Apple's new MacBook Air debuts at $999 with 256GB storage, quad-core options

AppleInsider

Apple has updated the MacBook Air with the new Magic Keyboard, up to a quad-core i7 processor, and a lower starting price.

Apple's new MacBook Air, updated on March 18, 2020

Apple says that the new MacBook Air delivers up to two times faster CPU performance and up to 80 percent faster graphics performance. At the $999 low-end, it ships with 256GB of storage, and a higher-end model has a quad-core option for the first time.

To get that speed, the new model features the latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors with up to a 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8GHz. Additionally, the new models have Intel Iris Plus Graphics, providing better performance than the previous model.

New Magic Keyboard on the 2020 MacBook Air

The MacBook Air refresh for the third time in a year features the new Magic Keyboard, first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. A redesigned scissor mechanism delivers 1mm of key travel, and the new inverted-T arrangement for the arrow keys.

The new model includes support for a 6K display over one of the two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the machine. Specifically, the new unit will support one 6K display, or one 5K display, or up to two 4K displays.

The FaceTime camera remains a 720p model, with a three-microphone array now included for more clear voice capture for FaceTime calls. Bluetooth 5.0 remains on the unit, as does 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking.

In conjunction with the MacBook Air release, Apple is also promising updates to the iWork suite, including iCloud folder sharing, and more.

The $999 MacBook Air model ships with a 1.1Ghz i3 processor with turbo speeds up to 3.2GHz, and 256GB of flash storage. A $1299 model comes with a quad-core i5 processor with turbo speeds up to 3.5 GHz and 512GB of flash storage.

The i7 model with 512GB of flash storage retails for $1449. Apple says that all configurations, including the education model for $899, will arrive between March 23 and March 25.

razorpit

Nice little laptop. I really wish they would have a 16" version. My wife is currently working off of an ancient 15" Pro (2006). She doesn't want a 13" because the screen is just a little bit too small for what she does and understandably doesn't want to be tied in to a monitor.

When she works from home she remotes in to her office desktop. While the new 16" MBP is awesome, it's overkill for what she does.

golfer12

Love the improvements, but where is the larger screen for adults?  Also, why not include wifi 6, which has been in the iPhone for months?

avon b7

At first glance, this looks like a very good move. The key takeaway for me is the keyboard.

bfranks

razorpit said:

Nice little laptop. I really wish they would have a 16" version. My wife is currently working off of an ancient 15" Pro (2006). She doesn't want a 13" because the screen is just a little bit too small for what she does and understandably doesn't want to be tied in to a monitor.

When she works from home she remotes in to her office desktop. While the new 16" MBP is awesome, it's overkill for what she does.

It’s a fine balance, I need a light weight machine as well because  a have back problems.  I have the 13” MacBook Air. Then I have a monitor at home and work.  When I’m on the road I use my iPad Pro as a second screen. 

neilm

golfer12 said:

Love the improvements, but where is the larger screen for adults?

On the shelf at a retailer near you, ready to be used on your desk. Many sizes and prices available.

These are ultra-portable laptops. A bigger screen would make the MBA not an ultra-portable. I've used a couple of the new 16" MBPs and they're lovely — but big.

entropys

The MBA is once again an excellent machine!

wood1208

Good job to replace keyboard and few things. With base 256GB SSD and $999 price point positioned it in sweet spot, the go-to most portable,reliable laptop. Wish it had more ports or at least on each side. Smaller bezel with 14.1 screen in the similar frame size would be fantastic.

Who knows but the next update to Macbook Air could be ARM based with the same price point and most features we want.

GeorgeBMac

avon b7 said:

At first glance, this looks like a very good move. The key takeaway for me is the keyboard.

Yes,  ABSOLUTELY!

But another is the upgrade to 256Gb storage in the base model.   With a soldered in non-upgradeable SSD, 128Gb simply wasn't enough.  Rather, it was a recipe for disaster when a user, falsely assuming Apple always does things right, spends a lot of money on an Apple product only to be told a short time later that he has to buy a replacement for it at even more money because the puny 128Gb SSD wasn't up to the task.

In fact, yesterday I upgraded my grandson's MBA from its original 128Gb to 512Gb so I could install Windows 10 under Bootcamp for him. 

That is why I intentionally bought a (new) 2017 MBA for him for Christmas -- a combination of the better keyboard and replaceable SSD.

Gobnu

Is there still a 14” MBP coming? Wonder in what ways it will differentiate from the top spec of this new MBA?

tommy65

Is it an 10th Ice-Lake CPU 9-,15- or 28W? I assume 15W?

Soli

golfer12 said:

Love the improvements, but where is the larger screen for adults?  Also, why not include wifi 6, which has been in the iPhone for months?

1) 13" isn't for adults? OK. :eyeroll:

2) Another reason why moving from Intel to ARM is a good move.

gatorguy

GeorgeBMac said:

avon b7 said:

At first glance, this looks like a very good move. The key takeaway for me is the keyboard.

Yes,  ABSOLUTELY!

But another is the upgrade to 256Gb storage in the base model.   With a soldered in non-upgradeable SSD, 128Gb simply wasn't enough.  Rather, it was a recipe for disaster when a user, falsely assuming Apple always does things right, spends a lot of money on an Apple product only to be told a short time later that he has to buy a replacement for it at even more money because the puny 128Gb SSD wasn't up to the task.

In fact, yesterday I upgraded my grandson's MBA from its original 128Gb to 512Gb so I could install Windows 10 under Bootcamp for him. 

That is why I intentionally bought a (new) 2017 MBA for him for Christmas -- a combination of the better keyboard and replaceable SSD.

I did not realize the SSD could not be upgraded.
That must be a marketing decision, and IMHO a silly one that most OEMs couldn't get away with without attracting vociferous complaints from reviewers and customers. 

tht

tommy65 said:

Is it an 10th Ice-Lake CPU 9-,15- or 28W? I assume 15W?

It looks like:

Core i3-1000G4, 2-core, 9W
Core i5-1030G7, 4-core, 12W (cTDP up from 0.8 to 1.1 GHz)
Core i7-1060G7, 4-core, 12W (cTDP up from 1.0 to 1.2 GHz)

Intel has 5 newly announced processors in ARK today, I think. I thought that the move to Ice Lake would finally convince me to recommend the MBA as a great machine to buy, but Apple has chosen pretty carefully here to not have it outperform the MBP13. It's a much better machine now over the 2018 model, and I would definitely recommend it, but I'm kind of meh on it.

It's still a machine for older students, or as a client-server machine for web and data workers.

eightzero

Kewl. Further price drops on the previous generation. 

substance

I've long argued that Apple needed their entry level laptop to come in at under $1K and stay there.  Not only does this latest MacBook Air update achieve that mark, with a retina display and 256GB SSD hard drive there isn't much reason left to upgrade it. 

My one concern is the fact that this (along with all of Apple's entry-level products) only comes with 8GB of RAM.  That seems like a bottleneck to me compared to everything else that comes built-in.  Am I correct that 8GB of RAM isn't much for even basic tasks you would expect to do on a laptop these days?

Eric_WVGG

substance said:

I've long argued that Apple needed their entry level laptop to come in at under $1K and stay there.  Not only does this latest MacBook Air update achieve that mark, with a retina display and 256GB SSD hard drive there isn't much reason left to upgrade it. 

My one concern is the fact that this (along with all of Apple's entry-level products) only comes with 8GB of RAM.  That seems like a bottleneck to me compared to everything else that comes built-in.  Am I correct that 8GB of RAM isn't much for even basic tasks you would expect to do on a laptop these days?

I agree very much. The old "toilet seat" iBook did a lot to enable "switchers." $1000 is the sweet spot.

I disagree re: RAM, in fact I think it matters less than ever. 8gb is plenty for web + word processing + spreadsheets. Given the fast virtual memory performance of SSDs, I think you'd even find 4gb mostly usable unless you're a web tab fiend or use iCloud a lot.

substance

gatorguy said:

I did not realize the SSD could not be upgraded.
That must be a marketing decision, and IMHO a silly one that most OEMs couldn't get away with without attracting vociferous complaints from reviewers and customers. 

Apple went this direction years ago to achieve the thinnest laptop possible.  For the consumer-level portables I think it's a good decision, for pro-level customers I'm not convinced.  But with ample options for portable storage these days - microSD cards, USB Flash drives, cloud storage - having a lot of on-board storage isn't the roadblock it used to be either.  Having labored with only 128GB storage on a laptop before, having a minimum of 256GB storage is huge step up and should be enough for most users of a consumer-level laptop.

linkman

razorpit said:

Nice little laptop. I really wish they would have a 16" version. My wife is currently working off of an ancient 15" Pro (2006). She doesn't want a 13" because the screen is just a little bit too small for what she does and understandably doesn't want to be tied in to a monitor.

When she works from home she remotes in to her office desktop. While the new 16" MBP is awesome, it's overkill for what she does.

I also need the larger screen size than the 13" but don't need the power of the MBP (and the hefty price tag that goes with it). A 15" or 16" MBA would be marvelous. I ended up buying a 15" 2015 MBP to replace the 2009 one I had been using.

docno42

Wow - the upgrades I was looking for.  Now to just save up for the tricked out model I really want!

tht said:

It's still a machine for older students, or as a client-server machine for web and data workers.

And the iPad is only a content consumption device    Just stop with the banal categorizations.  Enough already. 

linkman

Eric_WVGG said:

substance said:

I've long argued that Apple needed their entry level laptop to come in at under $1K and stay there.  Not only does this latest MacBook Air update achieve that mark, with a retina display and 256GB SSD hard drive there isn't much reason left to upgrade it. 

My one concern is the fact that this (along with all of Apple's entry-level products) only comes with 8GB of RAM.  That seems like a bottleneck to me compared to everything else that comes built-in.  Am I correct that 8GB of RAM isn't much for even basic tasks you would expect to do on a laptop these days?

I agree very much. The old "toilet seat" iBook did a lot to enable "switchers." $1000 is the sweet spot.

I disagree re: RAM, in fact I think it matters less than ever. 8gb is plenty for web + word processing + spreadsheets. Given the fast virtual memory performance of SSDs, I think you'd even find 4gb mostly usable unless you're a web tab fiend or use iCloud a lot.

I have to use Chrome at work (on a Windows-only machine). 8 GB is barely enough even with only a few tabs open. I constantly have to manage memory on it so performance doesn't go down the tubes. Considering how poor a job that most developers do with creating applications that are efficient it is quite necessary to have a minimum of 8 GB and preferably 16+ GB for future-proofing if the RAM cannot be upgraded. Part of the blame with inefficiency lies with the software environments -- I have run across a lot of Visual Basic programs that do very little, take 1 GB of RAM, need 2 GB of install space, plus the environment needed to run them requires a gigantic amount of disk space.    

I'm running Chrome on my Mac right now with two tabs open -- 522 MB of RAM in use. Looking at Safari right now and it's not much better.