Apple's new M1 chip enables up to 20 hours of battery life for the Mac

At today's "One More Thing" event, Apple announced its new M1 processor for the Mac. The Apple silicon-based chip not only brings new levels of performance to a new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro but an impressive jump in battery life as well.

The new MacBook Air, powered by the new M1 processor, achieves battery life better than any MacBook Air before it. While the previous Intel-based generation featured 11 hours of web browsing and 12 hours of watching movies, the new MacBook Air featuring the M1 processor reaches battery life of 17 hours when web browsing and 18 hours when watching movies.

Battery life gets even more impressive when looking at the new MacBook Pro. Powered by the M1 processor as well, the new MacBook Pro reaches 17 hours for web browsing and 20 hours when watching movies. The previous generation only reached 10 hours when doing either activity, spelling a 10-hour improvement in battery life. It is, as Apple said, the longest battery life to ever exist on any MacBook.

If you'd rather stick with Intel, for now, there are some great Black Friday deals on Apple's Intel-based lineup of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

The new battery life is achieved by the M1 processor and its new high-efficiency cores. When the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro don't need too much power, each laptop can tap into those cores to preserve battery life. While the Mac will switch to higher performance cores in order to handle more demanding tasks, the presence of the high-efficiency cores will bring the longest battery life we've ever seen to the Mac.

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