MacBook Air Is Such a Good Deal
In 2022, I had to buy a new computer. I was working for a company that didn’t provide a work laptop, and I literally had to run to the nearest Apple Store to buy the best machine I could afford at the time. I had previously had bad experiences with Intel-based MacBooks and wanted one of the newer Macs with Apple Silicon
Surprisingly, there are no Apple Stores in Ireland, so I went to stores that sell Apple products: Select, Currys, Harvey Norman… In all of them the Apple Silicon models were sold out. They had been a huge success, and the only models left were the Intel ones, which I refused to buy. So I took a train to Belfast and went to the Apple Store in Victoria Square
That’s how I bought my wonderful 14” MacBookPro with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for £2400 ($3100 or €2900 at the exchange rate at the time). It was one of the biggest purchases I’ve ever made, and although I don’t regret it, it still feels like a lot of money. In my defense, it’s a work tool, and since it lasts for many years, it pays for itself over time
4 years later, I helped my partner buy a new laptop. The MacBook Neo had just been released, but since we didn’t really know much about its real-world performance, capabilities, or durability, I thought it was safer to go with something proven and buy a machine with similar specs to mine: a MacBookAir M4 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD. It was on sale for €1050 ($1200, £900)
I love my laptop. It’s actually faster than many others I’ve tried that were bought just last year. For me it’s been an excellent companion. Even after 4 years, it still performs like it did on the first day. But it does feel a bit strange that we found a laptop that’s almost comparable to mine for about 1/3 of the price, so I looked at the benchmarks
| Benchmark | M1 Pro | M4 | diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-Core Score | 2385 | 3696 | +55% |
| Multi-Core Score | 12348 | 14737 | +19% |
| OpenCL GPU Score | 41714 | 35737 | -14% |
| Metal GPU Score | 68111 | 54666 | -20% |
The surprise: in CPU performance it’s clearly ahead, by quite a bit. The GPU is a bit weaker, but that doesn’t really matter considering the price. These machines tend to last for years if you take proper care of them. That’s why many people say the MacBook Air is one of the best purchases you can make if you need a laptop
Will the same happen with the MacBook Neo? I don’t know. I hope so