Apple Releases New MacBook Air
Following the announcement of iLife ’11 and Mac OS X Lion on Wednesday, Steve Jobs paused onstage to announce that there was “one more thing.” Delivering on the hopes of many, this new product turned out to be the next generation MacBook Air. With refinements to nearly every aspect of the machine, the latest MacBook Air advances both its line as well as Apple’s entire family of notebooks. Jobs touted the re-designed machine as the next generation of MacBook, highlighting many revolutionary features previously unseen in an Apple notebook.
Though the Air is already known for its light footprint and compact design, Wednesday’s announcement brought forth a second smaller model. For the first time since 2003, Apple has re-introduced a diagonal screen size of under 13 inches into their product lineup. Sporting an 11.6-inch display with an impressive 1366 × 768 resolution, this smaller Air will accompany its larger 13.3-inch brother as the most portable and lightweight entries in Apple’s notebook family.
Perhaps the biggest feature of the new Air models is what they lack. Neither model includes the option for a traditional SATA hard drive. Instead—for the first time in Apple’s history—the company has released an entirely solid state line of Macs. Featured in capacities ranging from 64GB to 256GB, all four stock configurations of Air include solid state flash storage by default. The lack of hard drive, combined with the continued omission of an optical drive, has allowed Apple’s engineers to slim down the Air even further. Shaving a 1/10th of a pound off the 13-inch machine, it now weighs in at only 2.9 pounds. The newly debuted 11-inch model weighs a nimble 2.3 pounds. At their thickest point, both models are only 0.68 inches. At their thinnest point, both models taper to 0.11 inches. Those first to go hands-on with the new product claim it is slimmer than an axe blade.
Featuring a wider array of ports, both models now include two USB 2.0 ports in addition to the MiniDisplay Port and headphone jack featured on the previous generation. The 13-inch model also includes an SD card slot. Apple has also boosted processor speeds as high as an optional 2.13GHz with options for 1.4GHz and 1.86GHz available as stock. The Air’s graphics have also been updated to the latest consumer standard with the inclusion of the NVIDIA GeForce 320M. This gives the line a much needed graphical speed boost. With a full-size keyboard and a Multi-Touch trackpad, the new Air will be able to handle 10.7 Lion’s Multi-Touch oriented interface with ease.
A final stand-out feature of the re-designed Air is its battery life. Managing an impressive five hours in the 11-inch model, its larger counterpart supports up to seven. Though not the longest lasting batteries in Apple’s lineup, this functionality is still impressive given the machines’ minuscule size. Apple is also advertising a standby time of 30 days for when the machine is not in use. This is a vast improvement over the 4-5 days a typical Apple notebook can retain battery life in standby.
Combining a series of enhancements and revolutionary new features, the re-designed MacBook Air has significant potential. Offering more functionality than its predecessor, it carries the potential to become much less of a niche product. Steve Jobs eloquently described the Air as what would happen if a MacBook and iPad hooked-up. Though it doesn’t sport the touch interface or 3G capabilities some of us had hoped for, the new MacBook Air stands to reinvigorate the MacBook line as it ushers in the next generation of Apple notebook. Starting a only $999, the new MacBook Air is available now. Click here to view all available configurations.