Apple reveals all-new MacBook Air with a gorgeous 13-inch Retina display

Apple today introduced an all-new MacBook Air, bringing a stunning 13-inch Retina display, Touch ID, the latest processors and an even more portable design to the world’s most loved notebook. Delivering the all-day battery life it’s known for, the new MacBook Air is available in three gorgeous finishes — gold, space gray and silver. The most affordable Retina-display Mac ever also includes an Apple-designed keyboard, a spacious Force Touch trackpad, faster SSDs, wide stereo sound, the Apple T2 Security Chip and Thunderbolt 3, making the new MacBook Air the perfect notebook to take with you everywhere you go.
“The first MacBook Air revolutionized Mac with its thin wedge-shaped aluminum design. It forever changed the entire industry for portable computers and became the world’s most loved notebook,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. “Redesigning MacBook Air started with a stunning Retina display and all-day battery life, and then we added Touch ID and the Apple T2 Security Chip, the latest processors, incredible sound, the third-generation keyboard and Force Touch trackpad, high speed Thunderbolt 3 ports, and of course macOS Mojave in a beautiful, thinner, lighter, all-aluminum design that a whole new generation of MacBook Air customers are going to love.”
Retina Display Comes to MacBook Air
The new MacBook Air features a stunning 13.3-inch Retina display with over 4 million pixels of resolution so text and images in macOS Mojave look sharp and stunning. And with 48 percent more color than the previous generation, images are more lifelike than ever. The new MacBook Air also includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera, which is perfect for Group FaceTime calls with friends and family, as well as a three microphone array for better sound quality when making calls and improved voice recognition for Siri.
MacBook Air is now more portable than ever and features a 100 percent recycled aluminum enclosure.
 
Featuring Touch ID and Apple T2 Security Chip
MacBook Air now includes Touch ID — a fingerprint sensor built right into the keyboard — which allows you to conveniently and instantly unlock your MacBook Air, authenticate your identity, and make fast, simple and secure purchases using Apple Pay. To support Touch ID, MacBook Air comes with the Apple T2 Security Chip, which makes your notebook far more secure. The T2’s Secure Enclave protects Touch ID information and also ensures that software loaded during the boot process has not been tampered with. The T2 also features an SSD controller with on-the-fly data encryption for everything stored on the SSD. These allow MacBook Air to offer the most secure boot process and most secure storage of any notebook. T2 also features an always-on processor that enables “Hey Siri,” which lets you make requests to Siri with just your voice for things like finding files or opening an app.
Latest Generation Keyboard and Industry’s Best Trackpad
MacBook Air also features the third-generation Apple-designed keyboard for more precise and responsive typing. Each key is individually backlit using low-power LEDs for more accurate illumination. The new MacBook Air also includes the industry-best Force Touch trackpad, which delivers pressure-sensing capabilities and haptic feedback, and is 20 percent larger than on the previous generation MacBook Air, offering a quieter and more capable trackpad experience.
Fuller, More Immersive Audio Experience
With more advanced speakers and audio processing technology, MacBook Air delivers a higher quality audio experience and wide stereo playback that makes watching movies and listening to music more immersive than ever. The speakers are 25 percent louder with two times more bass than the previous generation for more dynamic range and fuller sound.
Performance to Power Your Daily Activities
The new MacBook Air features an 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel UHD Graphics and faster 2133 MHz system memory up to 16GB, delivering the performance you need for everyday activities like organizing your photos, browsing the web, creating presentations or viewing and editing videos. MacBook Air also features SSDs up to 1.5TB in capacity, that are up to 60 percent faster than the previous generation and make launching apps and opening files feel snappier and more responsive.
With faster memory and the latest processors and graphics, MacBook Air delivers the performance you need for organizing your photos, browsing the web and creating presentations.
 
Thunderbolt 3, the Most Versatile Port Ever
MacBook Air now comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports which allow you to charge your notebook, quickly transfer data via USB and Thunderbolt, output video in three formats and connect to a whole host of devices including external storage, docks for additional ports, 4K and 5K displays, and eGPUs for faster graphics. It’s the most versatile port ever. With over 700 Thunderbolt 3 devices in the ecosystem and growing, along with thousands of USB-C devices, MacBook Air allows you to take advantage of a whole new generation of accessories.
Thunderbolt 3 on the new MacBook Air lets you charge your notebook, quickly transfer data and connect to a whole host of devices all from the same port.
 
All-New, More Portable Design and The Greenest Mac Ever
The new MacBook Air packs all of these features in a new, distinct wedge-shaped design which is now even more compact and portable, and delivers up to 12 hours of battery life during wireless web use and up to 13 hours of iTunes movie playback. Featuring a significantly smaller footprint, the new MacBook Air takes up 17 percent less volume, is 10 percent thinner measuring just.61 inches at its thickest point, and at just 2.75 pounds is a quarter pound lighter than the previous generation.
In addition, the new MacBook Air enclosure is made from a custom, Apple-designed aluminum alloy that enables the use of 100 percent recycled aluminum for the first time, which has the same strength, durability and beautiful finish as the aluminum in all Apple products. Using this custom aluminum alloy helps reduce MacBook Air’s carbon footprint by nearly 50 percent, making it the greenest Mac ever.
Radeon Pro Vega Graphics Coming to MacBook Pro Next Month
Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads. The new graphics configuration option for MacBook Pro will be available to order on apple.com and in Apple retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers starting Wednesday, November 14.
macOS Mojave
All new Macs come with macOS Mojave, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, with new features inspired by pros but designed for everyone. In macOS Mojave, a new Dark Mode transforms the desktop with a dramatic new look that puts the focus on user content. The new Stacks feature organizes messy desktops by automatically stacking files into neat groups. Familiar iOS apps, including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, are now available on the Mac for the first time. FaceTime now adds support for group calling, and the Mac App Store gets a full redesign featuring rich editorial content and the addition of apps from top developers, including Microsoft and Adobe.
Pricing and Availability
Starting at $1,199, the new MacBook Air is available to order today on apple.com. It will be available in Apple retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers starting Wednesday, November 7. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at apple.com/mac.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: We max’ed out the new MacBook Air to see how much that costs:
• 1.6GHz dual‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• Retina display
• 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory
• 1.5TB SSD storage
• Intel UHD Graphics 617
• Touch ID
• Force Touch trackpad
• Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
$2,599.