The New Retina 13-Inch MacBook Air: A Return to Form
In 2020, Apple made a return to form with the new Retina 13-inch MacBook Air, which is now considered the true go-to machine for almost everyone. The machine's design remains largely unchanged, with the same True Tone Retina display, same ports on the side, and even the headphone jack stuck around on the right-hand side. While this may seem like a minor upgrade, it's actually a deliberate choice by Apple to maintain consistency and familiarity.
The biggest change, however, is under the hood. The new MacBook Air boasts a more powerful processor, which has been upgraded from the dual-core i5 in previous generations to a dual-core i3 processor with a clock speed of 1.1 GHz. Despite this decrease in processing power, Apple's tenth-generation Intel chips have actually improved performance over their predecessors. In our tests, we consistently saw the new MacBook Air outperforming its predecessor on both single and multi-core tasks.
The keyboard is another area where significant improvements have been made. Gone is the butterfly switch mechanism that had received bad press due to reliability issues. Instead, Apple has adopted a tried-and-true scissor switch mechanism that provides a solid click with about one millimeter of key travel. This new design is softer and quieter than its predecessor, making it a welcome change for users who have experienced the frustrations of the butterfly switch.
Storage capacity has also been increased, with the base model now starting at 256GB of storage, up from the 128GB of previous generations. This is significant, as many users would have had to rely on external storage or apps that took up a lot of space in order to make use of their laptop's internal storage. With the doubling of storage capacity, users can now enjoy more free space for their apps and operating system.
The graphics capabilities have also been upgraded, with the new MacBook Air featuring Intel Iris Plus graphics. While this may not be as exciting as some of Apple's other designs, it's worth noting that these graphics are capable of handling 6K displays, which may become more important in the future. In our tests, we saw the new MacBook Air consistently outperforming its predecessor on graphics tasks, with read speeds around 1-2 GB/s and write speeds around 500-600 MB/s.
Finally, it's worth noting that Apple has introduced a higher-end storage option for the MacBook Air, up to 2 terabytes of internal space. This is a significant upgrade over previous generations, which had limited storage options. With this new higher-end model, users can now choose from a range of storage capacities to suit their needs.
Overall, the new Retina 13-inch MacBook Air represents a return to form for Apple's portable lineup. It addresses some of the shortcomings of its predecessors, including improved performance, reliability, and graphics capabilities. While it may not be the flashiest design, this machine is solid, well-loved, and ready to take on whatever tasks users throw at it.
**Additional Information**
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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe MacBook Air is commonly known to be the go-to model in Apple's portable lineup it is capable it is affordable it's got a great design and it's compact but 2019 wasn't off year there was still a lot of bad press about the keyboard whether or not it was true or not we didn't get a processor upgrade and the SSD was even slower the upgrades were minor but in 2020 Apple is making a return to form the new Retina 13-inch MacBook Air is the true go-to machine and the one that will fulfilled the needs for almost everyone out there it is more affordable more powerful more impressive than ever let's go ahead and dive into it as you can tell the machine pretty much looks like it did before it's got the same design the same true tone Retina display the same ports on the side even the headphone jack on the right hand side stuck around for at least another iteration but beyond that quite a bit has changed starting off with a keyboard now with the previous generation model and a couple before that Apple was using their butterfly switch mechanism which had a quite a bit of bad press the original one seemed to spike with a good number of repairs having to be made and over time Apple tried to improve that reliability and based on our data they had but the perception was still out there people just did not trust that keyboard and we saw people putting off of buying the 2019 MacBook Air because they wanted to wait for an updated keyboard well with the 16 inch MacBook Pro that is what Apple delivered with the magic keyboard and that new keyboard has also right here in the updated MacBook Air so whether you loved or hated that butterfly switch design the new tried-and-true scissor switch mechanism is here to stay it has about one millimeter of key travel it has a good solid click but it's a little bit softer and quieter than previous designs another great improvement on this machine is the base storage has been doubled from 128 to 256 this is huge because at least 25 gigs or so was already going to your base install apps in the operating system which means if you previously picked up 128 machine you had maybe gigs or so of space to actually use so doubling that is going to be great for anyone picking up the new machines nothing to pay any extra money now it's turn to performance the base model now starts out with a dual core i3 processor instead of the dual core i5 processor of the previous generation but here's the thing because these are the new tenth generation Intel chips they actually have better performance over that previous generation so even though this is an i3 and a lower 1.1 gigahertz clock speed it's actually going to outperform that previous generation we run the test multiple times and we were always averaging just above about 1100 or so on the single core and around 2400 there on the multi-core test compared to the previous generation which earned a 740 and a 1663 both up significantly then we turned to test the graphics using the compute benchmark and switching it to metal we ran this with a new Intel iris plus graphics which is different than the Intel UHD 617 graphics of the prior gen also to note the new updated graphics can handle 6k displays that may not be as important now but over time more people will be adopting them it's good to have that future-proofed in now in our benchmarks which again we ran multiple times between a 5800 to 6300 which is far above the 711 that we continuously got on the prior gen now when it comes to the SSD we have both a larger base model as well as a new higher-end option so you can put 256 K at the start and go all up to 2 terabytes if you need that much internal space as far as the benchmarks to go we saw roughly the same as the previous generation just around a gig when it comes to the right speeds and about 1.3 ish on the read speed unfortunately that still leaves the 2018 MacBook Air is still having a slightly faster SSD so we take a step back of the MacBook Air and we look at that last generation again what were its shortcomings well that bay storage was not great it hadn't received a processor upgrade the keyboard was marred with bad press but otherwise it was a solid well loved machine and we look at the new 2020 model while it may not be flashy it has fixed all of those issues has a new more reliable imagine keyboard it has the updated processes that are significantly faster better graphics can support a 6k display nube storage and higher-end storage this is a re-emergence as the king of Apple's portable lineup if you want to grab one for yourself you can find the best prices at the link down below in the description hey everyone did you guys like that video be sure to click on that like button so we can create content that we know that you guys want to see and follow Apple Insider on all social media channels if you want the best prices on any Apple gear check out the Apple Insider price guide that is updated daily and until next time we'll see you laterthe MacBook Air is commonly known to be the go-to model in Apple's portable lineup it is capable it is affordable it's got a great design and it's compact but 2019 wasn't off year there was still a lot of bad press about the keyboard whether or not it was true or not we didn't get a processor upgrade and the SSD was even slower the upgrades were minor but in 2020 Apple is making a return to form the new Retina 13-inch MacBook Air is the true go-to machine and the one that will fulfilled the needs for almost everyone out there it is more affordable more powerful more impressive than ever let's go ahead and dive into it as you can tell the machine pretty much looks like it did before it's got the same design the same true tone Retina display the same ports on the side even the headphone jack on the right hand side stuck around for at least another iteration but beyond that quite a bit has changed starting off with a keyboard now with the previous generation model and a couple before that Apple was using their butterfly switch mechanism which had a quite a bit of bad press the original one seemed to spike with a good number of repairs having to be made and over time Apple tried to improve that reliability and based on our data they had but the perception was still out there people just did not trust that keyboard and we saw people putting off of buying the 2019 MacBook Air because they wanted to wait for an updated keyboard well with the 16 inch MacBook Pro that is what Apple delivered with the magic keyboard and that new keyboard has also right here in the updated MacBook Air so whether you loved or hated that butterfly switch design the new tried-and-true scissor switch mechanism is here to stay it has about one millimeter of key travel it has a good solid click but it's a little bit softer and quieter than previous designs another great improvement on this machine is the base storage has been doubled from 128 to 256 this is huge because at least 25 gigs or so was already going to your base install apps in the operating system which means if you previously picked up 128 machine you had maybe gigs or so of space to actually use so doubling that is going to be great for anyone picking up the new machines nothing to pay any extra money now it's turn to performance the base model now starts out with a dual core i3 processor instead of the dual core i5 processor of the previous generation but here's the thing because these are the new tenth generation Intel chips they actually have better performance over that previous generation so even though this is an i3 and a lower 1.1 gigahertz clock speed it's actually going to outperform that previous generation we run the test multiple times and we were always averaging just above about 1100 or so on the single core and around 2400 there on the multi-core test compared to the previous generation which earned a 740 and a 1663 both up significantly then we turned to test the graphics using the compute benchmark and switching it to metal we ran this with a new Intel iris plus graphics which is different than the Intel UHD 617 graphics of the prior gen also to note the new updated graphics can handle 6k displays that may not be as important now but over time more people will be adopting them it's good to have that future-proofed in now in our benchmarks which again we ran multiple times between a 5800 to 6300 which is far above the 711 that we continuously got on the prior gen now when it comes to the SSD we have both a larger base model as well as a new higher-end option so you can put 256 K at the start and go all up to 2 terabytes if you need that much internal space as far as the benchmarks to go we saw roughly the same as the previous generation just around a gig when it comes to the right speeds and about 1.3 ish on the read speed unfortunately that still leaves the 2018 MacBook Air is still having a slightly faster SSD so we take a step back of the MacBook Air and we look at that last generation again what were its shortcomings well that bay storage was not great it hadn't received a processor upgrade the keyboard was marred with bad press but otherwise it was a solid well loved machine and we look at the new 2020 model while it may not be flashy it has fixed all of those issues has a new more reliable imagine keyboard it has the updated processes that are significantly faster better graphics can support a 6k display nube storage and higher-end storage this is a re-emergence as the king of Apple's portable lineup if you want to grab one for yourself you can find the best prices at the link down below in the description hey everyone did you guys like that video be sure to click on that like button so we can create content that we know that you guys want to see and follow Apple Insider on all social media channels if you want the best prices on any Apple gear check out the Apple Insider price guide that is updated daily and until next time we'll see you later\n"
