Apple has successfully launched the MacBook Air in October last year. With a few months to go before October, critics are suggesting that the American tech giant will probably launch a new MacBook Air this year which it shall call as the 2016 MacBook Air.
Apple has been known to unveil their products during the third quarter of the year. That is why, it is likely for the company to launch the next version of the MacBook Air during that same period.
Details on the 2016 MacBook Air are still scarce as of this time but reports indicate that it will be better than the predecessor model that Apple unveiled to the market last year.
The MacBook Air has been heavily criticized for the limited upgrades it got when it was launched in October last year. Apple offered the 13-inch laptop that has a glossy widescreen display. It also features a 1440 x 900-pixel resolution and it was offered with an option for a 128 GB or a 256 GB internal storage.
It also had 4GB or RAM that clocks at 1.4 GHz and is powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. The battery life is fairly competitive. It can live for up to 12 hours of wireless connection to the internet, 12 hours of iTunes movie playback or up to 30 days on standby time. It was also offered with a lot of Apple built-in apps like iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, iBooks, Safari, Mail, FaceTime, iTunes and more. It came out with a retail price of $1,300.
As for the other specifications,the MacBook Air came out with the OS X 10.10 Yosemite onboard, an internal 802.11 ac a/b/g/n compatible; Bluetooth 4.0, and an Intel HD Graphics 6000 processor.
Competitive laptop field
However, according to Wired, there are a lot of competitor products in the market that practically offers the same features, specifications, and capabilities which users could buy instead of opting for the MacBook Air. That’s because most of these competitor laptop products are actually cheaper than the MacBook Air.
Among these is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The new Lenovo product is 0.84 pounds heavier than the MacBook Air but it is only offered for $1,088. It also has more horsepower with a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPUS and 4GB RAM. It has a USB 3.0 port and a high capacity screen of 1080p.
ASUS Zenbook UX305 is also a good alternative. It is available for only $700 but it is a slim 13.3-inch laptop, closely comparable to the MacBook Air. The Samsung Ativ Book 9, which costs $1,200, clocks at 1.1 GHz with its Core M processor. It may not be as powerful as the MacBook Air but since it is smaller with a 12-inch screen and it weighs 0.07 pounds, it less power is quite understandable.
Google also stands on the competition with the Google Chromebook Pixel that is priced at $1,000. The biggest caveat of this laptop is the fact that since it is a Chromebook, it means that it can only run web apps. The Chromebook nonetheless has an outstanding 239ppi touchscreen display and measures just under 13 inches.