July 21, 2011

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt)

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VIEW SLIDESHOW

• Pros

  Core i5 processor and 4GB of memory provide a big performance lift. Backlit keyboard is back. Stunning design. Screen resolution is superb. Great clickpad implementation. Quick wake-from-sleep times. Thunderbolt port.

• Cons

  Pricey. Battery life could have been longer.

• Bottom Line

  The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) is a formidable player in the ultraportable space, thanks to a Core i5 processor, backlit keyboard, and Thunderbolt port.

Cisco Cheng
Lead Analyst, Laptops and Tablet PCs

Contents

• Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt)
• Performance

When the Apple MacBook Air debuted, its incredibly thin profile made it stand out in a sea of ultraportables. Since then, it has been surpassed by Windows systems with more features and faster performance. All that's changing with the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct). In the latest iteration of the MacBook Air, Apple flushed out the dated Core 2 Duo CPU in favor of an Intel Core i5 processor (albeit a low-voltage model), brought back the backlit keyboard, and added a Thunderbolt bolt port. And to sweeten the pot, it comes with the recently introduced Mac OS X Lion. With these updates, the Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) is poised to make a big run in the ultraportable space.

Design
The changes to the design of the Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) are subtle. If you see a lightning bolt icon next to what was formerly the mini-DisplayPort, it means you have a 2011 MacBook Air. There are also new labels for the F3 and F4 keys that reflect the new features that Mac OS X Lion brings. The the F5 and F6 keys are now designated to control the brightness of the illuminated keyboard. Although the backlights under the keyboard were a whopper of an addition, the key layout is unchanged. Aside from all that, the Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) looks just like its predecessor.

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More

The Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) retains its ultrathin profile, measuring 0.68 inches in the back and tapering to 0.11 inches at the front bezel. There are other ultraportables that are almost as thin, like the Samsung Series 9 ($1,650 list, 4 stars), Sony VAIO VPC-Z214GX, and Asus UX21, but they don't taper like the MacBook Air.

The weight stays the same at 2.9 pounds. It isn't the lightest system on the market; that distinction belongs to the Sony Z214GX (2.5 pounds). The quality of its build is what continues to tie the whole design together—the Unibody aluminum enclosure remains the sturdiest and most luxurious of its kind.

Specifications

Type

General Purpose, Media, Ultraportable, Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage

Processor Name

Intel Core i5-2557M

Operating System

Mac OS X 10.7

Processor Speed

2.9 GHz

RAM

4 GB

Weight

2.9 lb

Screen Size

13.3 inches

Screen Size Type

widescreen

Graphics Card

Intel HD Graphics 3000

Storage Capacity (as Tested)

128 GB

Networking Options

802.11n

Primary Optical Drive

External

More

The 13.3-inch widescreen actually trumps that of Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Thunderbolt), as well as many of its peers. Its brilliance and sharpness are surpassed only by the number of pixels it packs in. As you can imagine, the more pixels you pack into a screen, the more stunning photos, videos, and high-definition movies look. Its 1,440-by-900 resolution is higher than that of the Samsung Series 9, MacBook Pro 13-inch, and Toshiba Portege R835-P50X ($850 list, 4 stars). Only the Sony Z214GX has a better-looking screen, thanks to its 1,600-by-900 resolution.

Many bemoaned Apple's move to strip the keyboard backlight from the second-generation MacBook Air models. The MacBook Pros have had it since day one, and it's a feature that has made the Samsung Series 9 and Sony Z214GX very appealing from a typing standpoint. With this release, Apple gives back what it took away, and the typing experience, especially in low-lit environments, is much improved. The flat-top black keys aren't my favorite, as they lack the depth and responsiveness of those of the Toshiba R835-P50X. But that's me being picky. This same keyboard is found across the entire Apple laptop line, and very few have complained about it. The glass touchpad is not only enormous for a laptop, but it also clicks and supports numerous multi-finger gestures. It plays an even bigger role now that Mac OS X Lion incorporates iPad-centric features that bring a whole new meaning to swiping and scrolling.

Features
The second USB port and an SD slot were major feature upgrades in the previous MacBook Air, even though they're common features on every other laptop. Thunderbolt, on the other hand, is exclusive to Apple, at least for now. It's based on an Intel data transfer technology called Light Peak, which lives inside the mini-DisplayPort (The shape and physical attributes of the port haven't changed, and it can still connect to external monitors). When it's connected to a Thunderbolt-ready peripheral, transfer rates can hit 10Gbps. That's roughly 21 times the speed of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400, 12 times that of FireWire 800, and twice that of USB 3.0. What's neat about the Thunderbolt port is that it can expand into any connector technology, since data is moved through the universal pathway of PCI-Express. This means that any third-party peripheral manufacturer can create a Thunderbolt hub that works with Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, DisplayPort, etc. Unfortunately, Thunderbolt peripherals are few and far between. As of this writing, there are currently two of them: the Promise Pegasus R6 hard drive and the Apple Thunderbolt Display.

As for the rest of the ports, the Air has the bare minimum. The aforementioned two USB ports and SD slot, as well as an audio jack should cover many of the devices that are used in a typical day. There's no Ethernet port, but many will tell you that a Wi-Fi connection is all you need. If your Internet connectivity requirements are more sophisticated than those of the average person, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ($1,399 direct, 3.5 stars) and Samsung Series 9 have Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and Bluetooth.

Though pricey, flash storage (or solid-state drives) is used for a number of reasons. One is its physical size: A flash storage module is about the size of a chewing gum stick, a huge factor in keeping the MacBook Air is as thin as it is. It's also fast, particularly when the laptop wakes from sleep or cold boots. Apple calls it "instant-on," and I couldn't agree more. However, the 128GB capacity (upgradeable to 256GB) will seem meager when compared with the cavernous spinning drives found in the Toshiba R835-P50X (640GB) and Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 ($750 street, 4 stars) (500GB).

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388836,00.asp