MacBook Air (M1)

                                        MacBook Air (M1)

If you’re interested in a lightweight MacBook but the Air is out of your price range, you’re probably better suited to 2020’s M1 MacBook Air, which Apple is continuing to sell. The base model, which includes 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, starts at $999. 

The older Air has a 13.3-inch 2560 x 1600 screen, Touch ID, 720p webcam, fingerprint sensor, and scissor-switch keyboard. 

The M1, while not being quite as fast as the M2, is still fast. In our testing, it handled intense photo- and video-editing workloads better than almost any Intel-powered thin-and-light laptop we’ve tried this year. It was also able to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider at close-to-playable frame rates, which is quite a feat for integrated graphics.

Battery life is also not quite as good as that of the M2, but it’s very close. We got between eight and 10 hours of sustained work.