I pushed the MacBook Pro M1 to 61 tabs while writing this review and the performance remained rock solid, even while I was juggling multiple conversations in Slack and streaming Spotify. Only once I started adding iOS apps to the mix did I start to see stuttering. On Geekbench 5.1, which measures overall performance, the MacBook Pro M1 scored 5,945 on the multi-core portion of the test. This number surpasses the 5,319 score from the Dell XPS 13 and the Asus ZenBook 13’s 5,084, and both of those machines pack 11th gen Intel Core i7 CPUs. The MacBook Air M1 scored a similar 5,962. The MacBook Pro M1 smoked all of its competitors on our Handbrake video editing test, which involves transcoding a 4K clip to 1080p. For this test the application is optimized for Apple Silicon. The MacBook Pro M1 took only 7 minutes and 46 seconds to complete this task, compared to 18:22 for the XPS 13 and 17:51 for the ZenBook 13. The MacBook Air finished a bit behind the Pro at 9:15. So how about Photoshop? On the PugetBench test, which performs 21 tasks (three times per run), the MacBook Pro notched a score of 576.6 and a time of 7 minutes and 3 seconds. The Dell XPS 13 scored a higher 588 but took a much longer 10:48, while the ZenBook 13 registered 743 with a time of 9:11. Note that this benchmark used Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology to run and it’s not a native app, so we expect even better results once Photoshop is optimized for Apple Silicon. This is the two in the one-two punch that makes the MacBook Pro M1 one of the best laptops money can buy. On the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of screen brightness, the MacBook Pro M1 lasted an amazing 16 hours and 25 minutes. The Intel-based MacBook Pro 2020 lasted 10:21, so that’s a huge 6-hour difference. I then switched over to the acoustic version of A-ha’s “Take on Me.” The trill in Morten Harket’s voice was appropriately haunting as it soared. If you haven’t heard these speakers before, you will be impressed. I’m not about to give Apple a pass for continuing to saddle the MacBook Pro with a 720p webcam in 2020. I think we can handle full HD at this point.
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