For years, people have been practically begging Apple to update the beloved MacBook Air with a better screen. Instead, Apple left it to collect dust on the shelf, adding only new processors over the years.
Now it’s been completely designed, and millions of MacBook Air fans are going to love it.
This is important in light of Apple’s Mac business, which has been pretty flat. Apple sold 5.3 million Macs during the fourth quarter of 2018, a hair below the 5.39 million it sold in the year-ago quarter. Colleagues and friends of mine have hung on to their older MacBook Airs, waiting for Apple to launch a new model. It hits stores on Wednesday, and I think it’s going to help boost those flattened Mac sales.
I’ve been testing the new MacBook Air for several days. Here’s what you need to know.
What’s good
The new Air finally has a much sharper Retina display, which has been available on MacBook Pro since 2012 and the MacBook since 2015. This is the display Air fans have been clamoring for.
Text is sharp when I’m reading the news, movies look great, and it gets nice and bright. It’s also plenty large, at 13.3-inches, which means you have more space for doing stuff without squinting and more room for moving windows around, as opposed to the smaller, but more expensive and less powerful, regular MacBook.
The second I opened the MacBook Air box in the office, my colleagues gathered around and attempted to slide it into purses and backpacks. They were giddy that it’s lighter than our work-issued laptops and older MacBooks. I love the brushed aluminum metal body, which makes it feel more premium and more rock-solid than other laptops on the market. There’s barely any flexing or bending.
The speakers get nice and loud — my wife asked me to turn down a movie while she was working at a nearby table — and have great surround-sound audio.
The larger track pad gives you more room for zooming into photos with two fingers, or gesturing to view all of your open windows with three fingers. It’s been updated to Apple’s newer technology, which allows you to tap down anywhere, instead of only at the front of the touchpad like on older MacBook Airs.
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