Apple's ultra-portable laptop MacBook Air got a major makeover in late 2018 after a long three years. Last month, it got a quick refresh.
It looks no different from the 2018 model. It still has the series' signature wedge-shaped aluminium unibody design and 13.3-inch Retina display with TrueTone technology that adjusts colour automatically based on ambient light.
There are still two Thunderbolt 3 ports on its left side and a headphone jack on the right. The Touch ID button, which both unlocks and turns on the laptop, remains at the top right-hand corner of the keyboard.
The major difference is its new scissor-mechanism keyboard, which debuted on last year's 16-inch MacBook Pro, which offers a 1mm key travel. It replaces the much-maligned butterfly-mechanism keyboard, which I personally have not experienced any issues in the past.
The new keyboard certainly feels better to type on, as it has a "clicky" feel and a very satisfying clunk to each key press. I also like the inverted-T arrow keys arrangement, which makes navigation easier. Indeed, I made very few typos and mistakes typing this review with this keyboard.
Also new with the new MacBook Air is its latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors (it starts with the Core i3 version for the base model). As such, it is supposed to have twice the processing performance and as much as 80 per cent more graphics performance over its predecessors, according to Apple.
The review unit comes with the Core i5 1.1GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of system memory and 512GB of flash storage, but buyers can configure the laptop with up to the Core i7 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of system memory and 2TB flash storage.
In the Geekbench 5 benchmark tests, the review unit scored 1,018 (single-core) and 2,520 (multi-core) - both lower than the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro's scores of 1,117 (single-core) and 4,660 (multi-core). It must be said though, the MacBook Air has never been positioned as a speed demon.
I did not experience any lag when editing photos using Affinity Photo and when editing videos with Final Cut Pro. I did feel a slowdown when I opened too many tabs (I counted 20) in the Google Chrome browser, due to too much system memory being used.
While the new MacBook Air cannot handle graphics-intensive games such as Doom Eternal, it has no issues with Football Manager 2020.
Another downer is the lack of Wi-Fi 6, the latest and fastest Wi-Fi technology. Omitting it feels like a strange decision considering last year's iPhone 11 series and the latest iPad Pro series both support Wi-Fi 6.
If you do not own a Wi-Fi 6 router, this probably wouldn't matter much. However, it is always good to future-proof your device.
Battery life remains excellent. In our video-loop battery test at maximum brightness and volume, it lasted 8 hour 34 minutes - around 8 minutes longer than its predecessor.
Weighing 1.29kg, the MacBook Air is currently the most lightweight Mac laptop. It is also the cheapest Mac laptop you can get, with prices starting at $1,499.
A fully souped-up model will set you back by $3,329, but the specifications of this review unit ($1,899) is probably good enough if your usage habits largely involve watching Netflix, word processing and browsing the Internet.
FOR
- New scissor-mechanism keyboard
- Lightest and cheapest Mac laptop you can get
- Excellent battery life
AGAINST
- No Wi-Fi 6 support
- Underpowered if you are a power user
TECH SPECS
PRICE: From $1,499
DISPLAY: 13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i3 1.1GHz dual-core (configurable up to Intel Core i7 1.2GHz quad-core)
GRAPHICS: Intel Iris Plus Graphics
SYSTEM MEMORY: From 8GB (configurable up to 16GB)
STORAGE: From 256GB SSD (configurable up to 2TB SSD)
CONNECTIVITY: 2 x Thunderbolt 3
WEIGHT: 1.29kg
RATING
FEATURES: 3.5/5
DESIGN: 4.5/5
PERFORMANCE: 3.5/5
BATTERY LIFE: 5/5
VALUE FOR MONEY: 4/5
OVERALL: 4/5
