MacBook Air 13-inch: A Comprehensive Review
Design and Construction
The MacBook Air 13 (early 2015) maintains the classic Apple design, featuring a slim, lightweight aluminum build. This iteration, like its predecessors, exudes premium quality and durability. Weighing just 1.35 kg, it’s highly portable. However, a minor issue was noticed with the display lid’s hinge, which could use a tad more stability.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The full-size backlit keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience, even during extended use. The spacious palm rest adds to the typing comfort. The generously sized and responsive touchpad supports a wide range of gestures, enhancing the overall usability of the device.
Performance and Battery Life
Apple has consistently upgraded the MacBook Air’s processors, ensuring optimal performance. Additionally, the device boasts an impressive battery life of over 8 hours on a single charge, making it an excellent choice for frequent travelers.
Display and Graphics
The early 2015 model sports a clear, vibrant 13-inch display with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. While not a Retina display, it still delivers sharp visuals. However, an upgrade in this department would be welcomed.
Connectivity and Ports
In terms of connectivity, the MacBook Air offers Wi-Fi 802.11ac, ensuring fast and stable wireless connections. It is equipped with an array of ports, including USB 3.0, Thunderbolt 2, and an SDXC card slot, providing versatility for various accessories.
Operating System and Software
Out of the box, the device runs on OS X Yosemite, providing a seamless and user-friendly experience. The MacBook Air also benefits from regular updates, ensuring it stays compatible with the latest software.
MacBook Air 13-inch : Performance and User Experience
Swift and Smooth Performance
The MacBook Air 13 impresses with its swift performance right out of the box. It takes a mere 12 seconds to boot, and the convenience doesn’t stop there. Closing the lid prompts the MacBook Air to enter sleep mode, and reopening the lid leads to almost instant wake-up, allowing you to resume work seamlessly. Running OS X Yosemite, the device benefits from an array of improvements beyond its aesthetic redesign.
Redesigned Interface and iCloud Integration
OS X Yosemite introduces a slick, aesthetically pleasing interface overhaul. The Photos app facilitates basic photo enhancements, including filters, cropping, and adjustments to contrast, brightness, and color saturation. With iCloud Photo Library, your photos are seamlessly synced across all your Apple devices, ensuring easy access.
Enhanced Messaging and Cross-Device Connectivity
The messaging app, popular on iPhones and iPads, makes its debut on OS X, enabling convenient communication through iMessage from your MacBook Air. Sharing conversations with friends is also simplified. The Handoff feature keeps your Apple devices interconnected, allowing you to respond to messages or calls from your MacBook Air, even if your iPhone is in another room.
Smooth Multitasking
The MacBook Air handles multitasking with ease. During testing, we ran a 1080p YouTube video in one Chrome tab while accessing various websites in other tabs. Simultaneously, Safari and Chrome were highly responsive when rendering web pages. Additionally, applications like iTunes, QuickTime, a Word document, and a spreadsheet ran smoothly in the background.
Impressive Benchmark Scores
Benchmark tests were conducted to gauge the device’s performance. The Peacekeeper HTML5 benchmark achieved a commendable score of 1656, while the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark logged an impressive 171ms score.
Audio Experience
The MacBook Air’s internal speakers offer clear and loud audio, ideal for casual use. While they may not excel in reproducing mids and low-frequency sounds, their performance suffices for watching movies or enjoying music tracks. Fine-tuning for mids and highs could have enhanced the overall audio quality.
MacBook Air 13-inch : Impressive Webcam and Battery Life
High-Definition Webcam
The MacBook Air boasts a noteworthy HD webcam that delivers impressive photo and video quality. Video recordings were free from noticeable framing issues. Additionally, the Photo Booth app offers a variety of live filters for both photo capture and video calls. The device excels in delivering smooth overall performance, making it a compelling choice.
Exceptional Battery Life
One of the MacBook Air’s standout features is its remarkable battery life. During our testing, which involved three hours of internet browsing, music playback, and video watching, the battery only dropped from 100% to 65%. This performance was achieved with the display brightness set at 75%.
Verdict
The MacBook Air 13 is available in two variants, one with 128GB and the other with 256GB of flash storage (prices mentioned are approximate). It offers a bright and vibrant screen, a spacious keyboard and touchpad, smooth performance, multimedia versatility, and exceptional battery life. These qualities position the MacBook Air as an excellent choice for frequent travelers. Intermediate users seeking a lightweight laptop with extended battery life and a flexible budget will find the MacBook Air to be a compelling, no-brainer option.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the MacBook Air 13-inch retains the signature sleek and premium design of its predecessors. With its lightweight build and reliable build quality, it offers excellent portability. The laptop’s performance is smooth and responsive, making it well-suited for a variety of tasks. The inclusion of an HD webcam and long-lasting battery life adds to its appeal. Although the display is non-laminated and the speakers could use some improvement, these are minor drawbacks. Priced at around Rs. 73,000, the MacBook Air is a viable option, particularly for travelers and those with a preference for macOS.
Read more:
