Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 review: Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010

Apple's original ultrathin MacBook Air was the very definition of a specialty laptop: its alluring design was offset by a limited number of connections and an underpowered CPU, making it truly useful for only a small fraction of users. The second generation of the 13-inch MacBook Air addresses most of our issues with the Air, adding a second USB port, an SD card slot, a higher-resolution display, and better CPUs.

8.0

Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010

The Good

Apple's <b>MacBook Air</b> is thin and powerful enough to use as a mainstream laptop. It has an excellent battery and includes an SD card slot.

The Bad

The Air has limited connections compared with other 13-inch laptops, and its keyboard isn't backlit. It's outclassed by the new MacBook Pro line.

The Bottom Line

The second generation of Apple's MacBook Air fixes many of our issues with the ambitious original, adding more USB ports, an SD card slot, and a more powerful processor.

To maximize battery life, this new MacBook Air moves to an SSD-only hard drive, and like the 11-inch version we reviewed last year, the system starts up in a flash and wakes up from its sleep state even faster.

All these improvements don't come cheap, however. At $1,299 (and up), this is a premium-priced laptop, and it feels even more so when you consider that the 11-inch Air and standard white MacBook are available for $999 (to say nothing of the $499 iPad).

If you can survive without a built-in optical drive, and don't need more than the two USB ports provided, we'd be tempted to say we'd grab this 13-inch MacBook Air over the more powerful 13-inch MacBook Pro, because its slim, lightweight design makes it a lot easier to carry around, but keep in mind that the newly refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro (with Intel's latest Core i-series CPUs) both is much more powerful and has better battery life.