Mac Format - UK (2019-12)

100 | MACFORMAT | DECEMBER 2019 macformat.com @macformat

Apple’s thinnest and lightest

laptop is also its cheapest, with

prices starting at just £1,099.

Even the step-up model costs just

£1,299 – and both are £100 cheaper

than they were before the Air’s

latest refresh in July 2019.

Those low prices don’t mean the

MacBook Air feels cheap, though,

thanks to an aluminium unibody

enclosure and a 13.3in LED-backlit

Retina display, which has a display

resolution of 2560x1600 (227ppi).

New for 2019 is True Tone, which

automatically adjusts the colour

temperature of the display

depending on the ambient light.

Inside the MacBook Air’s 1.56cm

thin, 1.25kg body, you’ll find a 1.6GHz

dual-core, eighth-generation Intel

Core i5 processor, 8GB of 2,133MHz

LPDDR3 RAM (upgradeable to

16GB). The entry-level model comes

with a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD),

while the step-up is equipped with a

256GB SSD, although you can add

up to 1TB of solid-state storage. The

MacBook Air also includes Intel UHD

617 integrated graphics (although it

also offers external GPU support),

plus Touch ID for secure logins – and

a Force Touch trackpad which can

trigger different responses as you

apply more pressure.

The MacBook Air is also

equipped with two Thunderbolt 3

(USB-C) ports, has 802.11ac Wi-Fi

and Bluetooth 4.2 onboard and is

equipped with a 720p FaceTime

camera for video chats.

MacBook Air

It was a long wait, but Apple finally

updated the Mac mini. The company

said upgraded processors were heavily

requested, and in October 2018 it

obliged: the entry-level model has a

quad-core, eighth-generation Intel

Core i3, while the step-up model gets a

six-core Intel Core i5. A six-core Core i7

is a build-to-order option. The base

model starts with 8GB of memory that

can be boosted to 64GB. All models

come with SSDs as standard, going

from 128GB all the way up to 2TB.

As with other recent Macs, the Mac

mini has the T2 security chip built in,

enabling HEVC encoding that’s up to

30 times faster.

The Mac mini benefits from speedy

connectivity with the addition of four

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, as well

as two USB-A ports and an HDMI 2.0.

There’s also an option of 10Gb Ethernet

for an extra £90.

Choose a MacBook Air

MODEL KEY SPECIFICATIONS PRICE

13in 1.6GHz

dual-core

Intel Core i5

MEMORY 8GB of

2,133MHz LPDDR3

GRAPHICS Intel UHD

Graphics 617

STORAGE 128GB SSD

DISPLAY Retina

TOUCH ID Yes

£1,099

13in 1.6GHz

dual-core

Intel Core i5

MEMORY 8GB of

2,133MHz LPDDR3

GRAPHICS Intel UHD

Graphics 617

STORAGE 256GB SSD

DISPLAY Retina

TOUCH ID Yes

£1,299

ENTRY

LEVEL

UPGRADER

From

£1,099

From

Mac mini £799

Apple’s media streamer has been

around since 2007, when it ran Mac

OS X 10.4 Tiger. Four generations

later and it’s a different beast entirely,

running its own OS (tvOS) and available

in Apple TV HD (£149) and Apple TV

4K (from £179) guises. Both enable you

to rent and buy movies and TV shows

from the iTunes Store. Plus you also

get Apple TV+ as well as access to

third-party content using apps such as

BBC iPlayer. You can also use it to play

Apple Arcade games, stream photos

and your music library, and more.

Apple TV

The perfectly portable

MacBook Air is Apple’s

most affordable notebook.

UPDATED

OCT 2018

EXPECTED

LATE 2020

UPDATED

SEPT 2018

EXPECTED

MAR 2020

One of the most compelling

reasons to buy a MacBook Air is its

legendarily long battery life, with

Apple quoting a maximum runtime

of up to 13 hours when watching an

iTunes movie, or 12 hours of wireless

web surfing, thanks to its 49.9Whr

battery. Like all Mac laptops, the

MacBook Air also comes with Apple’s

third-generation butterfly keyboard,

with backlit keys that help you see

what you’re typing in low light. It also

comes with decent-sounding stereo

speakers (given the laptop’s tiny size)

and a 3.5mm headphone jack for

when you want to listen in private.

The MacBook Air, then, is a

perfectly portable lightweight Mac

• ideal for studying, everyday
  computing and entertainment. If you
  need more power on the go, though,
  we suggest you plump for the more
  capable, but more expensive,
  MacBook Pro instead.

From

£149

UPDATED

JUL 2019

EXPECTED

JUL 2020