Steve Jobs’ patented “one more thing” announcement today was the unveiling of a revamped MacBook Air lineup.
Joining the current 13.3-inch model is a new 11.6-inch model that weighs only 2.3 pounds. Some of the features include SSD storage technology for blazing fast boot times and up to 30 days of standby time.
Apple’s press release reads in part:
With its precision aluminum unibody enclosure, the new MacBook Air measures an incredibly thin 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68-inches at its thickest, and weighs just 2.3 pounds for the 11-inch model and 2.9 pounds for the 13-inch. Like iPad, MacBook Air was designed from the ground up to use flash storage exclusively. Apple’s custom-designed flash storage is 90 percent smaller and lighter than a conventional notebook hard drive, contributing to MacBook Air’s mobile, featherweight design. MacBook Air’s flash storage also provides faster data access and is more reliable than notebook hard drives due to its solid state design.
MacBook Air features a full-sized keyboard for typing comfort and productivity, as well as the highly acclaimed glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad found on Apple’s MacBook® Pro, so you can scroll through web sites, flip through photos, and resize or rotate images all from the trackpad. The built-in FaceTime® camera, mic and stereo speakers are perfect for video calls with iPhone® 4, iPod touch®** and other Macs.
Flash storage combined with power-efficient Intel Core 2 Duo processors and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics delivers an ideal balance of mobility, battery life and performance. MacBook Air features an 11.6-inch or 13.3-inch high-resolution LED-backlit display and Mini DisplayPort to connect your 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display, projector or HD TV. Ultra-fast 802.11n Wi-Fi networking allows you to download music and movies from iTunes®, back up data to Time Capsule® and store or share files with MobileMe℠ and iDisk®. MacBook Air includes Bluetooth 2.1+EDR for wireless peripherals and two USB ports making it easy to sync and charge an iPad, iPhone or iPod® while using another device. The 13-inch MacBook Air also includes an SD card slot.
October 21st, 2010 at 3:00 pm
I’m pretty sure I’m getting an Air now.
I was hesitant before because of some of the issues it had (got hot, slow performance, price was much higher comparatively). But now, the speed of the 13″ matches that of the Mac Mini I own. And the Mac Mini is plenty fast for nearly everything I do with it – even gaming. Between the 2 I will have the ultimate home and on-the-go dynamic duo.
So, having said that, I love the look of the 11″ the best, but the feature set of the 13″ the best. When I look at my 9.7″ iPad screen, I don’t think I would find an 11″ screen to be acceptable for very serious use of a desktop operating system. The added 2″ screen on the 13″, the SD card reader, 2 more hours of battery life, enhanced CPU speeds/L2 cache/FSB and double the max solid state capacity make it a noticeably more capable machine for real work.
The only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger, is ensuring that I can use the external SuperDrive to install Windows 7 on it for some of my essential business needs, and its a done deal.
Bravo to Apple for putting so much incredible technology into such an appealing, durable, compact and usable product. They’re on quite the roll lately. I’m very pleased with the decisions they have made in respect to satisfying the price/(performance/usability) ratio.