MacBook Air model A1466 review

Much faster storage and a better performing processor/graphics combo make the 2017 MacBook Air model A1466 13-inch a technically better machine than its predecessor. However, unless you really want those gains, it may not be worth the upgrade. That’s especially true considering the absence of more modern features – like the MacBook Pro’s Force Touch Trackpad and Thunderbolt 3.

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Elsewhere, it’s business as usual: while the MacBook Pro with Retina is faster than the Air and packs more features, Apple’s lighter machine is no slouch. And, while the Retina model is chunkier than the Air, it’s not a great deal heavier and has a smaller footprint. With both machines residing in the same price bracket, the deciding factor is more likely to be how prepared you are to put up with the MacBook Air’s outdated display.

MacBook Air model A1466 is a macOS laptop with a 13.30-inch display that has a resolution of 1440×900 pixels. It is powered by a Core i5 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. The Apple MacBook Air A1466 packs 128GB of SSD storage.

Graphics are powered by Intel Integrated HD Graphics 6000. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth and it comes with 2 USB ports (2 x USB 3.0), Multi Card Slot, Mic In ports.

Apple MacBook Air model A1466 Full Specifications

General

Brand	Apple
Model	MacBook Air A1466
Model Number	A1466
Series	MacBook Air
Dimensions (mm)	325.00 x 227.00 x 17.00
Weight (kg)	1.35
Colours	Silver
Operating system	macOS
Battery Capacity (up to hours)	12

Display

Size	13.30-inch
Resolution	1440×900 pixels
Touch Screen	No

Processor

Processor	Intel Core i5 5th Gen 5250U
Base Clock Speed	1.6 GHz
Burst Clock Speed	2.7 GHz
Cache	3MB

Memory

RAM	4GB
RAM Slots	1

Graphics

Graphics Processor	Intel Integrated HD Graphics 6000
Dedicated Graphics	No

Storage

Hard disk	No
SSD	128GB

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standards supported	802.11 b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth version	4

Inputs

Web Camera	Yes
Pointer Device	Touchpad
Backlit Keyboard	Yes
Internal Mic	Yes
Speakers	Yes

Ports and slots

Number of USB Ports	2
USB Ports	2 x USB 3.0
Multi Card Slot	SDXC Card Reader
Mic In	Yes

Apple MacBook Air model A1466 review

Apple MacBook Air model A1466 2017 Design

Weighing 3.0 pounds and measuring 0.7 inches thick, the MacBook Air doesn’t measure up well to more modern machines. The Acer Swift 7 (2.5 pounds, 0.4 inches), Asus ZenBook UX330UA (2.7 pounds, 0.5 inches) and 12-inch Apple MacBook (2.0 pounds, 0.5 inches) are all lighter and thinner.

The MacBook Air’s unibody aluminum chassis is so iconic that it’s tied in my head to the late 2000s and early 2010s. Back then, it was the new kid on the streets, but now, everyone from Acer to LG is making even thinner metallic unibody notebooks.

MacBook Air model A1466 2017 ports

The Air splits its dual USB 3.0 ports between its sides, with a MagSafe 2 charging connector and headphone jack on the left and an SDXC memory reader and Thunderbolt 2.0 port on the right.

While some will lament the lack of USB Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, I’m perfectly happy living an adapter-free life with those USB 3.0 ports and feeling like my notebook is safer thanks to the MagSafe connector. When you apply tension, this cable detaches more easily and safely than USB Type-C cables, which would pull a device down with it when snagged by a running pet or child.

MacBook Air 2017 display

Even though Apple doesn’t seem to believe the Air needs a Retina-level, or at least full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display, I felt as if my eyes had gotten worse after using this machine for extended periods, as text on the screen doesn’t look as sharp as it does on any of my personal devices.

The MacBook’s 1440 x 900-pixel screen has aged more poorly than any of its other aspects, lacking full HD and vibrant colors. While the screen managed to emit inky-black tones for a John Wick: Chapter 2 trailer, a wooden chest in the clip appeared more faded than it should have, and a burning house didn’t offer proper glow.

The Air tries to make up for its color deficiency with brightness, emitting up to 336 nits. That’s similar to the 340-nit 12-inch MacBook, and it outshines the 290-nit category average, the 319-nit Swift 7 and the 286-nit ZenBook UX330UA. Unfortunately, this brightness isn’t enough to produce solid viewing angles, as I saw color darken at 45 degrees to the left and right.

Our colorimeter measured the MacBook Air as producing 71 percent of the sRGB spectrum, which is beneath the 100 percent category average and low for this price. The Swift 7 (105 percent), ZenBook UX330UA (106 percent) and 12-inch MacBook (117 percent) all rated higher.

MacBook Air 2017 keyboard and trackpad

The MacBook Air offers a pleasant typing experience, with keys that actually feel like they’re moving — something I’ll never take for granted again. With it, I hit an average of 76 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which isn’t too far from my 80-wpm average. That speed, and the comfort I experienced during the test, is enabled by the 1.4 millimeters of travel in the keys, which require 72 grams of force to actuate.

The MacBook Air’s 4.0 x 2.9-inch trackpad offers accurate tracking and a solid feel to each click. It’s also arguably easier to use than those in Apple’s 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pros, as it actually moves. Here, dragging and dropping items — something you need to relearn on the Force Touch trackpads that appear on more advanced MacBooks — is a whole lot easier.

For comparison, I tried out the shallower, clickier keys on the 15-inch MacBook Pro (whose keys have 0.8 mm of travel and require 74 grams of actuation force). While I hit a relatively similar 74 wpm on that machine, my hands started to hurt during the test, which I attribute to how much less travel is in those keys. The 12-inch MacBook’s similarly designed keys are even shallower, with 0.5 mm of travel.

MacBook Air 2017 audio

Good sound never gets outdated, and the MacBook Air continues Apple’s track record of laptops with sweet-sounding audio, blasting enough volume to fill our medium-size conference room. When listening to Rocky Romero’s “RPG Vice” and Survive’s “Sorcerer” on the notebook, I noted clear vocals, full bass and accurate synths.

MacBook Air 2017 performance

The MacBook Air’s Intel Core i5-5350U CPU and 8GB of RAM enable smooth and speedy multitasking. For example, I saw no slowdown after I split my screen between a 1080p YouTube video and a dozen Safari tabs (including Slack, Google Docs and Giphy).

The MacBook Air notched a respectable score of 6,438 on the Geekbench 4 general performance test. That’s close to the 6,565 category average, above the 5,519 from the Swift 7 (Core i5-7Y54, 8GB of RAM), and below the 7,182 from the ZenBook UX330UA (Core i5-7200U, 8GB of RAM) and the 6,853 from the 12-inch MacBook (Core M3-7Y32, 8GB of RAM).

The MacBook Air’s 128GB PCIe solid-state drive copied a DVD’s worth of files in just 24 seconds, for a rate of 212 MBps. That’s similar to the 215-MBps category average and faster than the 116 MBps from the Swift 7 (256GB SSD) and the 159 MBps from the ZenBook UX330UA (256GB SSD). We recorded a much faster 467 MBps from the 12-inch MacBook (256GB SSD).

Macs aren’t exactly seen as speedy gaming machines, and the Air doesn’t buck that conventional wisdom. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000 chip in the Air ran the racing game Dirt 3 (set to medium graphics and 1920 x 1080 pixels) at 25 frames per second. We consider 30 fps playable.

MacBook Air 2017 battery life

Don’t worry about lugging your power cable everywhere you go, because the MacBook Air’s battery has your back. The MacBook Air lasted 10 hours and 26 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (web browsing at 100 nits), which is similar to the 10:17 from the ZenBook UX330UA and longer than the 7:25 from the Swift 7 (7:25), the 9:29 recorded by the 12-inch MacBook and the 8:20 category average.

MacBook Air 2017 webcam

Integrated webcams often provide the bare minimum of quality and accuracy, but the 0.7-megapixel camera in the MacBook Air exceeded my expectations. It not only nailed the purple hue of my shirt but also accurately captured a tiny stretch detail above the D. Of course, it isn’t perfect, as a block of my hair looks like a flat brown patch.

MacBook Air 2017 heat

The MacBook Air still does a good job of dispersing heat. After we streamed HD video on the notebook for 15 minutes, our heat gun captured temperatures on its touchpad (83.5 degrees Fahrenheit), G and H keys (92 degrees) and underside (94 degrees) that didn’t breach our 95-degree comfort threshold.

MacBook Air 2017 software

Our MacBook Air came running macOS Sierra, which brought Siri to the Mac, and it took less than an hour for us to install the recently released High Sierra. Unlike most of the PC laptops we review, macOS features zero bloatware.

We’ve found High Sierra to be an excellent update, making slight, welcome improvements to important apps and keeping macOS just as usable and stable as ever.

MacBook Air 2017 configuration options

We tested the $999 entry-level MacBook Air, which packs an Intel Core i5-5350U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB PCIe SSD and a 1440 x 900-pixel panel.

Doubling your storage (to 256GB) adds on $200 (for a total of $1,199), and moving it up to 512GB adds on $400 (for $1,399). Upgrading to a 2.2-GHz Core i7 CPU costs an extra $150.

MacBook Air model A1466 Performance review

Benchmarks

Cinebench R15 Single Core: 103cb cb; Multi Core: 255 cb
Cinebench R15 OpenGL: 24.91fps
Geek bench 3 Single Core: 2,873; Multi Core: 5,768
Xbench (CPU and disk): 469.55
NovaBench (Overall): 634; Graphics: 42
Unigine Heaven 4.0 (Medium); FPS: 14.4; Overall: 438
Blackmagic Disk Speed test: Write average: 612.4 Mbps; Read average: 1302.4 Mbps
Battery, streaming 1080p video via Wi-Fi: 13 hours and 24 minutes

Broadwell brings performance gains too, even if they’re nothing to shout about. The MacBook Air scored 5,768 on Geekbench 3’s Multi Core CPU test, representing a 9% gain over the 13-inch Air from 2014. However, it proved 20% slower than the 2.7GHz Core i5 chip in the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina, which is to be expected considering that machine’s faster clock speed.

Apple claims that the storage in the 2015 MacBook Air is twice as fast as the 2014 version – and that stands up. The MacBook Air averaged write speeds of 612.4 Mbps, and average read speeds of 1,243 Mbps, which gives the MacBook Air storage speeds comparable to the MacBook Pro for the first time.

The MacBook Pro with Retina’s Iris Graphics 6100 proved 38% faster than the MacBook Air’s HD Graphics 6000 in Unigine Heaven 4.0’s benchmark. That said, Intel’s decision to allocate die space to graphics on the CPU has been paying off for some time, and the MacBook Air is capable of playing a wide selection of games on low-medium settings with the resolution dialled down – especially when installed on a Windows partition using Boot Camp.

The MacBook Air pulled out 60 fps at 1,440 x 900 with the graphics on Medium, while Skyrim managed the high 50’s played at the same resolution with low graphics settings. However, if you intend to play some games with the MacBook Air, you’ll want to pick up one of the best gaming headsets, as the speakers here are tinny and unsatisfying. Apple managed to squeeze an impressive amount of low and mid-range tones into the 12-inch MacBook’s speakers, but the MacBook Air has yet to utilize this tech.

If the MacBook Air’s consistency of design can start to get old, we’re happy that the keyboard remains unchanged on the 2015 MacBook Air. It’s slightly convex keys are the best we’ve ever used on a computer, and that includes the new Macbook, Lenovo’s ThinkPad notebooks and even Logitech’s well-regarded Mac keyboards. Even the MacBook Pro’s keys, which are pretty great, feel stiff in comparison. The keyboard is also backlit and easy to clean.

The MacBook Air’s trackpad is just as impressive, providing a smooth gliding action that makes executing OS X’s trackpad commands a breeze. It’s just a shame that Apple didn’t carry over the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Force Touch Trackpad – it’s once again regular two-button clicking action for owners of Apple’s slimmer machine.

Apple’s decision to put a 480p camera in the 12-inch MacBook was a poor one, and thankfully it hasn’t followed suited with the MacBook Air. At 720p it’s up to the task of Skype and Google Hangout sessions, producing sufficiently clear and defined images.