Only a few years ago, the Air was the world’s hottest and slimmest laptop. After that, every Windows manufacturer copied its design, and Apple created the even more attractive MacBook.

Is the Air on its way to the retirement hall of fame in the IT world? Cursed to share space with the Palm Pre and Nintendo’s Wii U in a glass cabinet. We don’t believe so after trying the most recent 2016 update.

While this laptop is no longer cutting-edge in terms of computation, it nevertheless outperforms a large portion of its Microsoft-supported rivals. The Air is a joy to use on a daily basis, because to its reasonable price, excellent portability, and long battery life. Its star power has waned a little, but it doesn’t make it any less powerful.

You gotta have connections in this town

The 2016 MacBook Air has the same number of connections as the previous year’s model. Two USB ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SD card slot, and a Thunderbolt 2 connector are all included. One of the biggest changes in this year’s update is that it’s now a Thunderbolt 2 port instead of a regular Thunderbolt port.

For some of you, this won’t make much of a difference, but it will allow you to daisy link a number of high-performance peripherals without sacrificing performance. A higher-end computer might also be used to connect to a slew of 4K monitors. But, let’s be honest, it seems improbable that someone surrounded by three 4K TVs would utilize a MacBook Air as the primary display.

Air-powered

The MacBook Air isn’t slow because it runs on Intel’s latest Broadwell CPUs. It’s only that its CPUs are from a type of semiconductor that prioritizes efficiency over heatsink-melting performance. In the same way that all Ultrabooks are. The laptop we’re testing features the same dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 CPU as last year’s model, although OS X El Capitan appears to have improved performance significantly. It gets 170.9 milliseconds on the Sunspider test and 5214 in Geekbench 3 (32-bit), which isn’t much of an improvement over a MacBook Pro.

So, what is it that you can’t accomplish with Air? There isn’t much. It’s clearly not a gaming machine because it lacks a specialized graphics card, but even that is improving. The Intel HD 6000 in the MacBook Air is now roughly as powerful as some true entry-level dedicated laptop cards from a few years ago. With games like Invisible Inc and Papers Please, it can barely get by. Video editing isn’t completely out of the question.

Need more retina

The screen is the only area where the MacBook Air 13 falls short. It’s presently the only Apple laptop available without a Retina display. The 13-inch model sports the same 1,440 x 900 pixel screen as last year. That’s not far off from the 1,344×750 pixel resolution of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s. Is it truly good enough?

Up all night

We strongly recommend opting for a laptop with a higher-resolution IPS screen if you want to use it as a TV and be a slave to Netflix and iPlayer. The distinction is clear and significant. However, not everyone requires a laptop that is more attractive than their television. And if you like going from coffee shop to coffee shop rather than sitting at home watching old episodes of Poirot, the MacBook Air offers a killer hook: its battery life. The MacBook Air’s battery life has always been excellent, but the 2016 model, like the previous year’s model, lasts up to 12 hours.

I used it as my main computer for a few days and discovered that, unless you’re a complete workaholic, it can easily last a full day of work. Nothing in Apple’s laptop lineup compares to the 13-inch MacBook Air: not the MacBook Pro, not even the new MacBook that is “essentially all-battery.” It’s quite useful. The trackpad and keyboard of the MacBook Air are still favorites of ours. No, it doesn’t have the new MacBook Pro’s fancy pressure-sensitive touchpad or the new MacBook’s Butterfly keyboard. However, unless you linger on it, it isn’t a problem.

Apple MacBook Air 13in (2015) Verdict

Apple is scraping by for another year with the same MacBook Air design as before, but with the addition of 8GB RAM as usual. This is not the Retina MacBook Air you’ve been waiting for.

The screen technology appears to be seriously outdated at this time, especially given Apple’s previous MacBook models’ great screens, so make sure searingly sharp visuals aren’t too high on your priority list before purchasing. If you’re looking for a portable road warrior, this is still a wonderful option.

Yes, the new MacBook is thinner and lighter, but the Air is still rather thin, has excellent battery life, and enough power for some heavy on-the-go tasks.

Tech specs