MacBook Air 2018

[Viper-FFM]

Classic Apple Chat...

Talked to them at 11am, asking if stock/availability in stores will be updated today as they have to book in their incoming shipping. Answer: "nah, they are pretty quick so if your config isn't available please order online"

3 hours later, availability in store changed from somewhere in November to "ready for pick up".

Cancelled, reorderd, picking it up later this day.

 

[Dave245]

Classic Apple Chat...

Talked to them at 11am, asking if stock/availability in stores will be updated today as they have to book in their incoming shipping. Answer: "nah, they are pretty quick so if your config isn't available please order online"

3 hours later, availability in store changed from somewhere in November to "ready for pick up".

Cancelled, reorderd, picking it up later this day.

Let us know what you think of the new Air, i've just canceled mine! going to wait and see how everything plays out, luckily it wouldn't be my main machine at home (i have a 2012 iMac) so i can wait.

 

[Viper-FFM]

Let us know what you think of the new Air, i've just canceled mine! going to wait and see how everything plays out, luckily it wouldn't be my main machine at home (i have a 2012 iMac) so i can wait.

What did you want to replace with the Air?

Im trying to replace my 2013 late MBP 13''. According to Benchmarks, its slightly better in performance with signficant better battery life. I'll keep you posted

 

[Dave245]

What did you want to replace with the Air?

Im trying to replace my 2013 late MBP 13''. According to Benchmarks, its slightly better in performance with signficant better battery life. I'll keep you posted

I wanted to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro, it died a couple of months back after 7 years! (It had more than it’s use to be fair). With the reports of the new keyboard, low brightness and everything I thought it best to cancel and wait and see. My 2012 iMac is still working along, so it’s not like I don’t have a Mac to work with I just don’t have a portable one for around the house or out and about, that’s not an issue at the moment.

 

[0014]

I wanted to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro, it died a couple of months back after 7 years! (It had more than it’s use to be fair). With the reports of the new keyboard, low brightness and everything I thought it best to cancel and wait and see. My 2012 iMac is still working along, so it’s not like I don’t have a Mac to work with I just don’t have a portable one for around the house or out and about, that’s not an issue at the moment.

I'm not so sure the brightness will be a problem unless you intend to sit outdoors all day every day.

I have an early 2015 13" rMBP and I work in the Middle East. The screen is rated at 300nits and I have no issue. The only time it can struggle is in very bright sunlight and using dark mode on Mojave. In light mode I have no issue with web, office apps etc.

 

[raqball]

I went ahead and ordered the 256 / 8 for in store pickup today in Silver.... I'll give it a go and see if it sucks. If it does and the brightness is dismal, it will go back for a Pro.... Good thing is I have 2 weeks to decide and I really wanted the new Air so why not, right?

 

[EugW]

I went ahead and ordered the 256 / 8 for in store pickup today in Silver.... I'll give it a go and see if it sucks. If it does and the brightness is dismal, it will go back for a Pro.... Good thing is I have 2 weeks to decide and I really wanted the new Air so why not, right?

It seems Laptop mag is not accounting for auto brightness when measuring Mac screens. For the Air, once auto-brightness is maximized, it measures around 350, which is similar to the 12”.

 

[raqball]

It seems Laptop mag is not accounting for auto brightness when measuring Mac screens. For the Air, once auto-brightness is maximized, it measures around 350, which is similar to the 12”.

Cool! Hope that's the case as I can deal with 350 nits...

I'll find out later when I pop in to pick it up.. Brightness will probably be the deciding factor for me as I can deal with the Y processor and the 617 GPU as I am a light home user... Fingers crossed the KB is better than the gen 2.....

 

[Kimcha]

It seems Laptop mag is not accounting for auto brightness when measuring Mac screens. For the Air, once auto-brightness is maximized, it measures around 350, which is similar to the 12”.

Why is the auto brightness brighter than adjustable brightness?

 

[EugW]

Why is the auto brightness brighter than adjustable brightness?

Apple has decided not to let us maximize brightness unless there is a ton of ambient light. So, max brightness in the dark is much dimmer than max brightness in bright sunlight.

Apple's iPhones work this way too.

To a certain extent, it does make sense though, because in the dark it would be pointless to have an LCD screen at max brightness.

What this also means is that Laptop mag's measurements are kind of meaningless, even when comparing one Mac to another. Cuz let's say if the guy is doing the review indoors at night with moderate indoor lightning, the result is going to be different than if he did the same measurement at noon in the same room but with bright sun shining through the window.

---

P.S. One thing I also appreciate is minimum brightness. My iPad Air 2 has a much lower minimum brightness than my old iPad 2. This meant that in complete darkness, the iPad 2 always seemed too bright. The iPad Air 2 was more pleasant to use in darkness.

 

[Takizawa]

Apple has decided not to let us maximize brightness unless there is a ton of ambient light. So, max brightness in the dark is much dimmer than max brightness in bright sunlight.

Apple's iPhones work this way too.

To a certain extent, it does make sense though, because in the dark it would be pointless to have an LCD screen at max brightness.

What this also means is that Laptop mag's measurements are kind of meaningless, even when comparing one Mac to another. Cuz let's say if the guy is doing the review indoors at night with moderate indoor lightning, the result is going to be different than if he did the same measurement at noon in the same room but with bright sun shining through the window.

---

P.S. One thing I also appreciate is minimum brightness. My iPad Air 2 has a much lower minimum brightness than my old iPad 2. This meant that in complete darkness, the iPad 2 always seemed too bright. The iPad Air 2 was more pleasant to use in darkness.

[doublepost=1541608091][/doublepost]Good to know. I checked out the screen at an Apple store. The laptop display was gorgeous. The screen brightness seemed weak. It only seemed adequate at max brightness. I have the 12" mac at home and that screen brightness has always been fine. I actually walked right out of the store without buying the new laptop due to it's screen brightness. If it's not an issue I'll march back over there and buy one.

 

[Ma2k5]

Apple has decided not to let us maximize brightness unless there is a ton of ambient light. So, max brightness in the dark is much dimmer than max brightness in bright sunlight.

Apple's iPhones work this way too.

To a certain extent, it does make sense though, because in the dark it would be pointless to have an LCD screen at max brightness.

What this also means is that Laptop mag's measurements are kind of meaningless, even when comparing one Mac to another. Cuz let's say if the guy is doing the review indoors at night with moderate indoor lightning, the result is going to be different than if he did the same measurement at noon in the same room but with bright sun shining through the window.

---

P.S. One thing I also appreciate is minimum brightness. My iPad Air 2 has a much lower minimum brightness than my old iPad 2. This meant that in complete darkness, the iPad 2 always seemed too bright. The iPad Air 2 was more pleasant to use in darkness.

Interesting, can this be disabled and do you have a source for this (eg max brightness vs ambient light graph).

 

[raqball]

[doublepost=1541608091][/doublepost]Good to know. I checked out the screen at an Apple store. The laptop display was gorgeous. The screen brightness seemed weak. It only seemed adequate at max brightness. I have the 12" mac at home and that screen brightness has always been fine. I actually walked right out of the store without buying the new laptop due to it's screen brightness. If it's not an issue I'll march back over there and buy one.

I am picking mine up later so I'll report back... If the brightness is indeed dismal, it will be going back....

 

[Howard2k]

I am picking mine up later so I'll report back... If the brightness is indeed dismal, it will be going back....

Please can you let us know the wifi specs too.

 

[EugW]

Interesting, can this be disabled and do you have a source for this (eg max brightness vs ambient light graph).

My "source" is from reading the DisplayMate reviews of prior models and for iPhones. They sometimes talk about this. However, in addition, in one of the other threads, a MacRumors member did the test himself.* He initially got around 250, but then repeated it with auto-brightness in full gear, and got over 320.

There is a setting for turning on/off auto-brightness, but I believe if you turn it off, you can never hit max brightness. Don't quote me on that though, since I use auto-brightness, and I usually am not anywhere near max anyway.

EDIT:

*Hahah. It was actually this same thread, not a different thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-air-2018.2133294/page-21#post-26768511

[doublepost=1541608091][/doublepost]Good to know. I checked out the screen at an Apple store. The laptop display was gorgeous. The screen brightness seemed weak. It only seemed adequate at max brightness. I have the 12" mac at home and that screen brightness has always been fine. I actually walked right out of the store without buying the new laptop due to it's screen brightness. If it's not an issue I'll march back over there and buy one.

It might have been useful to compare the 12" MacBook side by side with the 13" Air 2018. Cuz I've often felt the 12" MacBook to be "fine" but not especially bright. That suits me fine though since my preference tends to lean toward less bright than more bright.

It should be noted that around here those Apple Stores are very bright as far as indoor lighting goes. At my workplace I have my iPhone at around half brightness but in the Apple Store that seemed quite dim.

---

I mistakenly said 350 before for the new Air, but the number was actually 321 for the Air as measured by @fokmik. The measurements I have seen before for the 12" MacBook have ranged from about 340 to 385.

 

[tomscott1988]

It really depends on you’re prospective, someone like me who hasn’t updated in years will probably find it a great update, before this I was running a 2011 MacBook Pro that died a couple of months back. For me this will probably be a big upgrade.

Im just glad you have finally bought something!

As I said to you months ago the 13" 2018 macbook pro is the one to have. This machine isnt worth the 4 years of wait and I have owned 2 MBAs. The most exciting thing about the older MBAs was the 15w CPU in such a small package.

The 7W is impressive for what it is but its still not fast and for 2018... even with perkbox the price is high.

I looked at my invoice for my 2013 11" macbook air with 512gb ssd 8gb and the i7 and it was £1349 with EDU discount...
[doublepost=1541611162][/doublepost]

I've just canceled my Air order, i'm going to wait and see how all this plays out over the coming weeks. I still have my 2012 iMac so it's not like i've not got a Mac at all.

I spoke too soon. haha

Go on the refurb and buy a pro and be done with it... loads of great bargains on there atm

 

[Dave245]

Im just glad you have finally bought something!

As I said to you months ago the 13" 2018 macbook pro is the one to have. This machine isnt worth the 4 years of wait and I have owned 2 MBAs. The most exciting thing about the older MBAs was the 15w CPU in such a small package.

The 7W is impressive for what it is but its still not fast and for 2018... even with perkbox the price is high.

I looked at my invoice for my 2013 11" macbook air with 512gb ssd 8gb and the i7 and it was £1349 with EDU discount...
[doublepost=1541611162][/doublepost]

I spoke too soon. haha

Go on the refurb and buy a pro and be done with it... loads of great bargains on there atm

Yea you spoke too soon on that one i was all for it until I kept hearing about these keyboard issues with the 3rd gen and the price differences.

I’ve actually looked online and with my discount I can get either the Air which will cost me £1,672.80 for 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD, HOWEVER for an extra £328.80 I can get the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar with 16GB Ram, core i5 quad core and 512GB SSD, with my discount that will come too £2,001.60

Maybe that much power is over kill for me but it is very temping to make the jump, especially when factoring in all the differences including the screen, the only thing that puts me off again is the 3rd gen keyboard. I will see what happens with this Air over the coming weeks,

Also I have been informed that Black Friday will start later this month and last year Apple gave away £120 gift cards with purchases of Mac’s, waiting for a couple more weeks won’t be a problem, but I will make a decision by then either way.

It’s taken me forever including the waiting, but Apple’s lineup is so confusing to me that it makes my head swirl it never use to be like this.

 

[Ma2k5]

I've just canceled my Air order, i'm going to wait and see how all this plays out over the coming weeks. I still have my 2012 iMac so it's not like i've not got a Mac at all.

Wow, what caused you to cancel it! Was looking forward to your review .

 

[Dave245]

Wow, what caused you to cancel it! Was looking forward to your review .

The talk about the 3rd gen keyboard might have the same issues, also I ordered the gold and I found out that it looks more pink than gold I then compared it to the MacBook Pro 13” with Touch Bar and for just over an £300 i can jump up to that model with 16GB, so I’m waiting to see and then I’ll decide.

Also I was reminded that Black Friday will be later this month and last year Apple gave away £120 gift cards with Mac purchases, so it’s just a matter of waiting around 2 extra weeks. It’s either going to be the Air or the Pro that much I’m sure of

 

[Ma2k5]

The talk about the 3rd gen keyboard might have the same issues, also I ordered the gold and I found out that it looks more pink than gold I then compared it to the MacBook Pro 13” with Touch Bar and for just over an £300 i can jump up to that model with 16GB, so I’m waiting to see and then I’ll decide.

Also I was reminded that Black Friday will be later this month and last year Apple gave away £120 gift cards with Mac purchases, so it’s just a matter of waiting around 2 extra weeks. It’s either going to be the Air or the Pro that much I’m sure of

I had the same conclusion with regards to the TB model.

What is holding me off the TB model is:

- Battery life. The new Air has a 50.3 Wh battery and it doesn’t seem to have world beating battery life going by reviews. The TB only has a 58 Wh with a brighter screen, more powerful processor/iGPU and a TouchBar to drive, so it does worry me. I’m used to easily getting 10+ hours from my XPS 9360 and never worry about having to take charger around.

- The TouchBar itself, I won’t beat a dead horse going into detail.

- Both equally suffer from butterfly keyboards.

Windows 10 is very powerful and Microsoft has a very open source strategy going forward, investing in .Net Core and other technologies. It’s not perfect, but neither is macOS. Maybe a W10 machine with Linux VM is the future - macOS seems to be stagnant. Dark mode is cool but it’s all style over substance with Apple last few years.

 

[Dave245]

I had the same conclusion with regards to the TB model.

What is holding me off the TB model is:

- Battery life. The new Air has a 50.3 Wh battery and it doesn’t seem to have world beating battery life going by reviews. The TB only has a 58 Wh with a brighter screen, more powerful processor/iGPU and a TouchBar to drive, so it does worry me. I’m used to easily getting 10+ hours from my XPS 9360 and never worry about having to take charger around.

- The TouchBar itself, I won’t beat a dead horse going into detail.

- Both equally suffer from butterfly keyboards.

Windows 10 is very powerful and Microsoft has a very open source strategy going forward, investing in .Net Core and other technologies. It’s not perfect, but neither is macOS. Maybe a W10 machine with Linux VM is the future - macOS seems to be stagnant. Dark mode is cool but it’s all style over substance with Apple last few years.

Yea I’ve been surprised by the battery life that reviewers seem to be getting, some only 10 hours yet Apple stated 12 hours wireless and 13 hours video playback. I’m not sure what the battery life is for the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar with real world useage, Apple say 10 hours.

I’m just wondering what the benefits would be to getting the Air over the 13” Touch Bar MacBook Pro, especially if I’m going to keep it for 5 years or more (my 2011 MacBook Pro lasted until a couple months back, so 7 years total)

The Touch Bar might end up going away, it would be just my luck to buy one and then Apple discontinue the support for it. It’s certainly not popular around this forum, I’m not sure about our in the real world tho, I know a couple of video editors who like it for editing in Final Cut Pro, they swear it speeds up their work flow. I’m a writer so it’s not really going to have an impact on me really. The only other thing I do is edit photos in Pixelmator Pro, which is more of a hobby and not huge files.

I haven’t used a Windows machine in years, I’ve been very tempted by a Surface Pro and if I could bring one into my work flow to try out it might be interesting. Especially considering they are no more expensive than the new iPad Pros.

 

[Ma2k5]

Anyone with the new Air and another MacBook (ideally 2018), could you run a WiFi speed test with both from a controlled location? Would be interested in knowing how well the integrated WiFi performs on the Amber Lake.

 

[raqball]

I am the wrong person to test but I always max out @ 130 down using my home spot that I use for my home internet.. Just ran a test and the same 130 down. I know that's not an answer but figured I'd chime in...

 

[joeswamp]

Windows 10 is very powerful and Microsoft has a very open source strategy going forward, investing in .Net Core and other technologies. It’s not perfect, but neither is macOS. Maybe a W10 machine with Linux VM is the future - macOS seems to be stagnant. Dark mode is cool but it’s all style over substance with Apple last few years.

I just got a brand new laptop at work and started using Windows 10. I personally think it's still a mess compared to OSX -- all kinds of UI inconsistencies, all kinds of odd edge case behaviors, etc. Took me some time to figure out how to turn off most of the really annoying stuff.

I then go to install Office365 and am surprised to learn the default install is 32 bit apps. I then go to the Microsoft tech info page where they strongly recommend the 32 bit versions, as they are "most compatible". What year is this???

OSX is not perfect but it's a lot easier to use than Windows. And I've used Windows much longer than I've used OSX.

 

[- rob -]

First impressions coming from 2015 11" MBA:

• Machine is kind of big and heavy
• Key travel is small but feels tight
• Screen is really nice.
• Glad to have Space Grey after many years of silver 11" MBA