Yes that additional inch in screen. More ports (not significantly, but will please). And isn't the CPU in new Air actually faster than in Macbook? Also regarding, why they didn't ditched the Air in favour of Macbook. I believe that the Air is more recognisable (or even iconic) for some people (like me :)). Air was my first Apple product. Loving it.

The Macbook Air also has a fan. The base Macbook does not. The base Macbook therefor hits its thermal ceiling pretty much immediately and is suboptimal in hot environments. My girlfriend's overheats all the time.

Frankly, I think the three product lines should be shaped like this:

- Macbook: For price sensitive people. $800-900 to enter the Apple ecosystem.

- Macbook Air: Basically the current MBP with its fixation on power capped by form-factor. (Note: The new Air is heavier than the MBP!)

- Macbook Pro: A portable workstation that doesn't sacrifice everything for form factor. Apple doesn't have one of these right now. For example, prioritizes thermals so that it can sustain max performance instead of the bursty performance of the current MBPs.

The Macbook has a 4.5W chip and the Macbook Air has a 7W chip now. So you get 2 extra Watts TDP and an extra port. The Air is actually $100 cheaper and 1 inch larger screen effectively obsoleting the Macbook. The Macbook has always been a weird place, it should really be the budget budget mac, but has always been a lot more than the Air.

I imagine they are ditching the MacBook and just keeping the air and pro lines. It’s easier to distinguish the two, rather than “just MacBook” vs “MacBook Pro”. I also think air->new air is a better improvement to brag about than MacBook->new MacBook.

Double the RAM, Thunderbolt instead of USB-C, and two ports instead of one. That's worth the price... decrease? ;)

A big difference - 12" MB only supports a single 4K external display, whereas MBA supports dual 4K or single 5K.