Macbook Air 13 Recensione 2016

Just a few years agone the Air was the hottest, slimmest laptop in the world. Then every Windows manufacturer ripped off its design and Apple came upwards with the fifty-fifty more desirable MacBook.

And then is the Air soon destined for tech's retirement hall of fame? Cursed to sit in a drinking glass chiffonier alongside the Palm Pre and Nintendo's Wii U. Having tried its latest 2016 update, nosotros don't reckon and so.

While this laptop no longer represents the cutting edge of computing, it still trumps a neat swathe of its Microsoft-supported competition. Combining decent value, fantastic portability and neat battery life, the Air remains a pleasance to piece of work with on a day-to-day basis. Its star power may have faded slightly, but that doesn't brand it less praiseworthy in practice.

Ageing gracefully

Apple hasn't changed the outer blueprint at all for the 2016 MacBook Air. Information technology hasn't needed to considering it got some of the basics so right to begin with. As ever, it has an aluminium shell fabricated of merely a few parts, giving the impression the stuff might grow on copse in this exact shape. It's just 17mm thick and its 13in edition weighs only one.35kg, giving the Air enough of a size and weight edge over a MacBook Pro to lure-in those after as portable a laptop as possible.

Nosotros walked around with the 13-inch MacBook Air packed in a rucksack on several occasions, and institute information technology but doesn't requite yous knots you lot'll need a massage to squeeze out, unlike a classic workhorse Dell Inspiron (for instance). This is zilch new, of course, simply is a scrap of a revelation for people still lugging around 3kg beasts. And its frame is large plenty to feel similar a 'proper' laptop, different the 11-inch MacBook Air, which is that chip too small.

It's a great-looking laptop equally well, although in that location are a few little areas where the MacBook Air looks a bit old hat next to the new-design MacBook and even the MacBook Pro. For example, the screen has a raised bezel where Apple'due south other laptops have fully apartment screens that expect and feel that chip flashier. There's a tiny raised rubber surround to stop the lid and keyboard surround from marker or scratching each other too. Information technology'southward applied but, again, visually marks the 2016 MacBook Air equally backside the times.

You gotta accept connections in this town

The numbers of connections in the 2016 MacBook Air is exactly the aforementioned equally last year's version. You go 2 USB ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SD carte du jour slot and a Thunderbolt 2 socket. 1 of the key improvements with this year'southward update is that it's at present a Thunderbolt two port rather than plainly sometime Thunderbolt.

This won't hateful an atrocious lot of difference for some of y'all, simply will let you daisy chain a bunch of demanding peripherals without seeing a drop in performance. With a higher-end computer yous could also utilize it to hook up to a agglomeration of 4K monitors. Simply, allow's exist honest, information technology seems unlikely people surrounding themselves with three 4K screens would use a MacBook Air as the encephalon.

Air-powered

It'south not that the MacBook Air is irksome: information technology uses the latest-generation Intel Broadwell processors. Information technology'due south just that its CPUs come from a grade of chips that care more near efficiency than heatsink-melting power. Merely like all Ultrabooks. The laptop we're testing has the same dual-cadre 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 CPU as final year's model, but Bone X El Capitan seems to have ensured a slightly faster functioning than terminal twelvemonth. It scores 170.9ms in Sunspider test and 5214 in Geekbench 3 (32-bit), which isn't a huge boost, and is still mode, style below what a MacBook Pro will get you.

And then what tin't you do with the Air? Not much. It's patently not a gaming motorcar, lacking a defended graphics carte, but even that is slowly getting better. The MacBook Air's Intel Hard disk drive 6000 is at present about as powerful equally some real entry-level dedicated laptop cards from a couple of years ago. Information technology can just about scrape past with games, like Invisible Inc and Papers Please. Video editing is not totally off the cards either.

As of this year, every Air comes with 8GB RAM every bit standard. Anyone who wanted to do some serious Photoshop piece of work or mess effectually iMovie used to accept spend an extra £80 for upgrade from 4GB. Either style, remembering that it's also more than powerful than the more expensive new-design MacBook, and benefits from the faster SSD drives of the other new MacBooks.

Need more than retina

The just area that really lets the MacBook Air 13 down is the screen. It'due south now the only Apple laptop that doesn't come every bit a Retina model. Just like last year, the thirteen-inch version has a 1,440 x 900 pixel screen. That'southward not all that far off the resolution of the 4.seven-inch, i,344x 750 pixel iPhone 6s. Not actually good enough is information technology?

Laptops have taken an age to really start communicable-up with the high-dpi fashion of tablets and phones, but at present that a bunch of models are 'Retina-grade', the MacBook Air thirteen looks a bit musty. Information technology's not just nearly resolution, either. The MacBook Air 13 has a TN blazon display where the MacBook Pro and MacBook have IPS screens, the same kind you'd run into on a tablet or phone.

While Apple uses pretty keen TN panels, they just tin't provide as good color equally the MacBook Pro'due south screens. Information technology looks a bit washed-out in comparison, and the display looks outright bad when it's tilted back or forward too much, thank you to something chosen dissimilarity shift.

This screen is proof that the 2016 MacBook Air represents either just another stop-gap model ahead of a much more serious overhaul, or a slow retiring of the 'Air' line altogether. Our estimate is that it's the latter option. The Air feels a lot like Apple's iPod Touch nowadays, it's old-fashioned simply still sells well enough to justify its existence.

Upwards all night

If you want a laptop to double-up as a TV, a slave to Netflix and iPlayer, nosotros strongly recommend looking for a laptop with a higher-res IPS screen. The difference is obvious, and pretty big. Even so, not anybody needs a laptop that looks amend than their Tv set. And if you spend more than time hopping betwixt coffee shops than sat at home watching old episodes of Poirot, the MacBook Air has a killer hook: its bombardment life is amazing. The MacBook Air's stamina has ever been great just, as per last year'south model, the 2016 edition lasts for up to 12 hours.

I used as a chief computer for a few days and found information technology tin easily last a full day'south piece of work unless you lot're a certifiable workaholic. Nothing in Apple tree'south laptop range can touch the xiii-inch MacBook Air: non the MacBook Pro, not fifty-fifty the 'virtually all-battery' new MacBook. Information technology'south immensely practical. We yet accept a lot of love for the MacBook Air trackpad and keyboard, too. No, it doesn't take the fancy pressure-sensitive trackpad of the new MacBook Pro, or the Butterfly keyboard of the new MacBook. Just it's non a trouble unless you dwell on it.

The keyboard is large and responsive enough to type on all day, and the trackpad notwithstanding squishes about Windows rivals for effectiveness. It merely feels so good and responds so well. I will acknowledge, though: the new trackpad would take been nice. This one uses a hinged clicky design where the new version replaces a concrete motility with a not-moving pad, a force per unit area-sensing panel underneath and pure haptic feedback. It doesn't feel radically dissimilar, simply offers secondary functions such as previewing web pages in Safari when you lot push downward extra-difficult.

Information technology'due south pretty smart, and will almost certainly feature in any takes the baton from this 2016 MacBook Air.

Apple MacBook Air 13in (2015) Verdict

Apple tree is scraping by for yet another year with what is the same MacBook Air blueprint as before, simply with 8GB RAM every bit standard. If y'all were waiting for the Retina MacBook Air, this is non it.

The screen engineering science looks seriously dated at this signal, specially when Apple packs such fantastic displays into its other MacBook ranges, so make certain searingly abrupt images aren't too high on your priority list earlier ownership. All the same, if a portable road warrior is what you're later on, this is notwithstanding a slap-up option.

Yes, the new MacBook is slimmer and lighter, but the Air remains pretty skinny, offers superb stamina and has enough power for some pretty serious on-the-go duties.

Buy the Apple MacBook Air 13in (2016) hither

Tech specs

Bone	OS Ten
Screen	13in TN LCD with 1440×900 resolution
CPU	i.6GHz Intel Cadre i5
GPU	Intel Hard disk drive 6000
RAM	8GB
Storage	128/256 GB SSD
Optical	None
Connectivity	802.11ac, USB 3.0 (x2), Thunderbolt 2.0, SD
Dimensions	32.5 x 22.vii x 1.7cm
Weight	1.35kg