The MacBook Air! There was always something special about it. It had a sleek design, a great screen and most importantly, offered performance for mostly everything. Since 2017, Apple has not updated their Air series and in the meantime, there are a bunch of laptops from other brands eating a chunk of the pie. With the launch of all new MacBook Air 2018, it seems like Apple has decided to take on the lead again. The new Air gets a fresh new design, a bigger and better screen and even a large performance bump. With the latest MacOS on-board, the new Air looks more appealing than ever before. Read on, as we use the new MacBook Air 2018 to find can it be the laptop to serve you for years.
Design and build
The MacBook Air 2018 gets an aluminium construction design, which feels premium and more solid than before. The device is available in three different colours - Silver, Space Grey and a new, Gold. The device we tested was the gold unit, and it stands out. The Air 2018 weighs around 1.25 kg and has a width of 1.41 cm towards its thickest point. It is quite nimble and can be easily carried around.
Opening the lid on the laptop gives way to a 13-inch bezel-less display. The top of the display holds a HD FaceTime camera while the bottom holds the MacBook Air logo adding a premium look. The backlit keyboard on the Air is generously large with keys machined with a slight incline curve, which adds a certain grip while typing. In addition to these design elements, the Air also gets a fingerprint sensor and a bigger trackpad like the new MacBook Pro models. The back of the device gets a matte aluminium finish with a centred chrome Apple logo.
Features
The MacBook Air sports a 13.3-inch Retina display and has a display resolution of 2560 x 1600. The screen looks amazingly accurate and is capable of producing very natural colours. Streaming content, photos or using productivity software is largely benefitted. You can spend hours on this display without getting your eyes tired.
The MacBook Air runs on Apple’s latest MacOS Mojave operating system, making the device faster and smoother to use. The new OS comes with a bunch of new features such as a dark mode which changes the look of the interface. It makes long hours even easier on the eyes. There are even options to change tabs colours, making the UI even more interesting. In addition to these, MacOS Mojave also includes auto-stacking, multi-windows and tabs support which can really come handy at times.
The MacBook Air 2018 is the first Air device to get an on-board fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint sensor is easy to setup, and works like a charm. You can also use your fingerprint to instantly authenticate password protected documents, notes and system settings.
In terms of connectivity, the Air gets two USB type-C ports, both supporting 30W charging. You can use these ports to transfer data at high speeds (up to 10Gbps) and to connect external displays. The device is also Wi-Fi 802.11ac compatible for wireless networking. It also gets Bluetooth 4.2 which promises wider range using low energy.
Performance
The new MacBook Air is powered by an 8th generation Intel Core i5 dual-core (8210Y) processor clocked at 1.6 GHz. The device is available in two configurations – one with 8GB of RAM with 128GB of SSD storage, and the other with 16GB of RAM with 256 of SSD storage. The device we tested was an 8GB RAM unit, and we barely faced any sluggishness while using it. Opening or switching between apps takes no time and device always feels fast. To test the CPU performance, we ran the GeekBench 4 benchmark and got a single and multi-core score of 4,200 and 7,686 respectively. The performance is significantly faster than the older MacBook Air models, however it simply cannot match the power of the MacBook Pro models.
We even tried Apple’s Final Cut Pro 10.4.4 to do some video editing. Software ran flawlessly on the device, importing data, aligning and editing the timeline can be done smoothly. We edited a 1 minute 4K video, which got rendered just under 3 minutes. The render timings are pretty decent considering, editing a 10 to 15 minute Full HD clip can take around 45 minutes. In addition to these, we also ran Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 to fidget around with some photos. We had multiple projects aligned side-by-side and still did not had face any screen stuttering.
The in-built Intel UHD 617 graphics on the MacBook Air 2018 does a decent job of handling some old gaming titles. However, you will have a hard time playing new games like Fortnite on this device.
The trackpad on the new MacBook Air sports pressure sensitive sensors, which improves tracking accuracy. Moving to battery life, the new MacBook Air also gets major improvements. We used our device for running benchmarks, playing games and even streamed content on Netflix, and still by the end of the day we were left with 30 per cent left. You can easily expect 7 to 8 hours of battery life on a full charge. Even charging the device doesn’t take too long. The provided 30W charger can fully charge the device in just under 2 hours.
Verdict
The MacBook Air is definitely one of the most premium laptops you can buy right now. With the prices starting from 1,14,990*, it carries a lot of premium features found on its elder MacBook pro siblings such as a Retina display, a large trackpad and even a fingerprint sensor. There are a few downsides though. The new Air lacks a USB port which many of us still use. If you ever wish to connect a mice or even a pen drive, you have to buy a USB type-C multi-port connector separately as Apple does not bundle it with the device.
With all these factors, the prices may feel little high when compared with the competition, but if we consider the long lasting software support and performance which hardly degrades over time, the MacBook Air easily justifies its price.
So, if you are someone looking for a laptop primarily for work and casual use, then the MacBook Air 2018 can be the choice for you. It definitely comes with a powerful battery life and a future-proof design profile which won’t feel old even after years. If you need a MacBook as your only media creation and editing workstation, the MacBook Pros might still be the one to consider.
* Prices are subject to change. Please refer to our product catalogue for latest pricing and availability.
