

Plus, the MacBook Air is completely fanless, lighter, and has a much smaller power adapter, making it easy to travel with. I did not want to order the 13.3″ MacBook Pro, because the specs were somewhat similar, and I would be still getting the Touch Bar that I only grew to dislike over the years. My interest was primarily in the MacBook Air. I wanted to check what the hype was all about, and see if this new hardware truly lives up to its expectations. The new 13.3″ Apple MacBook Air and MacBook Pro machines with M1 chip were revealed with a lot of typical Apple fanfare, promising much better performance, extended battery life, and practically fanless operation.

Apple finally decided to abandon Intel CPUs on its laptops and computers, and move to its own ARM architecture dubbed “Apple Silicon”, which basically uses a similar processor as the one we have seen on Apple tablets and smartphones. While I previously ignored the MacBook Air series laptops due to their relatively poor performance and RAM limitations, the new MacBook Air M1 that Apple revealed earlier this year caught my attention. I tried out a number of different options in the past, including traveling with the Apple iPad Pro, but all of them had their issues and limitations.

It barely fits into my camera bag, and the huge and heavy power adapter makes it painful to travel with when I really need to be productive on the road. While my 15″ MacBook Pro has been doing a fine job, it is by no means a travel-friendly machine. Shooting with a high-resolution camera can put quite a bit of strain even on the latest and greatest computer hardware, let alone a compact laptop. In this review, we will be taking a closer look at this machine and see how it compares to an older generation MacBook with an Intel processor. I recently had a chance to test out the new Apple MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 Silicon chip and I wanted to see how it compares to my 15″ MacBook Pro for photography and videography needs. While my camera gear has been getting slimmer and lighter, thanks to the advancements in mirrorless camera technology, my computer needs have also grown tremendously in the past few years. As a travel and landscape photographer, I want to be able to pack as light as possible.
