Is this Mcrumors writer being real or cynical?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's New 2018 MacBook Air vs. Old MacBook Air
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I was just in an Apple store, and discovered that you can BTO the MBA with 16GB of RAM. That's new. Maybe it's time to retire this MacBook pro and get something smaller.
I love the new haptic trackpads. Prob the only thing I do love about the new MacBooks. It feels terrible going back to the one on my sister’s old air after using the one on my 12”.The new MacBook Air also features a haptic trackpad, so it's entirely feasible that we'll one day get them to vibrate around like RC cars:
[doublepost=1542248250][/doublepost]
You probably should go with the pro. I’ve been thinking the same thing. Apple is probably just trying to make everyone feel like they need to spend a few more hundred dollars to get the pro instead. Then once everybody has given up on the air lineup they’ll just quit making it completely. The trick for Apple will be figuring out how to stop making the MBP...
I didn’t mean any theoretical numbers or specs. I talk about my personal experience of comparing them side by side in a store. The new Air is dim and the screen is pretty much washed out.
If you think that screen sucks, I’m assuming you’ve never used one of the old MacBook airs before...
[doublepost=1542248645][/doublepost]
Amen.
Better screen, but worse keyboard and worse connectivity. When you do the price comparison, you need to add the price of a dongle. Nothing says sleek new computer like an ugly dongle hanging off the side of it.
You make a lot of great points, but one thing to consider is that you can make a significant jump up to the MBP for only a couple hundred bucks from the current Air now. I think that’s prob the main reason why a lot of people are hating. If they would have kept the Air at $999, then I don’t think people would be complaining anywhere near as much. And we all know what apple’s Number one priority is these days: gotta get dem margins baby! Is this me hating? Probably. Do I believe it’s the truth? Definitely.
[doublepost=1542249167][/doublepost]
I don’t think it’s a matter of if, but when, SD cards will be gone (at least standard sized one). I think eventually the only people that will use them will be pro photographers(and all those who like to think they’re pro photographers...). I think advances in internal storage and smartphone cameras are what’s gonna kill it off.
What's funny is the new keyboard seems better than the rev1 and rev2 keyboards. They're still not great, but this one seems usable.
It is my view Apple is selling hardware of unparalleled performance at near commodity prices (fixed margins). To sell a fairly awesome Mac for $1300 is interesting. To sell a Mac Mini for around $999 is interesting.
Does anybody even remember all the things a Mac can do? Unix/Windblows/MacOS
Does anybody even remember all the things a Mac can do? Unix/Windblows/MacOS
Screen brightness measurement is not theoretical. I calibrated all the computer displays at home to 100 nits and displays at work to 120 nits using i1Profile calibration tool, including my kid’s new MBA.
All the displays look almost identically bright and none look washed out to me (again, for indoor use). My 2016 MBP display looks a bit more saturated but the difference is minor in many cases. My kid’s MBA has very vivid color overall.
I have to say that the default Color LCD profile on MBA is suboptimal, which is unusual for recent Macs.
However, when I am using MBA outdoor (rare) or close to the window during daylight, it sometimes does not feel bright enough.
The answer to your conundrum is to price it against the competition. Find a light weight puter with a geekbench of around 8000, super fast SSDs, hardware acceleration of HEVC on a T2 chip, and a decent display with a retina resolution, then price it. Now I will admit, you will be easily tempted to upsell on your own, because this is a unique market niche. I compared to a Dell 13 inch XPS something tor other, and they were pretty comparable. Keep in mind, the Dell had weak SSDs, no hardware encryption, only a 1080 screen (upgrading to a retina+ was $400), and an SOL customer service program.
"How can you justify a 20% price increase for the same product?" much faster SSDs, an adequate CPU, a much sharper screen, super fast hardware HEVC encoding
[doublepost=1542251639][/doublepost]
Safari does perform very well. small footprint, fast, no problem, I use it as my main browser. Occasionally I try chrome, but it uses too much memory, and goes me nothing
[doublepost=1542251713][/doublepost]
why, since iCloud backup, no one plugs a phone into a laptop anymore.
[doublepost=1542252376][/doublepost]
maybe....but I doubt if this machine is right for you, that you need more than 8gb. Don't forget the SSDs are super fast and the T2 has accelerated super-fast HEVC encoding. This computer is actually as fast as my old Mac mini server a few years back, and it was more than fine (with a geekbench over 8000, hardly POS, as you say). Many people love the keyboard, sucks to be you, if you don't and you still want a MBA. Ima jut guessing, but this is not for you.
This may sound crazy, but I’m tempted to get a refurbished “old 2017” MacBook Air now, just so I have a spare Mac with USB-A slots.
As much as I want USB-C, it’s just not happening, at least not as quick as Apple wants me to believe. Literally nobody around me uses USB-C other than as the “Samsung phone charger cable.” Companies making USB-C accessories all mark up their products since they think they only sell to rich Apple users (unless we want to look into all the dodgy Chinese OEMs’ USB-C stuff).
It’s a sad state, and no other OEMs seem to be pushing USB-C as hard as Apple. It’s as if everybody don’t want to put the effort and just let Apple work by itself promoting USB-C.
As much as I want USB-C, it’s just not happening, at least not as quick as Apple wants me to believe. Literally nobody around me uses USB-C other than as the “Samsung phone charger cable.” Companies making USB-C accessories all mark up their products since they think they only sell to rich Apple users (unless we want to look into all the dodgy Chinese OEMs’ USB-C stuff).
It’s a sad state, and no other OEMs seem to be pushing USB-C as hard as Apple. It’s as if everybody don’t want to put the effort and just let Apple work by itself promoting USB-C.
Where do you get this stuff? "The CPU may be worse", huh? look on geekbench. this CPU has a score over 8000. http://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10765890 that's not bad for this market niche, and a lot faster than older MBAs. The SSDs are driven off the T2 chip and are super fast, not the cheap ones, and it has fast hardware accelerated HEVC encoding. 8gb is plenty for this machine in this market niche, if you need more, you probably should upsell to a faster overall computer
[doublepost=1542253192][/doublepost]
I'd like some details on this. If you look on ARK the GPU supports up to 4k displays internal and "One external display with 5120-by-2880 resolution at up to 60Hz, or Up to two external displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at up to 60Hz" external displays. I can find nothing that supports your contention. The UHD 617 graphics should be more than adequate to drive the internal and/or external displays. Its not a gaming beast, but Im gussying you knew that
I have the new MBA, base model. So far I really like it. I upgraded from the 15” uMBP from 2012 with the matte display which I loved but was starting to have GPU issues and weighed a ton. I work on the go a lot and wanted something light, decently powerful, and with a Retina display. So far here’s my take after a week of using it for various things (MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe Illustrator, etc.):
Battery: Not the 12 hours I was expecting. I mean it's better than my old Pro but it should be. At first I thought it was Spotlight indexing and once that was finished it would be fine. It's hard for me to calculate exactly how many hours I get off a single charge but it's probably somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. And that 30-watt charger - SO SLOW! It takes way to long to fully charge the computer. That seems crazy to me.
Keyboard: I actually do like it. A lot. that surprised me. I thought I would hate it. Today I was typing on my Magic Keyboard with my MBA docked and I actually kind of missed having the butterfly keyboard. And I'm constantly writing on my computer. For some reason, I'm simply faster and more accurate on the new keyboards.
Screen: Beautiful. It is. Colors don't seem washed out to me. They seem more accurate than on my old Hi-Res Matte display. But as far as the brightness goes, it definitely is dim. Not dim enough to be frustrating in actual use. But, I really struggle with the reality that it is a fair amount dimmer than the old MBA and significantly dimmer than the entry level 2017 MBP.
Ports: Fine for me. I don't mind a couple dongles.
Performance: Great. I think what many people don't take into consideration is the amount of work the T2 is doing alongside the processor. Sure it's a low powered processor. But it's benchmarks by themselves are decent (Not amazing), then add in the blazing fast SSD with the T2 managing it as well as so many other components on the computer and it really allows that decent processor to be free to do more. In benchmarks, my old 3rd Gen. quad-core i7 is better. In real world experience - virtually identical.
Speakers: AMAZING. The sound on this MBA is incredible. Seriously. It sounds so good.
I've contemplated returning it and getting the 2017 nTB MBP but when I weigh everything out, I think the slightly slower processor, worse gnu and dimmer screen are worth being able to have the 3rd Gen. butterfly keyboard, the T2 chip, the tapered form factor (Something I missed from the MBA I had before I got my '12 uMBP), and even the .25lb difference.
Of course, if I had the extra $600 - I'd totally go for the 2018 13" Quad-Core MBP. I think that computer is much more future proof. But the money's not there. So yeah.
Battery: Not the 12 hours I was expecting. I mean it's better than my old Pro but it should be. At first I thought it was Spotlight indexing and once that was finished it would be fine. It's hard for me to calculate exactly how many hours I get off a single charge but it's probably somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. And that 30-watt charger - SO SLOW! It takes way to long to fully charge the computer. That seems crazy to me.
Keyboard: I actually do like it. A lot. that surprised me. I thought I would hate it. Today I was typing on my Magic Keyboard with my MBA docked and I actually kind of missed having the butterfly keyboard. And I'm constantly writing on my computer. For some reason, I'm simply faster and more accurate on the new keyboards.
Screen: Beautiful. It is. Colors don't seem washed out to me. They seem more accurate than on my old Hi-Res Matte display. But as far as the brightness goes, it definitely is dim. Not dim enough to be frustrating in actual use. But, I really struggle with the reality that it is a fair amount dimmer than the old MBA and significantly dimmer than the entry level 2017 MBP.
Ports: Fine for me. I don't mind a couple dongles.
Performance: Great. I think what many people don't take into consideration is the amount of work the T2 is doing alongside the processor. Sure it's a low powered processor. But it's benchmarks by themselves are decent (Not amazing), then add in the blazing fast SSD with the T2 managing it as well as so many other components on the computer and it really allows that decent processor to be free to do more. In benchmarks, my old 3rd Gen. quad-core i7 is better. In real world experience - virtually identical.
Speakers: AMAZING. The sound on this MBA is incredible. Seriously. It sounds so good.
I've contemplated returning it and getting the 2017 nTB MBP but when I weigh everything out, I think the slightly slower processor, worse gnu and dimmer screen are worth being able to have the 3rd Gen. butterfly keyboard, the T2 chip, the tapered form factor (Something I missed from the MBA I had before I got my '12 uMBP), and even the .25lb difference.
Of course, if I had the extra $600 - I'd totally go for the 2018 13" Quad-Core MBP. I think that computer is much more future proof. But the money's not there. So yeah.
Last edited:
I played with one this afternoon. I want it. I'm not going to buy it, but I want it. I love how it's even smaller now. The build quality feels better than the regular MacBook IMO because the parts don't flex between the trackpad and keyboard. If it had an A12X in it, I would have bought it without a doubt and it would weigh half as much. But as it stands now, that Intel chip is ancient by comparison, sucking down power while being two and a half times slower than the A12X. I just can't see myself investing that much into a machine that will have such a limited lifespan, especially when the the Apple chips for Mac come out.
It's about the same price that I paid for my 12.9" iPad Pro. If Apple made the bottom portion of the MacBook Air as an accessory that you could snap the iPad Pro onto, that would be amazing. It would sense this and transform the UI into macOS "Lite" that is still sandboxed but transforms the system UI and app UI to that of macOS with better file management/use of external drives. I would be all over that. I have decided that when I want to chill I want a tablet that I can kick back with, be entertained by, and maybe make a drawing or edit some photos. I want that same device with all my stuff on it to be able to be used like a laptop when it's docked. I want it to click into place on the base. I want the base to be heavy enough to hold up the iPad at any viewing angle, including folded behind it. The base could include a battery as well that would keep the iPad portion charged. I want it so hard!
It's about the same price that I paid for my 12.9" iPad Pro. If Apple made the bottom portion of the MacBook Air as an accessory that you could snap the iPad Pro onto, that would be amazing. It would sense this and transform the UI into macOS "Lite" that is still sandboxed but transforms the system UI and app UI to that of macOS with better file management/use of external drives. I would be all over that. I have decided that when I want to chill I want a tablet that I can kick back with, be entertained by, and maybe make a drawing or edit some photos. I want that same device with all my stuff on it to be able to be used like a laptop when it's docked. I want it to click into place on the base. I want the base to be heavy enough to hold up the iPad at any viewing angle, including folded behind it. The base could include a battery as well that would keep the iPad portion charged. I want it so hard!
It's overall a disappointing update for me.
- don't like the Gen3 keyboard, previous MBA was much better
- no SD card - yep, still use that on my photo cameras
- my charger at work would be of no use
- no core i7 option
- laughable 8/128G to start with
- 512G costs a fortune
On a bright side, Retina. But who cares with all the above.
Still going strong on my MBA 2013 with Core i7 and 8/256G, albeit it's becoming a bit sluggish.
Frankly, for $1.2K there are plenty of better, faster laptops, with good keyboards, core i7 and 16/512GB.
I would love to keep MacOS, but not at this price/performance penalty.
- don't like the Gen3 keyboard, previous MBA was much better
- no SD card - yep, still use that on my photo cameras
- my charger at work would be of no use
- no core i7 option
- laughable 8/128G to start with
- 512G costs a fortune
On a bright side, Retina. But who cares with all the above.
Still going strong on my MBA 2013 with Core i7 and 8/256G, albeit it's becoming a bit sluggish.
Frankly, for $1.2K there are plenty of better, faster laptops, with good keyboards, core i7 and 16/512GB.
I would love to keep MacOS, but not at this price/performance penalty.
As far as details, I can say that I’ve experienced this personally with my 12”. Biggest thing that leads me to believe this is that my maxed out 2017 12” rMB was, right out of the box, slower than my sister’s bottom of the line 2013 MacBook Air. Both have 1.3GHz dual core processors, but mine is a few gens newer obviously. Hers has 4GB of ~1600Mhz RAM, mine has 8GB of 2133MHz RAM. Hers is still faster after several years of heavy use in every way... Starting up, launching programs, frame rate... everything. I mean could be wrong, but the only reason I can think of is the significant increase of resolution on the display. I think the old Air has about 720p resolution, maybe even worse. It looks terrible compared to a retina screen. So yeah, that’s the only thing I can come up with as to why that’s happening. As far as my statement about the new MBA having the same issues possibly, I have seen a few comments on MRs of users that have been saying the same thing about their new MBAs. Ultimately, I believe I made a mistake in buying the 12”, and if I could go back, would have bought the previous model 13” Air maxed out in a heart beat. Also, the GPU isn’t the only thing affected by the resolution. The CPU will also take a hit from higher resolution, so it could be that as well.
I'm still happy with my mid 2012 MacBook Pro. Replaced the original HD with a 1TB drive and have all the ports one could ever want. Magsafe, firewire, thunderbolt, 2 USB, SD slot and headphone jack! I'm going to try and keep this thing running forever.
Me as well!!
I've got the i7 model with 16GB of ram and a 2TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD. I love it to death.
Returning mine. I was so excited, looking to replace my personal home-use 2013 MBA i7. The reality is, I've been using MBP since then at work and the performance is just so much better. I gave it over 5 days to adjust for Dropbox, Spotlight, other syncing, but this fan is on _a lot_ and just not worth the value. I'll be returning and will buy a 13" MBP for home use to replace the old Air... I was excited. Got used to the keyboard. Love Touch ID on it. Function keys is nice. But... :/
Reading is hard....first you accuse me of not waiting for Spotlight to complete its indexing after I stated I've had it for a week. I received my tbMBP tonight. The differences are certainly noticeable; even the keyboard feels better yet it's supposedly the same gen 3 butterfly.
PS, anyone who thinks 8GB of RAM will be enough, I checked out the RAM usage on both machines with nothing open. 6GB used! I was only using 12/16GB with my Chrome tabs on the Air and it was still annoying slow switching between tabs. The tbMBP does not experience this. It's sad that I have to pay extra to get a MBP that has an acceptable level of performance when my 5 year old MBA was doing the same job before. The new MBA can't handle anything but light tasks. If using a web browser with many tabs is considered "heavy use" then it's even more of a joke.
Read through all the comments and it looks like I'm the only one who thought this article (and accompanying video) would be a comparison of the performance between the last generation MacBook Air and the 2018 model. Instead we get the reviewer *telling* us how it felt like rendering was faster. Pls show us, otherwise the headline is misleading and doesn't tell us anything about real world performance comparisons.
The old MBA might be $999 vs the $1199 for the new MBA, but Best Buy constantly has sales on the old MBA for $799.
Or buy a refurb from Apple for $849.
Is the new MBA better than the old MBA? Yes. But it isn't $350-$400 better.
Plus, the old MBA has a better keyboard (IMO), USB-A ports (which I use multiple times a week. Don't want to carry around a dongle while traveling), and most importantly MagSafe (it has saved me several times).
Last edited: