Apple MacBook Air gets minor upgrade but big price cut

Apple MacBook Air 2013
Apple MacBook Air - ready for its close-up

Apple has updated its MacBook Air range, bumping the speed across the range from 1.3GHz to 1.4GHz, while sticking to a Haswell-based Core i5 processor.

The rest of the configuration (and the design) stays the same: Intel HD Graphics 5000, Turbo Boosting up to 2.7GHz, a display resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels, 802.11n, 4GB of RAM and between 128GB and 256GB of flash storage.

The prices of all four models currently available have also been cut; the cheapest (11-inch, 128GB) now costs £749, a £100 saving compared to the previous generation, while the top of the range model (13-inch, 256GB) sees its price drop to £999, a saving of £130.

In the US, you're looking at $899 and $1199, while they will set you back AU$1099 and AU$1399 in Australia.

Better than the non-Retina Display MacBook Pro

Apple has also increased the amount of software bundled compared to the previous MacBook Air generation to include its suite of office applications (Pages, Numbers, Keybone) as well as its creative suite (iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband).

It's worth mentioning that the most expensive MacBook Air now costs the same as the cheapest MacBook Pro. It is a compelling alternative to the latter if you want significantly more battery life and are not fussed by storage capacity or processor performance.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.