More Mac, less coin

MacBook Air and MacBook Pro get an update for the back–to–school season.

Apple has revised its entry–level MacBook Air and MacBook Pro line–up, and is aiming these models at students as part of its Back to School promotion (this promotion applies to other Macs and iPads too).

The base–model MacBook Air with 13–inch Retina screen gains a True Tone display — meaning that colors are automatically adjusted for the ambient lighting — but is otherwise unchanged from its predecessor. It also gets a $100 price cut: the base configuration is now $1,099 (or $999 for students and others eligible for Apple’s education pricing).

This is now the cheapest Apple laptop — Apple has quietly discontinued the 12–inch MacBook and non– Retina MacBook Air.

The entry–level 13–inch MacBook Pro receives more significant updates, including the latest 8th–generation quad–core processors (with eDRAM increased from 64MB to 127MB), making it “two–times more powerful than before” according to Apple. Where the base model previously had function keys, it now has a Touch Bar, meaning all MacBook Pro models now have this feature.

Other changes include the addition of an Apple T2 security chip and Touch ID; True Tone display; Bluetooth 5.0 (compared to 4.2 in the previous model); and a faster graphics processor, the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 (compared to the 640 in the previous model).

The list price is unchanged from the previous model, at $1,299 (or $1,199 for students).

under the hood

In one of their renowned teardowns, our friends at iFixit found other changes inside the revised MacBook Pro. The battery is slightly larger than in the previous model, with

capacity increased from 54.5Wh in the previous function key model to 58.2Wh. That, iFIxit speculates, is probably how Apple can promise the same battery life despite the added power consumption of the Touch Bar, Touch ID sensor, and T2 chip. Where the previous model had two built–in microphones, the new one has three, but the speaker opposite the fan is significantly smaller than its predecessor, raising doubts about sound output quality.

In terms of repairability, iFixit notes that the SSD is now soldered in place, so “one of the last upgradeable components on the MacBook Pro line is totally gone”. On the other hand, the Thunderbolt breakout board, soldered to the logic board in the last model, is now modular, like the boards on the rest of the modern Pro line. The headphone jack module — including microphone and Touch ID connector — is now also modular and can be easily replaced without having to swap out the entire logic board.

iFixit confirms the new keyboard uses Apple’s third– gen butterfly mechanism, the same as in the other MacBook Pro models revised back in May. This, and the new MacBook Air keyboard, are already covered in Apple’s Keyboard Service Program, in the unlikely event that Apple has not quite gotten all the bugs out yet.

The rest of the MacBook Pro range is unchanged, including all the 15–inch models and the 13–inch models with 2.4GHz quad–core processor.

The price of SSD build–to–order options has also been cut across the board for all Macs, in some cases by as much as half. For example, adding a 4TB SSD in the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro used to cost $2,800 over the base price; it’s now $1,400 more. SSD pricing is also cut across iMac, Mac mini, and iMac Pro lines.

BAck–to–school ProMotion

The updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are part of Apple’s Back to School promotion, available to higher education students, their parents, faculty, staff, and home–school teachers through the Apple Education Store. The promotion includes a pair of qualifying Beats headphones with the purchase of any eligible Mac or iPad for college, as well as education discounts on purchases of a qualifying Mac, iPad, AppleCare package, and selected accessories and services. AppleCare+ is 20% off for students, and there are discounts on pro Apple apps such as Final Cut and Logic.

Apple says nearly 60% of US college notebook buyers own a Mac, making macOS the top choice among higher education students. The company clearly hopes to keep it this way, but while the base-model specs are improved, the fact remains that the price of admission has risen, because the cheapest MacBook you can get now will cost you more than the previous cheapest.