The 2011 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch): Thoroughly Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 28, 2011 3:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Apple
- Mac
- Intel
- Sandy Bridge
- MacBook Air
- Laptops
A New Boot Camp
One thing that always bothered me about the 2010 MacBook Air was while Apple gave you a USB stick with OS X on it, you still needed to use an external optical drive to install Windows. By default Boot Camp wouldn't let you install Windows 7 off of a USB stick or external USB hard drive. Of course with some extra work you could do this on your own, but it's something that Apple should've made easier from the start.
With the 2011 MacBook Air, Apple did just that.
The Airs ship with a slightly newer version of Lion with an updated Boot Camp Assistant. Here's what Lion's default BCA looks like on a system with no optical drive:
And here's the new screen for the MacBook Air's build of Lion:
Boot Camp now asks you for a Windows 7 ISO and will automatically create a bootable USB drive for you. Here's the folder structure of the result:
I gave Boot Camp an Intel X25-M G2 connected to an Apricorn SATA to USB 2.0 adapter (a great way to quickly install an OS). Note that the BCA will also download the latest Windows Support package from Apple and include that on your USB drive. The total space required is just over 4GB, so all you really need is an 8GB USB stick and you're good to go.
Installing Windows 7 on the MacBook Air is painless, especially when you've got all you need on a single USB drive. But what about performance and battery life?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
103 Comments
View All Comments
ifyouwanto - Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - link
Hi Anandtech,In your review of the 2010 11" model you commented that the hinge felt a bit loose or weak. Wondering if it is any different on this years model?
Thanks
slatanek - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
i have a 13 inch Macbook air i5 2011 and its hinge is rock solid. it feels very assuring :-)cheers
Wskcondor - Thursday, October 13, 2011 - link
I read this review and also the 2011 iMac review. I have a couple of questions someone with the hardware in front of them or with more knowledge may be able to answer...My idea is to travel with the 2011 Macbook Air, with the 1.8G i7 upgrade and 256G SSD.
-I like the Thunderbolt display idea of a dock, because when I am "at home" I do a lot on the computer at the desk and I store a lot externally from the Air (movies, music, photos) and also still use an optical drive regularly. In effect, with a T-Bolt display, all of these things would be hanging off the display.
Then I thought: why couldn't I buy a 2011 iMac and use it as a "display/dock station" when at home?
1) Could I boot the 11" Air into TBolt target drive mode and then BOOT the iMac from the Air's drive, so all the "local changes" would be on the drive I take away on travel with me? The processor would be an i7 also in the iMac. BUT the configuration would be different, of course.
-will this jack up settings in the Air's hard drive when I disconnect and reboot the Air from it's internal processor?
-will this be too slow a configuration because the TBolt target drive mode has such slow throughput that the iMac will crawl along?
-Can I even boot an iMac off the Air's TBolt target SSD drive?
2) Can the iMac become a "Thunderbolt monitor" with drives, ports, etc if I boot the iMac into TBolt target mode? Or would it just be a blue screen with drives and ports, extending my Air's ports, but not acting as an external monitor?
Questions.
thanks to anyone who knows.
Wskcondor