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
The Optional 1.8GHz Core i7
In the usual Apply fashion, in order to get the faster CPU options you have to buy the more expensive default configuration. That means the $999 11-inch MacBook Air can't be upgraded to a faster CPU at order, while the $1199 version can. The same goes for the $1299 13-inch model, you need the $1599 configuration for that.
If you're buying the 11, I'd say it's worth while to get the 1.8GHz option. There's a big enough performance difference between the base 13 and base 11 that the CPU upgrade makes sense.
I didn't have a 1.8GHz system on hand but luckily I knew someone who did. Mark Rein is VP of Epic Games and happens to live a few minutes from my house. Mark also happened to be driving down to the Apple store on Friday to pick up a fully optioned (the only way Mark rolls) 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Core i7. I hitched a ride with him and borrowed his system for a couple of benchmark runs.
Let's look at the clock speed differences between the parts:
| 2011 Apple MacBook Air CPU Comparison | |||||
| 1.6GHz Core i5 | 1.7GHz Core i5 | 1.8GHz Core i7 | |||
| Base Clock Speed | 1.6GHz | 1.7GHz | 1.8GHz | ||
| Max SC Turbo | 2.3GHz | 2.7GHz | 2.9GHz | ||
| Max DC Turbo | 2.0GHz | 2.4GHz | 2.6GHz | ||
Compared to the 1.7GHz chip in the 13, you're looking at around an 8% performance increase in applications that scale perfectly with clock speed. The extra MB of L3 cache is good for a little more performance as well. Compared to the 1.6GHz chip in the 11 however, the gains on paper are pretty substantial. What about in the real world?
| 2011 Apple MacBook Air CPU Comparison | |||||
| 1.6GHz Core i5 | 1.7GHz Core i5 | 1.8GHz Core i7 | |||
| Cinebench R10 - Single Threaded | 3154 | 3770 | 4083 | ||
| Percent Increase with 1.8GHz i7 | 29.5% | 8.3% | - | ||
With only a single heavy thread active the i7 is nearly 30% faster than the 1.6GHz Core i5 found in the 11-inch MacBook Air. The advantage over the 1.7GHz Core i5 is only 8.3% however.
| 2011 Apple MacBook Air CPU Comparison | |||||
| 1.6GHz Core i5 | 1.7GHz Core i5 | 1.8GHz Core i7 | |||
| Cinebench R10 - Multithreaded | 6496 | 7609 | 8234 | ||
| Percent Increase with 1.8GHz i7 | 26.8% | 8.2% | - | ||
Crank up the threads and the performance advantage drops a bit over the 1.6GHz Core i5 but we're still talking about a nearly 27% advantage here. The i7 is still only around 8% faster than the 1.7GHz part.
| 2011 Apple MacBook Air CPU Comparison | |||||
| 1.6GHz Core i5 | 1.7GHz Core i5 | 1.8GHz Core i7 | |||
| Cinebench 11.5 | 1.93 | 2.20 | 2.46 | ||
| Percent Increase with 1.8GHz i7 | 27.5% | 11.8% | - | ||
Cinebench R11.5 shows the biggest gain over the 1.7GHz Core i5 at 11.8%. Heavier workloads will make better use of the extra cache on the i7.
| 2011 Apple MacBook Air CPU Comparison | |||||
| 1.6GHz Core i5 | 1.7GHz Core i5 | 1.8GHz Core i7 | |||
| iPhoto Import | 38.3 | 44.4 | 47.7 | ||
| Percent Increase with 1.8GHz i7 | 24.5% | 7.4% | - | ||
Overall the performance gains aren't super huge over the 13's 1.7GHz Core i5, however if you care about performance the upgrade is worth it for the 11-inch MacBook Air. Unfortunately I didn't have an upgraded 11-inch system on hand to get a good idea of the impact on battery life. In idle workloads I wouldn't expect a huge drop in battery life, but under load we could see the 11 take a hit.
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OCedHrt - Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - link
35W is maximum draw I think. On average you don't use that much, and on idle you save even less. My Z, as an entire system, draws 22W on average during browsing.darwinosx - Saturday, July 30, 2011 - link
If you had actually read the review or knew anything about the Sony Z you would know that this is a different ultra low voltage i5 processor that was just released. You would also know that Sony's are higher priced, poorly made, little service and support, and run Windows.OCedHrt - Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - link
I would know that my Z runs fast, plays my games, carries around just as light as an Air, is built to last, never needed support, and cost me less. And people still have their 3 gen old Z's running core duos going strong.The Z does not want a ULV processor. ULV is only good if you want to increase your battery life at the cost of performance. The Sony Z does not lose to Air in battery life at all. Just because something just came out doesn't necessarily make it ideal. Would there be a market for the new Z with ULV? Maybe, and it will then kill the Air in battery life and probably cost even less.
KPOM - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
As usual, a nice and thorough review. Thanks for the comparison to the i7, as well.Apple did a nice job with this one. They have created a mainstream "ultra book" months before the others come out with their blessed-by-Intel versions. It isn't as powerful as the Vaio X, but is more reasonably priced. It beats the relatively new Samsung Series 9 (which still relies on an i3 and less powerful graphics) while maintaining similar pricing. The i7 available in the 128GB 11" is a good deal at $1349. I opted for the 256GB 11" and got the Samsung (though the Toshiba would have been fine - I had one in my 2010 MacBook Air).
OCedHrt - Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - link
I hope you mean the Vaio Z. The X was amazing but it was a paper weight.iwod - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
The next gen of tech, Haswell, PCI-E 4.0, Thunderbolt 2.0, Faster SSD will be perfect fit for Macbook Air.lokiju - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I wonder if Sony's Air challengers external GPU would work with this if you could get the physical ports adapted to fit...A external GPU would probably be more than it's worth for me but still a cool concept.
mschira - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
That last sentence made me think. Why not integrate the external graphic card into the external display?That would be neat.
M.
wicko - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I think I would still prefer an external GPU kit or something. This way you still have choice in GPU and in monitor, including existing ones.tipoo - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I'd prefer a separate box for the GPU so you don't have to toss the display when its outdated. With thunderbolt you could potentially connect the Air to the display, then daisychain the display to the GPU.