2019-09-01_Computer_Shopper

80 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

THEMACBOOKAIRis still an iconic laptop,

and forvery good reason.It broughtApple

laptops intothe mainstream,and its

combinationof style,size,weight and decent

battery lifemade it aclassic.

With Apple leaving the marqueto gather

dust in recent times, however,its appeal has

slowly but surely waned.With the

MacBookand MacBookPro lines

gainingRetina displays, new features

and more powerfulinnards,the old 13in

MacBookAir was lookingprogressively

more and more underpowered,old-fashioned

and out of touch. With this latest model,

Apple is finally rectifyingthat.

The headlineadditionis also the most

requested among MacBookfans: aRetina-

class display. With aresolutionof 2,560x1,600

and apixel densityof 227ppi,it’s ahuge

upgradeover the 1,440x900resolutionof

the previous 13in MacBookAir (Shopper

329). Inside,meanwhile,the 5th-genIntel

processorshave at long last been replacedby

8th-genchips from Intel’s low-powerAmber

Lake lineup.We’re testing the more expensive

of the two spec options,with adual-core,

1.6GHz Core i5-8210Y,8GB of RAM and

256GB of SSD storage; the cheaper,£1,119

model is identicalexcept forits 128GB SSD.

HISTORYREPEATS

In terms of design,Apple has mainly brought

the Air in line with the 13in MacBookPro

(Shopper370) –tothe extent, in fact, that

when placed side by side they’re tough to tell

apart. The Air is fractionallythicker at the rear

and thinnerat the nose,while the Pro

maintainsthe same thicknessfront to back,

and the Air is 120g lighter.Otherwise,the

dimensionsare the same down to the

millimetre:304mmwide and 212mmdeep.

The MacBookAir,just like the

MacBookPro,has aflush-fitted displaywith

narrow,black bezels. It has apair of

Thunderbolt3USB Type-C ports on the left

edge and a3.5mm headphonejack on the

right. Stereo speakersflank the shallow-travel

keyboard,which has aTouch ID fingerprint

reader nestledin its top-right corner,and a

large glass-topped touchpadoccupiesmost

of the wrist rest beneath.

The Air’s smallertouchpadis one of

preciousfewvisible differencesbetweenit

and the MacBookPro,but it’s still only a

minor one,and with Apple’s excellent

Force Touch technologyin place it feels

just as good to use.

APPLEMacBook

Air(2018)

★★★★★

£1,399•From http://www.apple.com/uk

VERDICT

ApplehasrevampedtheMacBookAir,but

it’slostsomeofitsappealintheprocess

The display, as you’d expect from the

specifications,is also amajor improvement

on the 2015 model. However,that’s not to say

it entirelymeets expectations,which have

been raised considerablyby the MacBookPro.

It’s disappointing,forinstance,that peak

brightnessreachesonly 321cd/m^2 ,which is

around180cd/m^2 below that of the Pro,

and the Air’s contrastratio of 951:1 is low

enoughwithoutalso falling behind the Pro’s

1,451:1. Coverage of the sRGB gamut is good,

at 93.2%, but again the MacBookPro is

better,managing99%.

EIGHTHGEAR

Of course,abig of the appeal of the new

MacBookAir overhaul is not just the new

design and display; it’s the performance.

The previous model, despitestill being on

sale,was stuck with afifth-generationIntel

CPU, so the 1.6GHz 8th generationdual-core

Intel Core i5-8210Yin the new model comes

as avery welcomeboost.

That said, this is merely aY-series

processor,not amore powerfulU-series

chip like those often seen in Windows

ultraportables–or, indeed,the MacBook

Pro.Asaresult, the MacBookAir’s 4K

benchmarkscores (including28 in the

multitaskingtest and 49 overall) are

improvementson the 2015 MacBookAir,

but well below recent rivals such as the

MicrosoftSurface Laptop 2and Dell XPS 13.

The good news is that storage speeds are

stupendouslyquick. We recordedaverage

read and writespeeds of 1,871MB/sand

1,065MB/srespectively,speeds that outstrip

those of the Surface Laptop 2bysome

margin.Even heavy-duty applicationslaunch

near enoughinstantaneously,sothis is a

laptop that can feel very fast in use even if it

doesn’t have the most processingpower.

Battery lifeisfairly good, too, with the

MacBookAir lasting 8h 34m in our video

rundowntest. The XPS 13 managedan extra

hour and ahalf,but the Surface Laptop 2

and even the latest 13in MacBookPro

producedshorter times.

ONTHIN ICE

Instead of deliveringwhat MacBookAir fans

desperately wanted –alaptop nearly as good

as aMacBookPro but forsignificantlyless

(in this configuration)–what Apple has

ended up with is alaptop that’s more

expensivethan an entry-modelPro,but

significantlyslower.That the Pro can also

scale up to becomemuch more powerful

makes it the better laptop range overall.

That’s not to saythe Apple MacBook

Air is abad laptop.Infact, it’s quitethe

opposite. It’s slim, attractiveand beautifully

made,and Apple has improved it in all the

places that count, adding abetter keyboard,a

superiortouchpad,faster connectivityand a

Retina display. This is very much aMacBook

Air forthe modernApple era.

The troubleis, in doing so,Apple has

abandonedterritory it used to be able to call

its own. The MacBookAir maybebetter than

ever,but it no longer stands out in the wayit

used to.We’dtherefore recommendthe base

model of the MacBookPro,which is £1,249,if

you’d prefertostick with macOS.On the

Windowsside,both the XPS 13 and Surface

Laptop 2are better-value alternatives.

ULTRAPORTABLES