Apple MacBook Air (2018) review: The Air we have been waiting for

An all-new MacBook Air?

Yup, the MacBook Air has finally gotten the update it deserves. A refreshed design, a new display, new internals, and more. It’s been a long time coming but it is finally here!

So, you say it has a new design?

Yes, it does. The new MacBook Air retains the signature wedge-shape design but it has a smaller overall footprint. Compared to its predecessor, it takes up 17% less volume. This is thanks to smaller bezels, which I will get into later. The new MacBook Air is also thinner and lighter. Thickness has been reduced from 17mm to 15.6m, while weight is down from 1.34kg to 1.25kg. The old MacBook Air feels absolutely porky when compared to this new model.

Also important is that the new MacBook Air is the first notebook that Apple makes that uses a custom Apple-formulated aluminum alloy made out of 100% recycled aluminum. This makes it the greenest Mac ever. And it does this without compromising on durability or strength. Indeed, the MacBook Air remains extremely well built and it feels solid and tight in the hands. The hinge, for example, has a smooth action and exhibits zero wiggle; and there is no flex in the chassis.

How does it compare against the current crop of ultraportable Windows notebooks?

The new MacBook Air is competitive but it is hardly the thinnest nor lightest notebook around these days. Here’s a table comparing the MacBook Air against some other popular ultraportable Windows notebooks.

Finally, a Retina display!

This has got to be the most highly requested feature and it’s nice to see that the MacBook Air has finally got a Retina display. It has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels and supports the sRGB color space. The bezels are also 50% thinner than those found on the old MacBook Air, which helps with reducing the MacBook Air’s overall footprint. Though the bezels are thinner, it isn’t quite as thin as those found on some of its Windows competitors such as the Dell XPS 13.

It is a marked improvement from its predecessor’s aging low-resolution TN panel but it isn’t quite as good as the displays found on the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro displays support the wider DCI-P3 color space, are brighter, and support TrueTone technology. That said, I found the MacBook Air’s display to have nice accurate colors but wished that it would get a little brighter. It’s a nice display but it just isn’t as good as the ones on the MacBook Pro.

What about the processor?

The new MacBook Air comes with Intel’s newest 8th generation Core processor. Only a single configuration will be offered and that’s Core i5 part, specifically the Core i5-8210Y. Geeks will know that the Y-suffix denotes that this is a low-power unit, and indeed, deeper investigations reveal that it is a 7W part that comes from Intel’s recently announced Amber Lake series of processors. This is a departure from the 15W CPUs that Apple traditionally used for the MacBook Air and suggests that Apple is trading performance for efficiency.

Also interesting is that there will be no CPU upgrade option available. It’s the Core i5-8210Y or nothing. There will, however, be memory and storage upgrades. The MacBook Air can be outfitted with up to 16GB of RAM and the largest SSD you can fit in is one that is 1.5TB.

What ports does it have?

Like all modern Mac notebooks, the MacBook Air comes with USB-C ports now. There are two on the left and they support the super-fast Thunderbolt 3 interface, which can handle power, data, and video. For those who wish to connect the MacBook Air to external displays, know that it can support a single 5K display at up to 60Hz or two 4K displays at up to 60Hz. Oh, there’s also a headphone jack on the right side of the notebook.

Does it have Touch ID?

The MacBook Air might not have the Touch Bar but it does have Touch ID. The Touch ID doubles up as the power button and it is located at the top right corner of the keyboard.

Ah, keyboard, what has become of it?

Unsurprisingly, the new MacBook Air’s keyboard adopts Apple’s third-generation butterfly mechanism - the same as the new MacBook Pro. It is shallow and makes a clicky-clacky sound. Newcomers to this keyboard will almost definitely need some time to adjust. Some people really hate this keyboard because of the lack of key travel and sound but I’m quite fond of it because the affirmative click action that lets you know you have struck a key. 

The trackpad looks bigger?

You have sharp eyes. The trackpad is a whopping 20% larger than the one found on the old MacBook Air. But more importantly, it is super fluid, responsive, and accurate - exactly what you’d come to expect from an Apple notebook.

Are the speakers new too?

Yes, the speakers are new too and it now faces upward like the MacBook and MacBook Pro. According to Apple, when compared to the last MacBook Air, this new model’s speakers deliver 25% more volume and twice the bass. Insofar as notebook speakers are concerned, the speakers on the MacBook Air are actually commendable. They sound strong, full-bodied, and can portray a rather convincing stereo image. Lying in bed and watching movies, I found the speakers to be very capable and I didn’t feel the need to go grab my headphones.

So how does it perform?

Despite the low-power Y-series processor, the MacBook Air was sprightly. The unit I’m testing comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It launches apps quickly and it held up even when I had my usual 20+ tabs opened in Safari. The high-speed PCIe SSD must have helped. My only complaint is that Photoshop, a ‘pro’ app that I rely on for my photo-editing, felt a little sluggish but I had already prepared myself for that.

In short, if you are only going to be doing stuff like browsing the web, typing documents, doing emails, watching videos, and playing some games, I think you will be well-served by the MacBook Air. If you need a little more oomph, you can always hook it up to an external GPU like the Blackmagic eGPU Pro.

How did it perform against Windows competitors?

To find out, I installed Windows 10 on the MacBook Air using Bootcamp and ran our usual suite of Windows benchmark. Comparisons were made against the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre. I also included Windows results from the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro (with Core i9 processor), and the 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook.

The results were quite interesting. On PCMark 10 and PCMark 8, we can see that the MacBook Air trailed the Windows notebooks by a fair margin, especially on more graphics intensive workloads. On PCMark 8, the gulf in performance was widest in the Creative and Adobe workloads. But on the less intensive Work workload, we can see that the MacBook Air wasn’t that much slower. Also worth noting is just how much faster the new MacBook Air is compared to the MacBook from two years ago - the MacBook is also powered by a low-power processor from Intel’s Y-series.

Graphics performance on 3DMark and Tomb Raider wasn’t as bad I expected. It scored considerably better than MacBook (2016) and its Fire Strike performance in 3DMark was actually quite commendable, beating out the HP Spectre which has a better processor and integrated GPU. That said, the 13-inch MacBook Pro was clearly faster even if it was running on a two-year-old processor.

How’s the battery life?

Battery life is excellent. In our rather intensive battery test which consists of productivity workloads, video conferencing, and light gaming, the MacBook Air managed 5 hours and 10 minutes. This makes it one of the longest lasting notebooks, beating even the MacBook and the XPS 13. Power consumption is very low at just 9.74W, no doubt thanks to the low-power processor.

That said, using our Portability Index, the MacBook Air is still trumped by the MacBook because the latter is considerably thinner and lighter. The XPS 13 is also slightly ahead by virtue of its thinner and lighter chassis.

So which Mac should I get?

That’s a very good question. To start, let’s look at prices first.

As the table shows, if we disregard the old MacBook Air that Apple, for whatever reason, continues to sell, the new MacBook Air is currently the cheapest modern Mac notebook. That said, the non-Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro and the thinner, lighter MacBook is within reach and comes with comparable specifications and might be tempting for some users so let’s compare them directly.

Against the non-Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro…

For $100 more, what you will be getting is a faster processor and a better display. However, note that the non-Touch Bar models are still powered by 7th generation dual-core Intel Core processors, unlike the Touch Bar models which received an update earlier this year in the form of new 8th generation quad-core Intel Core processors.

In terms of dimensions and weight, the two are actually almost identical, which is a testament to the design of the MacBook Pro. That said, the MacBook Air offers significantly longer battery life. So pick the MacBook Pro if you value performance and the better display, and the MacBook Air if you want to save a bit of money and a longer battery life.

Against the Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro...

Not much of a comparison here because the Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro notebooks cost considerably more. But for $799 more, you get the latest 8th generation quad-core Intel Core processors, a better display, double the storage, and double the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports. It’s pricey but this is the highest performing 13-inch notebook that Apple currently sells. If your wallet is up for it and you need all the performance you can get from a 13-inch Mac notebook, this is it.

Against the MacBook…

The MacBook remains Apple most portable notebook. It’s super thin and light and offers an impressive battery life. The tradeoff is lesser performance, a smaller display, and only one USB-C port, which, by the way, is only USB 3.1 Gen 1 and not Thunderbolt 3, mind you. For most users, the MacBook Air with its better performance, long battery life, and two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports is the better all-rounder and the more sensible purchase. The MacBook is for users who demand portability above everything else.

So, was it worth the wait?

For most people, the answer would be yes. Personally, I would have liked a brighter display, a thinner and lighter form factor, a more powerful processor, and while we are it, maybe Face ID too? Truth is, Windows notebooks have made significant strides in the past couple of years and there is no shortage of good Windows notebooks today. While the old MacBook Air of years ago was truly something to behold because of its design, thinness, and build quality, the MacBook Air of today is a solid notebook but not groundbreaking. You only have to look at Dell, they managed to cram a new quad-core processor into its XPS 13 and still have respectable battery life and a thin and light chassis. It makes you wonder why Apple didn't do the same too.

Nevertheless, if you must have a notebook that runs macOS - and I completely understand as a fellow macOS user - then the MacBook Air is the ideal pick for most users. Build quality remains class-leading, performance is good despite the low-power processor, and battery life is exemplary. With the new MacBook Air, Apple has given most users all the features that they requested for, namely a Retina Display, Touch ID, and two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports. It is also more compact and lighter. In short, it is everything that most people want from a MacBook Air. I only wish they hadn’t taken so long.

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