Apple’s new Macbook Air packs a better keyboard and a lower price

A 10th-gen Intel processor, twice as much storage and the new Magic Keyboard, all for £999.

2020-05-01 - Michael Simon reports

There might not be any retail stores to visit for a while, but that’s not slowing Apple’s roll. It has launched a brand new Macbook Air with more storage, more speed, and a better keyboard, all for hundreds of pounds less than the current model.

With a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, Apple claims the new Macbook Air delivers “up to two times faster CPU performance and up to 80 percent faster graphics performance” than the previous Macbook Air. Both base models have lower clock speeds than their predecessors (1.1GHZ vs 1.6GHZ), but the new chip architecture, Intel Iris Plus Graphics and LPDDR4X memory should deliver a noticeable boost.

In addition to the faster chip, Apple has also doubled the storage across the board to 256GB

and 512GB for the base configurations, along with a new 2TB option for an additional £600, twice as much capacity as before. Apple had offered a 1.5TB option last year but it was dropped in July.

The most notable change to the Macbook Air, however, is the new Magic Keyboard, which was introduced with the launch of the 16in Macbook

Pro last year. With a new scissor key mechanism that delivers 1mm of key travel as well as the return of the inverted ‘T’ arrangement for the arrow keys, the new Macbook Air keyboard should be as quiet and comfortable as beloved ‘chiclet’ keyboard on the original model. But it’s slightly thicker (1.61mm vs 1.56mm) and heavier 1.29kg vs 1.25kg) than its predecessor

The Macbook Air comes in the same gold, silver and grey colours, but the starting price has dropped to £999 from £1,099, making it the first new Mac laptop to cost under a thousand pounds since 2018. And if you factor in the additional storage, you’re actually saving £300 over the previous model. But don’t worry if you purchased a new Macbook Air in the two weeks before the launch of the new version – Apple says it will honour returns once its retail stores reopen.

Specifications £999 model

• 13.3in (2,560x1,600) Led-backlit display with IPS

technology

• macos Catalina

• 1.1GHZ dual-core Intel Core i3, Turbo Boost

up to 3.2GHZ, with 4MB L3 cache processor, configurable to 1.1GHZ quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHZ, with 6MB L3 cache; or 1.2GHZ quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHZ, with 8MB L3 cache

• Intel Iris Plus Graphics

• 8GB of 3733MHZ LPDDR4X onboard memory,

configurable to 16GB of memory

• 256GB Pcie-based SSD, configurable to 512GB,

1TB or 2TB SSD

• 2x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-S) ports

• 3.5mm headphone jack

• 802.11ac Wi-fi

• Bluetooth 5.0

• 720p Facetime HD Camera

• Dolby Atmos speaker system

• Backlit Magic Keyboard

• 49.9-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery • 304.1x212.4x4.1-16.1mm

• 1.29kg

£1,299 model

• 13.3in (2,560x1,600) Led-backlit display with IPS technology