The system's biggest historical knock has long been its webcam, which had been relegated to a spot below the screen, rather than above it. The top bezel is slightly wider - even more so than last year's version - but it's a sacrifice to a good cause. The XPS 13 is already the slim-bezel champ, and its sides are down to 4mm wide. The new Air cuts that by at least 50 percent on the sides and bottom, although the top bezel is a little wider to accommodate a webcam.
The Air has been routinely mocked, and rightly so, over the past several years for it's high border-to-screen ratio. We may not be living in a bezel-free universe, but we're certainly getting closer. Now that I've got new version of the MacBook Air and the XPS 13, which one should be my default starting point for 13-inch laptop recommendations? The XPS still had a few flaws, and other laptops passed it by in design over the past four years, but the new 2019 version fixes almost all of that, and as I said in my review, "I had to look long and hard to find anything I didn't like" about the updated version. Since 2015, it's made waves by shaving its screen bezel down to mere millimeters, much like a high-end TV. One of my favorite modern laptops is the Dell XPS 13.
It felt like a stripped-down version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and most importantly, shaved that screen bezel down to a reasonable size, pairing it with a high-res modern display.īut what about the Windows side of the fence? What was the best PC alternative to the Air? Meanwhile, newer laptops from Dell, HP, Acer and others looked and felt more modern and added new features, from touchscreens to USB-C ports.Īt long last, in late 2018, Apple released an entirely redesigned version of the MacBook Air, making it thinner, lighter, and yes, more expensive. The low-resolution screen with its thick borders and generations-old CPU technology came to feel more and more dated.
Over the last few years of the Air's decade-plus lifespan, the basic design stayed the same. It had the biggest overlap in its Venn diagram of potential owners and it had such an identifiable design that it became as much a statement piece as a work tool.īut, time catches up with everyone and everything. I used to call it "the most universally useful laptop you can buy." By that, I meant the $999 base model was the single laptop most likely to be the most useful to the largest number of people. Like a pair of glasses, a laptop is often a big part of the image you present to the world, either in meetings, at coffee shops, or in class, so it's not only about who offers the most widgets for the least money, it's about which laptop is the right fit for you.įor a long (really long) time, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air was the undisputed champ.
One rhetorical example I've used over the years is that a laptop is a lot like a pair of eyeglasses: It's practical and it's something most people can't live without.īut at the same time, it's an immensely personal choice, combining the sometimes contradictory forces of budget, features and style.