Apple Updates the MacBook Air ⇥ apple.com

Speaking of our favourite Mac models, the MacBook Air generation that launched in 2010 and was only discontinued a few years ago would easily be in my top five. I still remember how wild it seemed to have a solid state drive in a really thin notebook for a reasonable price. I know a lot of people loved the 11-inch model, but the 13-inch was the one I ultimately bought a couple of years later, and it’s still going strong.

That original 13-inch model, with 2 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD, started at $1,299. By the time Apple issued its last update to the non-Retina MacBook Air, the price of entry had dropped to $999. For its entire lifespan, it was the default Mac — the one you would tell people to buy unless there was a good reason for them to get something else.

When the Retina MacBook Air dropped in 2018, it had nearly everything people loved about the model it replaced, with two exceptions: a new crappy keyboard, and a $200 higher price tag. Both of those things, but especially the keyboard, made it just a little harder to recommend to your friends.

Those caveats no longer apply. The MacBook Air was just updated with the same Magic Keyboard as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, twice the standard storage, better performance, and a $999 price. It’s pretty much the perfect notebook again.