If anything, it feels a little better than the 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard. (The new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, coming in May, does too.) Surprising exactly no one, the keyboard in the new MacBook Air uses the same new scissor switches introduced back in November’s 16-inch MacBook Pro. That’s a big price drop - and you get a faster computer and a better keyboard to boot. Now, you can get that for $1,000 (and education customers only pay $900). No longer - especially because it now ships with 256 GB of SSD storage (up from 128).Īs I pointed out in my initial thoughts on this week’s new products, until this week, if you wanted a MacBook Air with 256 GB of storage, it cost $1,300. For a long time, it was hard to recommend Apple’s base model MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air starts at $999, and that base model is a terrific computer for a lot of people. What’s important, I think, is that it’s a good/faster/fastest lineup - not meh/good/faster. Previously the MacBook Air was hit by a double whammy: it was slower and less power efficient. I’d wager heavily that in terms of performance-per-watt, Intel remains hopelessly behind ARM, but in terms of sheer CPU performance - especially single-core, which is what matters most for a lot of day-to-day stuff like using the web - this 10th-generation Core i5 is more than holding its own. With all the usual caveats that artificial benchmarks aren’t accurate indicators of real-world performance, here are some interesting numbers from Geekbench 5 (average of two runs, single-core / multi-core): (And if you want quad-core multithreaded performance but are OK with just 256 GB of storage, you can upgrade the base model to the quad-core i5 for just $100 as a build-to-order configuration.) Unclear to me is whether the Core i7 is worth an additional $150. The difference between the dual-core Core i3 and quad-core Core i5 seems pretty obvious: $300 will get you much better multithreaded performance. I can’t say I love that, but the lineup doesn’t seem that confusing to me. Than color) are how much storage you want and how much RAM (8 orġ6 GB). When you order a new MacBook Air, the only choices you make (other TheseĪre the sort of decisions I want Apple to make. The right balance is between performance and battery life. Even the base model non-retina MacBook Air has MacBook Pros have a slew ofĭifferent CPU options. Wrong, but off the top of my head, I think this is a first for a There’s only one CPU option for the new MacBook Air: “1.6GHzĭual‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up With the previous retina MacBook Air, there was one and only one CPU option. One significant difference between this MacBook Air and the previous generation is that it offers CPU options at all. I’ve only had this machine for a day, so I don’t have any extensive testing results to report. My thoughts and observations: Performance ![]() ![]() I’ve spent the last day testing Apple’s $1,300 mid-range MacBook Air, with the quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU, 512 GB storage, and 8 GB of RAM. ![]() With the new 2020 MacBook Air, Apple has pulled a Michael Corleone and settled all family business. The non-retina MacBook Air models were really old. Non-retina MacBook Air models it replaced. Yes, the retina MacBook Air was faster than the MacBook Air for $999, you ought to be able to buy a good ![]() Way things should be, you ought not just be able to buy a Kept the by-that-time ancient non-retina MacBook Air around forĪ while just to occupy that $999 price point in the lineup. But the retina MacBook Air started at $1199. The MacBook Air is supposed to start at $999. It’s really easy to find people who - reliability issuesĪside - just don’t like the way they feel. Those butterfly keyboards are their favorite keyboards. Was much improved over the first two, especially, it seems, in The modern MacBook era, it debuted with the third-generationīutterfly-switch keyboard. Because the retina MacBook Air was so late to But the retina MacBook Air had a few significant shortcomings: It’s the workhorse Mac - the best Mac for most people.īut that first crack at a retina MacBook Air wasn’t perfect. When most people think of a “Mac”, what they think of specifically is a 13-inch MacBook Air. The MacBook Air has been and remains Apple’s most popular Mac - perhaps by far. Smaller, lighter, faster, better speakers, and - finally - a retina display. When we finally got it back in November 2018, it was worth waiting for. We waited a long time for a retina MacBook Air. The 2020 MacBook Air Friday, 20 March 2020
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