What does the "watered-down" i5 in Macbook air mean?

[Cheffy Dave]

Due to the thin form factor of the MacBook Air, they have to use smaller chips to avoid overheating, etc. As a result, the base 11" MacBook Air, for example, has a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, compared to the 2.3GHz Core i5 found in the base 13" MacBook Pro. In the end it's just slight performance differences. Feasibly the air runs 'slower'.

True Ivan, but slap in a faster SSD, such as from OWC, and the point is moot.
I'd put my 2010 11" Ultimate with a OWC SSD, as well as the NVIDIA Graphics, up against the new ones anyday

 

[gentlefury]

Due to the thin form factor of the MacBook Air, they have to use smaller chips to avoid overheating, etc. As a result, the base 11" MacBook Air, for example, has a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, compared to the 2.3GHz Core i5 found in the base 13" MacBook Pro. In the end it's just slight performance differences. Feasibly the air runs 'slower'.

Not true at all! The MBA uses a flexible clock speed core! The base speed is 1.6GHz....but when it needs more power it can go up to 2.3GHz. It's not comparable...its the exact same speed!

 

[KPOM]

Not true at all! The MBA uses a flexible clock speed core! The base speed is 1.6GHz....but when it needs more power it can go up to 2.3GHz. It's not comparable...its the exact same speed!

The 2.3GHz i5 in the base Pro (which is now actual 2.4GHz) can boost speeds, as well. The 2.3GHz i5 was very similar to the 1.8GHz i7 used in the top of the line MacBook Air.

 

[Angry-Birds]

This is another misconception . First of all "i5" means nothing. It's a moniker rather than a cpu model.

This is spot on. The OP didn't specify whether the MBA's chips were watered-down in comparison to the MBP or all desktop computers. There is a HUGE difference between i5/i7 chips in laptops and desktops. In that particular case, the i5 and i7 names are pretty much just branding.

 

[Confuzzzed]

This is another misconception First of all "i5" means nothing. It's a moniker rather than a cpu model. You don't mention generation or anything. You don't mention difference in ram. In terms of loading applications and anything off the boot drive, or dealing with any programs that hit virtual memory for any reason, the SSD makes a big difference. Basically it's impossible to generalize here unless something is physically wrong with the HP (and I am not exactly a fan of HP).
.

There's nothing physically wrong with my HP Compaq Elite 8100. It's ACPI x64 based PC. It runs Windows 7 professional and it's essentially a Intel Core i5 vPro 2500 CPU 3.33GHz with 4GB of RAM & 6MB cache

It's what work gives me on my desk. And it's fine. It's not brilliant but it's fast, it's reliable and I can work it! But my MBA is faster and better and I enjoy using it more. That's all I am saying.

 

[lolwut89]

The Core i5 is "watered down" in the sense that if you compare it to a desktop CPU, it would probably be closer to the Core i3 than a Core i5. That being said...

The mobile Core i5 in the current gens is pretty good. 1.7GHz is the default clock speed. It can turbo (over clock) itself to 2.7GHz if a program needs single core power only or 2.6GHz if a program needs dual core power.

The Core i5 in the low end MBA has a base clock speed of 2.3GHz. It can turbo itself to 2.9GHz if a program needs just a single core or 2.8GHz if a program needs more dual core power.

So actually the only difference is the base clock speed. When you need the power the MBA 1.7GHz can closely match the 2.3GHz MBP. You could consider the MBA Core i5 ULV to be a premium processor because it's quite difficult to make CPUs operate within a smaller power envelope.