A high performance 3.2 Ghz Apple M1 chip with a whopping 8 Cores and either 7 or 8 Graphics Cores for their 13' models outperform any other processor on the market from any brand. Our own synthetic tests showed results that were similar to theirs, but we didn’t see the same results in our application tests.13' Apple M1 MacBook Airs and M1 MacBook ProsĪpple's latest 13' MacBook Airs and 13' MacBook Pros with its M1 Silicon have created a performance benchmark which all other laptops are measured against. The company responded by directing us to test results from other sites, such as Ars Technica, Cult of Mac, and, which mostly used synthetic tests.

Startup times and Finder tests, like file duplication and unzipping a 2GB folder archive, were actually slower on the OWC than on the MacBook Air with its stock flash storage. The MacBook Air with the OWC upgrade finished encoding MP3s in iTunes a little more than 5 percent faster than the stock device and exported a movie in iMovie about 3 percent faster. However, when we tested with Speedmark 6.5, our application-based benchmark suite, the results showed little or no benefit with OWC’s drive. All other results as megabytes per second higher is better. Startup results are in seconds lower is better. We also saw up to 47 percent faster average read speeds and 32 percent faster average write speeds using the Fill Disk tests on diglloydTools’ DiskTester. With the AJA System Test, which is used to see how well your system would perform with the AJA hardware working with HD video in real time, we found impressive speed improvements, with the Mercury Aura Pro Express posting 13 percent faster write speeds and 26 percent faster read speeds than the MacBook Air’s stock 64GB flash storage. In order to see such a vast a difference between the MacBook Air’s flash storage and the Mercury Aura Pro Express, we had to use automated tests that task the MacBook Air in ways that most people wouldn’t use an ultra-portable. The marketing materials for the Mercury Aura Pro Express claim that the drives offer up to 68 percent faster performance than the stock flash storage.

Once the storage upgrade was installed, we found the added capacity to be a blessing, but our performance results were unexpectedly mixed.

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