, a 58.2-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, and a 61-watt USB-C power adapter.

As the tests will show, this Mac is an astounding machine.

PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS

Apple made bold claims during last year’s ‘One more thing’ event. The company said its new 13in MacBook Pro’s M1 CPU is up to 2.8 times faster than the 1.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 in a same-sized MacBook Pro. (This Intel Core i7 was available as a built-to-order option for the previous £1,299 13in MacBook Pro, a machine that came standard with a 1.4GHz quad-core Core i5 when it was released earlier this year.)

We don’t have this specific laptop that Apple uses for its performance comparison. But we do have three other MacBook Pro models that can help us draw some conclusions