Apple cuts updated MacBook Air price to $999 for students

Posted:
in General Discussion edited July 2019
Apple has just reduced the entry-level cost of the MacBook Air by $100 for all users and a further $100 for students. Plus it's added the True Tone technology to its display, as part of its Back to School promotion.

New MacBook Air
New MacBook Air


Alongside introducing speed-bumped MacBook Pro models and seemingly dropping the MacBook, Apple has also upgraded the MacBook Air -- and given it a considerable price cut.

The entry-level price of the Air was previously $1,199 but it is now $1,099 -- and there's a $999 option for students. Alongside the price change, the MacBook Air display now includes Apple's True Tone technology.

The previously-available $999 older generation of the MacBook Air is no longer available. The only models now on sale are the 13-inch revised Retina display versions.

The entry-level $1,099 model has a 1.6GHz dual core eighth-generation Intel Core i5 and ships with 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory and 128GN SSD storage.

The $1,299 model has the same specifications but comes with 256GB SSD storage.

"College students love the Mac -- it's the notebook they rely on from the dorm room to the classroom, and the No. 1 choice among higher education students," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac Product Marketing in a statement.

"With a lower $999 student price for MacBook Air and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with faster performance, Touch Bar and Touch ID at $1,199 for students, there's never been a better time to bring a Mac to college," he continued.






As with the revised MacBook Pro models, students who buy the new MacBook Air will also receive a pair of wireless Beats headphones.
h4y3schia
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    h4y3sh4y3s Posts: 82member
    That’s a terrific price. These will sell well. 
    chiap-dogfruitstandninjaAppleExposed
  • Reply 2 of 22
    ziadjkziadjk Posts: 55member
    I personally have yet to meet anyone who likes the touchbar..
    Rayerlkrupp
  • Reply 3 of 22
    HPDKHPDK Posts: 7member
    And the keyboard?

    Still the cheap flimsy butterfly kind?
    Rayer
  • Reply 4 of 22
    p-dogp-dog Posts: 131member
    In the face of this terrific news, I saw the typical hate-bags at MR come out of their rat holes to complain, especially about the Touchbar, which I love, by the way. I guess price cuts, with formerly pricey add-ons now included, are somehow...bad?
    macplusplusandrewj5790chia
  • Reply 5 of 22
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,032member
    ziadjk said:
    I personally have yet to meet anyone who likes the touchbar..
    We haven’t met.  I suspects lots of people are like me.  Always liked the touchbar.  Couldn’t see paying so much to get one.  Today’s news is great news. 
    caladanianchiacurtis hannah
  • Reply 6 of 22
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,036member
    Still a sealed shut battery compartment and vampire video (Intel graphics), right?
    Still no USB 3 ports, right?

    No thanks.
  • Reply 7 of 22
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,036member
    p-dog said:
    In the face of this terrific news, I saw the typical hate-bags at MR come out of their rat holes to complain, especially about the Touchbar, which I love, by the way. I guess price cuts, with formerly pricey add-ons now included, are somehow...bad?
    How about throwing away the gizmo bar, restoring the user replaceable battery, memory and a couple of USB 3 ports?
    That would be progress.
    Latkoavon b71STnTENDERBITS
  • Reply 8 of 22
    jbishop1039jbishop1039 Posts: 257member
    I can see iOS 12.4 being released today too. Which will enable the soon to be released Apple Card, which can be used to purchase all of these fine new BTS deals. 
    caladanian
  • Reply 9 of 22
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,032member
    davgreg said:
    p-dog said:
    In the face of this terrific news, I saw the typical hate-bags at MR come out of their rat holes to complain, especially about the Touchbar, which I love, by the way. I guess price cuts, with formerly pricey add-ons now included, are somehow...bad?
    How about throwing away the gizmo bar, restoring the user replaceable battery, memory and a couple of USB 3 ports?
    That would be progress.
    Don’t take this wrong, I am middle aged and I suspect you are too. The target market for these machines doesn’t want those things. USB 3? Really?
    doctwelveronn
  • Reply 10 of 22
    adbeadbe Posts: 29member
    davgreg said:
    Still a sealed shut battery compartment and vampire video (Intel graphics), right?
    Still no USB 3 ports, right?

    No thanks.
    It has USB 3 (3.1 in fact). USB A != USB 3.
    chiaronnfastasleep
  • Reply 11 of 22
    doctwelvedoctwelve Posts: 56member
    HPDK said:
    And the keyboard?

    Still the cheap flimsy butterfly kind?
    According to their site, it's still the butterfly keyboard. But "providing four times more key stability than a traditional scissor mechanism, along with greater comfort and responsiveness." :)

    I love the standalone keyboard you can buy for the imac or the mac mini, but have grown to dislike the butterfly more and more. Even the iPad keyboard case keys are nicer to type on. Sigh. 
  • Reply 12 of 22
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    First, you all need to say thank you Apple for price reduction. Than, mention/offer your improvement suggestions like having more than 2 USB ports(at least one on right side),different/improved keyboard in work so stop complaining, touchbar is mostly not lovable but it is hit and miss, replaceable components like SSD,RAM,battery may not be feasible as weight and size reduction restricts for every laptops including Windows.
    ronn
  • Reply 13 of 22
    zimmiezimmie Posts: 651member
    The differences I see now between the low-end MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, MBP advantage to MBA advantage (no particular order within each group):
    • MBP's integrated video has 128 MB of eDRAM (generally used as VRAM, but can be L4 cache)
    • MBP has Iris Plus 645 integrated video, while MBA has UHD 617
    • MBP has P3 color gamut
    • MBP has Bluetooth 5.0
    • MBP has Touch Bar
    • MBP backlight goes up to 500 nits; MBA is unlisted, so I assume it is unchanged at 300 nits
    • MBP has a 1.4 GHz nominal quad-core, MBA has a 1.6 GHz nominal dual-core
    • MBA is 0.27 pounds (4.3 ounces) lighter
    • MBA is $200 less when configured with the same RAM and SSD capacity
    • MBA has better sound
    $200 and a little weight for the better screen, better GPU, and eDRAM isn't too bad. I wonder what processor exactly the MBP uses. They both turbo up well above 3 GHz, so they should provide plenty of performance for most purposes. I expect the MBP to have better cooling, so it should be able to sustain that performance better.

    Edited to add: It isn't listed on the MacBook Air tech specs page, but when you compare the Air and the Pro, the Air is listed at 400 nits. I may have misremembered the previous model's max brightness, or it may have been increased a bit.
    edited July 2019 GG1fastasleep
  • Reply 14 of 22
    FatmanFatman Posts: 513member
    Only a narrow minded person would think that a row of static, limited function keys are better than a dynamic touch bar that changes with each application. Now that all Pro models include it, developers will further embrace the technology.
    caladanianchiamacplusplusAppleExposedronn
  • Reply 15 of 22
    andrewj5790andrewj5790 Posts: 296member
    ziadjk said:
    I personally have yet to meet anyone who likes the touchbar..
    You just did. Nice to meet you.
    caladaniandoctwelvejdb8167chiaAppleExposedronn
  • Reply 16 of 22
    ziadjk said:
    I personally have yet to meet anyone who likes the touchbar..
    to do that, you'd have to leave your parents basement
    AppleExposedfastasleep
  • Reply 17 of 22
    davgreg said:
    Still a sealed shut battery compartment and vampire video (Intel graphics), right?
    Still no USB 3 ports, right?

    No thanks.
    Have you been trapped in a time capsule for the last 7 years? Macs have had USB3 for that long. I'm typing on a 2012 MBP right now with USB3.

    I think the last USB2 model was sold some time in 2014. Might have been 2013.
    ronn
  • Reply 18 of 22
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,693member
    zimmie said:
    The differences I see now between the low-end MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, MBP advantage to MBA advantage (no particular order within each group):
    • MBP's integrated video has 128 MB of eDRAM (generally used as VRAM, but can be L4 cache)
    • MBP has Iris Plus 645 integrated video, while MBA has UHD 617
    • MBP has P3 color gamut
    • MBP has Bluetooth 5.0
    • MBP has Touch Bar
    • MBP backlight goes up to 500 nits; MBA is unlisted, so I assume it is unchanged at 300 nits
    • MBP has a 1.4 GHz nominal quad-core, MBA has a 1.6 GHz nominal dual-core
    • MBA is 0.27 pounds (4.3 ounces) lighter
    • MBA is $200 less when configured with the same RAM and SSD capacity
    • MBA has better sound
    $200 and a little weight for the better screen, better GPU, and eDRAM isn't too bad. I wonder what processor exactly the MBP uses. They both turbo up well above 3 GHz, so they should provide plenty of performance for most purposes. I expect the MBP to have better cooling, so it should be able to sustain that performance better.

    Edited to add: It isn't listed on the MacBook Air tech specs page, but when you compare the Air and the Pro, the Air is listed at 400 nits. I may have misremembered the previous model's max brightness, or it may have been increased a bit.
    "MBA has better sound" => As far as I'm aware the speaker system is the same between the MBA and low-end MBP, at least according to Apple's website.

    For $200 more, I would definitely go for the low-end MBP at this point. You get so much more not just in terms of features but performance as well.
    ronn
  • Reply 19 of 22
    zimmiezimmie Posts: 651member
    zimmie said:
    The differences I see now between the low-end MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, MBP advantage to MBA advantage (no particular order within each group):
    • MBP's integrated video has 128 MB of eDRAM (generally used as VRAM, but can be L4 cache)
    • MBP has Iris Plus 645 integrated video, while MBA has UHD 617
    • MBP has P3 color gamut
    • MBP has Bluetooth 5.0
    • MBP has Touch Bar
    • MBP backlight goes up to 500 nits; MBA is unlisted, so I assume it is unchanged at 300 nits
    • MBP has a 1.4 GHz nominal quad-core, MBA has a 1.6 GHz nominal dual-core
    • MBA is 0.27 pounds (4.3 ounces) lighter
    • MBA is $200 less when configured with the same RAM and SSD capacity
    • MBA has better sound
    $200 and a little weight for the better screen, better GPU, and eDRAM isn't too bad. I wonder what processor exactly the MBP uses. They both turbo up well above 3 GHz, so they should provide plenty of performance for most purposes. I expect the MBP to have better cooling, so it should be able to sustain that performance better.

    Edited to add: It isn't listed on the MacBook Air tech specs page, but when you compare the Air and the Pro, the Air is listed at 400 nits. I may have misremembered the previous model's max brightness, or it may have been increased a bit.
    "MBA has better sound" => As far as I'm aware the speaker system is the same between the MBA and low-end MBP, at least according to Apple's website.

    For $200 more, I would definitely go for the low-end MBP at this point. You get so much more not just in terms of features but performance as well.
    When the Retina MacBook Air was released, they specifically commented that it had better sound than the then-current MacBook Pro lineup. This appears to be due to much larger resonant cavities in the enclosure, which the 13" and 15" MacBook Pro did not have. They might have changed the interior of the revamped low-end MBP, but I doubt it.
    fastasleep
  • Reply 20 of 22
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    ziadjk said:
    I personally have yet to meet anyone who likes the touchbar..

    Wrong thread dude.
    ronnfastasleep
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