MacBook Air 11-inch Review

The original MacBook Air that launched two years back was a remarkable machine. It was the thinnest notebook at the time of its launch, and even though others soon caught up with it in terms of thinness, the Air still held its own when it came to pure charm. But despite that it wasn't the MacBook of our dreams. It was prohibitively expensive and did not have the performance or the features to justify the price tag, and had very little to offer apart from flaunt value. Even with last year's hardware update, we still weren't quite convinced. Given a choice we would spring for the 13-inch MacBook Pro without hesitation, as it offered a far better balance between portability and performance.

 
But the new MacBook Air changes all that. The biggest change is in the price, the MacBook Air, at the moment, is significantly cheaper than the older model. It is also slimmer, as you would expect any new generation Apple product to be, and at the same time includes plenty of basic features that the older model left out, such as an additional USB port, an SD card slot and stereo speakers. It also includes higher resolution displays and has now switched completely to flash storage. More importantly, there is now an 11-inch model as well, along with the 13-inch model, which starts at $999, the same as the cheapest MacBook.

But there have been some compromises made along the way, such as the inclusion of a slower processor, limited storage space and the lack of backlight keyboard. But will that affect the overall performance in a significant way? Or is the new MacBook Air still a better machine overall despite the obvious drawbacks? Let's find out.


Bundle

• 11-inch MacBook Air
• 45W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord
• Printed and electronic documentation
• Software Reinstall Drive

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As you can see, the 11-inch MacBook Air comes with a smaller 45W power adaptor, compared to the 85W power adaptor that the MacBook Pros come with. Also, this time around Apple is providing the software on a nifty little flash drive. It has the Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well as iLife '11 on it. Unfortunately though, Apple has not included Windows Boot Camp drivers on the flash drive (they have made sure that the drive is not detectable at all on Windows). Thankfully, you get the option to download Boot Camp drivers when you are creating a partition, which you can save on another portable drive and then install separately after you install Windows. 

Design & Build

The design of the MacBook Air is what separates it from the rest of the MacBooks and what a design it is! The previous generation model was a real looker, but the new one somehow looks even better. Apple has refined the design further, making it slimmer but at the same time more in line with the design of the MacBook Pros. The new MacBook Air has flat sides, just like the MacBook Pros, whereas the older MacBook Air had no side at all, with the base just curving upwards till it met with the edge of the keyboard.

 
Although it looked attractive and made the MacBook Air look thinner than it actually was, it posed problems when it came to the placement of the ports. Apple's solution of reducing their numbers and placing them under a flap wasn't the brightest of ideas that have come out of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino.
 

Now that the sides are flat, Apple has more space to position the ports in a convenient location without compromising on the number of ports. The new MacBook Air comes with the standard two USB ports as on other MacBooks; a headphone cum microphone jack, mini DisplayPort and MagSafe power port. You will also find the microphone on the left side right next to the headphone jack. The headphone jack on the MacBook Air works with the iPhone headset that has a built-in microphone. Unlike other MacBooks though, the port does not have optical audio output. There is also no Ethernet port on the new MacBook Air, as was the case with the older one. There is also no FireWire port or Kensington lock slot.
 

It's nice to see that Apple has implemented two USB ports on the new MacBook Air. They have also unknowingly taken care of one of the issues we had with the ports on the other MacBooks. The ports are too close to each other, so using a physically large drive in one port tends to partially block the other one, rendering it useless. Now you can use both the ports comfortable knowing nothing will come in the way. However, this only true when you don't have the charger cable connected, as we found that it tends to come in the way of some of the thicker drives we had, such as the Corsair Voyager. Still, you can always connect the port on the other side and make a point to not buy thicker drives in the future.


The 13-inch model comes with an SD card slot, which the 11-inch model sorely lacks. Even though we can see a decent amount of space on the outside to fit in an SD card slot there is probably none inside for the card to go in. Or perhaps Apple would want users to get the more expensive model if they want these little luxuries.
 
Open the lid of the MacBook Air 11-inch and you will notice that even on the inside it looks like a miniaturized MacBook Pro. Apple has used a full sized keyboard on the MacBook Air and except for the top row of function every other key is identical in size to the ones found on other Mac keyboards. The MacBook Air also uses a glass trackpad, which has the exact same width as the one on the MacBook Pro, but the height has been reduced by half an inch. Nevertheless, it is still quite large.
 

One thing you will notice about the display on the new MacBook Air is that there is no protective glass over it as on the MacBook Pro models and the frame around the side is made of aluminum too. This was probably done to save some space and make the lid thinner. Above the display is the iSight camera and cleverly concealed right next to it is a green LED that indicates when the camera is on. The LED is only visible when it is on, just like the standby light on the MacBook Pros. Speaking of which, the MacBook Air does not come with a standby light on the outside. There is also no infrared receiver for Apple Remote.
 

But what we missed most on the new MacBook Air is the battery status indicator on the side, which would let us know even when the machine was switched off how much charge is still left in the battery. On the new MacBook Air one would have to open the lid every time one needs to know the battery status, which would consume precious energy.

We also had a complaint with the new MacBook Air's design. We have often complained about the slightly sharp edges of the aluminum unibody MacBook Pros and that is true for the MacBook Air as well, even more so since it is so thin. Not that we ever got hurt during testing but we were constantly wary of them.
 

Two of the biggest advantages of using a unibody construction is the increased rigidity and reduced weight. The new MacBook Air is phenomenally sturdy for something so thin and light. There is no flex in the chassis, no creaks or groans emanating from anywhere and the entire thing feels like one slab of aluminum. The solidity, coupled with the thin size and light weight makes it excellent for carrying around. I could just throw it in my bag and it would barely take any space. Also, since it is so sturdy, I didn't have to be too careful while carrying it. But it was even better to carry it around in your hand. Thanks to the drop dead gorgeous design, the MacBook Air is a real eyeball magnet. As far as ultra-portables come, the MacBook Air is as good as it gets.

Display, Keyboard & Trackpad
The new MacBook Air 11-inch actually has a 11.6-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is even higher than what the 13-inch MacBook Pro has (1280 x 800). Thanks to the relatively small size and high resolution the display looks very sharp. The panel itself is very good, with great colors and contrast. The intensity of the LED backlight is also quite high and the display can get really bright. But due to the small display and the high resolution things do tend to look a bit small, which is especially noticeable if you are used to a Mac with a bigger display.
 

The keyboard is the same as the one on other Macs, which means it is just as good. There is no cramped feeling that one may associate with typing on a small notebook. Also, since the lower edge of the MacBook Air is so thin and almost on level with the surface it is kept on, placing your wrists on the area below the keyboard almost feels like keeping it on the surface, with no sudden rise in height, making your wrists feel like they are floating. I used the MacBook Air for writing my articles in the duration it was with us and I faced absolutely no problems whatsoever. This would make a great machine for journalists who are on the move and want something to type on while they are travelling.
 

The trackpad on the MacBook Air is the same multi-touch glass trackpad as on all the other MacBooks. It is a bit shorter in height but in no way does it affect its usability. It is still by far the best trackpad that we have used on a notebook and in fact it is so good we use it as a benchmark for comparing other notebook trackpads with.


Hardware

The MacBook Air 11-inch runs on a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor although it can be configured with a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo at the time of purchase. It has 2GB of DDR3 RAM as standard but can be configured up to 4GB. The new MacBook Air comes with flash memory as standard, which is slightly different from the SSDs found on other notebooks. SSDs have a standard size, so that they can fit inside the standard 2.5mm slot inside a notebook. This ensures that an SSD from any brand will work with a notebook that supports a 2.5-inch drive. But the actual memory units inside these SSDs is very small and the only reason SSD manufacturers cannot make SSDs smaller is because it would make then incompatible with devices that support standard drives.

But since Apple had to make the MacBook Air as small as possible, there was no way they could have managed to fit in a standard SSD inside it. That's why they decided to simply remove the memory modules from inside and solder them onto the motherboard. Obviously this throws the option of upgrading the memory straight out of the window, but it does make the MacBook Air incredibly thin. And for an ultra-portable, that is more important. The 11-inch MacBook Air is available in two memory options, 64GB and 128GB.

Now we have often heard people complaining about the lack of upgradability in the MacBook Air. While it is true that the RAM and storage space cannot be upgraded once you buy the MacBook Air, let's ask ourselves how many times we actually upgrade the RAM and storage space on notebook. And if you do really want to be able to upgrade your memory and storage then you shouldn't be looking at a computer so thin. The only reason why the MacBook Air is so thin is because Apple took a call to compromise on two features that they (and so do we) think people don't use very often. You can either get an ultra thin notebook or one which allows you to upgrade its components. The MacBook Air may not be able to match the upgradability of other notebooks but neither do other notebooks even come close to matching the thinness of the MacBook Air.

Having said that we do feel 64GB on the base model is a bit too less. Apple should have provided at least 128GB as standard, with the more expensive model having 256GB instead. The 13-inch model should have received a similar boost in storage capacity. This is after all a $999 notebook, and 64GB would be over before you could say "High Definition movies".

For graphics, the MacBook Air comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU, the same as on the 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro, as well as the base iMac and Mac mini. As far as wireless connectivity is concerned, the MacBook Air has Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR. 

Performance
Now this is where it gets interesting. When we read for the first time that the MacBook Air will have a 1.4GHz processor, we were quite disappointed. And we are sure that would be the case with a lot of people who would have been put off by the slow processor. Well, there is no doubt about it, the processor is slow but one would be amazed as to how that is not reflected in the overall performance of the machine.

In the three weeks that we have been using it, we never felt that it was ever slow. We have a 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro with us for comparison and for day to day tasks the tiny MacBook Air felt just as fast as its bigger brother. Things like web browsing, document editing, working on spreadsheets and presentations, listening to music, watching HD movies, viewing photos, etc. all feel effortless. It's only when we switched to the MacBook Pro that we realized that it was indeed faster, but as long as we were working on the MacBook Air we never felt that there was anything slow about its performance.

A lot of that has to be attributed to the flash memory on the new MacBook Air, which tends to offset the slowness of the processor to such a degree that it no longer becomes an issue. The best part of using flash storage is the quick startup time. Now Apple claims that the new MacBook Air starts instantly and although that is not the case, it still is very fast. Starting the machine from a cold start takes just 17 seconds. In comparison, our MacBook Pro with a 5400-rpm HDD took 33 seconds. Both machines had plenty of software on them, with some such as Droplr and Growl designed to launch at startup, which tend to slow things down. We did this on purpose to get a more realistic figure. Otherwise, the 11-inch MacBook Air is capable of 14.2 second startup time after a fresh install. Installing Snow Leopard itself took just 18 minutes on the MacBook Air, thanks to the fast built-in storage and the flash memory stick provided.

But startup times are becoming irrelevant these days. How often do we really shutdown our computers, especially notebooks? All we do is shut the lid and make them go into sleep mode. So what matters to us is the time it takes for the notebook to be responsive after we open the lid. This is another area where the flash memory on the MacBook Air gives it an edge. In our test it took just 1.61 seconds for the display to turn on when we put it out of sleep mode, which is near instantaneous. In comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Pro took 2.65 second.

We also did some other tests, where we counted how long it takes to initiate Dashboard widgets after a restart (Mac users would know how long it takes them to load for the first time). On the MacBook Air it took 2.65 seconds, on the MacBook Pro it took 4.15 seconds. Both the machines had the same twelve widgets on them. We also launched a few applications on both the machines and counted how many times the icon bounced on the dock before the application opened. Again, the MacBook Air proved to be faster in this test as well.

Then we tried some good old file transfer tests to see how fast the flash storage actually is compared to traditional 5400-rpm notebook hard drives. The flash storage again proved to be significantly faster than its mechanical counterpart.
 

Finally, we also ran our usual benchmarks on the MacBook Air, Geekbench and Xbench. This is where the slower CPU makes its presence felt. The total scores on the 1.4GHz MacBook Air were significantly slower than those on the other Macs we have reviewed. But as we found out in our usage, the actual performance isn't as slow as the numbers suggest and in many cases it is actually faster.
 

 

Geekbench Scores (Higher values are better)

 

Xbench Scores (higher values are better)

 

Cinebench OpenGL Scores in FPS (Higher values are better)

 

Cinebench CPU Scores in Pts. (higher values are better)

The MacBook Air comes with NVIDIA GeForce 320M and Apple has also mentioned some game benchmarks on their website, so we thought we might as well try out a couple of games even though no one buying this machine would be gaming on it. We tried Portal that we downloaded over Steam and Tomb Raider: Anniversary Demo.

In Portal we kept the graphics settings at default and only increased the resolution to fit the display's native resolution of 1366 x 768. We must say we were quite surprised with the results. The game was actually smooth and very playable. We even forgot that we were testing the game and ended up playing the whole game all over again. Tomb Raider: Anniversary was similarly very playable and although it would occasionally stutter it would only be for a brief period and not very severe.

The game starts in a very wide open space and despite the fact that we had maxed out all the settings in the game, the little MacBook Air was chugging along quite well, loading the whole thing just as fast as the 15-inch MacBook Pro and being almost as smooth. For casual gaming, we cannot possibly ask for more from this machine.

An interesting thing we observed with the new MacBook Air is that it tends to run much cooler than all the aluminum MacBooks we have reviewed. In fact, we could easily keep it on our lap while playing Portal and not feel like we've set our thighs on fire. In comparison the MacBook Pros get hot enough to cook a meal on them.

Apart from gaming, HD video playback too was flawless. We did not have much luck with the QuickTime player even with Perian installed, as it used to choke a bit on 1080p files. But players such as VLC and XBMC had no trouble at all and the MacBook Air managed to play all our test videos with flying colors. In fact, at once point we were running three instances of a 720p movie in three different players and the MacBook Air was playing them all smoothly, as we could see in Expose.

We have a complaint with the built-in speakers though. We understand that the machine is too thin to have powerful speakers on board but at times they felt too weak. Files with louder sound were audible but anything less and we could not tell whether the actors are talking or just moving their lips.

Battery life

With a machine this thin one would think that Apple must have compromised on the battery, but it couldn't be further away from the truth. iFixit's teardown revealed six massive Li-Po cells inside that take up almost two thirds of the space inside the case. As with other MacBooks now, the battery is not user replaceable.

Apple claims a battery life of 5 hours on the 11-inch MacBook Air, which is very ambitious for such a thin machine running a Core 2 Duo processor. So to test it, we used it as one normally would, with the web browser open with several tabs, Echofon and iChat open in another Spaces window while working on a text document in Text Edit. We would also occasionally play an HD video within the browser. The Wi-Fi was obviously active and the display was set four notches below the maximum brightness level. We continued working on the machine in this way till the battery ran out. In the end we got 4 hours and 50 minutes of battery life, just ten minutes short of Apple's claim. Impressive!

We also ran a 720p video in a loop to see how long the battery lasts while playing a movie. The display was set at maximum brightness and headphones were connected to play the audio. The machine was allowed to run till the battery ran out. In this test we got 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. We could have eked out more by reducing the display brightness but we like our display well lit while watching a movie.

On their own these figures might not seem much, but you also have to consider that the MacBook Air is running on a Core 2 Duo processor, which is not as well optimized for mobile usage as far as battery life is concerned as, say, the Atom processor found in most netbooks. An Atom processor would have enabled higher battery life, but at the cost of severely handicapped performance. The MacBook Air runs silky smooth and is able to attempt feats such as running three 720p movies at the same time, something a machine running Atom cannot even imagine.

We must also consider that the MacBook Air runs on a 35Wh battery, which is almost half the capacity of most netbook batteries and it fits those batteries in a space that is almost half the thickness of most netbooks. So if you think that the battery life is not very impressive, think again. Getting almost five hours of a machine that powerful and that thin is nothing short of an achievement.

 Comparison to a netbook

The 11-inch MacBook Air is often compared to netbooks because of its size. People tend to compare them spec to spec and then say that the MacBook Air is at a disadvantage because it is more expensive. But if you have gone through the review so far, you would realize that the MacBook Air cannot be compared to a netbook because it is not in the same class. If you allow me to make a car analogy; it is like comparing a Honda Jazz to a Tata Indica and saying they are comparable because they are both hatchbacks.

Here are some of the advantages of the MacBook Air over most netbooks that you will find in the market today;

• Thinner and lighter design
• Better build quality
• Higher resolution display
• Much, much better trackpad
• Much higher performance; ability to play high definition files and games without breaking into a sweat
• Respectable battery life despite the faster processor and smaller battery
• Ability to run Mac OS, Windows as well as Linux officially.

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In comparison, here are the advantages an average netbook would have over the 11-inch MacBook Air

• Much cheaper
• More connectivity ports
• Better battery life
• Better upgradability
• Much more storage space

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As you can see the MacBook Air scores in key areas and as such the premium you pay for the machine over an average netbook is, in our opinion, well worth it.

Verdict

The 64GB MacBook Air is priced at Rs. 60,900 (MRP). Now it might seem that the price is a bit on the higher side, but as we found out during the review, you do actually get what you pay for. Let's face it; you will be hard pressed to find a machine that is as slim and light as the 11-inch MacBook Air. And even though it is so slim it does not compromise on performance. The 1.4Ghz processor might seem like a weak link but the flash storage more than makes up for it and as we found out the MacBook Air never felt sluggish or even remotely slow.

 

 

In fact, we managed to play 3D games on it at native resolutions and high details and play three streams of 720p videos, something that you cannot even imagine doing on a netbook. And despite all this it manages to give 5 hours of battery life, which although may not be as much as some of the netbooks out there, but considering its performance and size we think it is a respectable figure.

We still think Apple should have provided higher memory on the 64GB model. It wouldn't have hurt to have little goodies such as the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter thrown into the bundle instead of having to pay $29 for it. Also, the 128GB model is prohibitively expensive at Rs. 72,900, considering all it brings to the table is double the memory. Apple should have at least doubled the RAM to 4GB at that price. We see little reason to spend that much on the 11-inch model when we can spend a bit more and get the 13-inch model at Rs. 79,900, which has a bigger display and a faster 1.86GHz processor.

For someone who wants a MacBook but does not want to spend a lot, and is confused between the 64GB MacBook Air and the white MacBook, then it really boils down to what you need. The white MacBook comes with higher memory, better battery life, bigger display and better connectivity options, while the MacBook Air is thinner, lighter and looks way cooler, with performance that is on par with the more powerful MacBook.

If you are, say, a college student, then it would make more sense to get the MacBook Air. It does all the basic tasks that a bigger Mac would, but is much easier to carry around. It would also make a lot of sense for those who travel a lot and don't care much about things like more storage space and optical drives.

Overall, we really liked the new 11-inch MacBook Air. It's one of those things that you fall in love with at first sight and even when you decide to wipe that drool off your face and look deeper below the aluminum skin it still manages to impress. The price may seem steep at first but as we kept saying throughout the review, for the kind of engineering that has gone into making the device what it is, we think it is well worth it.