MacBook Air 2018 Review

The new MacBook Air 2018 retains it’s iconic characteristic of being a top quality ultra-thin and ultra-light notebook.

It will come with the new macOS Mojave and with all of its powerful new features.

The new MacBook Air 2018 display will look awesome and silky smooth as it will now come with Apple’s vivid Retina Display.

Be ready for its gorgeous ultra-thin bezels as Apple is able to shrunk it up to 50% thinner.

Apple is also able to make the new MacBook Airo 2018 lighter as it now only weighs 1.25kg or at around 2.75lbs.

This decrease in weight is probably thanks to Apple being able to shrink the overall real-estate of the new MacBook Air 2018 by 17%.

Here is my MacBook Air 2018 review.

1. Display

The new Macbook Air 2018 will have a 13.3-inch display at 2560 x 1600 screen resolution with 227 pixels per inch.

What’s really interesting is that the new MacBook Air 2018 now has IPS technology which dramatically improved its viewing angles!

Unlike in the old versions of the MacBook Air where this is a real pain to deal with. This is well accepted open change.

Apple confirms that it will have over 4-million pixels with 48% more colors and will have a wide viewing angle.

This is basically 4-times the pixel count of the old MacBook Air.

This means that the new MacBook Air 2018 display will look a lot more colorful. And anything displayed on it will have more details than the previous versions.

2. Processor

The new MacBook Air 2018 will come with Intel’s 8th generation 1.6GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5.

This processor can turbo boost up to 3.6GHz with with 4MB L3 cache.

The Intel’s 8th generation processors are known for being powerful and efficient at the same time.

Which is why the new MacBook Air 2018 will last all day without needing for you to charge in the middle of the day.

3. Battery

The new MacBook Air 2018 can last up to 12 hours of wireless web, up to 13 hours of iTunes movie playback and up to 30 days of standby time.

It has built-in 50.3‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery and comes with 30W USB-C power adapter which connects to the USB-C power port.

I assume that this battery life is for the 2560-by-1600 native resolution.

If you want to squeeze more battery life out of it then I highly recommend trying to lower your resolution.

The other supported lower resolutions are 1680 by 1050, 1440 by 900 and 1024 by 640. All will have a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Now the quality of the display will surely have a slight deep but this will surely increase your battery life effectively.

4. Security

The new MacBook Air 2018 will also come with the new T2 security chip.

Apple claims that with this security chip, the new MacBook Air 2018 will have a secure boot-up process and encrypted storage.

They also claim that this will prevent hackers from accessing your webcam and mic.

You can also easily unlock your MacBook Air 2018 through integrated Touch ID sensor. This feature also allows you to confirm purchases in the App Store or iTunes with just a touch of a finger.

5. More Features

The new MacBook Air 2018 Force Touch pad will come at a bigger size and has precise built-in force sensors.

It will also come with new LED-backlit butterfly keyboard which is an open upgrade for an already excellent keyboard.

The new high fidelity speakers also offer more volume, has more bass and a lot more clearer sound with wide dynamic range.

Apple also claims that the new MacBook Air 2018 is their greenest or most environmental-friendly notebook up to date. As they use 100% recycled aluminum for the enclosure.

6. Specifications

You can configure you new MacBook Air 2018 to have 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM.

You also have a handful of storage options to choose from which are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1.5TB of SSD storage.

As for the color options, you can choose from Space Gray, Gold and Silver.

It will also come with two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports with support for charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt with up to 40 Gbps and USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 with up to 10 Gbps.

What it truly means is you can charge from either ports, connect up to 5K display, transfer data at up to 40Gbps speed and you can attach external GPU.

I am really glad to see this movement towards the USB-C direction. A lot of people has been asking for it and seeing our favorite brands implement it. It is just an awesome feeling.

And yes, the MagSafe 2 power port has been dropped in the new MacBook Air 2018. I guess USB-C is truly the future.

The new MackBook Air 2018 still uses a 720p FaceTime HD camera.

And lastly, it will still come with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

7. Price

The new MacBook Air 2018 will start at $1,199 for a 8GB of RAM and 128Gb of storage configuration.

And can get up to $2,599 with the 16GB of RAM and 1.5TB of SSD storage configuration.

Conclusion

In my opinion the new MacBook Air 2018 is still expensive for what it offers.

Its price has also increased compared to last year’s starting price which is only $999.

But if you are someone like me who is already used to the Apple ecosystem then I would definitely buy the new MacBook Air 2018.

Aside from the new security features and the Touch ID which now enables Apple Pay. I just really like the quality of the MacBook Air 2018.

And I love the fact that no matter how long you have been using an Apple product. It still retains that smooth performance.

There is just something with how Apple make their products that keeps making people come back to them.

Even though the same specifications can be offered on the Windows laptops at a much lower price. These people will keep choosing Apple.

If you are interested in reading my other reviews, I highly recommend reading my OnePlus 6T review.