“From the outside, the mid-2013 MacBook Air refresh is again a very minor one indeed, with no new display and (virtually) no exterior modifications,” Tim Stevens writes for Engadget. “On the inside, though, bigger changes are afoot. New, faster SSDs and a selection of power-sipping Haswell CPUs from Intel have created a device that’s all but identical to its predecessor yet is, in many ways, vastly improved.”
“It’s no Retina, a fact that can be confirmed with a quick glance. Still, this remains a great-looking LCD, making the most of its 1,440 x 900 resolution,” Stevens writes. “Viewing angles are as good as ever and brightness does not disappoint. Color reproduction is spot-on and the LED backlighting is both good for your battery and the environment.”
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Stevens writes, “There’s one area where the performance has really gone off the charts, and that’s battery life. Apple rates the 2013 edition of the MacBook Air for up to 10 hours of battery life playing video or 12 hours of wireless web surfing. Our standard rundown test, as it happens, also entails playing video and last year’s machine managed just over six and a half hours before expiring. We were, then, skeptical that this new edition could manage nearly twice that longevity — but it actually did better. This year’s Air survived 12 hours and 51 minutes on a charge. That’s a stunning number from a laptop this thin, achieved with WiFi enabled and without any external batteries.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Hands-on with Apple’s new MacBook Air: True all-day battery life – June 13, 2013
Why the MacBook Air didn’t get a Retina display – June 12, 2013
Apple brings all day battery life to MacBook Air – June 10, 2013
Under promise, over deliver…
Apple laptops have no peers (except other MacBooks).
There will of course be a legion of ABA fanbois (anything but Apple) who will continue to scream: “no replaceable battery — epic fail!”….
Impressive. With that kind of battery life, Apple could be on the verge of more powerful tablets that run OS X on an Intel processor.
Meh. Still waiting for the new MacBook Pros and Cinema Displays later this year. The MBA is just too dainty and still has no Retina screen.
Apple must have put a freakin’ fusion reactor in the Air.
Go figure. I just bought an 11″ MBA in the spring. And now here come new ones with faster drives and longer battery life……
Others have figured and were determined to wait. The signs were there, you just ignored them.
To avoid that from happening in the future – http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
If you really did just buy it, as in within the last 30 days, it’s likely you can return to the store you bought it from or exchange it directly with Apple for the current model.
Haswell chips for future of iphone pls..the battery life is killing me
Am I reading that right? You think Haswell chips in an iPhone will improve your battery life? Now that is simplistic optimism for you.
iOS devices are built around power-efficient ARM processors already. The Haswell line from Intel is just allowing the OSX machines to play catch up in that regard, since the Mac is built around an Intel architecture.
Still feels like they punted on this update. Again.
Time to restock…
Again, fools and pundits are fooled by the design. To then it has to look different to be different. Just as they failed to notice a difference between 3 and 3S, 4 and 4S, 5 and the coming 5S… If it looks the same it is the same failing to see the major innovations on the inside. If Apple were to release a 5 but with a larger dissplay but nithing elae changes as ther next phone they would think “the all new iPhone” is amazing. Even though its the same. Fools indeed.