This system came in just behind the more-powerful 2015 MacBook Pro in our multitasking test, although last year's Air (and indeed, most of the OS X Mavericks systems we've tested) are especially fast in our iTunes test, versus the systems with the current OS X Yosemite version of the operating system. In everyday use - Web surfing, social media, HD video playback - any of the past few generations is more than powerful enough. The jump from last year's fourth-gen Intel CPUs to the fifth-gen Intel Core i5-5250U won't make a big difference in terms of application performance, especially for the mainstream tasks most MacBook Airs are used for. We have yet to find a touchpad that comes close to this for multitouch gestures, although we strongly suggest going into the Preferences menu and turning on all of the tapping options for further ease of use. While you don't get the newer Force Touch trackpad found in both the 12-inch MacBook or the 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, you'll hardly notice the difference. Other parts of the design are worth leaving alone, and that includes the keyboard and touchpad (which Apple calls a trackpad). It's a striking look, and makes it all the more obvious that parts of the MacBook Air design are well out of date. Besides the other MacBook lines, which have moved to a slimmer bezel and edge-to-edge glass, laptops such as the aforementioned Dell XPS 13 have gone even further, taking the display nearly all the way to the edge of the lid, much like current "borderless" televisions. On the Air, you have a very thick bezel, the dead space between the edge of the display and the edge of the lid, and the screen is inset underneath that, giving you a less-premium look and feel. That gives the interior a cleaner look, and you'll find it on both the MacBook Pro and and new 12-inch MacBook. Most modern laptops now include touch displays, something that's still off the table for now for a MacBook, but touch or not, newer laptops also have slimmer screen bezels with an edge-to-edge glass overlay. Opening up the clamshell shows just how old this design is. The 12-inch MacBook is nearly one-third lighter, at 2.04 pounds, and the 13-inch Pro is a heftier 3.46 pounds (just under 1kg and 1.6kg, respectively).įrom the bottom, the Air, the Pro and the 12-inch MacBook. From the outside, the smooth aluminum still looks modern and minimalist, and it's a look since copied by others, including Dell's XPS 13 series, which we sometimes refer to as the DellBook Air.Īt 2.92 pounds (without the power cable about 1.3kg), this MacBook Air is unchanged from last year's version, and sits right in the middle of the current MacBook lineup. The MacBook Air has an almost universally recognized silhouette at this point, largely unchanged since 2010 and still substantially similar to the original 2008 version. (A model with an 11.6-inch screen and otherwise very similar specs is available for even less.)
That the Air is the least-expensive MacBook, starting at $999 (£849 or AU$1,099) for the 13-inch model, means it's within reach for many shoppers who might not want to go up to the $1,299 or more being asked for the latest ultraportables from Apple, Samsung and others. It remains one of the most universally useful laptops you can buy, thanks to a still-slim design, excellent keyboard and touchpad, generally fast performance and great battery life. Especially so when compared to the groundbreaking new-for-2015 12-inch MacBook, which is amazingly thin and stylish, or the MacBook Pro - redesigned in 2012 - which has a great higher-res display and plenty of high-end configuration options.īut that doesn't mean we're writing the MacBook Air off.
For the past several years, Apple's flagship MacBook Air has dutifully added the latest generation of Intel processors, and sometimes tweaked the included ports or the type of solid state memory inside, but those changes have felt very minor.
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