Apple unveiled a handful of products at the October special event like the new iPad Pros, new Apple Pencil, the new Mac Mini, all of which saw massive upgrades. But the new MacBook Air laptop is what I was most excited for (and I am not alone), and thankfully, Apple has delivered where it counts.

The new MacBook Air, as you can see, features a slightly new design. It’s not a radical departure, but the new notebooks don’t have backlit Apple logo, so you’ll know if someone is rocking the new MacBook Air.

As soon as you open the lid, though, you’ll notice some significant changes. Gone are those massive bezels from the old model, as the new MacBook Air has slimmer black bezels that are up to 50-percent smaller. It is very similar to the MacBook Pro, which, in my opinion, looks great.

The new MacBook Air features a new display with 4 million pixels. We finally have a Retina Display onboard, so you no longer have to put up with the dated low-res display on the previous MacBook Air model.

The new 13.3-inch Retina display on the new MacBook Air has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, which is significantly better than 1400 x 900-pixel resolution display on the top-end 2017 MacBook Air model. The Retina display, according to Apple, can show 48 percent more colors than the previous generation, so it’ll be ideal for people looking for “details and realism.”

The new MacBook Air also has the latest-generation keyboard with the butterfly switches. The keys are individually backlit with LEDs, so that’s great. It is definitely a great keyboard, but you may miss the key travel from the previous model.

Now, let’s move on to the internals to see what’s powering the new MacBook Air –

Processor

  • The new MacBook Air is powered by 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz), with 4MB L3 cache. This is likely a Y-series processor, though Apple hasn’t specified the exact Intel SKU.
  • The MacBook Air (2017), on the other hand, was powered by Intel Core i5-5350U, which was three full generations behind.

Graphics

  • The new MacBook Air has Intel UHD Graphics 617, with the Thunderbolt 3 port allowing you to hook up external graphics cards.
  • The previous model had Intel HD Graphics 6000, which was introduced back in early 2015.

Memory

  • The base model of the new MacBook Air has 8GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory, and you can configure it with up to 16GB memory as well.
  • The previous model was capped at 8GB RAM, which was one of its biggest criticisms.

Storage

  • The base model of the new MacBook Air comes witha  128GB PCIe-based SSD, however, it is configurable up to 1.5TB.
  • The previous MacBook Air, however, was only configurable up to 512GB SSD.

Battery

  • The new MacBook Air features a 50.3‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery, which can be charged with a 30W USB-C Power Adapter.
  • The old MacBook Air had a slightly bigger battery 54‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery, but the newer processor in the new MacBook Air should be more power efficient.

The new MacBook Air is definitely a huge upgrade over the previous MacBook Air model. It features a beautiful Retina Display, slimmer bezels, Touch ID, and upgraded internals. It has a smaller battery, but it shouldn’t be an issue considering the fact that it is powered by 8th generation Intel core processors.