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
Final Words
The MacBook Air is in its third iteration of the current design and it's tangibly better than the two that came before it. The 2010 (and older) models are just plain slow by comparison. Thanks to architectural, frequency and thermal improvements, one of the cores from a 2012 MacBook Air ends up being faster than two from a 2010 MBA. In other words, the 2012 models end up being more than twice as fast as the 2010 models in many of our CPU bound tests.
Battery life has also improved thanks to Intel's 22nm silicon. You'll get between 3 - 7 hours on the 13-inch MBA, and between 1.85 - 5 on the 11-inch model.
It's not all about Intel in the 2012 Airs however. The improvement in storage performance is even more revolutionary. Similar to the rMBP, with the 2012 MacBook Air Apple has entered the world of modern SSD performance. The impact of the faster SSDs is felt everywhere from boot to application performance. Once again there are two SSD suppliers, but unlike in previous models both can be deliver good performance. If you use FileVault or plan on working with a ton of already compressed data, you'll want to pick a 256GB or 512GB drive to end up with Samsung's controller rather than the SandForce driven Toshiba solution.
By offering 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD BTO options, Apple has made the MacBook Air even more of an upgrade for owners of older MacBook Pros. The options aren't cheap but the flexibility in an inflexible machine is important.
The only real downside to the 2012 MacBook Air is in the display department. Apple raised the bar with the 2012 iPad and Retina Display on the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air's display is good for a TN panel but the rest of Apple's new world has moved to high resolution IPS panels. The same is starting to be true outside of Apple as well. The competition has simply caught up and surpassed Apple in the low-cost, but high-quality display business. The MacBook Air is no longer competing against poorly designed netbooks, but a bunch of clones that are quickly approaching parity across the board. The MBA panel isn't bad, but it needs to be better.
Even without a new display however, the MacBook Air continues to be one of the best executed ultraportables on the market today. If you're after absolute portability, the 11-inch model is great. If you want a Pro replacement and can get away without four cores and a discrete GPU, the 13 gets the job done. I have no issues recommending either system.
Looking forward, Haswell will have an even more significant impact on the MacBook Air next year. Without room or the thermal budget for a discrete GPU, the MacBook Air stands to benefit even more from improved processor graphics. With 2.5x the graphics compute power of HD 4000 plus embedded DRAM, Haswell's processor graphics will bring an entirely new level of gaming performance to the MacBook Air.
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KPOM - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
If you want to tinker with the system, get to know Terminal. It's a fully functional, full-blown Unix command line. Lots of Mac "tricks" involve using Terminal.There is a lot of eye candy in OS X, and unlike Windows, the standard utilities don't include lots of customizations, as that's a deliberate design decision. However, the functionality is there. OS X provides X Window support as well.
Apple isn't a Windows OEM. They aren't obligated to optimize their PCs to run Windows. They make it available as a backstop. It isn't a matter of "forcing" people to us OS X. No one is "forced" to use OS X or buy a Mac. Boot Camp makes it less "risky" for someone with a lot of legacy software to make the switch since it provides a way for it to work. It doesn't promise and Apple doesn't advertise a system optimized to run Windows.
Karltheghost - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
I think you're still getting me wrong. . .I live in Europe and here apple isn't as strong as in the USA for example. 90% are using Windows here. However, there are many people who would like to buy a macbook to run another OS on it, because they like the hardware. And actually it is officialy sold to possibly be used with Windows (If you go into a store, ask the guy at the counter if you can use windows the answer is yes) . But that's only possible with huge restrictions. They would sell a ton more machines if they would give full support for other OS.
And the other matter according OSX that you've overlooked is their privacy policy and license agreement. Data privacy is quite a big deal to many persons here and to me it's one, if not the main reason not to use OSX
pmhparis - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
You vastly overstate the problems with using Windows on Apple Hardware to the point that I see sour grapes in your comments.I'm coming from a background of years of Windows PCs. For the last few years I was a regular user of VMWare to get access to the different OS environments I need.
I bought a rMBP to replace a Dell e6500 that was coming to the end of it's rope and my collegues are all drooling over how relatively Parralels makes using Windows VMs in OSX. The fact that it just works largely overcomes the minor problem of any performance hit. Besides, the rMBP is brand new and thus faster than all the other PCs so the Windows VMs are still faster than their PCs.
I very rarely see the need to actually boot to windows using bootcamp as the windows bootcamp partition is shared with a VM instance btw so it's the same "machine" whether in a VM or in parallels, When using bootcamp the battery drains faster but even so the rMBP has a longer battery life.
As someone actually using windows on a a rMBP the only reasons I can see for your comments are all irrational
Karltheghost - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
"Besides, the rMBP is brand new and thus faster than all the other PCs so the Windows VMs are still faster than their PCs."But what you don't mention is, that it is still slower than it would be with decent drivers . . . or still slower than a PC Laptop with similar hardware.
I don't want to run Windows in a VM, i want Windows (or Linux) ONLY, no OSX at all.
"When using bootcamp the battery drains faster "
This sounds like a restriction to me. I don't know about the new rMBP but with the 2011er MBP it was like 30 or 40% battery capacity just vanished.
Don't get me wrong, if i would get the same battery life and computing power running Windows (or Linux) on the MBA, i would buy it. But as it seems to me i may be overstating a bit but you are trying to sweep this (nevertheless existing) problem under the carpet
KPOM - Friday, July 20, 2012 - link
But again, you don't seem to "get" that Apple doesn't want to sell you a Mac so that you can run Windows on it. They try to sell an integrated experience.Would the iPhone sell more if they let you run Android on it? Do you think Apple would ever do that? Would you expect them to?
phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
Battery life doesn't magically disappear. It's just not as good under Window 7 as it is under OS X.phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
But the point was that some people just want the hardware.The point was also made that the sales reps at the Apple Stores say that if runs Windows.
Hopefully we all know to take the words of sales reps with a grain of salt.
Win7 runs alright and they did improve the battery life with the last update but the trackpad lacking all the OS X gestures is a real nag.
phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
"a friend of mine payed 170€ just for a new iphone battery". Seriously?Where I live you can walk in to any Apple store with any iOS device and, if they can't fix it on the spot (okay, appointment required), then they'll offer you a replacement of the device for $100.
KoolAidMan1 - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Not at all, its just that the hater posts are irrational as usual.As for being disposable as you said in a post below, nonsense. Macs hold their resale value VERY well, I wish that my PC parts could be sold for as much after 2-3 years. The longest I've ever held any of my machines were my Macs (6 years for one of my production desktops).
The rest of your post is based around anecdotal evidence. I don't know a single person who returned their Macs after only a few weeks based around "flaws" that you don't go into. Again, quite the opposite, longevity and high resale value are two huge things you're getting with one.
Karltheghost - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Fanboys are irrational as well ;)Actually there are PC parts which can be resold for a good price, look at the Thinkpads or Toughbooks.
Of course it's anecdotal evidence, like i said so in my posts . . . but actually you'll find some manufactor whose "official" reputation is a lot better than personal experience in every market. Usually where you've got so aggressive Marketing, that objectivity is lost. For example there is FOX for mountainbike suspension or beats in the audio sector. And it seems to me it is apple in the computer sector . . .
The flaws are mainly compatibility issues, if you have expensive software that is supposed to run on mac and if you install it, it is heavily crippled you sure are not very enthusiastic