The death of the MacBook Air ($900 at Walmart) was greatly exaggerated. Instead of folding the MacBook Air into its MacBook ($1,249 at Amazon) line or MacBook Pro ($1,494 at Amazon Marketplace) line, Apple kept the MacBook Air name and introduced a redesigned MacBook Air on Tuesday at its late October product announcement event in Brooklyn, New York. In addition, Apple introduced a long-overdue update to the Mac Mini and new iPad Pro models.
You can order the new Macs and iPads ($309 at Walmart) Tuesday direct from Apple, and they will be start shipping and showing up in stores by Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Watch this: Apple introduces MacBook Air with Retina display
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New MacBook Air
The new MacBook Air ditches the thick, aluminum bezel of the old MacBook Air and delivers a 13.3-inch Retina display framed by thin bezels. You also get Touch ID but without the Touch Bar found on some MacBook Pro laptops. It has a butterfly keyboard, a Force Touch trackpad and two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Inside, the new MacBook Air features eighth-generation dual-core Intel Core processors with integrated graphics and up to 1.5TB solid-state storage. It’s thinner, lighter and greener than the previous model. The redesigned laptop is now 15.6mm thick, 2.75 pounds and — in a first for a Mac — made from 100 percent recycled aluminum.
Price: Starts at $1,199, £1,199 and AU$1,849 for a model with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB memory and a 128GB SSD.
How to buy: It’s available on Apple’s website and will ship Nov. 7.
By the way, the new Air is only $100, £50 and AU$50 less than the $1,299, £1,249 and AU$1,899 12-inch MacBook, which features a 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core m3, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The old MacBook Air is still available for $999, £949 and AU$1,499.
New Mac Mini
The Mac Mini desktop received its first update in four years. The new Mac Mini features four- and six-core eighth-generation Intel processors, up to 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of solid-state storage. It sports a new space gray look along with four USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI and Ethernet ports. Like the new MacBook Air, it uses 100 percent recycled aluminum.
The base model features a quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage.
Price: Starts at $799, £799 and AU$1,249 for the quad-core model; $1,099, £1,099 and AU$1,699 for the six-core model.
How to buy: It’s now available on Apple’s website and it will ship Nov. 7.
New iPad Pro
Apple introduced two, new iPad Pros, an 11-inch model and a 12.9-inch model. Both models ditch the home button in favor of Face ID (but without the notch!). The display bezels are thinner and the corners are rounded. Lightning ports are out, and USB-C ports are in. The new models feature Apple’s A12X Bionic chip and up to 1TB of storage. The Apple Pencil has been updated and can be connected magnetically and charged wirelessly.
Price: The new 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $999.
How to buy: Order it today and it will ship Nov. 7.