With the original Macbook Air, many opted out of it for a slightly heavier but much less expensive ultraportable. Thanks to the new 11-inch MacBook Air, the situation is the opposite–the new ultra-thin, featherweight laptop from Apple makes short work of any netbook in the performance department while also being smaller and less expensive than previous generations.

Thanks to a speedy solid state drive instead of the old and tired 1.8-inch hard drives, the MacBook Air boots from off state to a fully usable desktop in less than 20 seconds–from sleep state less than 5 seconds. The difference between the two available models of the 11-inch MBA is coincidentally the SSD, which comes in either 64 or 128 GB capacities.

Impossible Not to Like

The 11.6-inch aluminum surface confers a genuine feeling of luxury. Anyone who sees this laptop for the first time is invariably impressed by the design and the slim shape. It weighs just over two pounds, which isn’t that much less than the 13-inch MacBook Air but it is exceptionally thin and light nonetheless. Even the most hardened Apple skeptic will have a difficult time pretending not to admire the design.

Thanks to the SSD, there are no moving parts whatsoever except the cooling fan in the 11-inch MacBook Air which helps keep the noise level to a minimum. Even when the fan is active it is barely audible even in an otherwise completely silent room.

Snow Leopard on a Stick

As in the previous iterations, there is no optical drive included. A so-called SuperDrive has to be purchased separately and connected via USB. It is also possible to use remote disks over the network. This works on both Mac and Windows computers and you will find software for this purpose on Apple’s support pages.

A clever and welcome change is that OS X will install from a USB stick (included) instead of a DVD. OS X is of course preinstalled with the laptop, so the USB stick is really only needed when you need to reinstall, troubleshoot or reset the password. It’s still a great idea that we hope to find in more laptops eventually, not just MacBooks. The stick for the MacBook Air is very small, though, so store it in a safe place .

OS X will in fact recognize the USB stick as an optical drive and it is seen by Disk Utility as a read-only drive. In other words there is no option to erase it either unintentionally or otherwise.

Performance and Features

The processor is a low-voltage Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 with a clock speed of 1.4GHz. This isn’t a particularly fast processor by regular laptop standards these days, but it’s several times faster than one of Intel’s Atom CPU that you find in netbooks. Considering the size of the laptop, the SU9400 is most likely the best option.

In combination with the super quick solid state drive it is still a very responsive system. Because of the flash drive, there are certain situations where the MacBook Air will outperform even a MacBook Pro 13 (sans SSD of course) despite its lower clock speed such as file copying. This is no surprise, as we measured its reading and writing speed to about 210/185 megabytes per second. This isn’t the fastest among SSDs but still still four or fie times faster than a regular laptop hard drive.

You will never notice the lower clock speed of the CPU while doing everyday tasks such as downloading of web pages. However, when it comes to heavy-duty calculating like transcoding video or applying filters in Photoshop, the Macbook Air shows that it’s a low-voltage laptop after all.

The base configuration of the Macbook Air is equipped with two gigabytes of internal memory, which can be upgraded to four gigabytes. This is a good investment, as two gigabytes is on the low side for those who want to run multiple applications simultaneously. If you plan on running Windows 7 on it via Boot Camp, it’s an even more important upgrade. It’s also worth noting that the internal memory is located on special connectors and can’t be upgraded easily down the line. So the best alternative is to upgrade right away.

The Nvidia 320M graphics card uses an additional 256 megabytes of internal memory, so you won’t even get the full 2GB with the base configuration. On the other hand the 320M is a very nice addition to the MacBook Air as it accelerates video playback and allows you to play some casual games like World of Warcraft. The 1366×768 display is nice and bright and the resolution is perfectly suited for an 11.6-inch panel.

The battery is built to last for five hours, which is true if you are just doing basic stuff like office work or browsing the web. If you start some power-hungry applications such as video editing with Premiere, you can cut at least three hours off that number.

Keyboard and Speakers

Something that might disappoint users of the previous generation MacBook Air is the lack of an illuminated keyboard. Nowadays this is a feature that is only available with the MacBook Pro. Having a back-lit keyboard is obviously an advantage when using the computer in the dark, and it will be missed by many. For most prospective buyers of the latest version this is hardly a deal breaker, but it’s too bad it had to go.

The speakers are located under the keyboard and just like nearly all other laptops the sound quality isn’t much to write home about. It is certainly adequate for video chat and system sounds, but not much beyond that. Thankfully there is a headphone jack available that only limits the sound quality to the quality of your headphones or headset.

Connectivity

Bluetooth and Wireless N network is included, but just like the last time you will have to purchase Apple’s ethernet adapter for USB if you need wired network access. On the right of the laptop is a Mini Display Port, which can even power Apple’s 27-inch Cinema Display, as well as a USB port.

On the left side sits the MagSafe charger connector and a welcome addition from the previous generation: a second USB 2.0 ports. Also on the left is a headphone jack that can handle iPhone headsets and a tiny microphone.

A Laptop Like No Other

The 11-inch MacBook Air has to be judged for what it is: an ultraportable among ultraportables. It was never intended as an alternative to the MacBook Pro or other high-end laptop. In view of its size, we have to say that it performs admirably–sometimes better than the previous generation and at a lower cost. If it were equipped with a more powerful processor it would overheat quickly and run out of battery power equally fast.  The computer is still perceived as very responsive in most circumstances thanks to its rapid SSD.

Its small netbook-like size and lower price tag will no doubt help it reach a wider audience compared with the old Macbook Air. The screen is of sufficient quality, the keyboard is full size, and the performance is adequate. The comparatively fast 320M graphics card from Nvidia and the addition of an extra USB port makes the MacBook Air 11 interesting for anyone who needs a tiny yet reasonably powerful computer that can can definitely be brought along anywhere.

Specifications

• 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB RAM (max 4GB)
• 64 or 128 GB SSD
• Nvidia Geforce 320M
• 2 USB 2.0, Bluetooth, 802.11n
• TN panel, 1366×768 pixels