AnandTech review out for MBA

[entatlrg]

Great review!

The i5 to i7 difference in battery life is about what I expected with the 13".

I wonder if the difference will be greater comparing the 2012 11" i5 to i7? Hope they add it the review.

 

[buddybd]

damn I wished he uploaded profiles for the 2011s as well.

Looks like my maxed 11" will hold its ground for next year as well. Haswell will force me to upgrade

 

[tim100]

Great review!

The i5 to i7 difference in battery life is about what I expected with the 13".

I wonder if the difference will be greater comparing the 2012 11" i5 to i7? Hope they add it the review.

for me the i5 has some real advantages over the i7, i.e. battery life.

 

[kodeman53]

for me the i5 has some real advantages over the i7, i.e. battery life.

How many more minutes do you get with the I5?

 

[ohbrilliance]

Wow, 25% hotter than the 2010 MBP, that's progress!

41.5c is 2.8% hotter than 33.3c. It's better to stick with 'degrees warmer' as a comparison.

 

[entatlrg]

for me the i5 has some real advantages over the i7, i.e. battery life.

Yes, so far we know:

2012 13" i5 7.52
2012 13" i7 7.35

2012 11" i5 5.5
2012 11" i7 ?

For comparison I'm curious to know:

2011 13" i7 ?
2011 13" i5 ?

2011 11" i5 - 4.82
2011 11" i7 - ?

 

[tim100]

Yes, so far we know:

2012 13" i5 7.52
2012 13" i7 7.35

2012 11" i5 5.5
2012 11" i7 ?

For comparison I'm curious to know:

2011 13" i7 ?
2011 13" i5 ?

2011 11" i5 - 4.82
2011 11" i7 - ?

i wonder if they will do another review of an ultimate config and provide additional battery info.

 

[Hellhammer]

Nice review Hellhammer/other Anandtech folk.

I didn't write a single word, Anand did the whole review

Hi Kristian,

I love Anandtech's reviews, but I do have a minor issue with this one. Could you please pass on to Anand that it would be most useful if he included which models were tested. Some of the charts have this and some don't.

Thanks.

11" MBA: Core i5 1.7GHz
13" MBA: Core i5 1.8GHz

I get what you mean but those are the configurations that I know Anand has. In some of those graphs it doesn't make a difference what the exact model is, which is why I think Anand decided to leave out the exact configuration.

 

[entatlrg]

i wonder if they will do another review of an ultimate config and provide additional battery info.

You're talking about the 11" right? The i5 gets only 5.5 hours so safe to say the i7 will be less which means I'd order the i5/8/512.

It's a fair increase over the 2011 with regards to the i5.

Now that the reviews are out, what's everyone's opinion buying the i5 versus i7 ... is it worth it for the added battery life?

 

[goinskiing]

"There is a known bug with the upgraded CPU under Windows today. Turbo Boost is disabled under Windows on the 3667U, although it's fully functional under OS X. Apple is aware of the problem and I'd expect a fix at some point, but there's no indication of when."

It looks like he noticed the turbo boost on the i7s have a bug. Wish it would get a little more notice however...

 

[entatlrg]

What's Anand using for a personal notebook right now, 2012 11" i5?

 

[Hellhammer]

What's Anand using for a personal notebook right now, 2012 11" i5?

I'm not sure. 2011 15" MBP used to be his main workhorse but it's possible that the rMBP replaced it. AFAIK he uses 11" MBA as well but it's not his main machine (kind of the carry-around laptop).

 

[jav6454]

I'm not sure. 2011 15" MBP used to be his main workhorse but it's possible that the rMBP replaced it. AFAIK he uses 11" MBA as well but it's not his main machine (kind of the carry-around laptop).

Did you contribute to the review?

 

[Hellhammer]

Did you contribute to the review?

I wish. I'm still rocking a 2010 13" MBA and Anand can handle the SSD stuff without my help I've been busy with other SSDs, I feel like they are coming from all doors and windows.

 

[jav6454]

I wish. I'm still rocking a 2010 13" MBA and Anand can handle the SSD stuff without my help I've been busy with other SSDs, I feel like they are coming from all doors and windows.

So you only handle SSDs directly? Awesome, free samples everywhere.

I haven't seen an SSD review in quite a while ... are you doing your job?

 

[Hellhammer]

So you only handle SSDs directly?

Yes. Sometimes I do news posts on other stuff but lately that's been mainly storage related as well.

Awesome, free samples everywhere.

It stops being awesome after a few samples. I don't really have use for more than one or two SSDs at the same time. My motherboard only has PCIe x1 slots (x16 taken by the GPU) so I can't really add a high performance RAID card either, and all my SATA ports are already in use.

I haven't seen an SSD review in quite a while ... are you doing your job?

Check back tomorrow morning The last couple of months have been a bit quieter but now there are at least 5 SSDs on their way to Finland.

 

[jav6454]

Yes. Sometimes I do news posts on other stuff but lately that's been mainly storage related as well.

Ahh! I see.

It stops being awesome after a few samples. I don't really have use for more than one or two SSDs at the same time. My motherboard only has PCIe x1 slots (x16 taken by the GPU) so I can't really add a high performance RAID card either, and all my SATA ports are already in use.

Donate or sell me some! I am happy to help you off load those unwanted SSDs

Check back tomorrow morning The last couple of months have been a bit quieter but now there are at least 5 SSDs on their way to Finland.

I will. I love the SSD articles. Specially because I am always trying to find the most reliable and speedy one. Price, is an issue, but I am not one to use price as a decision when it comes to the speed I want at the reliability I need.

 

[matbal]

Good review but I don't think the temperatures tell the whole story. While this is my first Air it is by far the coolest running computer I've owned under light use. Yes it gets hot when playing a game or making the CPU do heavy work but just surfing the internet and watching videos the fan doesn't speed up to where it's audile and the case never feels warmer than ambient.

 

[Weaselboy]

I wish. I'm still rocking a 2010 13" MBA and Anand can handle the SSD stuff without my help I've been busy with other SSDs, I feel like they are coming from all doors and windows.

I agree with your Twitter comment, that these SSDs are quickly becoming a commodity item. I suspect within the next year there will be little product differentiation among them and when new models come out there will be a short mention of the press release and a giant "meh" from users. Kind of like hard drive releases now.

You do write some very thorough and well thought out SSD reviews. I know I would have a difficult time staying enthused after writing about the third one of those reviews.

 

[wditters]

es it gets hot when playing a game or making the CPU do heavy work but just surfing the internet and watching videos the fan doesn't speed up to where it's audile and the case never feels warmer than ambient.

Same experience here. I have been driving 1x 1440x900 + 2 x 1080x1200 screens and VMWare Fusion with an XP machine over the last days and while it gets (luke)warm the fan never starts blowing and the machine keeps performing admirably.

 

[macneubie]

Will battery life of the new airs or rmbp improve with ML?

 

[jmgag03]

What is the name of his profile under the "Color" tab in Displays in system preferences?

 

[KPOM]

What is the name of his profile under the "Color" tab in Displays in system preferences?

I don't recall the full name, but it has the number 22 in it (at least the LG).

 

[Galatian]

You're talking about the 11" right? The i5 gets only 5.5 hours so safe to say the i7 will be less which means I'd order the i5/8/512.

It's a fair increase over the 2011 with regards to the i5.

Now that the reviews are out, what's everyone's opinion buying the i5 versus i7 ... is it worth it for the added battery life?

Question should be: Are there user case scenarios where spending 200€ and reduced battery life really worth the little performance gain?

Quite frankly I can't see the MacBook Air being used as a powerhouse, at least not until Haswell and it's beefed up graphics. To me the MacBook Air is more off a take every Notebook to to office work and the i5 and 4GB RAM is more then enough for that task...but that's just me...

 

[KPOM]

Quite frankly I can't see the MacBook Air being used as a powerhouse, at least not until Haswell and it's beefed up graphics. To me the MacBook Air is more off a take every Notebook to to office work and the i5 and 4GB RAM is more then enough for that task...but that's just me...

Funny, with Haswell I am thinking of jumping off the i7 train and going with the i5. In retrospect, I'd have purchased the i5 last year and the i5 this year. However, since I purchased the i7 last year, I didn't want to go to the i5 this year, as it would have been mostly a lateral move between the 1.8GHz Sandy Bridge i7 and the 1.7GHz Ivy Bridge i5. I wanted the extra power to justify the cost (most of which was the depreciation on the 2011).

Hopefully we'll see a quad-core Haswell next year, and an improved display. There will be an onslaught of ultrabooks with superior displays in the coming months (the ASUS is just the first), so even if we don't get a full Retina Display, an increase in resolution would be warranted.