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Verdict

The MacBook Air 2018 is a streamlined and powerful laptop brimming with up-to-date features.

Pros

A classic design, refreshed for 2018
Lightweight, premium-feel body
Retina Display screen
Pro features for a lower price

Key Specifications

Review Price: £1199
13.3-inch high resolution screen (2560 x 1600)
Touch ID fingerprint scanner for fast unlocking and secure purchases
Butterfly-switched keycaps allows for a shallower keyboard
T2 chip for added security features

What is the Apple MacBook Air 2018?

The new MacBook Air 2018 range has finally arrived. And by “finally” I mean Apple has given this much-loved laptop a proper update, instead of the iterative upgrades we’ve seen with the past few versions.

As well as rocking a Retina Display, which packs a resolution of 2560 x 1600 into a 13.3-inch panel, there’s the T2 security chip, which automatically encrypts your files and offers a secure boot option. That latter is likely to be mainly of interest to IT professionals, sysadmins or whoever buys the laptops for your company. But for everyday consumers, the T2 chip offers a level of security that, until now, has only been available toMacBook Pro 2018 and iMac Pro buyers – and, later this year, to anyone snapping up a Mac Mini 2018.

In terms of looks, the new MacBook Airs retain that classic wedge shape, which set the bar over ten years ago. Many laptops sport this look these days, but it’s Apple that can take much of the credit for that.

Compared to the 2017 MacBook Air lineup, this year’s models are about 10% thinner, with a smaller footprint. Apple says this has shaved just over a centimetre from the x and y-axis.

In addition, you get more up-to-date processors running the show and up to 16GB of RAM – a clear improvement on the 8GB maximum seen in the previous generation.

Related: Best MacBook

Apple MacBook Air 2018 – Design and features

The new MacBook Air is business as usual – but thinner, better, faster, smoother. Slimming down means it weighs just 1.25kg. That’s an impressive feat, considering the unibody case is an aluminium-heavy alloy, instead of the lighter and flexier magnesium-based material seen on competing devices, such as the 1kg LG Gram.

In the days I’ve spent lugging the MacBook Air around, there have been times I’ve barely noticed it’s there. Although prior to this, I’d been using the very chunky, 2.4kg Asus ROG GL504 Hero II gaming laptop as my daily driver, so that may be part of the reason for that. The only downside to the slim design is that the port lineup consists of just two USB-C ports, both supporting the Thunderbolt 3 standard.

The use of Thunderbolt at least means you can benefit from video passthrough (using the DisplayPort 1.2 video standard) data rates of up to 40Gbps, for example, and the ability to daisy-chain. As a result, you can set up the MacBook Air as the nexus of a powerful home studio with the right cables and peripherals.

Right out of the box, however, you’re limited. Note that most of the time, one of those USB-C ports will be taken up by the mains adapter, so in essence you have only one USB-C port at your disposal.

There are a greater number of peripherals these days supporting the Thunderbolt standard, which is a good thing, but that’s only a benefit if you have a sizeable monitor with lots of extra connections, or a dock that you had to buy to use with a previous MacBook. Not to mention a budget/credit rating ample enough to accommodate the extra expense.

As with theMacBook Pro 2018, Apple doesn’t even include a USB-C to Ethernet adapter – a freebie that most other laptop manufacturers are happy to throw in with their high-end models.

Connectivity aside, the design remains impressive. Apple says that this generation of MacBook Airs is the first to feature a case that’s made entirely from recycled metal. Apparently, it’s formed from the shavings that remain of the blocks of metal from which other MacBooks have been machine milled. These shavings are simply gathered up and re-smelted, instead of using material that’s been mined, extracted and smelted from bauxite.

The company claims the 2018 MacBook Airs are the greenest laptops yet, and this step is being taken as part of a wider drive to reduce the entire company’s carbon footprint by 50%. The cases of the new Mac Minis will also be fashioned in the same way.

While I haven’t analysed Apple’s entire supply and manufacturing chain, or enquired as to whether or not that 50% figure includes manufacturing partners (and neither is this review really the place for that kind of analysis), we can all appreciate the fact that leftover materials that would otherwise be sold on are being repurposed. I also quite like the idea that the MacBook Air I’ve been holding in my hands might have once began life as a MacBook Pro, or maybe even an iPad Pro.

Bookending the keyboard are two sets of speaker grilles. Apple boasts that the speaker system is the most powerful ever seen on a MacBook Air, offering a wonderfully wide sound stage thanks to the inclusion of two new bass units (one on each side, natch).

I don’t have access to any sound level meters or data taken from previous-gen MacBook Air reviews in order to verify this, but having listened to music and watched TV shows on many laptops, I can affirm that the audio quality is generally very good, with lots of spatial separation between instruments and stereo panning.

Listening to the Broadway cast recording of Hamilton on Spotify was particularly pleasing. The crack of the snare drum on “My Shot”, for example, cut right through the swelling strings, brass, lead and backing vocals like a knife. The low end on the likes of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”, and Rage’s “Bullet in the Head” sounded nice and bouncy. High-end noise, however, of the type that featured in Igorrr’s ‘Infinite Loop’ sounded a little tinny at full volume.

That said, the speakers on the MacBook Air are definitely a cut above what I’ve heard on most other laptops.

Apple MacBook Air 2018 – Keyboard and trackpad

The MacBook Air 2018 comes with the same third-generation butterfly-switch keyboard that we first saw on the MacBook Pro 2018 – and it’s something of an opinion divider.

Personally, I’ve grown to it. But there’s no denying that the keycaps have incredibly shallow travel. This, coupled with the fact the MacBook Air will typically lie flat on your desk (it isn’t angled up towards your hands, like, say, the keyboard dock of the Microsoft Surface Pro 6), does make for an odd sensation.

If you’re coming from a non-butterfly switch model then it will take you some time to get used to the MacBook Air 2018’s keyboard. I can normally comfortably cruise at around 80 words a minute on Type Racer, but I was dropping typos all over the place with the MacBook at first.

Despite my initial fumbling, I like the keyboard layout. Nothing feels too cramped and, with the exception of the up and down arrow keys, most of the keycaps are generously sized.

The trackpad is also very smooth and whip-smart, so much so that I’ve actually had to dial down its responsiveness in the settings. I had to do that with the MacBook Pro, too, mind. Thankfully, and unlike the MacBook Pro, I haven’t encountered any flexing.

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Best Mac Book Rating For 2018