For Anyone Thinking of Getting a 2018 MacBook Air

[nickyr]

I was recently in the position of wanting to replace my 2015 MacBook Pro. My daughter's MBA had given up, so I gave her my MBP and then started looking around for a new laptop for myself.

My main machine is a new 5K iMac, which is used for photo and video editing in the main.

My laptop has always been used as a machine to browse the web, compose emails and other documents and have as a back-up editing machine should I need to do some work while out and about.

After looking at all the options, I settled on a 2018 Retina MacBook Air. And I couldn't be happier. It does everything I need, but there are some things perhaps you need to know if you are considering such a machine.

1. photo editing in Adobe LR and PS is fine, even with multiple layers open in PS (though the 8GB of RAM struggles here a little)

2. 1080p video editing in iMovie is fine. 4K = less so! It took three goes to eventually render an 8 minute video in 4K.

For me though, the MBA is great. the Retina display is really enjoyable and the battery life is just superb :-)

[pigoo3]

Thanks for all the great details nickyr. The nice thing about the 2018 MBA is the improved display. I think before this...the MacBook Air display has been basically the same since about 2010! lol

Now I'm gonna throw you a curveball. Did you know that Apple just released a 2019 MacBook Air...just a few days ago (July 9th)??

Main improvements are:

- True Tone Retina display (supposed to be even better than the retina display).
- Improved 3rd generation butterfly keyboard.
- Slightly lower price.

Don't know how long you've had your 2018 MBA...or if any of this is enough to return the 2018 and get a 2019 MBA...but wanted you to know just in case.

- Nick

[nickyr]

Thanks for all the great details nickyr. The nice thing about the 2018 MBA is the improved display. I think before this...the MacBook Air display has been basically the same since about 2010! lol

Now I'm gonna throw you a curveball. Did you know that Apple just released a 2019 MacBook Air...just a few days ago (July 9th)??

Main improvements are:

- True Tone Retina display (supposed to be even better than the retina display).
- Improved 3rd generation butterfly keyboard.
- Slightly lower price.

Don't know how long you've had your 2018 MBA...or if any of this is enough to return the 2018 and get a 2019 MBA...but wanted you to know just in case.

- Nick

thanks Nick

No I didn't know about the new model but I got a good deal on this through PC World here in the UK so didn't pay the full Apple price, and I'm happy enough with it. I've never been one for having to have the latest iteration. I needed a machine, and I bought one :-)

[pigoo3]

Good deal...glad you're happy with it. Wanted you to now about the 2019 MBA...just in case.

If you got a good/great deal on the 2018 MBA...I think that "trumps" the improvements of the 2019 MBA.

- Nick