Pages

Oct 20, 2010

New MacBook Airs: Faster, Lighter, Instant On, 30 Day Standby Power


It's been two years since the last MacBook Air refresh, but Apple's made up for lost time: the redesigned MacBook Air comes in 13.3 and 11.6-inch flavors with complete unibody construction. And a storage secret.

The smaller Air won't have an SSD or an HDD. Instead, it's got an SSD card that a bit like a stick of RAM. Why's that important for you? Instant on. Because the Air relies on flash memory, the boot times are near zero. Other guts? Intel Core2Duo processors inside along with Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics. Apple's also done the right thing by adding an SD card reader and a second USB port.

The MacBook Airs will come with a FaceTime camera—notably not an iSight camera—along with a full-size keyboard and multitouch trackpad. The 11-incher has a 1366x768 display, while the 13-inch rocks 1440x900. They weigh just 2.3 and 2.9 pounds, respectively, and both thankfully include stereo speakers.

The battery life is a huge story here as well: the 13.3-incher will last 7 hours with active use, and a full month on standby. The 11.6-inch gets 5 hours and that same 30 day standby time. The batteries are said to be good for 1,000 charges, and can be replaced for $129.

Both are available today starting at $1000. That'll get you the smaller Air with a 1.4GHz Core2Duo and 64GB of storage, while for $1200 you can upgrade to 128GB with the same processor. The 13.3-inch MBA starts off at a 1.86GHz processor and 128GB of storage for $1300, and opting for 256GB bumps the price to $1600. The base models start at 2GB of RAM but are upgradeable to 4GB and it looks as though they provide you with a USB stick with the OS.

46 comments:

SituationAbs said...

Looks like the battery life might be a major selling point.

Secret Guide to Shaving said...

pretty impressive but Id still never own a mAC

Anonymous said...

wow that battery is crazy

Ibrahim said...

wow but i dont like macs but intresting

BannedFromAdsense.NET said...

Sounds nice, and the price is not that big.

Anonymous said...

yea im not a mac type of person but that is very impressive

poorfags said...

Well, since it is only 1,000 bucks, I might consider it.

SimsGuy said...

Looks like Apple is finally figuring some things out, like not charging an insane amount for the newest thing. Still high, but reasonable.

A second USB port, lol.

Edward said...

It's shit, but I'll admit that the battery life is certainly impressive.

AskAMassivePro said...

and they stillllll don't have a CD drive.

123 said...

Damn, if I wasn't poor I'd buy one.

cannabis man said...

sounds good but i think ill stick with my pc :P

Dbankai said...

Damn thats a powerful battery.

-ITW- said...

apple maybe did something decent for once?

Splash87 said...

No thanks THINKPAD FOR LIFE!

Anonymous said...

It's a ridiculous price for something I'll probably accidentally snap in half.

Home Alone Stoned said...

fuuuck macs

PlanetBen said...

Not a big apple fan but this rocks

icøn¡c said...

Neat but not worth changing from my macbook pro.

Touch and Feel said...

Macs are overpriced and subpar computers. :)

FoxHound Agent said...

Fujitsu is coming up with a laptop 350% faster than any other computer out there and it should be on the windows platform. Question is, will this pave the way for cheaper, faster PCs for the rest of us? Heres hoping :)

LoneIslander said...

Ehh, don't need it.

Unknown said...

Do they make these Airs for PCs?

Synthetic Soiree said...

....just when i was thinking about upgrading. looks like i know what to ask for for christmas

Jimmy Volmer said...

I'd rather get an iPad... yes, macfag

Mark said...

Can't wait to sell these to people. :)

Sweeeeeetas said...

Posted on this too, now with these kind of specs, seems to be worth it!

USBBLOG said...

i need a mac

Nerd Life said...

if I was ballin, that would be nice to take to class in college

ego_rko said...

price...

NarwhalMinded said...

Wow @ battery. Shiiiiit.

mirk said...

I saw the mac and I went straight for the mac-hating comments.

gomby said...

still happy with jus a mac pro...

Lets Wrestle said...

very convincing

Kichuwa said...

It's kinda annoying as to the size to price ratio going on.

I still wouldn't buy it.

SpringyB said...

good, non replaceable batteries kept me away from Apple products before.

shmotion said...

Now that is one attractive laptop. Instant on? unbelievable.

Tango2150 said...

Don't even get me started on macs...

TechLovesFilm said...

I hope laptops get this kind of powersupply more commonly in the future, that would remove so many negative things about a portable pc/mac

000 said...

I don't use macs but I like reading about them.

Poster said...

umm... Great post!

iMonei said...

damn... i want that

i_love_weed said...

macbook air = overpriced shiny netbook

Kikino said...

the future is now!!

World of Zero said...

To bad this is a Mac. It seems over priced to me and isn't the greatest out their... but if you like macs lucky you.

Joel C Anatoli said...

Stop posting about macs :PP

kidding. great post