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M1 MacBook Air vs. Surface Pro 9: Full specs comparison

We have comprehensively compared the specifications for the M1 MacBook Air and Surface Pro 9 models. The report includes detailed information regarding both models' CPU, memory, storage, battery life, display quality, and other features.

Compare With Please enter device name or part of it M1 MacBook Air See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Pro 9 See at Amazon See at Microsoft

M1 MacBook Air Pros

Reasons that M1 MacBook Air is better than Surface Pro 9.

Apple M1 (8C, 8G) inside M1 MacBook Air has a 17% better multi-core CPU performance score than the Intel Core i7-1265U inside Surface Pro 9.

Geekbench 5 multi-core score

M1 MacBook Air - Apple M1 (8C, 7G)

7,414

M1 MacBook Air - Apple M1 (8C, 8G)

7,414

Surface Pro 9 - Intel Core i7-1255U

6,415

Surface Pro 9 - Intel Core i7-1265U

6,336

Surface Pro 9 - Intel Core i5-1235U

5,715

Surface Pro 9 - Intel Core i5-1245U

5,700

M1 MacBook Air has better versatile I/O connectivity than the Surface Pro 9. It has two versus one commonly used port and slot on the Surface Pro 9.

Ports	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
headphone jack	Yes	No
Thunderbolt 3	Yes	No
Thunderbolt 4	No	Yes

Surface Pro 9 Pros

Reasons that Surface Pro 9 is better than M1 MacBook Air.

2022 vs. 2020

Surface Pro 9 supports a larger memory capacity than the M1 MacBook Air. It supports up to 32GB versus 16GB of system memory on the M1 MacBook Air.

Max system memory size

Surface Pro 9

32 GB

M1 MacBook Air

16 GB

Surface Pro 9 comes with a single removable M.2 SSD slot that you can replace and upgrade in the future.

Slots	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
M.2	Onboard	Yes x1

Surface Pro 9 weighed 1.94 pounds, 31% lighter than the 2.8 pounds M1 MacBook Air.

Weight	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Pound	2.8 lbs.	1.94 lbs.
Kilogram	1.27 kg	0.88 kg

Surface Pro 9 has more ports and slots count than the M1 MacBook Air. It has five versus three amount of ports and slots on the M1 MacBook Air.

Ports	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
headphone jack	Yes	No
SSD slot	No	Yes
Surface Connect	No	Yes
Surface Type Cover port	No	Yes
Thunderbolt 3	Yes x2	No
Thunderbolt 4	No	Yes x2
Total	3	5

Prices

Here are the latest price updates and offers for both devices.

M1 MacBook Air Price
	Late 2020 Apple MacBook Air with Apple M1 Chip (13.3 inch, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) Space Gray (Renewed) By Apple $610.64 $647.86 6% OFF	See at Amazon
	Apple 2020 MacBook Air Laptop M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage, Backlit Keyboard, FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID. Works with iPhone/iPad; Space Gray By Apple $708.39 $999.00 29% OFF	See at Amazon
	Late 2020 Apple MacBook Air with Apple M1 Chip (13.3 inch, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) Space Gray (Renewed) By Apple $704.68	See at Amazon
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Price
	Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (2022), 13" 2-in-1 Tablet & Laptop, Thin & Lightweight, Intel 12th Gen i7 Fast Processor for Multi-Tasking, 16GB RAM, 256GB Storage with Windows 11, Graphite Microsoft Copilot By Microsoft $1,173.14 $1,599.99 27% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 9 13" Touch-Screen Intel Core i5-16GB Memory - 256GB SSD Platinum By Microsoft $960.99 $1,299.00 26% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (2022), 13" 2-in-1 Tablet & Laptop, Thin & Lightweight, Intel 12th Gen i5 Fast Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage with Windows 11, Copilot, Graphite (Renewed) By Microsoft $699.99 $749.99 7% OFF	See at Amazon

Availability	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Released	2020	2022
Release Date	Announced on November 10th, 2020	Introduced: October 12, 2022 Pre-ordered: October 12, 2022 Released: October 25, 2022
Pricing	$999 Apple M1 Chip (7 cores GPU) \| 8GB RAM \| 256GB SSD $1,249 Apple M1 Chip (8 cores GPU) \| 8GB RAM \| 512GB SSD	Starting at $999.99
Generations	2022 M2 MacBook Air 2020 M1 MacBook Air 2020 Intel MacBook Air MacBook Air 13” 2019 MacBook Air 13” 2018 MacBook Air 13” 2017 MacBook Air 13” 2015 MacBook Air 13” 2014 MacBook Air 13” 2013	2022 Surface Pro 9 5G 2022 Surface Pro 9 2021 Surface Pro 8 2021 Surface Pro 7 Plus 2019 Surface Pro 7 2018 Surface Pro 6 2017 Surface Pro 5 2015 Surface Pro 4 2014 Surface Pro 3 2013 Surface Pro 2 2012 Surface Pro 1

Exterior	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Dimensions	Width: 11.97 inches (30.41 cm) Depth: 8.36 inches (21.24 cm) Height: 0.16–0.63 inch (0.41–1.61 cm)	11.3” x 8.2” x 0.37” (287 mm x 208 mm x 9.3 mm)
Weight	Starting at 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg)	1.94 lb (879 g)
Colors	Gold Space Gray Silver	Sapphire Forest Platinum Graphite
Keyboard and Trackpad	Backlit Magic Keyboard with: 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 function keys and 4 arrow keys in an inverted-T arrangement Ambient light sensor Force Touch trackpad for precise cursor control and pressure-sensing capabilities; enables Force clicks, accelerators, pressure-sensitive drawing, and Multi-Touch gestures	Not included. Compatible with Surface Pro Signature Keyboard Surface Pro X Keyboard Type Cover Features: Activation: Moving (mechanical) keys Layout: QWERTY, full row of function keys (F1-F12) 4 directional keys; Windows, Brightness and Media Controls Keys; LED backlighting Trackpad: Precision glass trackpad. Trackpad size: 4 x 2 inches (101.6 mm x 50.8 mm) Supports a five-finger multitouch gesture. Surface Slim Pen Storage Magnetic dock Automatically wireless charge Surface Slim Pen

Display	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Size	13.3 Inches	13 Inches
Info	Retina display 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors Supported scaled resolutions: 1680 by 1050 1440 by 900 1024 by 640 16:10 aspect ratio 400 nits brightness Supports wide color (P3) True Tone technology	13” PixelSense™ Flow Display Resolution: 2880 x 1920 5.53M Pixels. Density: 267 PPI Color profile: sRGB and Vivid Dynamic refresh rate: up to 120Hz Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1200:1 Touch: 10-point multi-touch Brightness: 450 nits maximum (typical), 2 nits minimum Gorilla® Glass 5 Adaptive Color Auto Color Management supported Dolby Vision IQ™ support

Ports	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Image Source: Apple Left (2) 2 x Thunderbolt 3 40 Gpbs, USB 4.0 (40 Gbps), Charging, DisplayPort Right (1) 1 x headphone jack Headphone/Microphone	Left (2) 2 x Thunderbolt 4 40 Gpbs, USB 4.0 (40 Gbps), DisplayPort, Power Delivery Right (1) 1 x Surface Connect Charging, Docking Bottom (1) 1 x Surface Type Cover port Under Kickstand (1) 1 x SSD slot M.2 2230 NVMe slot

Internal Specs	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Processor	Apple M1 (7 GPU Cores) 8 cores, 8 threads, 3.20 GHz, 10W Apple M1 8 cores, 8 threads, 3.20 GHz, 10W	12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U 10 cores, 12 threads, 1.30 → 4.40 GHz, 12MB SmartCache, 15W 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1255U 10 cores, 12 threads, 1.70 → 4.70 GHz, 12MB SmartCache, 15W 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1245U 10 cores, 12 threads, 1.60 → 4.40 GHz, 12MB SmartCache, 15W 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1265U 10 cores, 12 threads, 1.80 → 4.80 GHz, 12MB SmartCache, 15W
Integrated Graphics	Apple M1 (7 GPU Cores) Apple M1 iGPU 7 Graphics Cores, 1280 MHz Apple M1 Apple M1 iGPU 8 Graphics Cores, 1280 MHz	12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics 80 Execution Units, → 1200 MHz 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1255U Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics 96 Execution Units, → 1250 MHz 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1245U Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics 80 Execution Units, → 1200 MHz 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1265U Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics 96 Execution Units, → 1250 MHz
Memory	8GB unified memory Configurable to 16GB	8GB 16GB 32GB 5200 MHz LPDDR5 RAM
Storage	256GB 512GB SSD Configurable to 1TB or 2TB	128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB Removable SSD.
Fans Number	-	1

Connectivity	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Wi-Fi	802.11ax Wi‑Fi 6 wireless networking IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible	Wi-Fi 6E: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology	Bluetooth Wireless 5.1 technology

Battery	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Size	49.9 Wh lithium‑polymer battery	47.7 Wh Nominal battery capacity. 46.5 Wh Minimum battery capacity.
Battery Life	Up to 15 hours wireless web Up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback	Up to 15.5 hours of typical device usage
Power Supply	30W USB‑C Power Adapter	60W power supply with USB-A (5W) (65W total) Supports Fast Charge (0-80% in about one hour)

Software

M1 MacBook Air

Surface Pro 9

Shipped with macOS Big Sur

Consumer models

Windows 11 Home

Business models

Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro

Built-in Apps

Photos iMovie GarageBand Pages Numbers Keynote Siri Safari Mail FaceTime Messages Maps News Stocks Home Voice Memos Notes Calendar Contacts Reminders Photo Booth Preview Music Podcasts TV Books App Store Time Machine Find My QuickTime Player

Preloaded Microsoft 365 Apps
Microsoft 365 Family 30-day trial
Preloaded Xbox app
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate one-month trial

Camera & Audio	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Camera	720p FaceTime HD camera	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video 10.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p full HD and 4K video
Audio	Stereo speakers Wide stereo sound Support for Dolby Atmos playback Three-mic array with directional beamforming 3.5 mm headphone jack	Dual far-field Studio Mics 2W stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos®

Misc	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
Inking	-	Designed for Surface Slim Pen 2 Supports Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) 4096 levels of pressure Tilt sensing Best in class latency Paper feel 0.1mm precision magnetic storage Supports Tactile signals with Surface Slim Pen 2 The integrated storage and wireless charging for Surface Slim Pen 2 with Surface Pro Signature Keyboard
Sensors	Touch ID sensor Ambient light sensor	Ambient light sensor Gyroscope Magnetometer Ambient Color Sensor (brightness and color)
Security	Touch ID sensor Apple T2 Security Chip	TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise-grade security and BitLocker support Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in Windows 11 Secured-core PC
In the box	MacBook Air 30W USB‑C Power Adapter USB-C Charge Cable (2 m)	Surface Pro 9 Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents
Warranty	Your MacBook Air comes with 90 days of complimentary technical support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase AppleCare+ to extend your coverage to three years from your AppleCare+ purchase date and add up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, each subject to a service fee of $99 for screen damage or external enclosure damage, or $299 for other repairable damage, plus applicable tax.	1-year limited hardware warranty
More	Video Support Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and: One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz Thunderbolt 3 digital video output Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C VGA, HDMI, DVI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)	-

Key Features	M1 MacBook Air	Surface Pro 9
At Glance	Released in Late 2020 16:10 QHD 13.3” 1600p 60Hz Weight 2.8 lb 1.27 kg Up to Apple M1 (8C, 8G) 8C/8T, 3.20 GHz Geekbench 5 1,705 Single Core Geekbench 5 7,414 Multi-Core With integrated Apple M1 iGPU 8 Graphics Cores, 1280 MHz Configurable up to 16GB Unified Memory Starting at $999 M1 (7 GPU Cores), 8GB, 256GB SSD Up to 18 Hours Battery Life Built-in Touch ID With T2 Chip Dual USB-C USB4 & Thunderbolt 3 Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0	Released in Late 2022 3:2 2.8K 13” 1920p 60~120Hz Weight 1.94 lb 0.88 kg Up to Intel Core i7-1265U 10C/12T, 1.80 → 4.80 GHz Geekbench 5 1,336 Single Core Geekbench 5 6,336 Multi-Core With integrated Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics 96 Execution Units, → 1250 MHz Configurable up to 32GB 5200 MHz LPDDR5 Starting at $999.99 i5, 8GB, 128GB, Win 11 Home