New Apple MacBook Air has twice the storage, is up to twice as powerful, costs less

The new Apple MacBook Air starts from £999/$999, and makes a damn strong case for being your next laptop

Apple MacBook Air 2020 revealed
(Image credit: Apple)
Matthew Bolton
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published
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The MacBook Air is Apple's most popular laptop, and that's only going to become more the case with the latest version, which fixes a bunch of gripes we had with the MacBook Air 2019, and brings the price down while doing it.

The single most important feature of new MacBook Air 2020 is the 'Magic Keyboard' – the same new key design used on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Apple had been using keyboards that were proving slightly unreliable over time (and the feel of which was divisive, though we quite liked them) – this brings the new, improved, more reliable keyboard to the MacBook Air, which means you can trust it's a work machine that won't give up on you.

Apple has also included 10th-generation Intel processors – the latest and greatest – which mean improved graphics (capable of driving Apple's wild 6K pro display, if you wanted it to for some reason), and the option of a quad-core processor for the first time in the MacBook Air.

Apple says that you can configure the new MacBook Air to have twice the performance of the previous generation, if you configure it with the fastest Core i7 processor they're offering.

Another change we're really happy about is the boost from 128GB of storage as standard to 256GB. That Apple offered only 128GB was kind of embarrassing at this point, but we didn't expect the storage to go up while the price actually came down, too.

The MacBook Air now starts at £999/$999, for a dual-core 1.1GHz (3.2GHz Turbo) Intel Core i3 processor, with Iris Plus graphics, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM – £100/$100 less than its predecessor.

Step up to the £1299/$1299 version and you get a quad-core 1.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) Intel Core i5 chip, Iris Plus graphics, 512GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. It's a pretty great upgrade package for the price.

You can also configure these further – you can choose 16GB of RAM, or up to 2TB of storage.

Apple has also improved the microphones to a three-mic array, which is great in our current world of working-from-home video conferencing, though Apple is still using a low-quality 720p camera, inexplicably.

Elsewhere, the Retina display with True Tone display and all-day battery life remain the same, as does the thin and light design. We're big fans of all those elements of it, so this sounds like a real winner – we'll bring you a review as soon as we're able.

The new MacBook Air is available now at the Apple Store online:

Of course, the arrival of a new model can mean great discounts on the previous generation – keep your eye on our run-down of the latest MacBook Air deals.

Matthew Bolton
Matthew Bolton

Matt is T3's former AV and Smart Home Editor (UK), master of all things audiovisual, overseeing our TV, speakers and headphones coverage. He also covered smart home products and large appliances, as well as our toys and games articles. He's can explain both what Dolby Vision IQ is and why the Lego you're building doesn't fit together the way the instructions say, so is truly invaluable. Matt has worked for tech publications for over 10 years, in print and online, including running T3's print magazine and launching its most recent redesign. He's also contributed to a huge number of tech and gaming titles over the years. Say hello if you see him roaming the halls at CES, IFA or Toy Fair. Matt now works for our sister title TechRadar.

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