Originally released November 2020
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch
8GB unified memory
512GB SSD1
Touch ID sensor
720p FaceTime HD Camera
Apple M1 chip
8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
8-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine
8GB unified memory
Retina display
13.3‑inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560‑by‑1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
Supported scaled resolutions:
1680 by 1050
1440 by 900
1024 by 640
400 nits brightness
Wide color (P3)
True Tone technology
512GB SSD 1
Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for:
Charging
DisplayPort
Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
720p FaceTime HD camera
Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:
One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz, or
Thunderbolt 3 digital video output
Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C
VGA, HDMI, DVI, and Thunderbolt 2 output using adapters (sold separately)
Up to 15 hours wireless web
Up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback
Built-in 49.9‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery4
30W USB-C Power Adapter
Stereo speakers
Wide stereo sound
Support for Dolby Atmos playback
Three-mic array with directional beamforming
3.5 mm headphone jack
802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking
IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible
Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology
Height: 0.16–0.63 inch (0.41–1.61 cm)
Width: 11.97 inches (30.41 cm)
Depth: 8.36 inches (21.24 cm)
Weight: 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg)5
Our thinnest, lightest notebook, completely transformed by the Apple M1 chip. CPU speeds up to 3.5x faster. GPU speeds up to 5x faster. Our most advanced Neural Engine for up to 9x faster machine learning. The longest battery life ever in a MacBook Air. And a silent, fanless design. This much power has never been this ready to go.
It’s here. Our first chip designed specifically for Mac. Packed with an astonishing 16 billion transistors, the Apple M1 system on a chip (SoC) integrates the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, I/O, and so much more onto a single tiny chip. With incredible performance, custom technologies, and industry-leading power efficiency,2M1 is not just a next step for Mac — it’s another level entirely.
Run powerful apps built for M1. All your existing apps work thanks to Rosetta 2. And for the first time, you can use your favorite iPhone and iPad apps directly on macOS Big Sur. Altogether you’ll have access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac.
The M1 chip and macOS Big Sur work together to make the entire system snappier. MacBook Air wakes instantly from sleep. Everyday tasks from flipping through photos to browsing Safari are faster. And your hardest-working apps all have access to the power they need.
M1 extends battery life even while bringing a massive increase in performance. But the chip itself is only part of this incredible power efficiency story. macOS Big Sur features advanced power management that intelligently allocates tasks between the M1 performance and efficiency cores — automatically optimizing for lightweight tasks like reading a note or performance‑intensive tasks like playing the latest game. The result is the best battery life ever on a Mac.
Until now, a Mac needed multiple chips to deliver all of its features — including the processor, I/O, security, and memory. With M1, these technologies are combined into a single system on a chip (SoC), delivering a new level of integration for more simplicity, more efficiency, and amazing performance. And with incredibly small transistors measured at an atomic scale, M1 is remarkably complex — packing the largest number of transistors we’ve ever put into a single chip. It’s also the first personal computer chip built using industry‑leading 5‑nanometer process technology.
M1 also features our unified memory architecture, or UMA. M1 unifies its high‑bandwidth, low‑latency memory into a single pool within a custom package. As a result, all of the technologies in the SoC can access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory. This dramatically improves performance and power efficiency. Video apps are snappier. Games are richer and more detailed. Image processing is lightning fast. And your entire system is more responsive.
M1 has the fastest CPU we’ve ever made. With that kind of processing speed, MacBook Air can take on new extraordinarily intensive tasks like professional-quality editing and action-packed gaming. But the 8‑core CPU on M1 isn‘t just up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation3—it balances high-performance cores with efficiency cores that can still crush everyday jobs while using just a tenth of the power.
M1 features our latest Neural Engine. Its 16‑core design is capable of executing a massive 11 trillion operations per second. In fact, with a powerful 8‑core GPU, machine learning accelerators, and the Neural Engine, the entire M1 chip is designed to excel at machine learning. Final Cut Pro can intelligently frame a clip in a fraction of the time. Pixelmator Pro can magically increase sharpness and detail at incredible speeds. And every app with ML‑powered features benefits from performance never before seen on Mac.
When a keyboard types like a dream and still does a whole lot more: that’s magic. With new preprogrammed shortcuts, useful features are even easier to access. Get help from Siri, switch keyboard languages, respond with the perfect emoji, find documents with Spotlight — there’s so much you can do with just a tap. And the backlit keys with ambient light sensor help you type in low‑light settings.
One touch is all it takes to lock or unlock MacBook Air. Use your fingerprint to rent a movie, buy an app, or access things like secure documents or system settings without having to reenter your password. And when you shop online with Apple Pay, Touch ID fills in your shipping and billing information without sharing your card details.