It’s been just under a year since Apple last updated its MacBook Air line-up, but Intel’s launch of its latest generation Haswell Core processors has resulted in this, the 2013 MacBook Air announced this week at WWDC 2013.
We picked up this 11-inch version from Apple this morning, so here are our initial thoughts on the smaller version of what the company loves to call the “ultimate everyday laptop”.
It’s extremely similar to the 2012 version in look and feel, with virtually all the changes under the hood and centered on those Turbo Boosted Core i5 and Core i7 processors.
In fact, we can’t help but think that Apple has missed a little trick in redesigning the air to make it even more desirable, as it did to the MacBook Pro line with the more expensive retina. The bezel around the screen – especially on the 11-inch – still seems rather large and we were hoping that we’d see more than a spec bump this time.
But then it is a pretty special spec bump. As with Intel’s marketing of Haswell, Apple is also talking up the battery life improvements to this version of the MacBook Air – Apple is talking about 12 hours for the 13-inch version and nine hours for this 11-inch with eight hours of video playback.
Obviously we haven’t had chance to test the battery life out as yet, but we’ll be giving it a full analysis in our forthcoming review.
The displays are the same with 1,366 x 768 and 1,440 x 900 resolutions for each of the two sizes. Again, we’re a tiny bit disappointed these aren’t higher resolutions, given that Full HD displays are now making it into some high-end Ultrabooks.
One of the key differences for the 11-inch is that it contains double the storage of the older model – so 128GB and 256GB variants are available while you can also upgrade to 512GB of flash if you have money to burn. It’s the same with the 13-inch, though Apple has dropped the price of the base 13-inch model to GBP £949, USD $1,099, AUD $1,249.
The graphics have been improved significantly, but only in so much as it’s the Intel HD 5000 graphics used by the refreshed Haswell chips – there are no dedicated graphics available with the Air, while the processor variants used don’t have Intel’s new top-of-the-range Iris graphics. Apple cites a 40 per cent improvement in graphical prowess.
The Flash storage is also speedier than the previous generation, which was already impressive. We’ve noted blistering performance from this model already. Last year’s model would wake up quickly, but ours had a habit of hanging for a couple of seconds once this was done. There’s no sign of that here.
Another enhancement is 802.11ac Wi-Fi. We’re looking forward to seeing this launch on more and more devices, but Apple is one of the first to the punch and has launched an updated AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations featuring 802.11ac Wi-Fi to go alongside the Air.
As before you get a FaceTime HD 720p camera, a Thunderbolt port, two USB 3.0 ports and video mirroring. As OS X Mavericks won’t be with us until Autumn/the Fall, these MacBook Airs ship with OS X Mountain Lion though naturally they will be upgradeable to the forthcoming OS for a fee. There’s 4GB of RAM and the same, excellent, keyboard and trackpad.
Another thing that has been changed is that the MacBook Air now ships with dual microphones for clearer dictation and video calls.
We’ll have a full 2013 MacBook Air review on TechRadar next week after we’ve put the battery life and graphics through its paces.
Early verdict
The 2013 MacBook Air has got cheaper (for the 13-inch), faster and will last longer. It’s an improvement on an already terrific laptop and, though we always love to see a new design, the only thing we’d like to see dramatically different is the screen resolution. The specification is stunning and we’re really looking forward to seeing how it copes in our battery life and performance tests.
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