Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 1.6GHz Mid 2016

The Air gets an upgrade... but only the RAM $999 (128Gb); $1199 (256Gb) Manufacturer Apple, apple.com Features 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor, Intel HD 6000 graphics, 8GB RAM.

We’ve been saying for a while that we think the MacBook Air’s clock is ticking, and Apple’s tiny update to the line this year hasn’t exactly changed our minds. While the super-thin MacBook got faster new-generation Intel processors, the 13-inch MacBook Air got... some more RAM. And that’s it. Still it’s better than the 11-inch Air, which received no changes at all. So the 13-inch Air has the same 1.6GHz fth-gen Intel dual-core processor as last year, with Intel integrated graphics, but it’s now backed up by 8GB of RAM. This is what we recommend for most people as a minimum these days anyway, so it’s good that Apple’s caught up there – though the 11-inch Air is still stuck with 4GB as standard. There are two versions of the 13-inch model in Apple’s line-up, but the only difference is storage capacity: 128GB or 256GB. That storage is still monstrously fast, though, capable of read speeds up to 1.4GB/s. It’s truly pro-level. The unchanged processor and graphics performance from last year (which was only a small improvement from the 2014 model) is not so much pro level, but it’s still a fairly capable machine – it has no problem with light photo and video editing, and very light gaming. There’s also been no change in the screen, though, which is a 1440x900 non-Retina display. We can live with non-Retina displays (if we really have to), but the screen also lacks brightness, vibrancy, and visibility compared to all the other MacBook models.