The 11-inch MacBook Air continues to define the premium ultraportable laptop segment. From its uni-body aluminium chassis, to its razor thin profile, the 11-inch Air does more than just look pretty -- it comes equipped with a powerful Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor that helps the slimmest MacBook ever deliver quite a performance punch.
Build and design
The original MacBook Air remains one of the thinnest notebooks ever created; like the current iteration, it was designed along a tapered-wedge form factor. Although it wasn't necessarily the thinnest laptop ever created (hey there, Mitsubishi Pedion!), the first-generation MacBook Air brought a number of new features to the table.
The last couple of years, however, have driven the notebook market into a frenzy. Netbooks, buoyed by consumers' desires to be smaller, lighter and cheaper invaded the industry. The MacBook Air that once stood alone started to get overshadowed. Few of these notebooks were as thin, but they weren't precisely fat. They were also light and affordable.
Apple finally realized that with the latest refresh of the MacBook Air lineup, something had to change. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is Apple's smallest laptop ever, harking back to the days of their original 12-inch ultraportable offerings. Both the 11.6- and 13-inch Airs share the same design trend and some of the same dimensions. Both are 0.68 inches in the back, tapering down to a scant eleven-hundredths of an inch at the front.
As mentioned in the first look on the device, the thinness of the MacBook Air is a carefully crafted illusion - the reality is that the Air is thicker than it seems. It's definitely light, though - the smaller model tips the scales at just 2.3 pounds - and frankly, who cares if there is trickery involved? The design is smart, and it works.
Much of the notebook's exterior is notable only for its emptiness. The front of the Air has a notch cut out of the bottom lip to provide a spot for opening the screen. Like most modern MacBooks, the screen easily lifts up with a single finger.
The rear and bottom of the machine are largely featureless as well, with the latter hosting four plastic bumpers to lift the machine off of its worksurface. There are also a number of five-lobed Torx screws on the bottom for those so bold as to risk voiding their warranties for a peek at the insides.
Keyboard and trackpadOpening up shows off a typical MacBook sight - individual black keys poking up through perfectly cut holes in the aluminum case. Noticeably, the keyboard on the new MacBook Air models is not backlit, a downgrade from prior models. Likely a cost-cutting measure, it's also unfortunate, as Apple seemed to standardize around the backlit keyboard - it certainly makes low-light computing much easier.
The trackpad on the MacBook Air might be called large when comparing it to any notebook on the market - considering that it's on an 11.6-inch laptop, it becomes much more impressive. Apple is one of the few companies who have managed to integrate buttons into the trackpad and get it right - when companies get it wrong, it quickly becomes the bane of a user's existence.
As the Airs lack built-in optical drives, the eject button traditionally found on Apple laptops is replaced by the power button, which now looks like just another key on the keyboard. All the other keys appear to be identical to other MacBooks. While the keyboard will exhibit substantial flex if pressed firmly, it isn't something even heavy typists need to worry about.
Features
The biggest change on the Apple MacBook Air comes in the form of the system’s internal hardware. The device is now powered by Intel’s new Sandy Bridge Core i5-2567M processor running at 1.6-GHz. An additional 4 GB of RAM, in-built Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 128GB SSD completes the basic spec sheet. The 11-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366 x 768; we have absolutely no complaints here as the screen is quite bright and boasts of better-than-average viewing angles.
The biggest change on the Apple MacBook Air comes in the form of the system’s internal hardware. The device is now powered by Intel’s new Sandy Bridge Core i5-2567M processor running at 1.6-GHz. An additional 4 GB of RAM, in-built Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 128GB SSD completes the basic spec sheet. The 11-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366 x 768; we have absolutely no complaints here as the screen is quite bright and boasts of better-than-average viewing angles.
A major disappointment of the MacBook Air -- or for that matter any ultra-thin laptop standing a few millimetres tall -- is its lack of connectivity ports. The 11-inch model gets only two USB 2.0 ports, one each on either side. A MagSafe power port, a headphone jack and a microphone fill the left side of the device, while just a Thunderbolt port along with the aforementioned USB 2.0 port fills the right side. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. As is evident, the 11-inch MacBook Air is one for the truly mobile consumer.
The Thunderbolt port is one of the biggest additions to the new MacBook Air line up, with transfer speeds shooting upto 10 Gpbs i.e. 20 times faster than a USB 2.0 it is definitely a boon to have it up your sleeve. In time, the number of peripherals that utilize the technology will only go up.
The Trackpad supports a whole list of multi-finger gestures that are now incorporated on the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion operating system which is bundled natively with every new MacBook Air. You might take sometime to remember each of these gesture based commands but once mastered it saves a lot of time while doing various tasks and the experience becomes highly intuitive.
Another biggie is the inclusion of backlight for the keyboard. Not only do the keys light up but also the labels on the keys come to life. What’s more, the MacBook Air features an ambient light senor that automatically adjusts the brightness of the display as well as the keyboard. Working in the dark never seemed better, the backlighting works like a charm.Build and design
The original MacBook Air remains one of the thinnest notebooks ever created; like the current iteration, it was designed along a tapered-wedge form factor. Although it wasn't necessarily the thinnest laptop ever created (hey there, Mitsubishi Pedion!), the first-generation MacBook Air brought a number of new features to the table.
It was the first of Apple's notebooks to be designed using the now-famous unibody engineering technique, which essentially carves the computer's case from a single block of cast aluminum. The CPU was a Core 2 Duo designed to take up only 40% of the room of its more traditional counterparts.
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Apple finally realized that with the latest refresh of the MacBook Air lineup, something had to change. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is Apple's smallest laptop ever, harking back to the days of their original 12-inch ultraportable offerings. Both the 11.6- and 13-inch Airs share the same design trend and some of the same dimensions. Both are 0.68 inches in the back, tapering down to a scant eleven-hundredths of an inch at the front.
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Much of the notebook's exterior is notable only for its emptiness. The front of the Air has a notch cut out of the bottom lip to provide a spot for opening the screen. Like most modern MacBooks, the screen easily lifts up with a single finger.
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In order to save space but still provide a large trackpad and full-sized keyboard, the function keys on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air are half the size of those on the 13-inch MacBook Air and the rest of Apple's mobile lineup.
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Additionally, while the power button might look like just another button now - and just as easily pressed - casually powering off the machine shouldn't be a concern as it goes to and returns from sleep rather quickly.
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