Apple 2015 MacBook Air 13.0" 8GB RAM 256GB SSD - Silver

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.


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.

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).

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.