The 2012 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 16, 2012 12:53 PM EST- Posted in
- Apple
- Mac
- MacBook Air
- Laptops
- Notebooks
Power Consumption & Thermals
I dug up my old power draw and thermal numbers from the 2011 MacBook Air review, retested the old models to ensure they still performed as expected, and added the 2012 models to the list.
First up is power consumption. Here we're measuring total system power consumption with the display running at max brightness and the battery fully charged. We are forced to use a different power adapter for the 2012 MacBook Airs so there may be some variance here but the power rating remains the same.
Cinebench shows a real reduction in power consumption under load. This is exactly what we expect to see from Ivy Bridge, which should translate into better battery life numbers.
The power savings are basically non-existant under HL2ep2, but you have to keep in mind that the HD 4000 is able to deliver over 70% better performance at roughly the same power level as the HD 3000.
Surface temperatures haven't changed all that much, at idle the 11-inch system measured a bit cooler than its predecessor while the 13 was within a degree.
Under load these things can get hot - despite the power savings it looks like the base of the chassis gets roughly as warm as it did last year. There's only so much you can do with a tiny chassis and a single fan. Note that during my Diablo III benchmarking pass I measured 45C just north of the F2 key on the keyboard on the 13-inch MBA.
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repoman27 - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
"Thunderbolt support comes courtesy of a 2-channel Cactus Ridge controller."Umm, no it doesn't. It comes courtesy of a 4-channel Cactus Ridge DSL3510L as can be seen in the iFixit teardown photos. It can also be deduced from the fact that you can drive 2 Thunderbolt displays with any of the 2012 MBAs.
G3t/All - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
Hey Anand, I was under the impression that the function keys are indeed ever so slightly smaller on the 11" than the 13". Please advise if I am incorrect.KPOM - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
They are half-height on the 11".G3t/All - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
Yea, he mentions this later in the article. Thats what I get for not reading first. My Bad! In my defense though, he did say they were identical the first time, which is technically untrue. I didn't know he was going to contradict himself later.Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
Fixed that, sorry didn't mean to confuse :)G3t/All - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
No worries, just wanted to make it clear because it's one of the sole reasons I'm not getting an 11" air. :PDeath666Angel - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
Less choice is always great for the consumer!phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
It could be, if it means lower prices and higher quality products.phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
Economies of scale btwTareX - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
If I slap Windows 7 onto the Mac, will I be able to normally play PC games as if I'm doing it on a PC, or are there gonna be driver/emulation/compatibility problems?