Apple, Just Update the MacBook Air Already (Premium)

The current MacBook Air dates back to 2010, a testament to its iconic design and durability. And yet, the Air languishes as Apple pushes highly-compromised newer MacBook and MacBook Pro designs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, even the current MacBook Air design, despite some dated design cues, could be easily refreshed into a modern wonder. And Apple should seriously consider doing so.

I have been waiting for this for a long time.

How long? Way back in 2012, there were rumors that Apple was going to expand its MacBook Air lineup with a 15-inch version. Excited by this, I waited … And Apple instead announced a thinner new MacBook Pro generation which included a 15-inch model. So I ended up purchasing a 15-inch Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook at the Microsoft Store opening in Boston that Fall. In fact, I still have it: It’s a great PC.

I eventually did buy two MacBook Airs, both refurbished. My daughter is still using one, an 11-inch model of unknown vintage that runs Windows 7. And the other, an early 2014 model with a 13-inch display, has been my Mac testing rig for over three years now.

It’s still surprisingly usable. Which shouldn’t be that surprising since Apple still sells this exact same computer today. The only difference between a brand new 2018 MacBook Air and my version is that the new one has a very slightly updated processor, an early 2015 5th-generation unit. And that is only true, I believe, because Intel stopped selling the old one.

Regardless, the basics are solid: You get a 2013-era (4th generation) dual-core Core i5 processor with integrated graphics, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB or 256 GB of fast PCIe-based solid-state storage depending on configuration. Expansion is adequate: It comes with two full-sized USB 3.0 ports, plus a full-sized SD card reader and Mini DisplayPort (or Thunderbolt “1,” a predecessor to Thunderbolt 3) for video-out. The keyboard and glass trackpad are both excellent. And both are preferable to the newer parts used in the MacBook and MacBook Pro. All this for just $999. Or $1199 if you need the 256 GB of storage. (You can also pay extra to get a Core i7 processor or 512 GB of storage.)

If the MacBook Air has one downside, and it does, it’s the display. The Air’s 13.3-inch display provides a paltry 1440 x 900 resolution, which is otherwise unheard of these days. You’d have to buy a truly cheap PC to find a display with this low a resolution in 2018. It is actually pretty good for what it is—Apple has always delivered high-quality displays—but in this world of high DPI (what Apple calls “Retina”-class) displays, it’s an outlier.

And it is so easily fixed.

In fact, if Apple were to simply update this display—and perhaps modernize the CPU to a quad-core Intel chipset that was invented sometime in the current century—the company would have another winner on its hands. The body, the keyboard, the trackpad, and even the expansion—well, with maybe the exception of Mini DisplayPort, which should be updated to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3—could all stay the same.

For the display, going Retina is obvious. But I think Apple could make another change (or two) there, and this would help it differentiate the Air from the smaller MacBook, with its 12-inch display, and from the MacBook Pro, too. There’s a ton of bezel on the MacBook Air, a design standard from 2010 that looks dated today. This frame could easily accept a 14-inch display with room to spare, an optional that Apple doesn’t currently provide anywhere else. It could also accept a 3:2 display, which, again, Apple doesn’t currently offer either.

A bigger display, 3:2 or not, would put MacBook Air over the top and give this design a new lease on life: I’m thinking another five years at least. It would continue to be the ideal choice for students, in particular, but also for anyone charting a switch to the Mac, since it would be so much less expensive than MacBook Pro (and so much more capable than MacBook).

It is, in other words, a no-brainer.

Which means that Apple will never make such a product. In fact, two current rumors suggest that Apple is going in a completely different direction. It will, according to a reliable Apple analyst, release a cost-reduced but unimproved version of the Air in order to extend its life at little cost to Apple in the short term. And it will extend the MacBook lineup with a 13.3-inch version later in the year.

The latter product should be viewed as the true successor to the MacBook Air and, if successful, the laptop that will finally trigger the Air’s demise.

Ah well.