Top 10 lessons for the new Mac user. A column designed specifically with the new Mac user in mind. Macworld is your best source for all things Apple. We give you the scoop on what's new.

Share on Facebook Tweet this Share Riley Young/Digital Trends It’s never been a more confusing time to buy a MacBook. If you walk into an Apple Store today hoping to pick up a lower-end MacBook, good luck. With the current line of options, now including the, it’s harder than ever to know which MacBook is right for you. This guide should help you sift through the sea of similar-looking Macs to find the gems. Your choices Here are the six models of MacBook currently available, counting different display sizes as distinct models. • • • • • • While that may not look like a vast selection compared to prolific brands like Dell or HP, it’s fairly swollen for Apple. Let’s run them down one by one. The new MacBook Air.

Apple recently the MacBook Air lineup with a new, which we now consider the leading candidate for a first-time Mac buyer. At 2.7 pounds and 0.16–0.61 inches in thickness, the new MacBook Air comes in a familiar thin and light design but outfitted with new gold and silver colors. It also picks up the same butterfly keyboard, USB-C ports, and larger trackpad — all matching the MacBook Pro.

Apple even cut out the thick, silver borders from the new MacBook Air for a new screen with an edge-to-edge glass, which modernizes it a bit. It’s still not as thin and light as the 12-inch MacBook, but it’s a bit slimmer than the MacBook Pro. The Retina display onboard also keeps the same resolution as the MacBook Pro, at 2,560 x 1,600, but in our testing, it only goes up to 291 nits. That might not be that bright, but it still produces really accurate colors, which makes it a good choice for photographers and graphic designers. On the inside, the new 2018 MacBook Air got a significant update too. It comes with the newer 8th generation 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Y-series processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz. Though the speeds might look slow, and it is not quad-core, it still packs some decent processing power, especially for an entry-level Mac.

When we tested it, the MacBook Air was good enough for watching videos, working in Photoshop, word processing, and web browsing. We couldn’t push it too far, though, and noticed some slowdowns when pulling open twenty Chrome tabs, multiple desktops apps, and streaming audio on Spotify and video on YouTube. How about the 12-inch MacBook? With the MacBook Air mentioned, let’s turn to. You might expect the MacBook to easily walk over its older siblings. It’s slimmer, lighter, and more portable.