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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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LUKE LARSEN: We've been
waiting for a new MacBook

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Air for a really long time.

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And hey, we finally got one.

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And on the surface,
it looks pretty nice,

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even though there's
nothing particularly

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revolutionary or
innovative about it.

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However, is this a good laptop?

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If you spend $1,200
on this today,

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are you going to
regret it in a year?

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Or are you going to be
happy about what you've got?

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That's the question
we're going to answer.

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First, we've got to
talk about the screen.

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The new MacBook Air has what
Apple calls a Retina display.

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And this has been the primary
feature that Apple fans

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have been calling for for ages.

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And it's finally here.

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And in reality,
this is a big jump

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over the previous MacBook Air.

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But that's not
really saying much.

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The unfortunate
truth of the matter

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is that this is one
of the weaker screens

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we've seen Apple put
in a laptop recently.

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Where laptops like
the MacBook Pro

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dominate in areas like
brightness, contrast ratio,

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and color gamut,
the MacBook Air is

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more of a run of the mill laptop
in terms of screens in 2018.

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When you set up the Pro
and the Air side by side--

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and you can really see
this clearly in person--

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the difference between the
two in brightness and color

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was very noticeable.

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The next big feature
is performance.

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What you need to know is that
this is an eighth-gen Core i5

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processor.

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But it's not the
same kind you'll

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find in comparable
Windows 10 laptops.

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In fact, this specific processor
is unique to this laptop

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alone right now.

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It's a dual-core,
Y-Series processor

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that feels quick and
snappy, especially

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when you're trying not to do too
many things at the same time.

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The limit, however,
is in multitasking.

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It wasn't that hard to hit
the performance ceiling using

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a secondary display, a
handful of desktop apps,

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and 15 or 20 Chrome tabs.

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That might sound like a lot.

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But it's not unusual
for my daily workflow.

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And once we hit that ceiling
and had all that stuff going,

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it was pretty clear
where the limits were

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on this two-core processor.

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But if what you need
the MacBook Air for

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is a bit simpler than that
or a bit lighter than that,

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you'll probably find
enough performance here

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to get you through your day.

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The third and
final thing we need

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to address with the MacBook
Air is battery life,

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because the original
MacBook Air set the standard

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for how much battery life
a thin and light laptop

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could really get.

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And Windows 10 devices
have been trying

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to catch up to that ever since.

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And devices like the XPS
13 or the MateBook X Pro

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have actually passed
it up since then.

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So how does this
new MacBook Air do?

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Well, we're getting
around eight hours of web

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browsing in terms of
battery life in our test.

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And while that's not
quite up to the 12 hours

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that Apple claims
it can get, it will

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get you through the
majority of a workday.

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And it's actually the
best battery life you can

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get on a modern MacBook today.

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So considering all
that, let's get

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back to that initial
question-- is

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the MacBook Air worth $1,200?

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The answer really comes down to
one thing and one thing only,

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and that's whether
or not you consider

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yourself to be fully bought
in in the Apple ecosystem.

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Is the Mac the only computer
that you are considering?

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If it is, the MacBook Air is
probably the most well-rounded

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MacBook in this price range.

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Unless you're going to spend 500
or 600 more dollars on a fully

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decked-out MacBook
Pro, the MacBook Air

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really sits at a nice balance
of price, performance,

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and features.

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However, if you consider
yourself somebody who's just

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looking for a great computer and
maybe considering the MacBook

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Air as one of many
options, we really

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think there are a host of
other Windows 10 laptops

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that give you better value
and a lot more performance

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than what you're getting here.

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