New Benchmarks Show 13-Inch MacBook Air Rivaling Its MacBook Pro Counterpart

[acidfast7]

But it's "feature challenged" to have a $1599 laptop without a 3G *option* - something that the Dell Mini 10 has on an under $500 netbook.

Not only Dell but Samsung, Acer and others.

It's extremely common with people that live in areas that have it. In fact, in most cases, it's cheaper to have 50Mb/5Mb mobile/cell service than 30Mb/3Mb service into the apartment through traditional means.

Just seems like a big oversight, but maybe I'm too picky/spoiled.

 

[LoganT]

So the 11inch MacBook air is cheaper, faster, lighter, thinner, and higher resolution than the 13inch MacBook pro?

Do you think we will have to wait for June for update in MacBook pro, or will we get one this winter/spring?

Who said anything about faster? It's almost as fast as a MBP.

 

[flopticalcube]

Man, can't wait to get mine, unfortunately, it seems to have gotten loss.

The last update on UPS' site is it arriving in Louiseville :

LOUISVILLE, KY, US 25/10/2010 3:06 ARRIVAL SCAN

Nothing since then.

thats not unusual. It'll probably arrive on your doorstep before the tracking is updated next.

 

[deconstruct60]

There's only one "4G" network in the US and it's not the network that most of the world is moving towards.

In reality none of these , in US or not, are 4G. That is a just an easier tag than 3.2 ,3.5 or 3.9 G . With that out of way.

There are actually multiple "4G" networks currently in deployed state. Sprint's "4G" (wimax based) and MetroPCS (LTE) are live. Veriizon is has a network up and working but isn't allowing general public customers on yet (holding back a bit so that map will look pretty well flushed out on launch day) . So in a month or so, that will make 3 in the US pretty soon.

The amount of people that lock their laptops is decreasing. I say is as an employee in a college bookstore where the amount of laptop locks we sell decreases drastically each year.

If already have a laptop before coming to college why would you need a new lock? Since the lock slot is standardize you only need to buy one over a 10-15 year period and you are all set. There is no need for a new model every couple of years. If already have one just reuse it on new computer.

Since more people have laptops, less folks are stealing them. Others may be beating on LoJack (or something similar to get it back). However, if have data on your laptop that is valuable, it would be extremely prudent to secure it. For people who may be assigned cubes/offices in relatively unsecure areas it is still a very good idea.

 

[wizard]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Help me out guys, so is the immediate future of Macbook pros a 2 HD array with onboard SSD for Operating System and some applications and a HDD to retain storage space at a reasonable price?

Is this a technical nightmare or a reasonable possibility?

Could someone with more technical experience juxtapose this for me?

Thx in advance

It is very possible but I can't read Apples mind. I do question Apples very high pricing of flash storage in these machines, they could easily offer more space at the prices they are charging.

Still at this moment in time a hybrid approach would be ideal. It gives the pro machines the capacity they need along with a significant speed boost. For the most part there is little technically to stop this from happening. In fact people have been using dual drive systems for years to increase speed. It is just that now one drive can be extremely fast.

I'm really impressed with the new AIRs, they are a far better machine than the old ones. However I'm very reluctant to buy as the amount of SSD storage is just a little too thin for my needs. Maybe by the time my wallet fattens back up they will have adjusted the SSD size to a more reasonable size for todays needs. Then again a hybrid MBP would be hard to resist.

 

[Mattsasa]

Who said anything about faster? It's almost as fast as a MBP.

Macworld, reported the 11inch was 59% faster than the pros, in file duplication, zipping, and unzipping. And the 11inch air had identical cinebench graphics to the 13 inch MacBook pro, and that the 11inch MBA had 12% faster fps in call of duty, than the 13inch mbp.

Not to mention the speed of loading applications with the ssd.

 

[deconstruct60]

Apple's kinda sorta seemed maybe to imply that the access speeds to the "raw" flash chips on the MB could be faster than via an SSD enclosure.

No they didn't. They said thinner.
They were deceptive when they said they incorporated it onto the logic/motherboard. It is not on the logicboard. It is a seperate, mostly standard card ( it looks like a mSATA card that is just longer than few earlier Tosihba's offerings. It is still a mostly standard part made for Apple by Tosihba. )

Apple also spun a tall story about how they are flash experts. That's partial hookem. The vast majority of Apple devices have one Flash chip on them. None have more than 3 (except the one that goes in the XServe ). None of the iOS ones do anything substantive about wear leveling or speeding up writes. Apple buys lots of flash. That doesn't neceesariy makes them flash experts.

From the iFixit tear down this semi-custom drive has a Toshiba controller on it. Whatever the long term performance of the drive is will likely be much more be driven by Toshiba's expertise than Apple's.

Often SSD drives that get bleeding edge fast (SATA III) write speeds accomplish that through using more than 4 flash chips. (effectively RAID techniques of spreading writes out to mulitple chips so can get them done partially in parallel. ) Apple's drive can't do that. It will likely benchmark well inside the the SATA II envelope. It is faster than a hard drive ... not all other SSD drives.

 

[trondah]

How can 1.8GHz/320M get 7fps more in Call of Duty than a 2.4GHz/320M?

 

[acidfast7]

In reality none of these , in US or not, are 4G.

wrong.

from Wikipedia ...

On December 14, 2009, the first commercial LTE deployment was in the Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and Oslo by the Swedish-Finnish network operator TeliaSonera and its Norwegian brandname NetCom (Norway). TeliaSonera branded the network "4G". The modem devices on offer were manufactured by Samsung (dongle GT-B3710), and the network infrastructure created by Huawei (in Oslo) and Ericsson (in Stockholm). TeliaSonera plans to roll out nationwide LTE across Sweden, Norway and Finland.[3][32] TeliaSonera used spectral bandwidth of 10 MHz, and single-in-single-out, which should provide physical layer net bitrates of up to 50 Mbit/s downlink and 25 Mbit/s in the uplink. Introductory tests showed a TCP throughput of 42.8 Mbit/s downlink and 5.3 Mbit/s uplink in Stockholm.[4]


...

TeliaSonera started deploying LTE (branded "4G") in Stockholm and Oslo November 2009 (as seen above), and in several Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish cities during 2010. In June 2010, Swedish television companies used 4G to broadcast live television from the Swedish Crown Princess' Royal Wedding.[43]

that's one of the reasons I'm being an a$$ about it. We've had it for almost a year. also check out the map for coverage over the whole country.

 

[FuNGi]

People please. The 13" Air, despite the 'limitations of the test' appears to be on par with the 13" MBP. If you desire weight, form, start-up speed, and screen size over upgradeability, a DVD drive, and a silly security slot then get the MBA. It is an easier decision now after these tests. I feel better about mine.

 

[Mattsasa]

How can 1.8GHz/320M get 7fps more in Call of Duty than a 2.4GHz/320M?

One word..... Ssd

And better RAM

 

[wizard]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

A couple of quick things:

One you guys making buying decisions based on these benchmarks could be in for a negative surprise. The tests aren't well balanced nor objective. Worst if your normal apps are CPU bound the tests are mostly useless. That doesn't mean the AIRs are bad just that they aren't CPU power houses.

Second it would have been nice to have cellular networking in an ultra mobile computer. I'm not sure why people even deny this.

 

[Zc456]

It's all down to the flash.

That word alone is waay to ironic to ignore, even if it isn't related to Adobe. Anyway, SSDs is defiantly looking like a more worthy replacement to HDD - finally. Since Linux 2.6.33 (I think) and Windows 7 now come with TRIM, I'm tempted to get one for my netbook.

On a similar note, I wonder what this means for desktops?

 

[illian]

So? There's more to performance than the CPU. Apple found out that a slower CPU and an SSD results in a smaller package with higher real-life performance for the intended use of the machine. The intended use for an MBA is pretty light on the CPU. Unless you want to run full screen flash video, that is. An MBA isn't made for Final Cut Pro, a 100+GB Aperture library or other cpu and disk space intensive tasks.

When I see these benchmarks and the difference a fast SSD could make, I really start to hope that the Seagate Momentus XT I just ordered is a worthy last upgrade for my 2007 SR MacBook

Ps. They forgot to test the thing against a higher-end Atom-based netbook

how about testing it against my over 1 year old tp x200s...nearly same specs! apple found out...lol

 

[manu chao]

Why not? Most people don't have SSD drives in their Macbook Pros.

But only because they cannot or are not willing to spend the money on a SSD.

If you see the Air as a cheap way to get an SSD (in a 13" Apple laptop), you are right. By foregoing processor speed and RAM you can get a 128 GB SSD $250 cheaper and 256 GB SSD $400 cheaper (though getting a third-party SSD will narrow that gap). Even if you equalise the RAM (for $100), you still come out cheaper.

The biggest problem of the Air from a performance to price ratio however is that you are stuck with one internal disk (making the 64 or 128 GB SSD combined with a 500+ GB HDD impossible, something which is close to a sweet spot performance per price wise).

 

[manu chao]

Apple also spun a tall story about how they are flash experts. That's partial hookem. The vast majority of Apple devices have one Flash chip on them. None have more than 3 (except the one that goes in the XServe ). None of the iOS ones do anything substantive about wear leveling or speeding up writes. Apple buys lots of flash. That doesn't neceesariy makes them flash experts.

They are experts in buying flash chips (they just left out a few words).

 

[Nicky G]

There's a lot of 4G outside the US ... including a lot of EU/Asian capitals ... so you're comment may be based on traveling in the US.

Sure, but if they switch to a compact keyboard which, the backlit feature is quite nice to reduce the abruptness of the transition.

I disgaree, thefts at unis are always very high, especially at unis placed in the middle of urban areas without restricted keycard access.

Technically, NO 4G networks exist on the entire planet, anywhere. Even the first-generation LTE networks that have been deployed are not technically designated as 4G, nor is WiMax. LTE Advanced is the first actual 4G networking technology that we will see, and it is at least 2-5 years away from being deployed anywhere. So please -- stop spouting off about 4G -- you're a Ph.D, look it up.

Oh heck, I'll be nice, Doctor -- here's a link:

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/itu-paves-way-for-true-4g-technology

 

[justfine]

oooh...this opens my eyes a little.

The top of the line 13 air is about the same cost as a top processor 13 mbp with upgraded ram and they are rated about the same on this test. (108 vs. 106)--I know they didn't compare those exact configurations but it still gives a more accurate view.

Hrm...

I'm guessing there would be a similar gap vs a 4gb air and an 8gb mpb?

What they are not comparing is the last MBA with 2.13G, 2G RAM and 128G SSD. They are using the standard HDD in the last 13" Air which, when equipped with the SSD, is incredibly fast compared to my original 1.6 MBA (on which I'm typing now) with an 80G HDD. My wife has the mid-'09 with the 2.13 and 128 Flash so I'm quite familiar with the differences.

As both the 11" with the slightly faster processor (1.6 which is what I now have rather than the new 11" standard 1.4) and the additional 2G RAM for a total of 4G for $1400 and the 13" with the 1.86, 4G RAM and 128G SSD (and a SD slot and longer battery life) at the same cost, I'm having a hard time deciding which to buy. Either is as perfect for me as has been my existing MBA and each has advantages, but in the next month I'll be buying one or the other. I'd love the faster processors in the 11", but I know that it will be much faster than what I'm using now, so...I think it'll be the 11". It's so light and small yet a full keyboard and the screen resolution is terrific..looks like a larger version of my new iPhone.

 

[zacman]

Just seems like a big oversight, but maybe I'm too picky/spoiled.

To be fair, most Apple products are only designed with the US market in mind. That's why Apple "forgets" to implement features that are common in the rest of the world.

For example take a look at the original iPhone that didn't support UMTS or even MMS. Or the current iPhone that still lacks things like rSAP or UMTS video calling and iOS still doesn't even work when you put a HSPA+ sim card into the phone.

Though I still was surprised when Apple actually released a phone and not a pager....

 

[Speedy2]

One word..... Ssd

And better RAM

This test was clearly botched. My guess is they had newer drivers for the MBA test and used numbers from an older test for the MBP. Snow Leopard Graphics Update anyone?

There is no 'better' RAM in the new Air, and the SSD has absolutely no impact on FPS in games.

 

[SB27]

First Impressions ~ MBA 11 inch and 24 inch external display

All,

Just unboxed the 11 inch MBA. This is a 4 MB/128 Flash version. I wanted to see how it compares to the MBP Core i7 desktop/portable I use at work. The core i7 MBP is connected to Apple's 24 inch external display via the minidisplay port.

The bottom line to those that have asked about external display resolution is that while the 11 inch will drive the 24 inch display, you can instantly tell that the resolution/pixel count is far less from the 320M vs. the 330M. The Apple 24 inch display looks almost as good as the high res matte screen (of course, it is glossy) on the MBP 15 inch. That cannot be said of the 11 inch where the 24 inch display reveals less sharp text and quite a bit less color/palate when looking at graphics, etc.

Just weighing in here for those that think the 11 inch can "do it all". When it comes to driving a 24 inch (likely even more dramatic in the new 27 inch display), the answer is "uh, no....not exactly" and certainly not anywhere near as sharp as the 15 inch MBP's using a 330M card.

I realize this is somewhat obvious, but wanted to share a real world view.

SB

 

[manu chao]

All,
The bottom line to those that have asked about external display resolution is that while the 11 inch will drive the 24 inch display, you can instantly tell that the resolution/pixel count is far less from the 320M vs. the 330M. The Apple 24 inch display looks almost as good as the high res matte screen (of course, it is glossy) on the MBP 15 inch. That cannot be said of the 11 inch where the 24 inch display reveals less sharp text and quite a bit less color/palate when looking at graphics, etc.

Since when do graphic cards affect colour and sharpness (assuming the have the same bit depth and can drive the same resolution)?
Graphic cards affect speed and little else (within their supported resolutions).

 

[nutjob]

All,

Just unboxed the 11 inch MBA. This is a 4 MB/128 Flash version. I wanted to see how it compares to the MBP Core i7 desktop/portable I use at work. The core i7 MBP is connected to Apple's 24 inch external display via the minidisplay port.

The bottom line to those that have asked about external display resolution is that while the 11 inch will drive the 24 inch display, you can instantly tell that the resolution/pixel count is far less from the 320M vs. the 330M. The Apple 24 inch display looks almost as good as the high res matte screen (of course, it is glossy) on the MBP 15 inch. That cannot be said of the 11 inch where the 24 inch display reveals less sharp text and quite a bit less color/palate when looking at graphics, etc.

Just weighing in here for those that think the 11 inch can "do it all". When it comes to driving a 24 inch (likely even more dramatic in the new 27 inch display), the answer is "uh, no....not exactly" and certainly not anywhere near as sharp as the 15 inch MBP's using a 330M card.

I realize this is somewhat obvious, but wanted to share a real world view.

SB

That all sounds like a load of BS. The 11" supports 2560 by 1600 at 24bpp so they would display exactly the same resolution. If you saw a difference in sharpness, the only things I can think of are:

- you didn't set the resolution correctly or it didn't detect it (was mirroring on?)
- the 11" wasn't calibrated for the screen like the 15" was
- there was a cable or interface issue
- your eyes are deceiving you

I don't see how it could be "obvious". It's "obvious" your test was bad, if anything.

 

[nutjob]

Technically, NO 4G networks exist on the entire planet, anywhere. Even the first-generation LTE networks that have been deployed are not technically designated as 4G, nor is WiMax. LTE Advanced is the first actual 4G networking technology that we will see, and it is at least 2-5 years away from being deployed anywhere. So please -- stop spouting off about 4G -- you're a Ph.D, look it up.

Oh heck, I'll be nice, Doctor -- here's a link:

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/itu-paves-way-for-true-4g-technology

"Generations" are meaningless and have no technical basis. If you actually thought for yourself instead of believing whatever you read you might have realised that. The ITU is not the arbiter of which generation is what. Going by consensus and usage, which defines all language, a new generation is usually associated with a new air interface, so LTE is arguably a new generation, just as UMTS (3G) and GSM (2G) defined substantially different air interfaces.

 

[deconstruct60]

wrong.

from Wikipedia ...
..... branded 4G ....

You need to look up the word 'branded' in a dictionary. LTE is not 4G. The 4G standards haven't been nailed down yet. LTE is effectively 3.9G. If want to quote Wikipedia then quote from the article on LTE.

Although LTE is often marketed as 4G, first-release LTE is a 3.9G technology since it does not fully comply with the IMT Advanced 4G requirements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution

I don't care what the marketing weenies name it. If the marketing wonks were to be believed then the MBA is "magical". It is not. Neither is LTE 4G.
It is marketed that way because saying "4G" is better sounding that "3.9G" (or "3.5G" or some other increment between 3 and 4. ). Not because it really is. Marketing smoke blown up consumers butts. It has nothing to do with real, ratified standards.

To be 4G means it has to be all IP based (voice/data all of it). No legacy, crufty GSM telephony components. No legacy, cruft CDMAone telephony components. LTE is not that. It is a transitional standard to get every off that stuff.