Key Specs | |
| 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM 128GB flash memory None 13.3 inches (1,440x900 native resolution) Integrated Nvidia GeForce 320M 2.9 pounds 0.68x12.8x8.9 inches Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) | |
Apple MacBook Air (13.3-Inch, 2010 Version) Review | |
| Reviewed by: Sarah E. Anderson and Jonathan Rougeot Review Date: October 2010 | |
Leave it to Apple to make you feel fat. The 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air is as beautiful as it is thin. This light laptop is so slender, in fact, that you may feel like you're carrying a folder rather than a notebook. And even though the MacBook Air may be sliver-thin, it isn't flimsy or underpowered. On the contrary, our tests proved it to be a fast, capable companion, durable enough for road warriors. Add in the feature-packed bundled software, and you've got a powerful ultraportable that you'll be proud to be seen with. Overall, we were highly impressed by this new, slightly thinner version of the now-venerable MacBook Air. Apart from the terrific hardware, the updated iLife '11 suite that ships preinstalled is another revelation. And the ability of the Air's hardware to run iLife's demanding tasks smoothly makes this machine's $1,299 starting price feel like you’re actually getting a bargain—a rare feeling with Apple hardware. (That price is down from the $1,799 mark when the first Air machine was introduced.) You get two choices of storage and RAM on the 13.3-inch model. (Apple also rolled out a similar 11.6-inch version of the MacBookAir in this round of updates; we tested and reviewed that one, as well.) The machine does not use a conventional hard drive, but onboard flash memory instead. The capacity choice is 128GB or 256GB. (The 256GB option bumps up the $1,299 base price to $1,599.) You can choose between 2GB and 4GB of RAM, with the 4GB costing an additional $100. Both models offer the same 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia GeForce 320M integrated graphics inside. (We tested the 128GB version with 2GB of RAM, the base model, at $1,299.)  On the right side of the 13-inch MacBook Air, you'll find the MagSafe power-adapter connector, a USB port, a headphone jack, and the microphone. At its thickest point, the Air measures just 0.68 inch from top to bottom, which is 0.08 inch (i.e., a hair) thinner than the previous MacBook Air. That's wow-inducing enough, but at 2.9 pounds, it also weighs less than most ultraportables. And it's more rugged-feeling than just about any notebook, too: It’s constructed from the same style of aluminum unibody as the Apple MacBook Pro line. As soon as you pick it up, it communicates that this is one solid machine. ("Unibody" is Apple's term; it simply means that the chassis is cut out of one solid piece of aluminum instead of several pieces soldered or screwed together.) There’s no flex or flimsiness, and nothing about this system feels cheap or poorly constructed. Yet, when you open the system, the screen is so thin, you almost can't see it if you look at it from the side. Apple says this is possible because the glass is built directly into the bezel instead of into its own frame, which then gets placed into a chassis. | |
While the thinness of the Air is certainly breathtaking, the 13.3-inch LED-backlit screen itself is no less stunning. With its 1,440x900 native resolution (the same as the 15-inch MacBook Pro), you've got a lot of pixels packed into a small screen, giving you a good amount of working area. We were also surprised that, despite the glossy finish on the screen, we didn't see a large amount of glare that we sometimes do with MacBook Pro screens.
Above the screen is a VGA FaceTime camera, which is actually the same exact resolution and quality as Apple's iSight camera in the previous MacBook Airs. (Because Apple includes its FaceTime software with this machine, which allows you to do two-way video calling with another Mac, iPod Touch, or iPhone 4 user, it changed the name of the camera to match.) In any case, we were told that FaceTime would work with an iSight camera or any Mac-compatible camera, and in fact, it worked very well on our tests. Just launch the app and make a call, and you see both your face and the face of the call recipient. If the person you're calling is on an Apple iPhone 4, he or she can turn the phone to landscape mode, and the image on your screen will rotate accordingly. You can also make FaceTime video calls from one Mac machine to another now, a feature that seems evolutionary from the phone app (and downright obvious to those in the PC world), but that will be appreciated nonetheless.
As always, port selection is minimal on the MacBook Air. It was a gamble for Apple leave off such laptop staples as an Ethernet port, but we think these trade-offs were fair ones on Apple's part to achieve this machine's extreme thinness. On the left is the MagSafe power jack, which attaches to the notebook magnetically. (If someone trips over the cord, it snaps off and doesn't drag your Air to the ground.) You'll also find one USB 2.0 port and a headphone jack. On the right is an SD-card slot, a second USB 2.0 port, and a mini-DisplayPort connector for outputting the video signal to a larger display. And that’s it. Note the SD-card slot is available only in the 13.3-inch model; the 11.6-inch model has no card reader at all.
Clearly, given the thickness of this machine, there's no optical drive in the body, and Apple does not provide one in the box. If you need to read or burn discs, you can buy Apple's optional MacBook Air SuperDrive, which matches the Air in appearance, for $79. Apple also offers an Ethernet adapter for $29. (You plug it into one of the USB ports.) The assumption is that you'll be doing most of your Net access wirelessly, so the Air comes with 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity built in.
While watching Lost on the MacBook Air wirelessly via Hulu.com, we were generally impressed. The screen's viewing angles were very good, the screen was bright, and overall, the system seemed to keep up very well with the video. The stereo speakers were less impressive, but they still passed muster, with enough volume for one or two listeners in a small room. We doubt you'll ever find them too loud, and you’ll likely keep the volume cranked all the way up most of the time. At maximum volume, they’re just enough to keep us from really complaining.
At this price, we would have expected at least a Core i3 processor in the MacBook Air. Nonetheless, we were still pleased with the system's performance, which was above average for an ultraportable. For instance, on our iTunes conversion test, which taxes the CPU by converting 11 standard MP3 files into AAC format, the Air completed our test task in 4 minutes and 54 seconds. This is well ahead of the ultraportable average, which was 6:12 at the time we tested this machine. To put that test score into a little more perspective, the MacBook Air beat the thin and stylish, $1,093 Dell Latitude 13 we just tested (it took 7:47), but it fell well behind similar systems from Sony and Toshiba. The $1,899 Sony VAIO Z Series completed the test in 3:36, and the $1,599 Toshiba Portégé R700 finished in just 2:41.
On our Cinebench 10 test, which taxes all cores of a test machine's CPU to give a good measure of overall processing performance, the MacBook Air performed respectably for its class. Its score of 4,030 was just above the ultraportable-notebook average (3,842), but it beat the Dell Latitude 13’s 2,706. By way of comparison with the pricier competitors, the Sony VAIO Z Series offered up an impressive 6,774 on this test, while once again, the Toshiba R700 led the pack (7,154).
Overall, this MacBook Air performed better than its 11.6-inch sibling, which fell below the average for both of those tests. But the CPU isn't the whole story: There’s also battery life, an area that Apple touts as a standout for this machine. On our anecdotal battery-rundown test, which consisted of streaming the TV show Lost wirelessly over Wi-Fi via the Hulu online service, the Air lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes. That’s considerably shorter than the seven hours that Apple claims but much better than the 11.6-inch Air's time of just 2:37 on this test. (Note: Apple's test comprises 50 percent Web browsing and 50 percent word processing, whereas our test is something of a worst-case scenario for battery drain.)
Apple says both versions of the MacBook Air should last 30 days on a single charge in its new Standby mode, which is roughly equivalent to a PC’s Hibernation mode. You cannot push the MacBook Air into Standby mode manually; instead, it needs to reach that state on its own, after sleeping for one hour. (Closing the system lid puts it to sleep manually.) Thanks to the flash memory inside, the Air wakes from its sleep state in 2 to 3 seconds, and from Standby in 3 to 4 seconds, because it doesn’t have to wait for conventional hard drive platters to spin up.
In terms of graphics, the Nvidia GeForce 320M chipset that Apple opted for is absolutely necessary for all the highly useful (and demanding) apps Apple included in iLife '11 and as part of Mac OS X. We will be doing a full review of iLife ’11 in the coming days, but we did take the time to see how well the graphics and CPU worked with iMovie. We took a 35-second 1080p video and imported it; the importing happened in about a minute. After that, iMovie asked if we wanted the software to analyze the footage for image stabilization, which took about 3 minutes. However, once all the video was imported and processed, we were able to edit it and drag it to our project bar in real time, without any lag or difficulty.
In addition to the new iLife ’11 suite, you also get all the usual applications that are bundled in Mac OS X, including iCal, Dashboard, Dictionary, DVD Player, Font Book, iTunes, and more. We like that you never need to deal with bloatware on a Mac and that all the software that's included has a real purpose (like the calendar, for instance) that you're likely to use. The new iLife suite includes refreshed versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. The newest features of these include full-screen iPhoto, a cool new movie-trailer creation feature for your videos in iMovie, and real-time feedback for learning to play an instrument in GarageBand.
Apple’s tech support is still limited to 90 days of free phone support and an industry-standard one-year warranty. Typically, we'd be more upset about having only 90 days of phone support, but with access to Apple Store Genius Bars in many metropolitan areas, it's tough to complain about that. One other support tidbit of note: The restore software that comes with the system is now on a minuscule USB drive instead of an optical disc—a necessity, since the MacBook Air lacks an optical drive.
As pure hardware, Apple’s 13.3-inch MacBook Air is a breathtaking achievement. Apple took some risks in the design, but the result is an eye-popping payoff. To be sure, the 128GB or 256GB of flash storage means limited capacity for local data, but either capacity should be enough for a modest music collection, some photos, and even a little video, carefully managed. At $1,299 or $1,599 (plus, perhaps, $100 more for the extra RAM), you’re paying for the wow factor, the performance, and the impressive iLife ’11 suite. Our gut feeling: We suggest the 128GB version over the 256GB version of this machine, if only because you’ll probably need an external drive, regardless, and for the extra $300 you'd spend on the 256GB model, you can get external hard drives that aremuch bigger than the 128GB difference between the two machines.
The 2010 MacBook Air is well worth buying—and we haven’t always felt that way about the MacBook Air. If you're a Mac loyalist (or a curious potential Mac adopter) looking for an exquisitely designed thin machine, you've found your new best friend. Its stunning design, loads of screen space, powerful performance, and durability make it a winning ultraportable. And the bundled new iLife '11 suite makes it that much more attractive for on-the-go professionals or media manipulators.
Price (at time of review): $1,299 (direct, as tested)
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