At £850 for the basic model and £1000 for our review model it certainly isn't cheap (although lets not forget the original MacBook Air debuted at around £1200). Our main issue with the Apple MacBook Air is the price. The Air is equipped with stereo speakers that project the sound through the keyboard, unfortunately there's very little audio power, so even at maximum volume audio quality sounds weedy, although it's hardly a surprise considering the size of the Air.ĭownload the FaceTime beta and the built-in webcam lets you communicate with iPhone 4, iPod Touch and other Mac's over WiFi, quality is dependent on your connection, but we had no problems with drop-ours of sound quality accepting a call from a friend's iPhone 4 over WiFi. We opened multiple browser windows, streamed HD video, played back video and typed without any sluggishness. In processor terms the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB RAM aren't particulary fast, but for general tasks it's fine. The Nvida 320M graphics card ensured there was none of the sluggishness we've had from ultraportables while streaming HD video from BBC iPlayer. The Multitouch Trackpad is excellent as always, customise it as much or as little as you want, but once you get used to the gesture it's far quicker than a conventional trackpad.Īpple MacBook Air 11-inch: Processor, graphics and FaceTime. Each key is an ample size and although the keys are a bit shallow, it certainly doesn't feel much different to a 14-inch MacBook and certainly far more comfortable than some 11-inch laptops. It's helped by the generously spaced low-profile keyboard. Unless you're incredibly diligent about backing up your data, or only use it casually, neither will be enough for the Air to become a primary laptop for most people.ĭespite its small size, the MacBook Air never feels cramped.
The MacBook Air is available in two flash memory configurations, 64Gb and our 128Gb version. In addition, open the lid from sleep and powers on instantly - a nice touch. The new standby mode means you can in effect leave it shut for 30 days, but when you start it, it continues as before.
With moderate browsing, WiFi on, brightness at 50%, some video playback and streaming and continuous typing, we got around 2 hours 45 minutes, although if you can easily stretch it further. Getting rid of the chip's hard drive enclosure (so you're just left with the actual chip) frees up (so Apple claims) 90% more space, enabling room for a larger battery.Īpple claims battery life of 5 hours. The most significant similarity is internal though, where flash storage is available out of the box on all MacBook Air models, not just via an upgrade.
On a physical level, the 11-inch version is certainly looks like the spawn of the MacBook Pro and iPad. Apple claims to have taken what it's learnt from the iPad and put it into the MacBook Air.