The little laptop with astounding
battery life and 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Apple’s range of MacBook Air laptops has
been incredibly influential. Almost every other computer manufacturer has
attempted to match the Air’s design in their-own laptops with varying degrees
of success. So, even if you’re not interested in switching from Windows to
Apple’s Mac OS X. the latest 11in Air is worth looking at as an indicator of
things to come from other laptops.
Macbook
Air
This model is one of the first
ultra-portable laptops to use Intel‘s new fourth-generation Core processors
(known as Haswell), which use lots of clever power-management technology to
improve battery life. The previous version of the 11in Air lasted eight hours
in our light-usage battery test, which repeatedly scrolls through a long text
document until the battery runs out. This is good, but the new Air achieved an
astonishing 14 hours and 33 minutes – easily one of the longest we’ve seen.
Although battery life is much better,
performance when running programs hasn’t improved as dramatically. The new
1.3GHz Intel Core i5 4250U processor and Intel HD 5000 integrated graphics chip
are only a little faster than their older equivalents in the previous 11in Air.
This means it’s one of the slower Intel-based laptops we’ve seen, but it’s
still powerful enough to use as your main computer.
This
model is one of the first ultra-portable laptops to use Intel‘s new
fourth-generation Core processors
The Air is the first and so far only laptop
to come with 802.11ac Wi-Fi built in, so you can take advantage of faster
network transfer speeds when used with 802.11ac routers.
However, there is a bug that can slow down
802.11ac performance and Apple has yet to provide a fix, although we expect it
will do soon. Of course, the Air works with existing 802.11ac routers, which
aren’t affected by this flaw. It has a 128GB SSD, double the size of disks in
previous 11in Air laptops, which brings it more in line with other
ultra-portable laptops.
Teardown
of New Mid – 2013 Macbook
The standard 4-GB of memory is a bit
miserly so it’s worth paying the extra $121.5 when ordering to upgrade this to
8GB – you can’t do it yourself later. This extra memory will make tasks, such
as using multiple programs simultaneously, run much smoother.
Externally, Apple has changed little which
is generally a good thing. The thin and compact aluminum build feels sturdy,
yet weighs just over one kilogram which is very light for a laptop.
Disappointingly, the ports are still clustered together, so large cable plugs
and USB sticks may block adjacent ports.
The well-designed keyboard made typing a
pleasure. We found touch typing on it to be fast, comfortable and free of
errors. The touch pad is also great – one of the best we’ve used. It’s large,
accurate and supports multi-touch gestures, such as swiping three fingers
upwards to see an overview of all your open programs. These work far more
smoothly than similar gestures on Windows 8 laptops.
Apple
has stuck with a 1366x768-pixel resolution for the 11.6in screen
Apple has stuck with a 1366x768-pixel
resolution for the 11.6in screen, instead of trying to fit in a higher
resolution as other laptop manufacturers have done with their 11in laptops.
It’s a sensible move, because even the current resolution at this screen size
can be hard to see if you have less-than-perfect eyesight. Image quality is
average, but the screen is at least very bright.
This is a well-designed laptop with
exceptional battery life. It’s not the cheapest ultra-portable, but its good
value if you need a small laptop for use on the road.
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Specifications
·
Processor: 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
(Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache
·
Storage: 128GB flash storage
·
Memory: 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory
·
Size: 0.11 - 0.68 inches (0.3 - 17 cm) x 11.8
inches (30 cm) x 7.56 inches ( 19.2cm)
·
Weight: 2.38 pounds (1.08kg)
·
Display: 11.6 inches (diagonal) LED – backlit
glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors
·
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000
·
Camera: 720p Face Time HD camera
·
Connections: 2 USB 3.0 ports (up to 5Gbps),
thunderbolt port (up to 10Gbps), MagSafe 2 power port
·
Wireless: 802.11 ac Wi-Fi networking; IEEE
802.11a/b/g/n compatible
·
Bluetooth: 4.0 wireless technology
·
Audio: Stereo speakers, Dual microphones,
Headphone port, Support for Apple iPhone headset with remote and microphone
·
Battery: Up to 30 days standby time; Built-in
38-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery; 45W MagSafe 2 Power Adater with cable
management
·
Electrical: 100 – 240V AC; 50 – 60Hz
·
Pricing: $1,000
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