Like the Pro, the Air has a Touch ID sensor in the upper right corner of the keyboard that doubles as the machine's power button. It shares DNA with the MacBook Pro, both above and under the hood (read: it has an actual cooling fan). I've also been relieved to find that it takes up less space in my commuter bag and weighs less heavily on my shoulder, too.īut, as my colleague Aaron has already argued, the Air is more than just an upsized MacBook. In my week with it, I've found it easier to carry one-handed between conference rooms in the office.

That said, the new Air is noticeably thinner and lighter than its predecessor. The Air isn't as small or as light as the 12-inch MacBook, whose main selling point is that it's a featherweight two pounds. As it is, I feel chagrined at having already sullied a brand-new machine. If this were a machine I had bought for myself with my own money, I'd be pissed. I slid the machine across the table and - crrrrrrrrick - just like that, my Air had a scratch on the bottom. Three days after unboxing it, I set it down atop a table that, unbeknownst to me, had the tiniest of crumbs on it. Unfortunately, the Air is as scratch-prone as every other MacBook. It's also thinner: 0.61 inch this time, versus 0.68 inch on the last-gen model.

All told, this new machine has a 17 percent smaller footprint than the one it replaces, and it is modestly lighter, at 2.75 pounds (down from 2.96). The Air shares a design language with the 12-inch MacBook and 13-inch MacBook Pro and falls in between them on the size-and-weight scale. I've already written about the MacBook Air's hardware twice - first in my hands-on piece the day the machine was unveiled and again in my preview earlier this week - so I'll keep my remarks here brief.

Apple macbook pro 2018 13.3