13" MacBook Air Review Roundup: Apple's Battery Claims Appear Accurate, SSD and Graphics Drive Performance Increases

[Rocketman]

...though the relatively low res screen kinda hurts it a bit in my eyes.

For 3 bills more you can get a pro 13, for 7 bills more you can get a pro 15. The Air is downright economical and fast, with the internal display "only" as good as the current standard and no more, except, the color gamut, brightness, semi-gloss coating, and the longevity.

 

[AlphaDeuce]

Easy there. I'm not trying to manipulate the truth, nor am I lying (as you seem to be implying). I'm just saying, yeah, the Macbook Air is a great computer, but let's not pretend all these improvements are unique to it, or that Apple is solely responsible. Much (perhaps MOST even) of the battery life improvements came from improvements on Intel's end with Haswell. Thus, those benefits will accrue to other PC makers, and not Apple alone.

Finally, while the Macbook Air is indeed a dominant force in the ultrabook market, don't fool yourself that it is the only quality product out there. I suggest a trip over to anandtech.com to do some research.

I'll save my trip over to anandtech.com because I want a MBA not just because of the hardware improvements but also because of the OS. OS X Mavericks combined with iOS 7 is going to be a slick ecosystem.

I going to buy a MBA 11" when OS X mavericks is released. Hopefully it will be the same time iOS 7 is released.

 

[Tech198]

we all want performance..

 

[Renzatic]

For 3 bills more you can get a pro 13, for 7 bills more you can get a pro 15. The Air is downright economical and fast, with the internal display "only" as good as the current standard and no more, except, the color gamut, brightness, semi-gloss coating, and the longevity.

The semi-gloss coating is nice, and yeah, they are stout, well built machines overall, but but you'd be hard pressed to say the screen is best in class. The Zenbook Prime beats it soundly.

...though the trackpad sucks on those. I tell you, why can't someone make an ultrabook that's good at everything?

 

[lk400]

So funny to read negative responses to the positive test results.

I sometimes come here just to read the negative posts. I like to use the "comic book guy"'s voice from the Simpsons. Especially on the long and verbose ones. Sometimes I find ones with phrases like "vastly superior" and its just gold.

 

[haruhiko]

Apple's battery claims always appear to be accurate except for the iPhone...

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I sometimes come here just to read the negative posts. I like to use the "comic book guy"'s voice from the Simpsons. Especially on the long and verbose ones. Sometimes I find ones with phrases like "vastly superior" and its just gold.

You can almost predict what will these people say after Apple releases a new product!

No change in design: stale
Change in design: ugly
No new revolutionary functions: stale
Add revolutionary functions: but it copied from [whatever name of competing or non-competing or dead operating systems]
No increase in screen size: stale
Increase in screen size: but it's not big enough!
Price reduced + longer battery life: stagnated

I think some other companies' marketing department may consider me! I've got answers to every Apple product refresh!

 

[entatlrg]

The semi-gloss coating is nice, and yeah, they are stout, well built machines overall, but but you'd be hard pressed to say the screen is best in class. The Zenbook Prime beats it soundly.

...though the trackpad sucks on those. I tell you, why can't someone make an ultrabook that's good at everything?

Because more than anything Apple like any corp is greedy. "If" they were really trying to make the best product they can make they'd forsake those crazy high profit margins and give the Air a better screen, didn't have to be retina but better than what's on them now.

 

[AppleScruff1]

The semi-gloss coating is nice, and yeah, they are stout, well built machines overall, but but you'd be hard pressed to say the screen is best in class. The Zenbook Prime beats it soundly.

...though the trackpad sucks on those. I tell you, why can't someone make an ultrabook that's good at everything?

I don't think anyone has a track pad as good Apple.

 

[haruhiko]

I don't think anyone has a track pad as good Apple.

That's really unbelievable. After all these years there is still not a competitive product to Apple's glass trackpad on the Windows side.

 

[Renzatic]

That's really unbelievable. After all these years there is still not a competitive product to Apple's glass trackpad on the Windows side.

Really. No matter how good the laptop otherwise is, or how much you pay, every single OEM seems to fall short on the trackpad.

You think it'd be a relatively easy thing to do, but so far, none of them can match Apple here. At least they're showing improvement...slowly.

 

[Mr Rogers]

rMBP

Could one of the reasons be for a lack of rMBP updates in June have something to do with the supply of Haswell Iris chippery, particularly in the 13in platform.

Given Apple surprised many by incorporating HD5000 into its MBA range, its likely the higher performing chips will ultimately make there way into the MPB range, i.e., spreading the weight between the CPU/GPU combine and discrete graphics chip itself.

However, whilst I'd welcome Haswell Iris combination in the MBP and rMBP models - the bigger laptops really need a discrete graphics chip as no way on earth does 'Iris' cut it for true graphics intense grunt.

As for the MBA itself, here's hoping in its next upgrade that the 'Iris' part of the CPU/GPU SOC will be incorporated into this range - which makes for an excellent laptop.

 

[blackhand1001]

I don't think anyone has a track pad as good Apple.

Any pc laptop with a synaptics touchpad is just as good. Its the elantech and alps touchpads that suck.

 

[warriorz]

Now we just need to get the lowdown re battery life and performance for the 11inch, and the differences between the i5 and i7. Hope the reviews come in soon, especially Anandtech's, he's always comprehensive. I'd be interested to hear opinions on heat issues between the 2 processors and whether the fans run more often in the i7, as that will drain more battery power.

 

[brucebrendon]

Even if you have to pay it'll only be $20-$30.

That shouldn't be a deal breaker if you're thinking of dropping $1,000 on a laptop anyways.

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Doubt it. cMBP is about to be EOLed. So, they're back to the "pro/enthusiast" and "consumer" lines with the MBA and rMBP. Retina displays aren't cheap enough to put them on the consumer line and have acceptable baseline prices. Additionally, as you noted, battery life will see a considerable drop. Finally, even with Haswell and Iris, I don't think the integrated GPU is powerful enough to drive that many pixels while delivering consistent performance at the TDP that the Macbook Air requires.

iPad/iPadMini are consumer.

 

[Mystic386]

Here's the game at every product release by Apple.


- Apple claims new longer level of battery life.

- Independent testera test and confirm Apple has understated the battery life and it does more.

At some point you'd think they'd start to just accept that Apple tells the truth about this.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Any pc laptop with a synaptics touchpad is just as good. Its the elantech and alps touchpads that suck.

I haven't found a non Apple notebook that can match Apple's touchpad, Synaptics included. They have been improving, but they are still not as good.

 

[wiz329]

iPad/iPadMini are consumer.

Not yet.

 

[blackhand1001]

I haven't found a non Apple notebook that can match Apple's touchpad, Synaptics included. They have been improving, but they are still not as good.

The latest synaptic driver that optimizes it for windows 8 improves all synaptics touchpads greatly. The update also works windows 7.

 

[drccw]

Cnet has a video playback battery test data... pretty remarkable....

http://www.cnet.com/apple-macbook-air-13-inch/
13" nets 14 hrs, 25 minutes
11" 10 hours, 3 minutes...

Better than an ipad....

drccw

 

[TallManNY]

The latest synaptic driver that optimizes it for windows 8 improves all synaptics touchpads greatly. The update also works windows 7.

Ohh, I just downloaded that for my HP Ultrabook. I did notice a difference once I restarted. But I will pay attention that and see how it goes this weekend.

Now if they can just come up with an updated that keeps my battery from dying over the course of just two days, when the lid is down and the computer is supposed to be in sleep mode, then I won't rage at it so much and wish it was a new MB Air.

 

[tigress666]

As some one who doesn't know much about internals, how do the specs on the new Macbook Airs compare to the specs on a 13" 2010 Macbook Pro? Yes I know it's a 3 year old machine but I also know the airs tend to be not as focused on performance either

Just curious if it would be worth the upgrade or if it would just be a small bump in performance? Would it run games any better and would it open up Firefox and run it any better (my computer now stutters a lot on firefox, safari, and iTunes though to be fair I am betting there is some stuff I could do with it software wise to make it a little better).

So far looking at specs on it my only issue (other than if it would be a decent enough change spec wise than my 13" MBP) is that I need a larger hard drive (I think I was reading they've made the storage space really hard to replace)? 256 GB is what I have now and it's *full*. And no I don't want to erase stuff.

 

[SPUY767]

What credentials do you have that we should trust you?

Masters in Electrical Engineering.

 

[MrXiro]

Haswell + MBA + Mavericks = 12+ hours

Haswell + MBP + Mavericks =


we need details
thank you we need it like hmmmm this fall

Haswell + MBA + Mavericks - Mavericks (the MBAs being tested are running on Mountain Lion) = 12+ hours

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Only for those that are completely unfamiliar with Apple. They have NEVER used miraculous GPUs. Their top notch systems have *always* had less-then-cutting-edge GPUs in comparison to the latest Windows ATI, NVidia, etc. Made up for it with hard work and "miraculous software".

The difference? Apple's 1+ year old drivers and software are actually vetted (or at least more so than others) and "optimized". While it's nice having the fastest GPU on Windows for a whole year or two, it's completely negated by the number of lockups, reboots, and crashes. This was highlighted when Windows Aero came out in Vista -finally native window manager acceleration in 2007 that supported GPU enhanced alpha channels (keep in mind that OS X had this some 8 years earlier). Of coarse with Microsoft, there was always stop gaps with DirectX and Win-G for libraries for games and apps that needed graphics performance above what the window manager could deliver. For many, a sputter of the monitor and a clicking to a new Hz refresh rate and monitor profile was acceptable and "good enough". But there is something to be said about the silky smooth "show contents while dragging windows" that was always native to OS X.

The problem is that far too many people on this site don't get this. Nor seem to have ever looked up Apple's history of upgrades. They just came here to complain.

 

[wrightc23]

Here's the game at every product release by Apple.


- Apple claims new longer level of battery life.

- Independent testera test and confirm Apple has understated the battery life and it does more.

At some point you'd think they'd start to just accept that Apple tells the truth about this.

Yeah have to agree, it looks like a very solid update to me and unlike most ultrabooks actually provides the sort of battery life they should be combined with decent performance.

As someone holding out for the updated rMBP I'm still quite tempted to go for one to replace my creaking Thinkpad I use on the road. Just wish it had a slightly higher resolution, it doesn't need to be retina but just a bit more screen real estate.

Even allowing for my personal preference it looks good value against many of the Windows based competition.

Personally I also like the fact that Apple don't completely redesign a product line every year, helps with resale values.

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I haven't found a non Apple notebook that can match Apple's touchpad, Synaptics included. They have been improving, but they are still not as good.

Very true, not just the driver but the actual touchpad design itself. I had to spend a year with a Thinkpad x220, great little laptop but dear lord the touchpad with combined buttons was a painful experience.

It's surprising how few Windows based laptops just don't seem to be able to get it quite right? I assume because they're all using the same components?

 

[gnasher729]

Really. No matter how good the laptop otherwise is, or how much you pay, every single OEM seems to fall short on the trackpad.

You think it'd be a relatively easy thing to do, but so far, none of them can match Apple here. At least they're showing improvement...slowly.

They all go by "specs", but only by specs that can easily be turned into numbers that can be compared. The trackpad quality cannot be turned into a number. So if some designer, or some engineer, comes up with an idea how to improve the trackpad, they'll be asked "how does that increase our specs", and the idea is shot down immediately.