If you've got a beefy system at home and just need something portable for travel, the 11-inch Air is perfect. If you're stuck deciding between the two I think it breaks down like this.

These systems are no longer niche ultraportables, they've instead brought the ultraportable niche into the mainstream. They may not look any different from the outside, but the new 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air are a significant step forward.

If you were a fan of the original MacBook Air, the 2011 models are just as significant of an introduction as the very first one in 2008. The new 13-inch MBP is still considerably faster than the MacBook Air, while the more portable form factor is tempting you're better off waiting to see what Apple does with the next update to the MacBook Pro. The only move I would be careful about is a downgrade from a 13-inch 2011 MacBook Pro. The new 13 doesn't do anywhere near as well in mostly idle scenarios but under moderate to heavy load the new MBAs last at least as long as their predecessors. With the exception of the our light web browsing test, the new MacBook Air behaves pretty similarly to last year's model on battery power. When it comes to battery life the new MacBook Air doesn't break any records, but it doesn't disappoint either (at least under OS X). For now, if you like gaming on the go you'll have to get a MacBook Pro. Perhaps we'll see something significant from Haswell in 2013. Ivy Bridge will give us a bit of that but not another doubling in GPU performance. Sandy Bridge's GPU is the bare minimum, we need to really see a real ramp in performance from here on out. I don't believe a discrete GPU in an Air makes sense, but this should be a clear message to Intel. There's not much Apple could've done about this.

While last year's GeForce 320M isn't significantly faster than the HD 3000 in the new MacBook Air, it's still faster in our tests. It's the GPU performance that I'm less excited about.

All of this is thanks to Intel's Sandy Bridge CPU.įrom left to right: 15-inch MacBook Pro, 13-inch MacBook Air, 11-inch MacBook Air You can even move from a 2010 MacBook Pro to an upgraded MacBook Air and not notice any drop in performance. There's still no dethroning the MacBook Pro (although the 13-inch model clearly needs a higher resolution display option), but for the rest of the world there are now some excellent ultra portable options that don't force you to really compromise on performance.īoth the 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air are fast enough to replace your 3 year old MacBook Pro and still deliver better performance. Whereas last year's MacBook Air was a good machine for light work, the 2011 models are true replacements for mainstream portable Macs.

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