The new MacBook Air has arrived – and it has a smaller sibling. Apple's update to its ultra portable notebook range includes the addition of an 11-inch model alongside the 13-inch, with both flavors coming in at a slender 0.11-0.68 inches (0.3-1.7 cm) in height and weighing 2.3 and 2.9 pounds respectively. The top spec 13-inch has a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 256GB of flash storage, 7 hour battery life, 1440 by 900 resolution screen and, in a welcome nod to practicality, both models now feature two USB ports.
A full-size keyboard, stereo speakers and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processors are featured on both models along with, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and a Multi-Touch trackpad.
Along with two USB ports (sans the fiddly cover featured on the first MacBook Air) there's a Mini DisplayPort with support for up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display. The 13-inch also gets an SD card slot.
11-inch MacBook Air
- Solid state flash storage: 64GB or 128GB
Processor
- 4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
- Optional 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB shared L2 cache
- 800MHz frontside bus
Memory
- 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory / 4GB maximum configurable option
- Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm)
- Width: 11.8 inches (29.95 cm)
- Depth: 7.56 inches (19.2 cm)
- Weight: 2.3 pounds (1.06 kg)
- Battery: 35-watt-hour, up to 5 hours
13-inch MacBook Air
- Solid state flash storage: 128GB or 256GB
Processor
- 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB on-chip shared L2 cache
- Optional 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB shared L2 cache
- 1066MHz frontside bus
Memory
- 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory / 4GB maximum configurable option
- Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm)
- Width: 12.8 inches (32.5 cm)
- Depth: 8.94 inches (22.7 cm)
- Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.32 kg)
- Battery: 50-watt-hour, up to 7 hours
The 11-inch MacBook Air costs US$999 for the 64GB and $1,119 for the 128GB. The 13-inch costs $1,299 for the 128GB and $1,599 for the 256GB.
Apple has a comparison of the two models here.
