The MacBook Air is a true Goldilocks of form factors. The 13in screen and full-size keyboard feel big enough to work on pretty comfortably – the trackpad is enormous, too, as we’ll discuss in a moment – but it’s contained within a chassis that’s slim (4.1mm at the thinnest point) and portable (1.25kg). The MacBook Pro is comparatively bulky, and the (now discontinued) 12in MacBook can feel cramped, but this is just right.
The trackpad is immense – 8.2 x 12cm – and offers the additional benefits of Force Touch, meaning you can do deep presses to trigger secondary functions such as dictionary lookups on words. It should also be more reliable than a conventional trackpad because it has fewer moving parts: it doesn’t actually click downwards, instead simulating a click with a small haptic buzz.
Now available at a lower entry price of [US$999], the MacBook Air is an appealing if little-changed laptop… – which is to say, it’s an excellent light laptop for light use, with a beautiful portable design, excellent battery life and lovely trackpad.
MacDailyNews Take: While we miss the 12-inch MacBook, the new 13-inch MacBook Air more than makes up for it!