New MacBook Air is faster, lasts longer (pictures)
A new Intel "Haswell" chipset helps the featherweight MacBook Air increase its estimated battery life up to 12 hours.
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New MacBook Air is faster, lasts longer (pictures)
At the WWDC '13 today, Apple pulled the wraps off of the latest update to the MacBook Air ultraportable laptop. However, the changes are more than skin deep.
The MacBook Air's exterior design is largely unchanged from the unibody design of the previous model. It still boasts 1 Thunderbolt port and two USB 3 ports, but now features dual microphones, where the previous model only had one.
The next generation of Macbook Air is powered by the fourth-generation Intel "Haswell" chips. What that gets users is up to 40% faster graphics and better power management, according to Apple.
One clever power management trick is the ability to wake up from standby in just 1 second and run on standby for 30 days. Actual usage battery life for the 11-inch goes from 5 hours to 9 hours. The 13-inch MacBook Air goes from 7 hours up to 12 hours or battery life.
With up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback, a user could get most of the way through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy before having to recharge the 13-inch MacBook Air.
The Wi-Fi antenna has been upgraded to 802.11ac, which is up to a claimed 3x faster than the 802.11n wireless receiver in the current model. To take advantage of that additional speed, Apple is also releasing new Airport stations as well.
