New MacBook Air (2010): Specs, Price, and Buying Advice
Apple launched the new Macbook Air models in 2010. Added 11.6-inch netbook size MacBook Air along with the 13.3-inch MacBook Air. They are the thinnest notebook ever designed by Apple.
Read on for what’s new, the price, and buying advice about the new MacBook Air models.
Table of Contents
What’s new about MacBook Air 2010?
Thinner and lighter
The rear part of new MacBook Air (17 mm) is 2 mm thinner than previous generation. The new 13-inch MacBook Air weight 1.32KG which is 400 gram lighter. The 11-inch MacBook Air weight only 1.04KG, only 310 gram heavier than Apple iPad 3G.
Flash storage
MacBook Air now has only Flash storage. Flash storage is small, light, fast and reliable, but expensive. MacBook Air storage is available in 64GB (11.6″ model only), 128GB, and 256GB (13.3″ model only).
Multi-Touch Trackpad
The large size glass trackpad on MacBook Air supports multi-touch so you can perform gestures and forget about mouse.
More battery juice
Inside MacBook Air, a big portion is occupied by batteries (4 packs!). The 11-inch model provides up to 5 hours of battery life on a single charge and up to 7 hours on the 13-inch model. The standby time is amazingly up to 30 days (read: no more computer shutdown).
Better display
MacBook Air 11-inch model has a display resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, and 1440 x 900 for 13-inch model. As a comparison, the previous MacBook Air models’ display is only 1280 x 800 pixels.
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphic processor
Both MacBook Air 2010 models are equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphic processor (same as 13-inch MacBook Pro) which give a performance boost of over 2x that of the previous-generation MacBook Air (NVIDIA GeForce 9400M). Enough power for browsing photos, watching movies or playing games.
Double USB ports and SD card reader
Previous generation of MacBook Air only has one and only one USB port. The new MacBook Air has doubled it and become, yes, TWO USB ports. SD card slot has been added to 13-inch model to read your SD cards.
iLife ’11
MacBook Air 2010 notebooks are shipped with iLife ’11, the software bundle consist of iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand to allow you create your own multimedia contents.
MacBook Air price
The 11-inch MacBook Air (64GB) is USD$999, add $200 and you get 128GB storage.
13-inch MacBook Air (128GB) is USD$1299 and USD$1599 for 256GB version.
Is MacBook Air for you?
The new MacBook Air is thinner, lighter, faster storage, faster graphic (but same Intel Core 2 Duo processor).
The battery life of 11-inch MacBook Air is same like other netbook in the current market. Buy 13-inch MacBook Air if you need long working hour (7 hours) without a power plug. The great standby time make MacBook Air instantly available.
In my opinion, MacBook Air is for those people who want to travel light and need to do some work on the go: email, web surfing, write documents, edit photos. In case of Apple iPad does not meet their application requirements.
MacBook Air is expensive. If you don’t mind to carry slightly thicker and heavier notebook, go for 13-inch MacBook Pro. It gives more power, storage, and battery life.
Buy MacBook Air only if you are: 1. Mac OS X user, 2. want a 1 KG notebook, 3. got cash.
Tell us in comment why you buy OR don’t buy MacBook Air.
