THE MACBOOK AIR
The MacBook air is the first subcompact laptop launched by Apple Inc. since the 12” Power Book G4 was discontinued in 2006.
Designed for thinness and lightweight, the first MacBook Air was a 13.3” model, claimed to be the world’s thinnest notebook and was introduced on January, 2008.
Since then, the MacBook Air has undergone many improvements which include improved enclosure, screen resolution, battery and uses flash storage instead of a hard drive.
In the same sequence, the MacBook Air, released on July 20, 2011, is just a superior version of its predecessors.
The Improved Design :
Whereas the backlit keyboard is re added, mini display part is made into a Thunderbolt part and the Bluetooth is upgraded to V4.0.Though the maximum flash storage and memory options are almost identical, yet this lightweight computing monster is powered by new Dual Core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.
Like its worthy predecessor MacBook Air 3, MacBook Air 4 also comes in two model identifiers viz. 11”and 13”.
Whereas the former has a glassy display of 11.6” which supports up to 1366 x 768 with aspect ratio 16:9, the later is a little bit superior with the 13.3” and supports up to 1440 x 900 (16:10).
Now, getting into depth, the 11” base models have the memory of 2 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM with the option of 4 GB whereas the rest of the models have it of 4 GB with the same specifications.
It’s may be pointed out that The MacBook Air is also Apple’s First computer with an optional Solid State Storage Drive (SSSD).
But unlike the previous versions of MacBook Air, which had storage capacities of 128 GB (Solid State) and 120 GB (Hard Drive), the late 2010 MacBook Air model has flash memory as its only choice.
Hence for this outstanding toolbox, only the flash storage is available in 64 or 128 GB Capacities on 11” model and 128 or 256 GB on 13”.
In the models of late 2008, the CPU (which was a custom engineered Intel Core 2 Duo Merom in the first generation MacBook Air) was replaced with a low voltage Core 2 Duo Penryn Chip with 6 MB of Cache running on a 1066 MHz Bus.
Out of Box, the MacBook Air comes completely stocked which means it has no user replaceable parts. The flash memory along with battery is well enclosed within the casing with RAM soldered onto the logic board. With a sufficient 128 MB of Cache memory and a m SATA connection to the logic board, the flash memory is difficult to access.
The Outlook:
With the glossy LED backlit Display and full size keyboard, the Air shines with a large track pad that responds to iPad related multi-touch gestures such as pinching, swiping and rotating.
Moreover, the Air’s multi-touch track pad (with Mac OSX Snow Leopard) also supports hand writing recognition of Chinese Characters which is just the icing on the cake.
Pros- &- Cons :
Above all the mentioned qualities, MacBook Air is made environment friendly, with the addition of many features like reduction of Toxic Chemicals like Lead. It complies with Energy Star 5.0 and has recyclable enclosure with no BFRs and PVC wiring.
But alas, with such admirable features, the MacBook Air sacrificed many of its features to reduce size and weight. Hence you should not be surprised if you don’t find a built in removable media drive.
Moreover, you may miss many of it’s features which are omitted now like a Fire Wire port, Ethernet port and Media Card Slot ( except the 13” 2010 model which has an SD Card Slot) and a Kensington Security Slot.
But yes, there’s still one more thing to paste a smile onto your face and that’s the 2010 edition includes Two Speakers for stereo sound while earlier versions have a single speaker.
Designed for thinness and lightweight, the first MacBook Air was a 13.3” model, claimed to be the world’s thinnest notebook and was introduced on January, 2008.
Since then, the MacBook Air has undergone many improvements which include improved enclosure, screen resolution, battery and uses flash storage instead of a hard drive.
In the same sequence, the MacBook Air, released on July 20, 2011, is just a superior version of its predecessors.
The Improved Design :
Whereas the backlit keyboard is re added, mini display part is made into a Thunderbolt part and the Bluetooth is upgraded to V4.0.Though the maximum flash storage and memory options are almost identical, yet this lightweight computing monster is powered by new Dual Core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.
Like its worthy predecessor MacBook Air 3, MacBook Air 4 also comes in two model identifiers viz. 11”and 13”.
Whereas the former has a glassy display of 11.6” which supports up to 1366 x 768 with aspect ratio 16:9, the later is a little bit superior with the 13.3” and supports up to 1440 x 900 (16:10).
Now, getting into depth, the 11” base models have the memory of 2 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM with the option of 4 GB whereas the rest of the models have it of 4 GB with the same specifications.
It’s may be pointed out that The MacBook Air is also Apple’s First computer with an optional Solid State Storage Drive (SSSD).
But unlike the previous versions of MacBook Air, which had storage capacities of 128 GB (Solid State) and 120 GB (Hard Drive), the late 2010 MacBook Air model has flash memory as its only choice.
Hence for this outstanding toolbox, only the flash storage is available in 64 or 128 GB Capacities on 11” model and 128 or 256 GB on 13”.
In the models of late 2008, the CPU (which was a custom engineered Intel Core 2 Duo Merom in the first generation MacBook Air) was replaced with a low voltage Core 2 Duo Penryn Chip with 6 MB of Cache running on a 1066 MHz Bus.
Out of Box, the MacBook Air comes completely stocked which means it has no user replaceable parts. The flash memory along with battery is well enclosed within the casing with RAM soldered onto the logic board. With a sufficient 128 MB of Cache memory and a m SATA connection to the logic board, the flash memory is difficult to access.
The Outlook:
With the glossy LED backlit Display and full size keyboard, the Air shines with a large track pad that responds to iPad related multi-touch gestures such as pinching, swiping and rotating.
Moreover, the Air’s multi-touch track pad (with Mac OSX Snow Leopard) also supports hand writing recognition of Chinese Characters which is just the icing on the cake.
Pros- &- Cons :
Above all the mentioned qualities, MacBook Air is made environment friendly, with the addition of many features like reduction of Toxic Chemicals like Lead. It complies with Energy Star 5.0 and has recyclable enclosure with no BFRs and PVC wiring.
But alas, with such admirable features, the MacBook Air sacrificed many of its features to reduce size and weight. Hence you should not be surprised if you don’t find a built in removable media drive.
Moreover, you may miss many of it’s features which are omitted now like a Fire Wire port, Ethernet port and Media Card Slot ( except the 13” 2010 model which has an SD Card Slot) and a Kensington Security Slot.
But yes, there’s still one more thing to paste a smile onto your face and that’s the 2010 edition includes Two Speakers for stereo sound while earlier versions have a single speaker.
