- [Narrator] Apple finally did it.
It's updated the MacBook Air.
When Steve Jobs first introduced the MacBook Air
back in 2008 by pulling it out of an envelope,
it ushered in the era of light and thin laptops.
Ten years later, though, it was the odd duck
among Apple's laptops, and in dire need of a refresh.
Well, now we've got it.
The new MacBook Air is a complete redesign.
It's still a wedge shape, but it's thinner,
with a much smaller footprint.
It ditches all the old ports for just two USB-C connectors,
and it finally gets a retina screen.
All right, let's talk about the wedge.
It's still a super-friendly design
that's easily carried around, which is why so many laptops
these days have it.
It's just 3/5 of an inch at its thickest point,
or about 10% thinner than the old MacBook Air.
All of the edges have just the right amount of softness.
Nothing feels too sharp, but you always feel like
you've got a good grip on it no matter how you hold it.
However, because the lower half of the laptop is so light,
it's sometimes a little harder to open than, say,
a MacBook Pro.
Most of the time, you'll need to use two hands
to make sure the keyboard stays put.
This is also the first MacBook to come in finishes
other than silver.
Apple offers it in sleek space gray and also gold.
But it's not the old yellow, shiny gold of the skinny MacBook.
Let's call it coral gold.
Our review unit was space gray, though,
and it's pretty spiffy looking.
Until now, Apple seemed to be reserving space gray
for its higher-end pro machines like the MacBook Pro
and the iMac Pro, but with the Air, that unofficial policy
appears to have gone out the window.
Space gray for everybody!
If you frequently connect your Mac to other gear,
you may not like Apple's move to ditch all the old ports
for USB-C.
But the port is much more versatile,
and having two of them is a lot better than just one,
as every owner of the skinny MacBook knows.
At least now you can stay connected to power
and connect something else without resorting to a dongle.
Oh, the headphone jack is still here, so there's that.
The new MacBook Air has the same third-generation
butterfly switch keyboard that's on
the current MacBook Pros.
It feels nice, although it can still be
pretty loud at times.
I feel like Apple has more or less perfected the butterfly
keyboard with this design, although if you're just now
making the transition, you'll probably miss those
chiclet keys for the first little while.
Up in the top right of the keyboard is the power button
and Touch ID sensor, which reads your fingerprints.
The MacBook Pros have had this feature for a while,
and it works really well.
It's a little weird that Apple's iPhones have moved
toward Face ID, and its laptops are all about Touch ID,
but the sensor is nice and fast on the MacBook Air,
so I can't complain too much.
The reason it works so quickly is because
the new MacBook Air also includes Apple's T2 chip.
The T2 is separate from the main processor,
and its whole job is taking care of secondary functions
so the CPU doesn't get bogged down.
It also handles audio processing,
security features like encryption, and "Hey Siri."
"Hey Siri" does exactly what you think: It lets you activate
Siri just by talking, even when the MacBook Air's
screen is off.
OK, let's talk about the new display, which is beautiful.
It has 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, which is a big step up
from the old Air, which maxed out at 1,440 x 900.
But compared to other laptops today, including Apple's,
eh, it's just OK.
The color gamut is a bit more limited than the MacBook Pro -
understandable, since you're probably not doing
serious photo editing on the Air.
However, it's also not as bright, maxing out at 300 nits
to the Pro's 500.
You will notice that, if you like to use your laptop outside
in bright sunlight.
The new trackpad is a big upgrade.
It's significantly bigger, for starters,
but it's also a Force Touch trackpad,
meaning it can tell when you're pushing harder,
letting you do things like automatically look up words
when you click hard on them.
If you've never used Force Touch, you're probably not alone,
and it's not exactly a killer feature.
However, it does mean that the trackpad isn't actually
a proper button.
Instead, the pad vibrates in a sophisticated way
to make it feel like you clicked.
Trust us, this is a good thing.
Not only does it give your MacBook one less way
to break down, but you can also go into settings
and make the click even quieter than it already is.
What about performance?
The MacBook Air packs an eighth-generation
Intel Core i5 processor.
It's rated at 1.6GHz speed, with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.9GHz.
You can go higher, of course, but this what you get
in the entry-level model.
In terms of real-world performance,
the Air is good, not great.
That said, as a work machine, the MacBook Air is passable,
but if you regularly edit photos or videos,
it's probably best to spend the extra money and opt
for the MacBook Pro instead.
Not that you're saving a ton by buying a MacBook Air.
The old model started at $999 and the new one is $1,199,
a $200 jump.
And for Apple laptops, this price point
is more confusing than ever.
The skinny MacBook starts at $1,099,
and the MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar starts at $1,299.
So who should buy the new MacBook Air?
Well, anyone who would rather have more storage
and more extras, like the T2 chip and the third-gen
butterfly keyboard, instead of slightly better performance,
which you'll get with the Pro.
The new MacBook Air is sweet, no question,
but if you're not married to Apple,
there's a Surface Laptop over in the Microsoft aisle
that's just as nice and costs $200 less.
I'm just saying.