Head to head

Compare any two computers

Pick two machines from 50 years of computing, or pit one against the phone in your pocket. Every number comes from the atlas catalogue.

Computer A

Computer B

Apple · 2020

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

No fan at all, and faster than most laptops of its day.

CPU	Apple M1 (8 cores) @ 3.2 GHz
Memory	8 GB
Storage	256 GB SSD
Launch price	$999 ≈ $1,210 today
In the atlas	Be the first to add it

Various · 2025

A 2025 flagship phone

The computer most people now carry.

CPU	8-core ARM @ 3 GHz
Memory	8 GB
Storage	256 GB flash

The verdict

The A 2025 flagship phone has 1.0× the memory of the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020).

They are 5 years apart. Doubling every two years (Moore's law) would predict about 5.7×; the memory actually grew slower than that. Across the whole catalogue memory doubled every 1.9 years.

Memory8 GB vs 8 GB

Clock speed3.2 GHz vs 3 GHz

Bars use a logarithmic scale so both machines stay visible.

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