{"id":895,"date":"2025-03-07T03:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/?p=895"},"modified":"2025-03-07T03:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:46:15","slug":"apple-claims-new-m4-macbook-air-is-23x-faster-but-theres-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/archives\/895","title":{"rendered":"Apple Claims New M4 MacBook Air is 23x Faster\u2014But There\u2019s a Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/search?keyword=Apple&amp;post_type=product\">Apple<\/a>&nbsp;is making a&nbsp;<strong>bold marketing claim<\/strong>&nbsp;for its&nbsp;<strong>new MacBook Air with the M4 chip<\/strong>, stating that it\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>up to 23 times faster<\/strong>&nbsp;than the last&nbsp;<strong>Intel-based<\/strong>&nbsp;MacBook Air. Sounds impressive, right? Well,&nbsp;<strong>there\u2019s some fine print<\/strong>&nbsp;that adds important context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.macrumors.com\/t\/8DrSRIv4aAFZ22pspi9af6tQVmA=\/800x0\/article-new\/2025\/03\/MacBook-Air-23x.jpg?lossy\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Apple Tested the 23x Speed Boost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple\u2019s comparison pits the&nbsp;<strong>new 2025 MacBook Air<\/strong>&nbsp;(M4,&nbsp;<strong>10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD<\/strong>) against the&nbsp;<strong>fastest-ever Intel MacBook Air<\/strong>&nbsp;from 2020 (<strong>quad-core Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The specific test? Apple&nbsp;<strong>ran the Super Resolution feature<\/strong>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<strong>Pixelmator Pro<\/strong>&nbsp;(an app it now owns) on a&nbsp;<strong>4.4MB image<\/strong>, a task that&nbsp;<strong>relies heavily on machine learning acceleration<\/strong>\u2014an area where Apple Silicon&nbsp;<strong>far outperforms Intel chips<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, while&nbsp;<strong>the M4 MacBook Air really is that much faster in this one specific use case<\/strong>, the claim doesn\u2019t necessarily translate to everyday tasks like&nbsp;<strong>web browsing, office work, or casual media consumption<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More Realistic Performance Gains<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For a better picture of real-world improvements, Apple also provided more practical comparisons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Excel spreadsheet calculations<\/strong>\u00a0\u2192\u00a0<strong>Up to 4.7x faster<\/strong>\u00a0vs. Intel MacBook Air (<strong>1.6x faster than M1 Air<\/strong>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>iMovie video editing<\/strong>\u00a0\u2192\u00a0<strong>Up to 8x faster<\/strong>\u00a0vs. Intel MacBook Air (<strong>2x faster than M1 Air<\/strong>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Adobe Photoshop photo editing<\/strong>\u00a0\u2192\u00a0<strong>Up to 3.6x faster<\/strong>\u00a0vs. Intel MacBook Air (<strong>2x faster than M1 Air<\/strong>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Web browsing<\/strong>\u00a0\u2192\u00a0<strong>60% faster<\/strong>\u00a0than a\u00a0<strong>PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor<\/strong>, with\u00a0<strong>more demanding tasks up to 2x faster<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These numbers paint a more realistic picture of the M4 MacBook Air\u2019s capabilities\u2014still a massive leap from Intel, but not necessarily 23x across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if&nbsp;<strong>Apple\u2019s 23x claim<\/strong>&nbsp;feels like marketing hype, the reality is&nbsp;<strong>any MacBook Air with Apple Silicon is dramatically faster than its Intel predecessors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The M4&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/search?keyword=MacBook+Air&amp;post_type=product\">MacBook Air<\/a>&nbsp;is available for pre-order now and will begin shipping to customers&nbsp;<strong>on March 12<\/strong>. If you\u2019re still on an Intel MacBook Air, this might be the upgrade you\u2019ve been waiting for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple&nbsp;is making a&nbsp;bold marketing claim&nbsp;for its&nbsp;new MacBook Air with the M4 chip, stating that it\u2019s&nbsp;up to 23 times faster&nbsp;than the last&nbsp;Intel-based&nbsp;MacBook Air. Sounds impressive, right? Well,&nbsp;there\u2019s some fine print&nbsp;that adds important context. How Apple Tested the 23x Speed Boost Apple\u2019s comparison pits the&nbsp;new 2025 MacBook Air&nbsp;(M4,&nbsp;10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) against the&nbsp;fastest-ever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":896,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteryone.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}