Dual core 2 GHz or higher

Read the specs for the computers in which you are interested. Except for the bottom of the MacBook Air line, the CPUs are quad-core. With two more cores than the dual-core model, they would be approximately twice as fast. Add to that the difference in speed of an i3 compared to an i5 or an i5 compared to an i7. Each increase adds about 20% more speed. This will also be true for the processors in the MacBook Pro model.

The MBA model:

• 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i3, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, with 4MB L3 cache
• 1.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz, with 6MB L3 cache; or
• 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, with 8MB L3 cache

The new MacBook Pro has these specs:

The low-end model:

• 1.4GHz quad‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, with 128MB of eDRAM
• 1.7GHz quad‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz, with 128MB of eDRAM

The high-end model:

• 2.0GHz quad‑core 10th‑generation Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, with 6MB shared L3 cache
• 2.3GHz quad‑core 10th‑generation Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz, with 8MB shared L3 cache