There has always been some level of lottery involved when buying an SSD-equipped Mac. The first Mac to start the lottery was the 2010 MacBook Air, which initially used Toshiba's SSDs but later it was found that some units were shipping Samsung SSD 470 based drives. Up until last year Apple kept using the same Toshiba and Samsung SSDs; the 2012 refresh finally brought SATA 6Gbps SSDs to Macs and, of course, another round of lottery too. The 2012 MacBook Air kept using drives from both Toshiba and Samsung, albeit both were newer generation (Toshiba's is SF-2281 based, Samsung is PM830). The rMBP, however, used only SSDs from Samsung, and the 256GB and 512GB SSDs in the MacBook Air were all Samsung made as...
The 2012 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch) Review
Things are getting very blurry. The MacBook Pro once stood for tons of power plus upgradability. Add a Retina Display and now it's just tons of power. It's a thicker...
190 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 7/16/2012
The New MacBook Air Uses Toshiba's SATA 6Gb/s SSDs UPDATE: Samsung Too
Yesterday's keynote was certainly one of the biggest events for Macs that Apple has held in years. The main focus was obviously in the new MacBook Pro with Retina...
10 by Kristian Vättö on 6/12/2012
Apple Updates MacBook Air: Ivy Bridge, Up to 8GB of RAM, USB 3.0, 512GB SSD
Apple just announced its MacBook Air updates. As expected you get Ivy Bridge, as well as up to 8GB of on-board DDR3-1600 memory and up to a 512GB SSD...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/11/2012
ASUS' Zenbook SSD and Apple's MacBook Air SSD Are Not Compatible
In working on yesterday's Zenbook Prime review I ran into a problem with the 256GB Sandisk U100 drive that came with my review sample. Unfortunately, since the drive doesn't...
22 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/23/2012
Firmware Updates Bring Lion Internet Recovery to 2010 Macs
Apple has released a range of firmware updates that enable the Lion Internet Recovery OS restore feature across most of its 2010-vintage Macs, enabling easy reinstallation of the operating...
8 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/8/2012
OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G 480GB SSD Upgrade for MacBook Air
OWC released a SandForce SF-2281 based 2011 MacBook Air SSD upgrade earlier this year in 120GB and 240GB capacities (the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G). Using Hynix 2x-nm NAND...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/8/2012
OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G Review: A Fast MacBook Air SSD Upgrade
I've written previously about the SSD lottery you play when you buy a new MacBook Air. As with many commodity components, Apple sources its SSDs from two sources. For...
40 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
OWC Releases 6Gb/s SSD Upgrades for 2011 MacBook Air
OWC has released SSD upgrades suitable for Apple's MacBook Air (our 2011 review). The SSDs are branded as Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G and come in capacities of 120GB...
8 by Kristian Vättö on 9/16/2011
Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air (Core i7 1.8GHz) Review Update
Last week we published our review of the new 2011 MacBook Air. Both the 11 and 13-inch models ship with ultra low-voltage (ULV) dual-core Sandy Bridge CPUs, a first...
64 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 8/1/2011
The 2011 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch): Thoroughly Reviewed
I've always liked ultraportables. Back when I was in college I kept buying increasingly more portable notebooks until I eventually ended up with something horribly unusable for actual work...
115 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 7/28/2011
2011 MacBook Air SSD Features the Same Controller as Samsung 470
Like we suspected in April, the Samsung SSD found in some 2010 and 2011 MacBook Airs is indeed using the same controller as Samsung 470 series. The controller carries...
2 by Kristian Vättö on 7/27/2011
The 2011 MacBook Air: Specs and Details
2011 has seen Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and chipsets creeping slowly into every machine in Apple's lineup - we saw it in the MacBook Pros in February (see...
87 by Andrew Cunningham on 7/20/2011
Apple Now Using Samsung SSDs in MacBook Air?
Last October after months of waiting, Apple finally refreshed their MacBook Air lineup, which we reviewed shortly after launch. The update introduced a new 11.6” form factor along with...
37 by Kristian Vättö on 4/15/2011
Apple's 11-inch Upgraded MacBook Air: Do 1.6GHz and 4GB Make a Difference?
A couple of weeks ago we looked at Apple's new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs. We came away happy with the upgrades, however a little disappointed at the performance...
85 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/6/2010
Apple's 2010 MacBook Air (11 & 13 inch) Thoroughly Reviewed
Last week Apple introduced its first significant upgrade to the MacBook Air since it was introduced two years ago. The announcement was met with the arrival of a new...
186 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/26/2010