Price: $1,199
Apple Macbook Air 2018
Category : Computer
Release Year: 2018
Specifications:
Stunning 13. 3-Inch Retina Display
Touch ID
Dual-core 8th-Generation Intel Core i5 Processor
Intel UHD Graphics 617
Fast SSD Storage
8GB memory
Stereo speakers with wider Stereo sound
Two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
Up to 12 hours of battery life
Latest Apple-designed keyboard
Full technical specifications
AUSTIN'S EVALUATION
- Works as advertised
- Aesthetic design
- Easy to use/maintain
- Reliable/Durable
- Worth the money
Transcript:
- Hey guys, this is Austin.This is the 2018 MacBook Air.And for $1,200, there's been a lot of controversyabout the performance of this laptop,and on top of that, just exactly what's inside this thing.So, of course, the question is how powerful is it really?Interestingly, there's only a single processor optionfor the MacBook Air this year.It is a dual-core Core i5 8210Y.This is an 8th generation Y-Series processor,which does give it a dual-core chip with hyper-threading.And the clock speeds actually aren't all that impressive.It has a 1.6 gigahertz base and a 3.6 gigahertz boost,a far cry from a lot of the quad-core systemsthat you can often find at this price point.So there's some interesting things with this chip.First of all, it has UHD 617 graphics,something I've never seen in any kind of Intel chip yet.And also interestingly, this is a 7-watt TDP.So what that means is that most of these Y-Series processorsare used in things like the 12-inch MacBook.Now, that does not have any kind of fan.And, originally, I was actually told at the Apple eventthat this MacBook here is fan-less.However, a lot of reports have shownthat this actually does have a fan.Also, I updated it and heard the fan.So let's open it up and see what's actually inside. (laughs)I thought we had to, like, clarify that I heard a loud fan.It's usually a pretty good indicator there's a fan inside.Just sayin'.Take this off and immediately we see that there is a fan.So it shouldn't be a big surprise.So what's kind of interesting about the MacBook Airthis year is that this is one of the smallest fansI've ever seen for cooling in a laptop.Now, this is actually not strictly necessary.If they would have gone for a slightly lower-endY-Series processor with a lower, like, 5-watt TDP,for example, the fan would not have been necessary.But on the flip side, that means that you're really relianton a lot of other issues with cooling.So say you were in a very hot environment.The actually chassis of the computerreally can't dissipate as much heat,where even a small fan like this should makea big difference, and it gives you the added benefitof getting a couple extra watts of TDP,which will give you a little bit more performance.I will say, it is a very, very clean layout.So not only do we have the Trackpad here,but we also have our three battery cells.And what's interesting about this battery is that,at least based on the rumors, and certainly taking a lookat it seems to sort of back that up,is that unlike most MacBook Pros that are currentwhere you kind of have to replace a large chunkof the laptop to be able to get rid of the batteries,with this, it looks like you couldprobably swap these out pretty easily.You also see the fairly large speakers,and then we've got what is a pretty small motherboard,and I assume that's probably our T2 chip underneath here.Hey, look at that.The Apple T2 chip.So this is actually very similar to some of the SoCsthat you'll find inside an iPhone,but this handles a lot of the sort of lower-end processeson the MacBook, including encrypting the SSD,running your Touch ID.It's got the secure enclave;it's got the ISP which runs the webcam.There's a lot of very smart things that are on the iPhonethat all run from this tiny, little T2 chip.All right, so with the computer put back together,let's actually see how it performs.Starting out with, we do have Geekbench,which is the classic.All right, there we go.4301 on single-core and 7725 on multi-core.It is an upgrade over the last generation MacBook Air,but it is not a big upgrade over, well, much anything else.I mean, sure, it's decent as a dual core,but we really have moved on to quad-coreacross the board for the most part.Next up, we have the Geekbench compute test.This one's kind of interesting,because this does have a unique GPU.I've never seen the 617 available.Now, it is one of the Intel UHD Series GPUs,so it's probably not going to be anything crazy,but maybe somewhat faster.Maybe they added two more numbers to the last one I tested.This is 22135.That actually is a little faster.Now, to be fair, I'm running Metal right now,but that's actually pretty decent.So that's a fair bit over the 615, and that's closerto what you would find with the full UHD 620 graphics.I've gotta say, we're just getting in the video,and I've already found some interesting stuffwith this MacBook.Let's keep going and get into a little bit of Cinebench.So what's interesting here is I actually thinkthe Y-Series processors have been changed this generation.So not to get too far into nerd town,but traditionally, Y-Series on the Intel sidemeans it's their very, very low TDP chips,which are traditionally used in fan-less designs.Now, obviously, this is slightly higherand it is, of course, using a very small fan,but instead of getting the traditional dual-core chipwith the low-end GPU, we're getting the same low-end CPU,so obviously we need to keep that TDP low,but we are getting that bigger GPU.So, for context, the 12-inch MacBook is $100 more expensive,and, with that, you get the Core m3,and that's not even really going to be on parwith what we're getting out of this.You really would need to bump up to something closerto the Core i7 to get equivalent clock speeds,and I don't think you're gonna get anywhere nearthat same GPU performance.All right, so 121 on single-core and 250 on multi-core.That's not that impressive, to be totally honest.It's fine, but it's basicallywhat I would expect out of a Y-Series chip,like the 12-inch MacBook, for example.The GPU, though, that's what I want to see right now.32, yeah, there we go again.So with the 12-inch MacBook, you're looking at a scoreroughly around 25, 24, something like that,so 32 is a pretty decent bump.Now, all of this being said,this is not an incredibly powerful laptop, right?I mean, this is still a MacBook Air.It's still got a dual-core processor.Especially on that GPU side, I'm pretty impressed.Next up, let's test the SSD performance on the MacBook Air.Now, we do have the base model,which has a very, very tiny 128 gigs of storage,kinda not even cool at this point,but, well, okay, that's pretty decently fast.So 1,917 megabytes per second on the readand 476 on the write.That's pretty solid.So, for context, that's fasterthan any other 128 gig drive I've testedand it's not too far off of the 13-inch MacBook Prowith the 256 gig drive.This is a very fast SSD.Next up, we have something a little bit more intense:a full 4K video edit inside Final Cut Pro X.So, for reference, this is a projectfrom the This Is channel,so it's almost exactly five minutes longand it's a mix of ProRes,a lot of graphics and stock footage,and it's about, I don't know, 70% rendered or so.So I kinda scrolled through here.Its performance actually holding up reasonably well.Oh, and just so you guys know,I am editing off of a Samsung T3 SSDmostly because there's not enough storage on the MacBookto fit, well, anything, but especially nota bunch of 4K video. (laughs)(video playing)I mean, that's not bad.It's definitely able to play it back.What I'm curious about is whatthe actual export times will be.So with a fully rendered timeline of ProRes 422, let's seehow long this five-minute 4K video takes to export.So, settings are correct.This is H264.All right, ready, set,go.(heavy rock music)All right, so just over six-and-a-half minutesto render a five-minute timeline.Now, no, you're not going to want to spenda lot of time editing on the MacBook Air,specifically with 4K footage, but it is possible.However, we have a slightly different methodfor speeding things up.In true Building the Ultimate fashion,the MacBook Air supports full Thunderbolt 3,which means that we can add an external GPU,because why not?So this is the Gigabyte Gaming Boxwith a full AMD RX 580 GPU inside.Now, recently, Final Cut has received full supportfor external GPUs.And especially with such a thin and light laptop like this,I'm curious to see just how well it performs.Now, no, we don't have any kind of crazyscientific tests here.What I do have is, well, the curiosityof how far we can actually push it.So, specifically, with Final Cut,it does look like the GPU is being used.It's hard to benchmark exactlyhow much of a difference it makes.But just for some reference here,this is all playing back at higher quality,and I am running it at full 4K in unrendered timeline,and the computer's able to keep up reasonably well.So we were going to try Fortnite runningon the internal GPU of the MacBook,but I don't want to be here all night,so let's get the external GPU going.(groans)Why do we ever try to play Fortnite on Mac?This is always such a disaster of just waitingand crashing and just being garbage.So the new MacBook Air is a little bit more powerfulthan I expected, but it is definitely...Did it just switch?Did it just start loading?What?Are you serious?It actually took 20 minutes to...Oh.(Ken laughing) Oh, okay.All right, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video.The 13-inch MacBook Air is a little bit more powerfulthan I expected, and you can do some stuff with it,but don't get your hopes up,like playing a game of Fortnite or anything.If you're bored, though, you can feel freeto check out This Is where's there's lots of videosthat aren't boring.If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go be really frustratedat why this has taken 20 minutes to loadand then logs me out.
Description:
- Hey guys, this is Austin.This is the 2018 MacBook Air.And for $1,200, there's been a lot of controversyabout the performance of this laptop,and on top of that, just exactly what's inside this thing.So, of course, the question is how powerful is it really?Interestingly, there's only a single processor optionfor the MacBook Air this year.It is a dual-core Core i5 8210Y.This is an 8th generation Y-Series processor,which does give it a dual-core chip with hyper-threading.And the clock speeds actually aren't all that impressive.It has a 1.6 gigahertz base and a 3.6 gigahertz boost,a far cry from a lot of the quad-core systemsthat you can often find at this price point.So there's some interesting things with this chip.First of all, it has UHD 617 graphics,something I've never seen in any kind of Intel chip yet.And also interestingly, this is a 7-watt TDP.So what that means is that most of these Y-Series processorsare used in things like the 12-inch MacBook.Now, that does not have any kind of fan.And, originally, I was actually told at the Apple eventthat this MacBook here is fan-less.However, a lot of reports have shownthat this actually does have a fan.Also, I updated it and heard the fan.So let's open it up and see what's actually inside. (laughs)I thought we had to, like, clarify that I heard a loud fan.It's usually a pretty good indicator there's a fan inside.Just sayin'.Take this off and immediately we see that there is a fan.So it shouldn't be a big surprise.So what's kind of interesting about the MacBook Airthis year is that this is one of the smallest fansI've ever seen for cooling in a laptop.Now, this is actually not strictly necessary.If they would have gone for a slightly lower-endY-Series processor with a lower, like, 5-watt TDP,for example, the fan would not have been necessary.But on the flip side, that means that you're really relianton a lot of other issues with cooling.So say you were in a very hot environment.The actually chassis of the computerreally can't dissipate as much heat,where even a small fan like this should makea big difference, and it gives you the added benefitof getting a couple extra watts of TDP,which will give you a little bit more performance.I will say, it is a very, very clean layout.So not only do we have the Trackpad here,but we also have our three battery cells.And what's interesting about this battery is that,at least based on the rumors, and certainly taking a lookat it seems to sort of back that up,is that unlike most MacBook Pros that are currentwhere you kind of have to replace a large chunkof the laptop to be able to get rid of the batteries,with this, it looks like you couldprobably swap these out pretty easily.You also see the fairly large speakers,and then we've got what is a pretty small motherboard,and I assume that's probably our T2 chip underneath here.Hey, look at that.The Apple T2 chip.So this is actually very similar to some of the SoCsthat you'll find inside an iPhone,but this handles a lot of the sort of lower-end processeson the MacBook, including encrypting the SSD,running your Touch ID.It's got the secure enclave;it's got the ISP which runs the webcam.There's a lot of very smart things that are on the iPhonethat all run from this tiny, little T2 chip.All right, so with the computer put back together,let's actually see how it performs.Starting out with, we do have Geekbench,which is the classic.All right, there we go.4301 on single-core and 7725 on multi-core.It is an upgrade over the last generation MacBook Air,but it is not a big upgrade over, well, much anything else.I mean, sure, it's decent as a dual core,but we really have moved on to quad-coreacross the board for the most part.Next up, we have the Geekbench compute test.This one's kind of interesting,because this does have a unique GPU.I've never seen the 617 available.Now, it is one of the Intel UHD Series GPUs,so it's probably not going to be anything crazy,but maybe somewhat faster.Maybe they added two more numbers to the last one I tested.This is 22135.That actually is a little faster.Now, to be fair, I'm running Metal right now,but that's actually pretty decent.So that's a fair bit over the 615, and that's closerto what you would find with the full UHD 620 graphics.I've gotta say, we're just getting in the video,and I've already found some interesting stuffwith this MacBook.Let's keep going and get into a little bit of Cinebench.So what's interesting here is I actually thinkthe Y-Series processors have been changed this generation.So not to get too far into nerd town,but traditionally, Y-Series on the Intel sidemeans it's their very, very low TDP chips,which are traditionally used in fan-less designs.Now, obviously, this is slightly higherand it is, of course, using a very small fan,but instead of getting the traditional dual-core chipwith the low-end GPU, we're getting the same low-end CPU,so obviously we need to keep that TDP low,but we are getting that bigger GPU.So, for context, the 12-inch MacBook is $100 more expensive,and, with that, you get the Core m3,and that's not even really going to be on parwith what we're getting out of this.You really would need to bump up to something closerto the Core i7 to get equivalent clock speeds,and I don't think you're gonna get anywhere nearthat same GPU performance.All right, so 121 on single-core and 250 on multi-core.That's not that impressive, to be totally honest.It's fine, but it's basicallywhat I would expect out of a Y-Series chip,like the 12-inch MacBook, for example.The GPU, though, that's what I want to see right now.32, yeah, there we go again.So with the 12-inch MacBook, you're looking at a scoreroughly around 25, 24, something like that,so 32 is a pretty decent bump.Now, all of this being said,this is not an incredibly powerful laptop, right?I mean, this is still a MacBook Air.It's still got a dual-core processor.Especially on that GPU side, I'm pretty impressed.Next up, let's test the SSD performance on the MacBook Air.Now, we do have the base model,which has a very, very tiny 128 gigs of storage,kinda not even cool at this point,but, well, okay, that's pretty decently fast.So 1,917 megabytes per second on the readand 476 on the write.That's pretty solid.So, for context, that's fasterthan any other 128 gig drive I've testedand it's not too far off of the 13-inch MacBook Prowith the 256 gig drive.This is a very fast SSD.Next up, we have something a little bit more intense:a full 4K video edit inside Final Cut Pro X.So, for reference, this is a projectfrom the This Is channel,so it's almost exactly five minutes longand it's a mix of ProRes,a lot of graphics and stock footage,and it's about, I don't know, 70% rendered or so.So I kinda scrolled through here.Its performance actually holding up reasonably well.Oh, and just so you guys know,I am editing off of a Samsung T3 SSDmostly because there's not enough storage on the MacBookto fit, well, anything, but especially nota bunch of 4K video. (laughs)(video playing)I mean, that's not bad.It's definitely able to play it back.What I'm curious about is whatthe actual export times will be.So with a fully rendered timeline of ProRes 422, let's seehow long this five-minute 4K video takes to export.So, settings are correct.This is H264.All right, ready, set,go.(heavy rock music)All right, so just over six-and-a-half minutesto render a five-minute timeline.Now, no, you're not going to want to spenda lot of time editing on the MacBook Air,specifically with 4K footage, but it is possible.However, we have a slightly different methodfor speeding things up.In true Building the Ultimate fashion,the MacBook Air supports full Thunderbolt 3,which means that we can add an external GPU,because why not?So this is the Gigabyte Gaming Boxwith a full AMD RX 580 GPU inside.Now, recently, Final Cut has received full supportfor external GPUs.And especially with such a thin and light laptop like this,I'm curious to see just how well it performs.Now, no, we don't have any kind of crazyscientific tests here.What I do have is, well, the curiosityof how far we can actually push it.So, specifically, with Final Cut,it does look like the GPU is being used.It's hard to benchmark exactlyhow much of a difference it makes.But just for some reference here,this is all playing back at higher quality,and I am running it at full 4K in unrendered timeline,and the computer's able to keep up reasonably well.So we were going to try Fortnite runningon the internal GPU of the MacBook,but I don't want to be here all night,so let's get the external GPU going.(groans)Why do we ever try to play Fortnite on Mac?This is always such a disaster of just waitingand crashing and just being garbage.So the new MacBook Air is a little bit more powerfulthan I expected, but it is definitely...Did it just switch?Did it just start loading?What?Are you serious?It actually took 20 minutes to...Oh.(Ken laughing) Oh, okay.All right, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video.The 13-inch MacBook Air is a little bit more powerfulthan I expected, and you can do some stuff with it,but don't get your hopes up,like playing a game of Fortnite or anything.If you're bored, though, you can feel freeto check out This Is where's there's lots of videosthat aren't boring.If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go be really frustratedat why this has taken 20 minutes to loadand then logs me out.
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