Apple’s MacBook Air Gets True Tone Display, Lower Price Tag
by Anton Shilov on July 9, 2019 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Apple
- MacBook Air
- Laptops
- Amber Lake
Apple on Tuesday introduced updated versions of its entry-level MacBook Air notebooks. Apple’s mid-2019 MacBook Air laptops feature the company’s True Tone displays and lower price tags when compared to their predecessors introduced last October. Separately, Apple discontinued its 2017 MacBook Air machines that featured previous-generation design.
Apple’s mid-2019 MacBook Air notebooks come in silver, space gray as well as gold colors and are based on Intel’s low-voltage 8th Gen dual-core Core i5 processor with UHD Graphics 617 (previously known as codenamed Amber Lake Y), the same chip used for late-2018 MBA models. Depending on exact configuration, the new MacBook Airs can be equipped with 8 GB or 16 GB of LPDDR3 memory as well as a 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB PCIe SSD.
The key difference between the 2018 and 2019 MacBook Air laptops is their display. The notebooks to use a 13.3-inch IPS panel featuring a 2560x1600 resolution and a 227 PPI pixel density. Meanwhile, the new machines support True Tone technology that automatically adjusts white balance depending on the surrounding environment and lighting.
Other notable features of Apple’s latest-generation MacBook Air notebooks include two Thunderbolt 3 ports, 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2 controller, a large trackpad, the Apple T2 chip, Touch ID fingerprint reader, and everything else that you come to expect from a modern mobile PC.
Traditionally, Apple’s MacBook air are among the thinnest and lightest notebooks around at 1.56 cm z-height as well as 1.25 kilograms. Because Apple’s MacBook Air uses Intel’s low-power CPU and comes with a 49.9 Wh battery, it can work on one charge for up to 12 hours, which is longer when compared to 13.3-inch MacBook Pro machines.
| MacBook Air Specifications | |||||
| Model | 2019 (Base) | 2018 (Base) | 2017 (Base) | ||
| Dimensions | 0.41 - 1.56 cm x 30.4 cm x 21.2 cm | 0.30 - 1.7 cm x 32.5 cm x 22.7 cm | |||
| Weight | 2.75 lbs (1.25 kg) | 2.96 lbs (1.35 kg) | |||
| CPU | 1.6 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo) Core i5 2 CPU Cores |
1.8GHz (2.9GHz Turbo) Core i5-5350U 2 CPU Cores |
|||
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 617 | Intel HD Graphics 6000 | |||
| Display | 13.3-inch 2560x1600 IPS LCD DCI-P3 with True Tone |
13.3-inch 2560x1600 IPS LCD DCI-P3 |
13.3-inch 1440x900 TN LCD | ||
| Memory | 8GB LPDDR3-2133 | 8GB LPDDR3-1600 | |||
| SSD | 128GB PCIe SSD | 128GB PCIe SSD | |||
| I/O | 2x USB 3.1 Type-C w/Thunderbolt 3 3.5mm Audio Touch ID |
2x USB 3.0 Type-A 1x Thunderbolt 2 SDXC Card Reader 3.5mm Audio |
|||
| Battery Capacity | 49.9 Wh | 50.3 Wh | 54 Wh | ||
| Battery Life | 12 Hours | 12 Hours | |||
| Price | $1099 | $1199 | $999 | ||
In a bid to make its MacBook Air laptops more popular, Apple slashed price of the entry-level model by $100 and from now on it will be available for $1,099 (down from $1,199 previously). In addition, qualifying students in the USA can get the new MBA starting at $999.
Related Reading:
- Apple Announces 2018 MacBook Air: Entry-Level Laptop Gets Essential Refresh
- Apple Refreshes Mac Laptops: Pro, Vanilla, & Air All Get New CPUs
Source: Apple
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Alistair - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
128GB PCIe SSD... *eyerollTen years later and you get the same amount of storage. Apple can't afford the $10 to upgrade you to 256GB. I really hate what they have become. It's a long time since every student knew the Macbook Air was the best deal.
DanNeely - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
It only has 8 gigs of ram. That means it's just an over glorified cat-tube player, a 128gb ssd is plenty for that role.uhuznaa - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
I got an MBA earlier this year at work and it works totally fine with 8 GB RAM. Office, email, browser, sysadmin stuff (ssh, shell scripts), a VM with Windows 10 for a couple of programs, lots of coding (usually with VS Code). No problem at all. And the SSD is blazingly fast. I actually was a bit wary at first, but then I was positively surprised by this thing. Love it now.Many people don't need lots of storage, they're streaming everything and/or use the cloud or local file servers. Like it or hate it, but even in the base configuration it's a really nice and capable machine. Certainly not for number crunching, but otherwise it's a surprisingly convincing product. Well, at least that's my experience with using it since 6 months to get things done.
PeachNCream - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Confirming that ssh sessions to remote systems can be extremely memory intensive for the local terminal. Can eat hundreds of kilobytes of RAM at a time.uhuznaa - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Yeah, funny. Are you saying that this thing is Ok for work but nothing else? Or what? Just tell me of your experiences instead of that, may be more useful.GreenReaper - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Fast-scrolling text (which is, after all, rendered locally as graphics) can cause serious CPU usage.coburn_c - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
A Windows VM with 128GB of storage and 8GB of ram? Potatoes gonna potato.uhuznaa - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
I need this Windows VM for two business apps. Works totally frictionless and if either Windows or one of the apps get wrecked I just restore the machine and continue getting things done. Maybe a potato but it's a slick potato. Also it's really nice to switch between macOS and effing Windows with a four-finger swipe.Shekels - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
People like you bother me because you have no clue what you're talking about. I dislike apple and think their laptops are garbage, but 8gb of RAM is plenty. My laptop had 6gb of ram however I'm able to have 30 chrome tabs open, 3 word documents, 5 Excel documents open each with their multitude of sheets, and 4k YouTube running in the background. Maybe if you're working on rendering or making music then yeah it's not enough but that's like 0.01% of the population who uses these things.ThePanos - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
yep you're totally right, 8gb RAM is absolutely fine in 90% of test cases. 128gb of SSD space, however, is totally unacceptable in 2019.