Why Does the MacBook Air Exist in 2017?

- Hey guys, this is Austin.
My voice might be gone, but what isn't is the MacBook Air.
Why does it still exist in 2017?
Surprisingly Apple released a new version of the
MacBook Air this week.
It's a pretty minor upgrade, but for a computer that's
essentially been around unchanged since 2010,
that's not bad.
What's interesting about the Air is that this is
actually still one of the most popular
Macs that Apple sells.
So while they have updated most of their other more
modern Macs, I think a lot of people look at the Air
and say, yeah, that's all I need.
Inside we get the Air itself.
Now to be fair, this design really has not changed
since 2010, but it's still a nice looking laptop.
So it's all metal and it's maybe not quite as nice
as something like some of the newer MacBooks,
but this is not an old, terrible piece of hardware at all.
One nice thing that hasn't changed is MagSafe.
So while there are a lot of advantages to going with
USB-C and Thunderbolt, there's something really nice
about having a magnetic cable that, if you say, trip
and fall over your cable,
And yes, I'm looking at you, Ken.
(crashing)
Open up the Air and you should see
that it looks very familiar.
Now that's not a huge downside.
So the keyboard, the track pad,
and especially the build quality does feel good.
And especially in 2010, this was pretty solid.
But when you're buying a laptop that literally came
out today and it looks exactly the same as something
that came out seven years ago, you've got a problem.
The first thing that jumps out to me when using
this Air, is how bad the screen is.
So while some things from 2010 holdup pretty well,
that TN panel definitely does not.
So it has a 13.3-inch display
with a 1,440 by 900 resolution.
Low, but not the end of the world.
However, the color, and especially with the viewing angles
here, are terrible.
I mean, look at this.
You can barely see it.
I get it straight you can kind of see it a little bit.
But it's so bad.
For a thousand dollar laptop, this should be a deal breaker.
So to put things in perspective, this is the LG Gram.
And I'm gonna be doing a video on this soon,
but this is also a thousand dollar laptop.
And when you go look at the screen on this
compared to the MacBook Air, it's not even close.
Now if Apple wants to keep selling
the MacBook Air in 2017, by all means go ahead.
There are legitimate advantages to having a MacBook
like this still around.
But the fact that they have not updated the screen
in this many years and it looks this bad, is crazy.
If this screen was on a $200 laptop
I would complain about it.
On a thousand dollar laptop? No.
To be fair, it's not all bad with the MacBook Air.
So this is the new 12-inch MacBook.
Now this is kind of the successor to the Air
and it is a very small and thin laptop.
And when you put it side-by-side with the Air,
you'll see that it is a much, much smaller laptop.
It's definitely not perfect though.
So this is a USB-C port.
While that's a nice thing to have on a laptop,
it is the only port on the 12-inch MacBook.
Now that can cause some big problems when it comes
to using one single port to not only charge the computer
but connect to an external monitor,
connect to USB accessories, it all has to happen
through this single port.
Whereas on the 13-inch Air, that is not a problem.
This guy has a mini DisplayPort that also doubles
as Thunderbolt 2, a full size USB 3, SD card reader,
and on the flip side, you have one more USB 3 port,
as well as the MagSafe power adapter.
So while the MacBook Air is not the perfect laptop
it definitely is not dongle life ready.
The Air has seen an update for 2017, but the upgrade
is incredibly minor.
So it's gone from a 1.6 to a 1.8 gigahertz
Core i5 processor, but it still has the same eight gigabytes
of memory and 128 gigs of SSD storage.
What hasn't changed is the actual processors inside.
So the Air's still rocking a 5th Gen Core processor,
whereas pretty much all of the MacBooks and most Windows
laptops these days are on the 7th Gen.
It really feels like an upgrade just to say, hey look guys,
we can put the 2017 badge on it now.
Take a look at performance and the Air
has definitely fallen behind.
So not only is it slower than the 12-inch MacBook,
which has a much lower power Core m3 processor.
It's also much slower than the LG Gram, which is
about the same price, but has a much newer Core i5.
To be fair, performance is not the be all, end all
for the MacBook Air.
One of the other big advantages here is battery life.
So with the way the 13-inch is specced with it's
fairly large battery, you should expect around 14 hours
on a charge, which is really solid.
The only issue is other laptops, such as the Gram,
have absolutely caught up to that number.
One area where the Air definitely does hold up is
with the keyboard and trackpad.
So the keyboard itself actually still feels pretty decent.
I slightly prefer what you get on the newer MacBooks.
But I do think a lot of people like the extra
key travel.
And the trackpad is good.
So again, it's not quite as new and quite as nice
as some of the newer Force Touch trackpads,
but I still feel like this is a better trackpad
than pretty much any Windows laptop you can buy.
When it comes to actually using the Air,
it does feel reasonably snappy.
So yes, if you look at it compared to something else
on a benchmark, it's not going to be as fast.
For more basic usage like web browsing, which honestly
is probably what everyone does on MacBook Airs anyway,
it does feel pretty good.
The screen definitely does let it down, but besides
that it's a pretty solid machine.
The value proposition with the MacBook Air
is a little bit weird.
So on one hand it's $300 cheaper than any other MacBook
that you could pick up.
On the other, it hasn't really been thoroughly updated
in quite a few years.
It also only comes with a 128 gigabyte SSD
in the base configuration.
Now if this is just your Facebook machine,
then sure, that can work out.
But other than that, once you start upgrading it
it just doesn't make any sense.
The MacBook Air was a really impressive laptop
when it came out in 2010.
However, if you're buying a new laptop in 2017,
it just doesn't make sense.
So what do you guys think about the MacBook Air?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you in the next one.

Why Does the MacBook Air Exist in 2017?

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