• faster—solid state flash storage is up to twice as fast as hard drive storage
• more reliable—hard drive crashes are eliminated
• lighter and smaller—solid state flash storage is up to 90 percent smaller and lighter than hard drives
Available in 11-inch and 13-inch models and weighing as little as 2.3 pounds, the new MacBook Air is Apple’s lightest and most portable notebook ever. MacBook Air uses the same solid state storage technology as iPad to deliver instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life and up to 30 days of standby time.* Starting at $999, the affordable MacBook Air defines the next generation of MacBooks.
“MacBook Air is the first of a new generation of notebooks that leaves behind mechanical rotating storage in favor of solid state flash storage,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We’ve taken what we have learned with the iPad—solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks.”
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.
Apple makes the industry’s greenest notebooks and the MacBook Air is the latest Mac notebook to achieve EPEAT Gold status and meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements.*** Each unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. Mac notebooks contain no brominated flame retardants, are PVC-free and are constructed of recyclable materials.
Apple uses advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology to create a MacBook Air battery that delivers up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges.**** The built-in battery design results in less waste, and depleted MacBook Air batteries can be replaced for $129, which includes installation and disposal of your old battery in an environmentally responsible manner.
Every Mac comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for creating and sharing great photos, movies and music. Snow Leopard builds on more than a decade of innovation and includes multiple features for portable computing such as Multi-Touch navigation, advanced wireless networking, easy file sharing, automated data backup and intelligent power management. The new iLife ’11 features iPhoto with stunning full screen views for browsing, editing and sharing photos; iMovie with powerful easy-to-use tools to transform home videos into fun theatrical trailers; and GarageBand® with new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs.
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air are immediately available through the Apple Store® (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 1.4 GHz 11-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage starts at a suggested retail price of $999 (US) with a 128GB model for $1,199 (US). The 1.86 GHz 13-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starts at a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US) with a 256GB model for $1,599 (US). Configure-to-order options and accessories include faster processors, 4GB of memory, MacBook Air SuperDrive and a USB Ethernet Adapter.
Additional technical specifications and configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at http://www.apple.com/macbookair.
*Battery life and standby time vary by use and configuration. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
**iOS 4.1 required.
***EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit http://www.epeat.net.
****A properly maintained MacBook Air battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. For more information visit www.apple.com/batteries.
Find out more about Apple new MacBook Air here.
How much do you want to bet that Apple’s screen strategy here is to keep competitors from being able to purchase anything over a 7″ display? With the iPad and now these new MacBook Air flavors, I think Dell, Samsung, RIM, HTC and everyone else is going to be hard pressed to be able to buy anything but a 7″ or under screen size… brilliant.
@ TheConfuzed1
I was thinking the same thing . Then I thought that maybe with the flash drive it works faster than it would with a normal hard drive? Although would the heat issues be different too? Why no A4? I think it looks great but I do wish it had more ooomph…
@ TheConfuzed1
I was thinking the same thing . Then I thought that maybe with the flash drive it works faster than it would with a normal hard drive? Although would the heat issues be different too? Why no A4? I think it looks great but I do wish it had more ooomph…
1.8 GHz Duo?
Not good enough… Either is the 13 inch.
try again…
1.8 GHz Duo?
Not good enough… Either is the 13 inch.
try again…
At least I know my iMac will be compatible with Lion when it comes out given the specs for the Air. Personally, I like these things alot. Would love to see them get a 17″ version with similar specs.
At least I know my iMac will be compatible with Lion when it comes out given the specs for the Air. Personally, I like these things alot. Would love to see them get a 17″ version with similar specs.
Looks nice. So when Lion comes out how will this upgrade with out an optical drive? From the new Mac app store?
I love my 2010 17″ MBP. I would like to see apple provide an option for higher end video cards in the MBP line up. Apple let’s push open gl to 4.0 with lion to compete with direct x11. Haha ok I know it won’t happen but would be awsome.
Looks nice. So when Lion comes out how will this upgrade with out an optical drive? From the new Mac app store?
I love my 2010 17″ MBP. I would like to see apple provide an option for higher end video cards in the MBP line up. Apple let’s push open gl to 4.0 with lion to compete with direct x11. Haha ok I know it won’t happen but would be awsome.
@Q
no you’ll use a usb rom to update
and Microsoft won’t let apple use directx (and that’s good cause it realy sucks)
@Q
no you’ll use a usb rom to update
and Microsoft won’t let apple use directx (and that’s good cause it realy sucks)
So when does syncing from iPods and iPhones go wireless? iPhone 5?
So when does syncing from iPods and iPhones go wireless? iPhone 5?
@ Not fast enough!
You and all the other “not fast enough” complainers don’t get it. Apple already has your “fast enough” product. It’s called a MacBook Pro, available in various levels of “fastness.” And if that’s not fast enough, get an iMac with 4 cores or a Mac Pro with up to 12 cores.
MacBook Air is for customers who care more about convenience than pure power, which is actually the majority of customers, based on the popularity of iPad. MacBook Air is “the iPad” for customers who’d rather use the Mac interface.
@ Not fast enough!
You and all the other “not fast enough” complainers don’t get it. Apple already has your “fast enough” product. It’s called a MacBook Pro, available in various levels of “fastness.” And if that’s not fast enough, get an iMac with 4 cores or a Mac Pro with up to 12 cores.
MacBook Air is for customers who care more about convenience than pure power, which is actually the majority of customers, based on the popularity of iPad. MacBook Air is “the iPad” for customers who’d rather use the Mac interface.
FYI – I’ve been describing that “Software Reinstall Drive” for a long time. VERY COOL! It won’t be long until that thing is standard with EVERY new Mac sold (replacing discs) and optical drives will start to disappear as built-in components (except for the Mac Pro). Major updates to Mac OS X (maybe even for Lion) will will sold the same way, and as downloads (through the Mac App Store).
FYI – I’ve been describing that “Software Reinstall Drive” for a long time. VERY COOL! It won’t be long until that thing is standard with EVERY new Mac sold (replacing discs) and optical drives will start to disappear as built-in components (except for the Mac Pro). Major updates to Mac OS X (maybe even for Lion) will will sold the same way, and as downloads (through the Mac App Store).
sub-1000 Macbook air.. wow.. Lucky University students who get this thing.. haha
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sub-1000 Macbook air.. wow.. Lucky University students who get this thing.. haha
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Why no integrated 3G? Otherwise excellent.
Why no integrated 3G? Otherwise excellent.
Core 2 Duo likely because of power management; go with anything too powerful and you’re not going to get the battery life.
A friend told me today that this may replace his iPad as his travel computer — he does a lot of writing on the road and while he likes the iPad overall, he has a hard time doing a lot of typing on the screen and it can be a hassle sticking a Bluetooth keyboard in his travel bag.
I want to get hands on with one to check out accessibility features; my mother-in-law is in the market for a laptop but needs something lightweight she can move easily off her desktop when she does paperwork. I think this would be perfect if I can set the resolution to where she can actually read the screen. And she’s not going to need a lot of whistles and bells; just something she can install a decent word processing program (hello Pages) and a few casual games (she loves various types of Solitaire especially).
Core 2 Duo likely because of power management; go with anything too powerful and you’re not going to get the battery life.
A friend told me today that this may replace his iPad as his travel computer — he does a lot of writing on the road and while he likes the iPad overall, he has a hard time doing a lot of typing on the screen and it can be a hassle sticking a Bluetooth keyboard in his travel bag.
I want to get hands on with one to check out accessibility features; my mother-in-law is in the market for a laptop but needs something lightweight she can move easily off her desktop when she does paperwork. I think this would be perfect if I can set the resolution to where she can actually read the screen. And she’s not going to need a lot of whistles and bells; just something she can install a decent word processing program (hello Pages) and a few casual games (she loves various types of Solitaire especially).
So the new Airs include relatively slow Core 2 Duo processors (1.4 to 1.8 GHz), low-end Nvidia 320M graphics as well as a paltry 2 GB of memory. Clearly, these are not performance monsters.
What can you do in this day and age with 2gb ram?
Come on Steve. This was the most boring update conference ever
So the new Airs include relatively slow Core 2 Duo processors (1.4 to 1.8 GHz), low-end Nvidia 320M graphics as well as a paltry 2 GB of memory. Clearly, these are not performance monsters.
What can you do in this day and age with 2gb ram?
Come on Steve. This was the most boring update conference ever