The New MacBook Air
Apple announced the new MacBook Air at their media event today. There are now two models, the 13-inch one that we are familiar with, and a new 11-inch model. Both ship with a Core 2 Duo processor. The bigger model spots a 1.86 GHz chip (SL9400) by default, with a 2.13 GHz option (SL9600); while the smaller model uses a 1.4 GHz chip (SU9400) by default, with a 1.6 GHz option (SU9600). Both models come with 2GB of RAM, but it can be upgraded to a maximum of 4GB of RAM. The L2 cache is 6 MB on the 13-inch models, and only 3 MB on the 11-inchers. RAM is DDR3 SDRAM, 1066 MHz for the 13-inch model, and 800 MHz for the smaller brother. Graphics support on both models are provided by the Nvidia Geforce 320M chip with 256 MB shared RAM.
The traditional hard disk drives have totally given way to solid state drives. The 11-inch model either comes with a 64 GB or a 128 GB drive, while the 13-inch model comes with a 128 GB or 256 GB drive.
Similar to the older models, the MacBook Air does not have its own optical drive, but there is an optional external drive that can be purchased, and the computer is able to link to another computer's optical drive. Also, Ethernet is only through an adaptor which plugs into the USB port. The 13-inch model also spots a SD card slot.
Pricing-wise, the base model 11-inch unit retails for S$1488, or S$1788 with 128 GB SSD. The 13-inch models weigh in at S$1948 and S$2388. Soup the 13-inch model up to 4 GB of RAM with the 2.13 GHz processor, and it will set you back by S$2698.
The coolest bit? Since the computers ship without optical drives, a software restore DVD is quite useless. Hence, Apple has provided software restore USB sticks with the computers!
