The all new Apple MacBook? or the Apple MacBook Air? Which one is for you?

For the past few years, Apple had a very straight-forward laptop portfolio that consisted of the Macbook Air, their mainstream ultra-thin laptop and the Macbook Pro, which as the name suggests, is the ‘pro’ version with the higher-end bells and whistles. But in March, Apple announced (actually reintroduced) the Macbook brand. But instead of positioning it as the mainstream laptop, Apple is using the Macbook moniker for an all new super-thin ultra portable laptop. It is so thin, Apple could only manage to put one port in it, USB-C, no less.

But wait, if we go back to the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs introduced the Macbook Air with a similar positioning. So if you’re in the market now for a thin and light Macbook, you are stuck between the Macbook & the Macbook Air. We’re here to help you out.

Let’s start with the already existing Macbook Air.

Source: anandtech.com

It has a 11” or 13” HD display (not a Retina or IPS display) and it’s powered by an Intel Core i5 or i7 mobile cpu, coupled with the integrated graphics. That ULV CPU is paired with either 4GB/8GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB of PCIe-based flash storage. For ports, you get 2 USB 3.0, Magsafe 2 for charging and a SDXC card slot.

Now let’s move the spotlight over to the all new Macbook. 

Source: techcrunch.com

The new Macbook has a 12” IPS Retina display, which is driven by an Intel Core M CPU and again, integrated graphics. You also get 8GB of RAM which is coupled with 256GB/512GB of flash storage. And we come to ports, now this is where the Macbook gets interesting. In order to achieve its razor thin body, Apple had to make sacrifices and the most prominent one is the ports. The ports on this new laptop are just limited to one USB type-C port. Just one port for typing and connecting peripherals!


So which one’s for you? 

Well, to kick things off, these two laptops, even though they’re so similar, their target customer is extremely different. The Macbook Air aims to be a slim laptop which offers expandability and the power to edit photos and even some videos with stellar battery life while costing lesser than the Macbook. So if you value battery life and performance along with thinness and looks along with amazing battery life, go for the Macbook Air. And did I mention that it costs less too, just starting at $899.

But then who is the Macbook aimed at? The answer is simple. If all you do is check your emails, surf the internet, write a few articles for your blog and work on office suite apps, the Macbook is a perfect fit for you, giving you an amazingly thin laptop but you get just one USB port (Type-C, so it’s not backwards compatible without a clunky adaptor by Apple).  Also, the new Macbook is fanless, so don’t push that poor little Core M CPU to its limits.