The 2018 MacBook Air is Better than You Think

Today we've got the 2018 MacBook Air .There's actually a little pull tab, so we're gonna pretend that didn't happen. That's actually very, very similar to that Apple Pencil. So this also qualifies as classic plastic. Pop the lid off, set that aside. Mmm, space gray. Tastier, shinier. (plastic peeling off) (bass-heavy techno beat) Now, initial impressions, kinda looking at this for the first time in person outside the event, I can definitely see that MacBook Air thinness profile. Where the MacBook Pro is like kinda just stay one constant thickness, the MacBook Air actually tappers off towards the end so it's actually thinner here than it is on the opposite side. And if you stack it side-by-side against a MacBook Pro, you can definitely see that difference. From there, moving on to the accessories, which I realize are probably more than likely going to trigger some people. Specifically with this teeny-tiny little guy, the 30 watt charger in the box and-- - What!? - I realize people are going to judge it, look at it, compare it and say, (scoffs) "that's your charger? "Mine is at least twice that size." Congratulations, I am proud of you and your giant wall charger. That aside though, this actually coincides with all the drama and controversy with this MacBook Air and the Y-series chip set inside this. I swear to you that the day this was announced, people were freaking out, going in threads and in forums, just being the keyboard warriors that they are, saying that this is trash, how could Apple do this without actually using the product? Contrary to that initial speculation though, it's been confirmed that there's actually a seven watt chip inside here as opposed to five which still has people kinda upset because they need more power, where's my 15 watt processor, how could you possibly do this to me? That out of the way though, we have the USBC cable and finally some Apple stickers. And I'm peeking through there, and something looks a little special. And, yup, we got some space gray Apple stickers. I am very, very excited right now. I have seen like the classic Mac Pro black Apple stickers, but I have never seen space gray Apple stickers! So with the iPad Pro we got the big-ass Apple stickers, and with this we got the beautiful, beautiful space gray version. So without a doubt the biggest upgrade with this MacBook Air is gotta be the display. In my initial impressions video I said that the previous MacBook Air display was trash, and I realize that might have been a little harsh. But the thing is, if you use Retina before and then went back to that there's absolutely no way you couldn't notice the difference. Beyond that, there are a ton of other improvements.

Better speakers, which blow the previous MacBook Air out of the water, and I will definitely have a comparison in my full review. You have touch ID which is missing on the 13 inch MacBook Pro without touch bar. Even better track pads. So even though people are kinda dismissing this early in the game, as you can see there's quite a bit to look foreword to. Now, for those that watch the channel, you guys know I like to put things through its paces, test them out, see how they actually perform in the real world, but, not gonna lie, I'm a little curious to see the initial performance comparison Geekbench of this MacBook Air against the slightly more expensive 13 inch MacBook Pro without touch bar. So, grabbing the 13 inch MacBook Pro, they're very similar. I can definitely actually already feel the weight difference on this 13 inch MacBook Pro over the MacBook Air. And, again, right there, I think that's going to be a selling point for a lot of people. So I got Geekbench 4 loaded up on both the MacBook Pro and the 2018 MacBook Air. My initial impression, or actually prediction rather, is that, yes, this MacBook Pro is probably gonna be faster, but again the point of this MacBook Air is not gonna be sheer performance, but rather getting somewhere close but giving you a lighter and more portable form factor. So we're getting close. So the MacBook Air actually just finished up with a single-core score of 4,312 and a multi-core score of 7,846. From there we have the MacBook Pro finishing up, and we're actually way closer than I would have expected. Single-core performance, they are pretty much just like equal: 4,466 on the MacBook Pro, 4,312 on the MacBook Air.

The MacBook Pro does have a faster multi-core score of 9,340, but again, based off this having a measly seven watt Y-series chip, the performance isn't as huge as maybe some would have guessed. Again, the point of this MacBook Air is not to be a powerhouse. It's going to give you MacBook Pro-like performance but in a smaller and more portable form factor. On top of that, you have things like touch ID, which is missing on this MacBook Pro. You have the T2 chip inside the MacBook Air. And one thing I also wanna address is the comparison against the 12 inch MacBook, and one huge advantage of this over that is going to be the fact that you have thunderbolt three ports as opposed to just USBC.Hopefully you enjoyed the article. Thank you very much for reading.