It’s not often that laptop technology and marketing come together to produce so many great value options for laptop shoppers, but now is one of those times. The Apple MacBook Air M1 has been superseded by the M2 version, but it’s still an excellent laptop with outstanding performance, solid build quality, and excellent battery life at a relatively affordable $1,000. The HP Envy x360 13 is also well-built, offering solid performance with excellent battery life (for a Windows laptop), and it can be had for just $700.
You can’t go wrong with any of these laptops, but does Apple offer enough value to make up for HP’s outrageous price tag? Read on to find out.
Glasses
| HP Envy x360 13 | Apple MacBook Air M1 | |
| Dimensions | 11.75 inches x 8.46 inches x 0.63 inches | 11.97 inches x 8.36 inches x 0.63 inches |
| Weight | £2.95 | 2.8 pounds |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-1230UIIntel Core i5-1250U | apple m1 |
| Graphics | Intel IrisXe | apple m1 |
| work memory | 8GB LPDDR4x16GB LPDDR4x | Apple unified 8 GB Apple unified 16 GB |
| Show | 13.3-inch 16:10 WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS13.3-inch 16:10 WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS13.3-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED | 13.3 inches 16:10 (2560 x 1600) 400 nits |
| Storage | 512GB PCIe SSD 1TB PCIe SSD | 256 GB SSD 512 GB SSD 1 TB SSD 2 TB SSD |
| Contact | That | No |
| port | 2 x USB-C4 with Thunderbolt 42 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 21 x 3.5mm audio jack 1 x microSD card reader | 2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.1 Gen 2/ USB 4
Headphone/microphone combo |
| wireless | Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Webcam | 5 MP with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello | 720p FaceTime HD |
| OS | windows 11 | MacOS |
| Battery | 66 watt-hours | 49.9 watt-hours |
| Price | $700+ | 999 dollars |
| Assessment | 4.5 out of 5 stars | 4.5 out of 5 stars |
Price and configurations
Yes, exactly. At the time of writing, the Envy x360 13 can be had for a bona fide cheap price of $700 (on sale for $900). These include a Core i5-1230U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 13.3-inch WUXGA display. The most you’ll spend is $900 (on sale starting at $1,200) for a Core i7-1250U, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 3.5K OLED display. These are attractive prices even on list, but on sale they are spectacular value.
The MacBook Air M1 costs $1,000 for an 8-core CPU/7-core M1 GPU CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It’s the cheapest MacBook you can buy, and a solid value in its own right. At the high end, you’ll spend $2,000 for the same CPU with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.
Shape
The MacBook Air M1 retains a design that has stood the test of time for years. Its wedge shape is iconic and for a time inspired an entire industry of similar machines. Apple gave that up with the MacBook Air M2, but that doesn’t mean the M1 version isn’t viable anymore. It’s still attractive and stylish, and it’s rock solid. It’s also thin and light, though thicker than the class-leading M2 at 0.44 inches.
The Envy x360 13 is also solidly built and attractive, even though it’s a 2-in-1 360-degree convertible that switches to four modes: case, tent, media, and tablet. This makes it a more flexible laptop. It’s almost the same size as the MacBook Air M1, just as thin and just as heavy. They’re quite different laptops in their aesthetics, but both are excellent examples of 13-inch laptop design.
Where the MacBook Air M1 has a solid win is its Magic Keyboard, which is the best you’ll find on a non-MacBook 13-inch laptop. It’s a bit shallow, but it has the fastest and most precise switches, with a spacious layout and large buttons. The Specter x360 13 also has an excellent keyboard that’s among the best on a Windows laptop, but it’s not quite as good as Apple’s. The MacBook’s Force Touch haptic trackpad is also better than the Envy’s mechanical version. It’s bigger and can be clicked anywhere on the surface. Apple introduced touchpads many years ago and it maintains its lead to this day.
The Envy x360 13 win comes with its most impressive connectivity. It has the same number of Thunderbolt 4 ports as the MacBook Air M1, but also includes legacy support with two USB-A ports and a microSD card reader. HP’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity are also newer specifications than Apple’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Finally, HP has included a 5MP webcam that has a much higher resolution than the 720p webcam Apple built into the MacBook. This makes Envy x360 13 a much better video conferencing tool. The Envy also includes an infrared camera for password-free Windows 11 Hello login via facial recognition, while the MacBook uses a Touch ID fingerprint reader built into the power button. Both are reasonable security solutions, though the Envy x360 13 can also turn off the webcam to improve privacy.
Performance
We reviewed the Envy x360 13 with a Core i7-1250U, 9-watt 10-core (two performance and eight efficient) and 12-thread CPU. That’s better than Apple’s 8-core CPU/7-core M1 GPU in the MacBook Air M1.
In our regular benchmark suite, the two laptops were a close match. The Envy x360 13 was slightly faster in our Handbrake test and also encodes a 420MB video as H.265 in Cinebench R23, but slower in Geekbench 5. The MacBook Air M1 would probably score slightly faster in apps GPU-enabled creative tools like Adobe Creative Suite, thanks to Apple’s optimizations for various creative tasks.
But for the typical productive user that both laptops are intended for, the Envy x360 13 is the slightly faster laptop. However, both will provide excellent performance on a day-to-day basis.
| HP Envy x360 13 (Core i7-1250U) | Apple MacBook Air M1 (M1) | |
| Geekbench 5 (single/multiple) | Bal: 1435 / 7285 Yield: 1460 / 7288 | Ball: 1,727 / 7,585 Performance: N/A |
| Parking brake (seconds) | Ball: 136 Performance: 138 | Ball: 156 Performance: N/A |
| Cinebench R23 (single/multiple) | Bal: 1504 / 7436 Yield: 1504 / 7441 | Ball: 1479 / 6680 Performance: |
Show
The MacBook Air M1 uses a 13.3-inch 16:10 Apple Retina IPS display running at 2560 x 1600. That’s sharp enough at that size, but it’s a bit weaker than the 13.3-inch OLED panel. and 16:10 of the Envy x360 13 at 2880 x 1800 that we reviewed.
While Apple’s display is good enough for productive work, HP’s display is on another level of quality. While both are equally bright and offer the same wide RGB color gamuts, HP’s display has an incredibly wide Adobe color gamut and significantly higher accuracy. And then there’s the usual OLED contrast, which results in truly deep red blacks.
The Specter x360 13 offers a viewing experience that is worth far more than the price of a laptop.
| HP Envy x360 13 (OLED) | Apple MacBook Air M1 (M1) | |
| Gloss (nits) | 391 | 389 |
| AdobeRGB Gamut | 100% | 100% |
| sRGB gamut | 98% | 79% |
| Accuracy (DeltaE, lower better) | 0.72 | 1.29 |
| contrast ratio | 29,420:1 | 1130:1 |
Battery duration
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends
The Specter x360 13 managed long battery life for a laptop equipped with a power-hungry OLED display. But it was far behind the MacBook Air M1, which achieved class-leading longevity. Keep in mind that the Specter can be configured with a low power WUXGA display which will likely add a few hours to your score. If you absolutely need a laptop for the whole day, then the MacBook is a safer option.
| HP Envy x360 13 (Core i7-1250U) | Apple MacBook Air M1 (M1) | |
| Surfing the web | 9 hours, 30 minutes | 14 hours, 34 minutes |
| Video | 15 hours, 31 minutes | 18 hours, 28 minutes |
The MacBook Air M1 is great, but the Envy x360 13 is better overall value
Apple kept the MacBook Air M1, even after the M2 was released, because it was still a competitive laptop at a great price. That’s usually enough to dominate its class at midrange. The Envy x360 13, however, seriously undercuts it in price, offering the same productivity performance, equally solid build, and a spectacular OLED display option.
The MacBook leads in battery life and has a better keyboard and trackpad, but the Envy x360 13 is also a more flexible machine with active pen support and wins this contest.
editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn