We’re so excited watching Apple’s big announcement today about the brand new MacBook Air. With the title of Apple’s most affordable MacBook (the price tag starts at $1199) we imagine lots of parents are going to be considering this for their families — or perhaps even for yourself as you hand down an older model to the kids.
Here are a few of the reasons it seems worth a look, if you or your kids are in the market for a new laptop.
Related: The best new iOS 12 features for parents – parental controls, time trackers, new apps and more
-Size and Weight It’s got a 13″ Retina display, but is just 15.6mm thin and weighs under 3 pounds making it super portable. Considering how much we’re all carrying around with us all the time these days, that means a lot.
-Power The new Macbook Air got more than enough power for most of what our kids need to do on their laptops.
-Battery All-day battery life means less hunting for charging situations at school or on-the-go, yay. They claim it delivers 12 hours of wireless web browsing or 13 hours of streaming audio — though we are eager to get a real-world assessment of what “all day” actually means.)
-Security Features like TouchID backed by a new security chip and automatic ongoing data encryption of your data, give added security for your valuable info. It also makes Apple Pay more secure, and we like that.
-Sound Amazing sound from stereo speakers that deliver more bass and volume than previous MacBooks. It also boasts wider stereo sound, making music and media more immersive, with three mics so your Facetime or voice calls sound better too.
-OS Integration With a lot of kids now owning hand-me-down iPhones, the seamless integration between Apple OS across devices, plus features like Handoff between iPhone and MacBook let you get more out of the iDevices you may already own.
-Look and Style The colors are fab, giving it the personality that kids want. And with the enclosure made of recycled aluminum, a lot of us appreciate the greening up of the Mac.
Note: Before you order, definitely look at the Apple GiveBack Program that lets you trade in your old (eligible) devices for a gift card toward your new one. While we are handing a lot of devices down as parents, there may be an extra desktop computer or older gen tablet that you’re ready to trade in.
All this said, it may also be worth looking at the new 11″ iPad Pro which starts at just $799 for 64GB (there’s also a 12.9″ version) — add the new Smart Keyboard Folio (no pairing required!) and you may find you don’t need a laptop at all. The lack of home button gives you a larger display, and with Photoshop coming out for iPad by next year, for those of you with design aspirations. Wow, game-changer.
One thing though: The move from lightning cable to USB-C gives it more power (like the ability to charge other devices) but it also means — you got it — all new accessories. Like the need for adaptors to compensate for the lack of headphone jack, which of course don’t come included. Man, they always get you on the stupid adapters.
You can order all of the new Apple products right now, and expect shipping to start next week, 11/7
