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Hands-On With the New 2018 MacBook Air

I have one with 512gb SSD and 16gb ram. It arrived yesterday morning, I spent all day yesterday setting it up and playing with it. I didn't like the gold color I'd ordered (too pink/bronze/coral for my taste) so took it to my local Apple store this morning and exchanged it for a silver in the same configuration. Spent today setting it up and playing with it.

I agree with the opinions expressed in this article and like the new Air a lot (though ask me next year when it gets a spec bump and more powerful processor options, maybe I'll be kicking myself for not waiting). Both of the units were plenty bright enough for me. The fan is a bit noisy and kicked in when my dropbox folders were syncing, downloading 20,000 files totally 10gb. But no worse than other Apple computers I've had.

I think the new Air's place in the lineup makes sense for people who need to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

Compared to the older Air, the new Air costs $200 more but that buys you a Retina display, a better form factor (smaller bezels, smaller footprint, less weight), and modestly improved performance.

Compared to the 12" MB with 256gb SSD, the new Air with 256gb SSD is $100 more, and that $100 buys you a bigger display, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of 1 USB-C port, a newer processor, a fingerprint sensor and T2 chip, and 3rd gen keyboard. Hopefully the 12" MB gets a spec bump and a $100 price cut, otherwise the new Air will cannibalize 12" sales.

The interesting comparison is with the 2017 non Touch Bar MB Pro. Everyone considering the 2018 Air should consider the nTB MB Pro, too. Especially if the nTB Pro gets a spec bump (and the 3rd gen keyboard). The Pro is heavier but only a little heavier. And it's a lot more powerful.

I wonder Apple is NOT giving the nTB MB Pro a spec bump this year to encourage people to buy the new MB Air. Maybe the new Air has a higher profit margin.

Others here will disagree with my perspective, and you should put at least as much weight on their opinions as mine. There are a lot of smart people on this forum and I've learned a lot from them.
 
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javisan said:
For those who also have an Apple watch, is using Touch ID really better than just letting the Apple watch unlock the Mac?
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The Apple Watch unlocks it immediately as soon as you start to open up the laptop, so yes of course that would be faster than opening the screen and then pressing Touch ID.

If you use 1Password, Touch ID is a game changer IMHO.
 
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Its a tough market space to be in at this price range - too many trade-offs. Compare it to the Dell XPS 9360 (lower grade screen (1080), slower SSDs, slower RAM but faster processor). If you choose the MacBook Air for web, document creation, spreadsheets, watching videos, music, with light movie editing, picture editing, etc., it is a good package. If you want to do CPU or graphics intensive - well, wrong choice.

The MacBook Air SSDs are fast and the price is high, but it is high for fast SSDs in general (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Portable-SSD-Thunderbolt-MU-PB1T0B/dp/B07GBWZJFG). Hard to compare fast SSDs to slower ones without "Gulp, that much?"


Personally, I like the USB-c Thunderbolt ports, even if you might need an adapter. The throughput is amazing, they are bidirectional, you can daisy chain them up to 5 devices. Reasonably priced docks/hubs are pretty available. or you might have to buy 1 cable or dongle.

BTW I got the speeds off of Geekbench here http://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10697184, and here: https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/6798370, Blackmagic speed test here: https://www.macworld.com/article/3318566/macs/macbook-air-2018-review.html
 
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Tech198 said:
People can hear fan noise when its quiet still?
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For example, I can hear a fan of an iMac, but it's absolutely not distracting, and my MacBook Air 2011 is loud as hell, not mentioning I use it in a sofa on the plaid, so I suppose it's packed with dust.
 
"It's not as thin and light as the ultra thin and ultra portable MacBook, but Apple has streamlined the design."

This is what hurts my head. They're not even following their own titling. The MacBook needs to disappear, as does the touch bar.
 
I have a 1TB SSD in my MacBook Pro. There is no way I could cut this down to 128 Gig to even fit my music or photo library inside. Its 500 Euros extra to upgrade to a 500 Gig SSD! 1500 Euros for 1m5 TB SSD!

Heck for that kind of money it would be even cheaper to buy the MacBook Air with just 128 Gigs for the OS and buy another Mac Mini as a server to host my iTunes and Fotos libraries!
 
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drumcat said:
The MacBook needs to disappear, as does the touch bar.
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The MacBook has its place if they make it cheaper. It is basically an iPad running Mac OS. No ports, mobile CPU, just enough power to do what you do on an iPad but with a proper OS.

Just swap the names and call this the Air, Mini, Light or something like this. Call the MacBook Air the just MacBook and the Pro the MacBook Pro. Got a lineup with a light cheap MacBook, a consumer mid priced MacBook and a pro MacBook.
 
Amorun said:
There's at least one more: no fan, i.e. no noise and no dust collecting inside. Don't forget, that MacBook hasn't received new Y-series Amber Lake chips.
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Doing non intensive work (99% of the time) my 2017 MBA with a fan is absolutely, completely silent. It however allows the processor to run full speed on those rare occasions when I need the power at the cost of slight noise - very good compromise, IMO.

no dust in the device is definitely a big plus, no doubt about that :)
 
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Miha_v said:
Doing non intensive work (99% of the time) my 2017 MBA with a fan is absolutely, completely silent. It however allows the processor to run full speed on those rare occasions when I need the power at the cost of slight noise - very good compromise, IMO.

no dust in the device is definitely a big plus, no doubt about that :)
Click to expand...

Very reasonable, but I'm a superlightweight MacBook user: typing, browsing, video playback - the only thing I miss in rMB is a bigger screen.
 
I think it’s purely a waste of money tbh. 128gb as the entry for the price is a joke let alone the screen brightness. Some things don’t add up but for a couple 300 more a nice quad core MBP would be great
 
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Someone mentioned Touch Bar and unlocking with the Apple Watch. For my use case, the Touch Bar has no appeal to me. If I happened to have a Mac with it, I might be able to leverage it somehow, but I'm not much of a power user anymore and more of a "normal" user these days. i.e. web browsing, email, Twitter and other routine tasks that aren't specialized or require a lot of horsepower. So, the traditional function keys are still more than adequate for me.

I have an Apple Watch but seldom wear it anymore. I still prefer my traditional watches over it. However, even when I do wear the Apple Watch, I have a habit of taking it off (and my traditional watches) when I come home from work so it wouldn't do me much good to unlock my Mac with it. At work I use Linux and not Mac. So with that said, having Touch ID on this MacBook Air is very much welcomed for me.
 
Miha_v said:
Doing non intensive work (99% of the time) my 2017 MBA with a fan is absolutely, completely silent. It however allows the processor to run full speed on those rare occasions when I need the power at the cost of slight noise - very good compromise, IMO.
no dust in the device is definitely a big plus, no doubt about that :)
Click to expand...

I was surprised to find a 2013 MBA had enough moxy to run a decent model in Solidworks without blowing smoke in the corners. Pretty good little performer, & the MagSafe & useful ports made it low-stress to run about with. Sure, the display could have done with a few more pixels, but not at the expense of everything else the Air had going for it.

I’m looking at Apples notebook line, and for the first time in a decade, there’s nothing compelling. :/
 
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I have been in the market for a new laptop, however, 128gb storage for 1199 was a complete non-starter. Instead, I chose the new 11-inch iPad pro 256gb and it comes in cheaper with LTE at 1099. Hands down the best decision.
 
MauiPa said:
I thought so too, but you are comparing Mac SSDs to much slower ones. If you just compare the Samsung X5 portable at 1TB for $699 on amazon, this drive has speeds comparable to the Mac, and also a steep price. Not all things are comparable on a simplistic basis.
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I’d prefer a slower ssd and a big price reduction. At these prices I suspect many are relying on external storage more, which is an even bigger drawback.
 
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I have a 2017 MBA and love it. As much as I would want one of these I can't see spending almost $1200 for a retina display, slight performance bump and fingerprint scanner-especially since I will lose my sd slot and magsafe-two things I value highly.
 
Played with the retina Air in-store today and compared it side by side to my 15" 2018 Pro. The Air's screen is so dim!
 
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