How big of a difference between Mid 2011 and Mid 2012 13" MB Air?

Hi guys,

A co-worker has a MB Air 13" from Mid 2011.

It has the upgraded 1.8 GHz i7 Dual Core processor.

My question is, how much of a difference is there between the 1.8 GHz i7 Sandy Bridge and the new 1.8 GHz i5 Ivy Bridge in the 2012 MBA? I know that one has the Intel HD3000 and the other has the Intel HD4000 GPU but I don't know how big of a difference that will make?

My usage will be: watching movies, some web design (with photoshop), running windows via boot camp or parallels, youtube, and some heavy statistical data analysis using Excel or SAS and graphing through Prism. The data sets are pretty big and it usually takes close to an hour on my old Sony Vaio F series with a quadcore to work through the macros.

I won't be doing any gaming but do want to be able to have some blu-ray rips play without any stuttering.

Would the 2011 MBA with 1.8 GHz Sandy Bridge (HD3000) be fine for my use or would I see a noticeable difference going with the 2012 1.8GHz Ivy Bridge (HD4000)?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

torana355 said:

2012 has usb3 which is the biggest upside imo. The new fan design is also a big plus. The optional extra ram will also help with your VM's. Go the 2012 for sure. Im thinking of selling my 2011 MBA and upgrading.

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Great info. I forgot about the USB3 difference and didn't realize that the MBA also had the new asymmetrical fan now -- thought that only the RMBP got that upgrade.

Something to think about for sure. Am I correct in assuming that RAM cannot be upgraded?

Badandy said:

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yes

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Thanks Sorry for the n00b-ness.

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Does anyone know if the typical usage I described would work on the 2011, namely the no stuttering while playing blu-ray rips?

Thanks again everyone.