Apple MacBook Air 13 2018 [MREF2]

Work on improvements

Apple has long had a tradition — one year they present new breakthrough gadgets in some way, and the next they simply release their improved versions. This also applies to the new MacBook Air, which is an improved version of last year's Air.

Retina display with thin bezels

The biggest update to the new MacBook Air is the display. If you've used a Retina display, you know what I'm talking about. It's big and bright, with a nice colour balance. In terms of numbers, we're talking about upscaling the resolution from 1440x900 to 2560x1600 pixels and doubling the pixel density. As for brightness, contrast and colour reproduction, everything is perfect as usual. And the last thing I would like to note about the screen is the disappeared thick frames around it.

Powerful and energy efficient hardware

Of course, iron has also improved. The new engine of the laptop is a four-threaded Core i5 of the Amber Lake line with reduced power consumption. Paired with it is 8 GB of LPDDR3 RAM (a low power version of DDR3) and a fast 265 GB SSD, which is connected directly to the PCI-E bus, thanks to which it has speed performance several times higher than a conventional SSD. All these improvements have made the updated Air much more powerful and faster.

Everything you expect from Apple

Improvements have affected not only speed — the laptop is now much quieter and cooler, thanks to which the thin aluminium case practically does not heat up. By the way, the case itself looks great and is assembled on a solid top five. Battery life is now 12 hours. Among other branded goodies, it is necessary to note a smart fingerprint scanner and an excellent branded touchpad with Force Touch support and recognition of degrees of pressing force. It is a pleasure to work on it, but then you don’t want to return to the mouse.

USB-C with support for all the delights of Thunderbolt

In terms of ports, Apple did the same thing it did a couple of years ago — removed everything, leaving only USB-C ports with Thunderbolt support. At the beginning of 2019, this is clearly not the most practical solution, but it is clearly made with an eye to the future, when USB-C becomes the standard, and more people will join the power of Thunderbolt. Say what you like, but the ability to broadcast a video image through the same port, charge a laptop and transfer data at speeds many times higher than conventional USB 3.0 is cool. But this is all in the future, and now we have only 2 free ports and potential fuss with adapters.