Hands on, first impressions and initial landmarks

The new Apple MacBook Air is already the subject of much discussion and speculation. We have one in our hands, so let's talk about the latest addition to Apple's Mac notebook line.

In the box

The new, slender MacBook Air is largely used and has only small surprises.

First, you have the new USB-C power cable as well as a 30W power supply. This is a tick of the normal 29W USB-C power brick sold by Apple.

We then have the usual lot of handy guides and Apple stickers very much in demand. Instead of the usual matte white stickers, we are treated to matched stickers matching the specific airy finish. We got Space Gray stickers with ours, while others will get gold stickers with gold and silver with silver.

What you get

The 13.3-inch display has a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, with scaled resolutions of 1680 x 1050, 1440 x 900 and 1024 x 640. With the Intel UHD Graphics 617, the new MacBook Air can support a single external display. with a resolution of 5120 x 2880 at 60Hz or two external displays with a resolution of 4096 x 2304 at 60Hz on Thunderbolt 3.

The updated third-generation Butterfly keyboard is square in the center, just above a 20% larger Touch Touch pad.

There is no touch bar, but a Touch ID sensor resides to the right of the physical function keys.

Despite the addition of these new features, the new MacBook Air still displays a 17% lower volume than the previous generation, weighing only 2.75 pounds.

Our tested configuration includes the eighth-generation Core i5-8210Y at a base frequency of 1.6 GHz, with 128 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM.

Initial impressions

The new MacBook Air has definitely had a great upgrade on the outdoor hardware, it still feels very familiar. It now looks a lot like the rest of the Apple lineup, between the 12-inch MacBook Retina and the MacBook Pro.

On the outside, the wedge-shaped design is similar, although there are of course three finishes instead of just one. The headphone jack got stuck once more in the air (instead of being dropped like an iPad). The two Thunderbolt 3 ports will play a key role as they offer great versatility. Rather than limit yourself to a single USB-C port, as on the MacBook, you can now connect several more powerful accessories, such as an external GPU.

When we compared the screen of the new Air to our MacBook Pro, they both seemed very solid, but we found at least one difference: the new Air does not become so bright. When we take a look at the specifications page, Apple says that the new Pros can reach 500 nits of brightness, while the new Airs do not exceed 300. This would be more visible for those who work at the outside, but that's not a problem. an office environment, or even a bright room.

It should also be noted that although the resolution is the same as that of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, it does not contain a True Tone, which we were fond of in our review.

Performance

Although we were waiting for our full review to perform full performance tests, we launched some Geekbench tests at the new Air.

Our initial findings align with the preliminary benchmarks that had been disclosed online shortly after the announcement. In our 1.6 GHz machine, we averaged 4362 and 7858 in our single and multicore tests respectively.

These are decent results for the low-power Intel 7W Amber Lake chipset, although they are not very high compared to the 2017 MacBook Air with the Intel Broadwell chip running at 1.8 GHz, which earned a score single core of 3335 and a multicore score of 6119.

It is also a little above the Core m chip found in the 12-inch MacBook Retina. The 1.4 GHz Retina MacBook enabled the 3925 and 7567 tests in their single and multi-core tests.

This is a good sign, because this year, Apple's previous MacBook Airs used Intel 15-W chips, which are twice as powerful and working much faster than the 7W this year. There were some justified concerns about how it would work, but there seems to be some improvement even with this reduced energy consumption. Even with less energy, Apple has included only one fan to help this processor cool down.

Stay tuned

We will spend much more time with the new 2018 MacBook Air in the coming days. So be sure to stay on the lookout for our extra blanket.

Follow the AppleInsider news by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS and follow us on YouTube, Twitter. @appleinsider and Facebook for last-minute live coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.

How to save up to $ 208 on pre-orders

The Apple MacBook Air 2018 is available for pre-order Adorama, an authorized Apple reseller, does not charge sales tax for orders shipped outside of New York and New Jersey – plus interest-free financing when full payment is made within 12 months with the Adorama credit card. As Adorama is an Apple Authorized Reseller, you can rest assured that it's the same factory-sealed systems that you would find on the Apple Store. Orders are shipped on a first-come, first-served basis and your card will not be charged until your MacBook Air is ready to ship.

For a complete list of offers and product availability from multiple Apple Authorized Resellers, be sure to check our website. MacBook Air 2018 Price Guide.

Pre-orders MacBook Air 2018 13 inches

• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 8GB 128GB) Sidereal Gray
  Buy for $ 1,199.00
  ($ 95 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 128GB), Silver
  Buy for $ 1,199.00
  ($ 95 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 8GB 128GB) Gold
  Buy for $ 1,199.00
  ($ 95 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB), Sidereal Gray
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB), Silver
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB), Gold
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 512GB), Sidereal Gray
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 8GB, 512GB), Silver
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 8GB 512GB) Gold
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 8GB 1.5TB) Gray sidereal
  Buy for $ 2,399.00
  ($ 192 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• Silver 13 "(1.6GHz 8GB, 1.5 TB)
  Buy for $ 2,399.00
  ($ 192 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 8GB 1.5TB) Gold
  Buy for $ 2,399.00
  ($ 192 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 128GB) Gray sidereal
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Silver (1.6 GHz, 16 GB, 128 GB), silver
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 128GB) Gold
  Buy for $ 1,399.00
  ($ 112 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 256GB) Sidereal Gray
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 16GB, 256GB), Silver
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 256GB) Gold
  Buy for $ 1,599.00
  ($ 128 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 512GB) Sidereal Gray
  Buy for $ 1,799.00
  ($ 144 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz, 16GB, 512GB), Silver
  Buy for $ 1,799.00
  ($ 144 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 512GB) Gold
  Buy for $ 1,799.00
  ($ 144 discount off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 1.5TB) Gray sidereal
  Buy for $ 2,599.00
  ($ 208 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• Silver 13 "(1.6 GHz, 16 GB, 1.5 TB)
  Buy for $ 2,599.00
  ($ 208 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
• 13 "Air (1.6GHz 16GB 1.5TB) Gold
  Buy for $ 2,599.00
  ($ 208 off NY & NJ and 0% financing *)
  * Adorama will not collect sales tax on orders shipped outside of New York and New Jersey *. The system has no interest if it is paid in full within 12 months with the Adorama credit card.