Benchmarks from the 2018 MacBook Air are trickling out, and they are about what I expected. The machine is faster than the 12-inch MacBook, but not as quick as the entry-level MacBook Pro. Juli Clover has the numbers over at MacRumors: Single-Core Performance:
- 2018 MacBook Air - 4248
- 2017 MacBook Air - 3335
- 1.4GHz 2017 MacBook - 3925
- 1.3GHz 2017 MacBook - 3630
- 1.2GHz 2017 MacBook - 3527
- 2.3GHz 2018 MacBook Pro - 4504
- 2.3GHz 2017 MacBook Pro - 4314
Multi-Core Performance:
- 2018 MacBook Air - 7828
- 2017 MacBook Air - 6119
- 1.4GHz 2017 MacBook - 7567
- 1.3GHz 2017 MacBook - 6974
- 1.2GHz 2017 MacBook - 6654
- 2.3GHz 2018 MacBook Pro - 16464
- 2.3GHz 2017 MacBook Pro - 9071
While the new Air does use a MacBook-class CPU, it’s rated for 7W, not 5 like the MacBook, which is good news. I think the Air is a safe recommendation for students and home users, or anyone else without a crazy workload.
Then there’s the case of the Mac mini. A 3.2GHz 6-core i7 has been taken for a spin through Geekbench:
The Mac mini also closely matches the 2013 Mac Pro models when it comes to multi-core performance and exceeds them when it comes to single-core performance. With the exception of the iMac Pro, it outperforms 2017 iMac models, which were not refreshed this year.
Holy moly.