MacBook Air M4: Really 23 times faster than the Intel version?

Who a look at Apple Information website For the MacBook Air M4, which will be published this week, finds some striking advertising promises. In addition to the fact that the advertising drum for Apple Intelligence and the neural engine built into Apple-Silicon chips for a long time, Apple does two benchmark. One: the new machine has a “up to 23x faster performance”. The other: The battery life is now six hours longer. The problem: Apple measures the first value on an outdated Intel machine and the second on an M1 model-and also relies on a very special reading.

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The number 23

The 23-fold performance only affects one function: the so-called super-resolution feature in the now Apple image processing Pixelmator Pro in version 3.6.14. A 4.4 MB picture was used here. Super resolution uses KI to increase the dissolution of a recording – a useful function, but also one from which you can do little. Especially since the Intel machine that Apple used as a comparison model is missing a AI acceleration using a neural engine. After all, Apple compared a comparatively fast Intel model with a MacBook Air M4 with 10 CPU cores and 32 GB of RAM: an Intel Core i7 with 1.2 GHz from 2020. However, this had only 16 GB.

Other benchmarks listed by Apple are already more realistic: A spreadsheet calculation in Excel was 4.7x brisk compared to the fast Intel variant, video edit in Imovie up to 8x and a Photoshop benchmark up to 3.6x. Apple saw a browser test up to 60 percent faster. The comparison values ​​for a MacBook Air with M1 were between 1.6 times and 2x faster depending on the benchmark. According to Apple, prototype devices of the MacBook Air M4 were used.

Battery performance test

At the battery life, Apple compared a weaker Intel model (double-core core i3 with 1.1 GHz) with a MacBook Air M4. The total term was measured with 1080p when playing films in iTunes.

“All devices had equivalent settings of display brightness. The battery life varies depending on the use and configuration,” writes Apple. The Mac & I test will show what the machines really do.