MacBook Air 2018 review: all the right tech, but who exactly is it for?

Classic Apple build quality; high-quality trackpad; great Touch ID pad; good battery life

Expensive; screen is not that bright; fairly poor power per pound

The appeal of the MacBook Air was obvious for several years. It was significantly cheaper than the MacBook Pro, but still had enough power and a large enough screen to function as a portable workhorse laptop. It was best laptop you could buy for quite some time.

This new MacBook Air is overdue by almost half a decade. But its appearance doesn’t quite bring back the old appeal of the Air line.

It’s £50 more than the 12-inch MacBook. It’s just £50 less than the entry-level MacBook Pro. And anyone wanting to do serious work on it should seriously consider the £200 upgrade to the version with 256GB SSD, bringing the total to £1,399.

Despite being around 100g lighter than a 13-inch Pro model and a little more powerful than the small MacBook, all the Apple laptop lines feel a little too close for comfort. As a consequence, unlike the original, the Air has no concrete personality. It’s not exceedingly light, nor overly powerful.

However, for many buyers it will still satisfy completely. Its build quality is superb, the screen radically better than that of the old Air, and for some the excellent speakers will be noticed far more often than the lack of power.

Design

Apple’s build quality is easy to take for granted if you don’t spend the year comparing countless Windows laptops of varying quality. Many of those dip if you press the keyboard too hard, flex if you pick them up by one end.