Review: Apple MacBook Air 11 inch (2015)

Display

While Apple nails nearly every other aspect of the design, and has even boosted the performance with a new processor, the screen is the one section we haven’t seen a change with.

Remarkably, the 11 inch MacBook Air still feels like it runs a screen from when Apple’s second-generation MacBook Air model appeared, brandishing its thin angular design for the first time.

Indeed, this is one computer you need to orient yourself for, shifting your view and the limited hinge to match the best colour and contrast you can get out of the screen. That tells us the sort of panel Apple is likely using (Twisted Nematic), and that this isn’t one of those lovely pin-prick sharp Retina panels you find on either the super-thin MacBook or still-quite-thin MacBook Pro.

Strangely, it’s still a fairly clear display, and it’s clearer than many of the low-grade panels we see on laptops these days, but this screen isn’t up to the same level of quality you get when you spend a good four or five hundred more over at the Apple store.

Mouse and keyboard

At least the MacBook Air doesn’t suffer from any usability complaints, because even in the smaller 11 inch body, the standard keyboard mechanism handles itself quite well, providing a decent amount of travel and a soft feel for typists who don’t like to press to hard or strike with excessive force.

We found we could type with speed on the thin keyboard, even if it was a little thinner than what we were used to. In fact, some might even find this standard keyboard to be more comfortable than even the new butterfly mechanism keyboard found on the 12 inch MacBook.

Essentially, if you find the travel too shallow on the ultra-light MacBook, consider the Air, even if the screen and performance isn’t quite up to par.

And hey, there are backlit keys, too, with a good 15 or 16 degrees of lighting differences, though good luck working out the minor changes between bright and not bright compared with the obvious one of “off”.

The mouse on the other hand lacks the same sense of upgrade that the MacBook Pro received, and that means you’ll miss out on the Force Touch trackpad, meaning no definable action and no silent click mode, something El Capitan 10.11 brought in.

It’s not a huge issue this omission, and there’s no doubting that the MacBook Air trackpad is still better than the majority of trackpads you find out there on other laptops, but it’s still worth keeping in mind.

Battery

An area that certainly handles itself well is the battery, and provided you’re keeping Google’s Chrome out of the picture, you’ll find the battery like can hit asm much as nine hours, though we found seven to eight was more likely.

That’s not a bad performance altogether, especially when you factor in there being a laptop-grade Intel Core processor here, something that technically outflanks the slim-line model that practically screamed its existence from the future back in April.

Value

One thing you can’t really call the MacBook Air 11 is “budget”, because carrying the price of $1399, this 11 inch machine ain’t cheap. There’s just no way of calling this small computer inexpensive, and given that it goes right up against the slim-bodied MacBook, it’s hard to even find the value in the 11 inch Air.

There is a pretty massive difference in specs, that’s true, with a fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor found in the MacBook Air 11 and a low-power Core M in the MacBook 12 inch. They’re not remotely the same style of processor, and all things considered, the Core M could be outpaced easily by its fifth-gen Intel Core sibling, but this combination of specs combined with a low-grade screen can make the MBA 11 seem a little pricey.

A little too pricey.

When Apple changes the screen technology, we might actually be able to make sense of the price, but right now, it’s not there.

Conclusion

Still a great option for people in need of a decent battery and a couple of standard sized USB ports, the 11 inch MacBook Air is no longer the best ultra-light out there, and as such, it’s difficult to call this model out as something to buy.

While the Air design and build are still second to none, the price of this computer isn’t far off where 13 inch machines normally sit, and you don’t even get a decent screen or a memory card slot to work with.

If you needed a budget MacBook, though, the 11 inch Air certainly fills that spot, though we’d probably look towards the even thinner 12 inch MacBook if we had to choose a slimline ultra-light Apple machine below 13 inches.