[2][3] The MacBook Air was introduced in January 2008 as a premium ultraportable with a 13.3-inch screen and a full-size keyboard, and was promoted as the world's thinnest notebook, opening a laptop category known as the ultrabook family.

With its slim design, it attracted attention for not including an optical disc drive, and having fewer ports than was typical for laptops at the time.

[8] It also featured an anti-glare LED backlit TN 6-bit color panel display, a full-size keyboard, and a large trackpad that responded to multi-touch gestures such as pinching, swiping, and rotating.

[19] On October 20, 2010, Apple released a redesigned 13.3-inch model with a tapered enclosure, higher screen resolution, improved battery, a second USB port, stereo speakers, and standard solid state storage.

On June 11, 2012, Apple updated the line with Intel Ivy Bridge dual-core Core i5 and i7 processors, HD Graphics 4000, faster memory and flash storage speeds, USB 3.0, an upgraded 720p FaceTime camera, and a thinner MagSafe 2 charging port.

[29] In March 2015, the models were refreshed with Broadwell processors, Intel HD Graphics 6000, Thunderbolt 2, and faster storage and memory.

[31] On October 30, 2018, Apple released a new MacBook Air with Amber Lake processors, a 13.3-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, Touch ID, and two combination USB-C 3.1 Gen 2/Thunderbolt 3 ports plus one audio jack.

[35] Updated models were released in March 2020 with Ice Lake Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, updated graphics, support for 6K output to run the Pro Display XDR and other 6K monitors, and replaced the butterfly keyboard with a Magic Keyboard design similar to that initially found in the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro.

[41] The FaceTime camera remains 720p but Apple advertises an improved image signal processor for higher quality video.

The new model was given a larger 13.6-inch screen and brought back MagSafe, now the third iteration of Apple's magnetic laptop charger ports.

This complete redesign features a dramatically thinner, flat design, doing away with the familiar wedge shape chassis that MacBook Air was most known for having.

Other features include MagSafe 3, which also supports fast charging up to 50% in 30 minutes with a 67W or greater power adapter, a taller 13.6" Liquid Retina display with 500 nits max brightness (25% brighter than the previous MacBook Air), a 1080p FaceTime Camera, a three-mic array with advanced beam-forming algorithms, a high-impedance headphone jack, four-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio, full height function keys, and a total of four finishes including Silver, Space Gray, Starlight (a silver-champagne gold color), and Midnight (a dark blue color).

On June 5, 2023, during the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced the new 15-inch display size option for the M2 MacBook Air lineup, with the advanced six-speaker sound system along with the major technical features such as 1080p FaceTime camera and MagSafe charging.

[46] The MacBook Air 2018 and 2019 models cannot currently be patched due to an issue with the T2 Security Chip that prevents them from running macOS Sequoia.