Apple's All-New MacBook Air Rocks Core i5, 13-inch Retina Display, And Up To A 1.5TB SSD
In addition, the massive aluminum bezel around the 13.3-inch Retina Display has also been removed; instead, the display glass extends from edge-to-edge and the bezels are now much smaller (50 percent smaller, in fact). While the previous MacBook Air weighed in a 2.96 pounds, Apple has managed to shave even more weight off its successor, which comes in at 2.75 pounds.
If you were a fan of the old MacBook Air's keyboard, we've got some good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that the new MacBook Air adopts the new butterfly key mechanism that seems to have a love/hate reputation among the Apple enthusiast community. The good news, however, is that this is the third-generation design which has improved key travel and a silicon gasket to help prevent dust and crumbs from killing your keys at an alarming rate.
Powering the MacBook Air are 8th generation Intel Core i5 processors, and you can configure the notebooks with up to 16GB of RAM and up to a 1.5TB SSD. Base systems come with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD priced at $1,199.
By all accounts, it looks as though Apple is positioning the MacBook Air as a more attractive, svelte alternative to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. We can't say that we can argue against that decision, as the MacBook Air even adopts standard Touch ID (albeit without the full Touch Bar that's available on more expensive MacBook Pro models).
In the end, Apple did what it needed to keep the MacBook Air relevant in today's laptop market. The original arguably created the ultra-portable form-factor, but has languished for years with a lack of updates. This new MacBook Air is definitely a competitive offering in an increasingly cutthroat market.
