Apple MacBook Air 2018

5owners with an opinion

60%of verdicts positive

2/1positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use and performance; criticized for noise.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it

I remember using an old 2018 Intel MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM about two years ago. That thing was noisy. Every time I tried to compile a larger project or work in Logic, the RAM would fill up and the fans would go full blast. Now I am on an M1 MacBook Pro, also with 8GB. Granted, the RAM is still a bottleneck, but the fan noise is completely gone and the machine always stays at a comfortable temperature.

Likes it

Been using Airs since 2011, 2012 model lasted me to 2018 upgrade (Retina finally) but now I snagged the m4 pro Mini and it’s so small I brought it to the birthing inn with me and (with the help of a universal remote) just used the room TVs as a monitor. It’s so small that I can just throw it in a bag with a mouse/keyboard/HDMI and even a PS5 controller which I do appreciate my wife tolerating Jedi Cal joining us in the postpartum wing over PS5 streaming from the console at home, quite doable and the Mini’s built in speaker is quite a charmer all things considered! I ran it from inside a drawer under the baby “kiosk” and it definitely outgunned the in-room speakers that were clearly gimped (similar to putting your phone into the right enclosure amplifies the sound). At home when not at my desk I’ve been using screen share to remote in from the 2018 Air, this is the first time since 2018 I bought a new computer and it’s oddly nice having it not be a laptop, don’t have to worry about the precious built-in screen or keyboard. Caveat may be if I wasn’t working remote perhaps it would be different but not sure, using the 2018 Air as a client for the M4 Pro has been pretty solid for my current purposes and it’s nice still having an Intel Mac for the edge case backwards compatibility development needs. Whoops didn’t mean to make a blog post in here…

Likes it

> The battery was gone, but it still worked great. A family 2018 Macbook Air got a second life with a battery replacement. Cheap kit from Amazon, screwdrivers included, extremely easy to do. Still in use, no problems.

Likes it

I can understand the appeal. I have a 2018 MacBook air for that exact reason. Although it's slightly more useful becase having a proper terminal that can run Docker and stuff has saved my ass more than once. I'd be down to replace it with a Chromebook if the model looks and feels as good as the air.

Doesn’t like it

Had the same maxed out i7 11” air. I replaced it with a 2018 13” (the second model of the following generation) which was only faster when it wasn’t thermal throttling… which was its general disposition. Those 2010-2015 era Airs were great laptops for their time.

Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it

I think part of the love for those models is how hobbled the successors to these laptops were. First the line basically stopped improving while the Macbook Pro went Retina, second there was the expensive Macbook no qualifier with a dreadful butterfly keyboard, and then the 2018 Macbook Air came out but still had a dreadful butterfly keyboard. Only in March 2020 did a proper, no compromise, better in every way laptop came out to replace a Macbook Air bought in 2012-2015.