Apple’s new Mac Air powered by its own M1 chip comes with more power and faster performance. At its unveiling, Apple CEO Tim Cook had said.
“The introduction of …Apple’s breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple. M1 is by far the most powerful chip we’ve ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before. We can’t wait for our customers to experience this new generation of Mac, and we have no doubt it will help them continue to change the world.”
Image: MacBook Air M1
Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ has been showcased in its ads as: “The Better Choice.” The 2-in-1 tablet is the latest iteration of Microsoft’s Surface Pro series. The Surface Pro 7+ comes with a touchscreen option, not available with the MacBook Air.
Here, we will give you a rundown on the features offered by both and let you decide which is the “better choice for you.”
Display and keyboard
The MacBook Air has a Retina display, and the Surface Pro 7+ comes with a PixelSense display; the picture quality of both is good. However, surface Pro is a tablet and comes with a touch screen. Here the MacBook Air may score with its 13.3-inch display, compared to Surface Pro 7+ screen size of 12.3 inches.
But Surface Pro 7 carries a resolution of pixels per inch (ppi) of 267 ppi vs the MacBook Air’s resolution of 227 ppi.
Image: Surface Pro 7+
MacBook Air has the P3 wide color, which provides a more “true-to-life” display experience, according to Apple.
The MacBook Air has Apple’s Magic Keyboard design, a much-needed improvement over the previous butterfly keyboard design. Microsoft has two detachable keyboard choices for the Surface Pro 7+. The two choices are for a basic Type Cover or for the “Signature Edition” keyboard featuring fabric around the keys.
Processor and RAM
The latest MacBook Air debuts Apple’s high-performance, Arm-based M1 processor. For the MacBook Air, there are two options for the M1—a version that has a seven-core GPU or a variant with an eight-core GPU. Both versions have an eight-core CPU giving the option of deep tasks and lighter ones.
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7+ is fitted with 11th-gen Intel Core processors. Strengths are the Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 up to the Core i7-1185G7, a quad-core chip.
Geekbench’s performance results show that the Intel Core i3-equipped Surface Pro 7 with 4GB of RAM has single-core and multi-core scores of 769 and 1,851, respectively. Additionally, the Intel Core i5-equipped Surface Pro 7 with 8GB of RAM has single-core and multi-core scores of 1,210 and 4,079, respectively. By comparison, the M1 chip running on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of unified memory achieved greater performance than both Surface models with single-core and multi-core scores of 1,735 and 7,686, respectively.
Portability and battery life
Microsoft describes the Surface Pro 7+ as “ultra-light” with a starting weight of 1.7 pounds for the tablet only. Adding the keyboards ups the weight to about 2.4 pounds.
The MacBook Air is noticeably heavier than the Surface Pro 7+, weighing in at 2.8 pounds.
The M1 chip fuels the battery life of 18 hours in the MacBook Air, according to Apple. The Surface Pro 7+ promises a similar experience with 15 hours with typical device use.
MacBook Air boasts of a silent experience with no fan.The Core i3 and Core i5 models of the Surface Pro 7+ don’t have a fan, either, but the Core i7 model of the tablet does come with a fan.
Ports
The MacBook Air comes with two ports. Both are Thunderbolt compatible, and additionally, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Surface Pro 7+ supports LTE Advanced connectivity. It has a USB-A port and one USB-C port and a MicroSDXC card reader for the Wi-Fi-only model.
Price
Apple MacBook Air has a starting price of $1499. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7+ currently has a starting price of $1249, but that is for the tablet only. The peripherals included drive the price up to $1748. But one has to remember that this price gets you the model with the Intel Core i3 chip, and MacBook Air, you get the faster M1 chip. The higher models of Surface Pro can go up to $3300 plus, whereas a MacBook Air high-end cost will be $2700.
Considering the many advantages that the MacBook Air has due to its faster performance, display and better battery life, there are some issues about its compatibility. With over 200+ popular applications not supported on M1, there is a good chance you may be missing some apps you currently use on another PC.
