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Review Apple MacBook Air 11 Inch 2010 Subnotebook

Mac-Netbook? The 11.6" MacBook Air may compete in the Netbook league with its size and weight - case, display, and performance, however, are clearly a class higher. Whether the price of at least two Netbooks is justified, and how the Air fairs in our tests, can be discovered in the following review.

The 11 inch MacBook Air is Apple's smallest high quality Notebook, and the smaller brother of the new 13" MacBook Air. Compared to the 13" model, the 11" has a weaker CPU, no SD card slot, smaller function keys, and a narrower trackpad, as well as above all else a smaller battery. This enables significantly more compact dimensions, and a weight of only 1.06 kg.

The MacBook Air 11 can be configured to some extend in the Apple online store. There is an optional 200 MHz stronger processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD. Only the SSD can theoretically also be upgraded to at a later date, since the processor and the memory are soldered directly onto the mainboard.

Case

The small subnotebook is appealing thanks to its simple and timeless design. Due to the abundant use of aluminum the Air feels cool and high tech. The currently usual high gloss surfaces or imprinted patters cannot be found on the aluminum Apple notebooks. The general impression is dominated primarily by the thin build of the case. Since this becomes even thinner towards the edges,  the whole laptop appears to be even slimmer from the sides.

The case of the small 11 inch MacBook Air is made out of a single piece of aluminum just like the bigger 'Pro' models. What's new is that the display lid is now also manufactured using the unibody process, which leads to a higher level of stability. Therefore, the stability is exceptionally good despite the thin build of the base unit and the display lid. The metal case can only be minimally dented with a lot of effort, so that the squeaking and other warping sounds associated with other plastic notebooks are not applicable to the MacBook Air.

Compared to the old MacBook Air 13", the new MBAir notebooks now also have a single wide hinge attaching the display to the base unit. This should hopefully remove the problems of broken hinges, that some older MacBook Air models suffered from. The maximum opening angle of just about 130° is too small in some situations (for instance on the lap with raised legs), and in our opinion the hinge firmness is a little too loose.

The aluminum case, the glass trackpad, and also the black keyboard all offer exceptional haptics and make a very high quality impression. The Windows competition can unfortunately still not keep up in this area.

As already mentioned in the introduction, the retrospective upgrading of the MacBook Air is limited to the mSATA SDD. Even this is made difficult due to the special 5-star Torqx screws. These secure the, theoretically easy to remove, bottom plate. More information about the internal components, and the special Torqx screws can be found with our colleagues from iFixit, that have disassembled the MBAir into its individual components.

Connectivity

Compared to its 13" predecessor some changes have been made to the connectivity. These are no longer behind a fiddly cover, and have also been extended significantly with the addition of a second USB port. Compared to the white MacBook the only things missing now are a LAN and Kensington port.

Compared to similarly sized Netbooks this is not bad, especially since a high quality DisplayPort (mini) is also available which can drive 30 inch monitors with 2560 x 1600 pixels. However, for many monitors expensive adapters will be required (e.g. DVI, HDMI, VGA). In return, the DisplayPort can also provide digital audio via an HDMI adapter (only expensive ones) according to Apple. The combined headset port can also be used by normal headsets with the appropriate adapter.

As there was not enough room for a DVD drive in the slim MacBook Air, Apple offers an optional similarly looking USB DVD burner for around 80 Euros. Except for this, there is also the possibility of using the DVD drive from another Mac (also for booting). For restoring the operating system, Apple has now also included a USB stick that proved to be fast and easy to use.

The interfaces themselves are located on both sides towards the back, and are therefore well positioned.

Left: MagSafe power input, USB 2.0, analog headset port
Left: MagSafe power input, USB 2.0, analog headset port
Right: USB 2.0, mini DisplayPort
Right: USB 2.0, mini DisplayPort

The, now Facetime camera called, webcam in the lid doesn't show a very impressive picture. The quality is good enough for video conferences though, and the microphone worked very well in our test. Thanks to this the Air can also be used for Skype or Facetime without a headset.

The wireless interfaces in this little subnotebook are taken care of by the Broadcom BCM943224 chip with two antennas (according to iFixit), which supports dual-band 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 (according to Apple only BT 2.1+EDR though). The chip supports WLAN data rates up to 300 Mbps, and proved to be reliable in our test (tested using a Trendnet TEW-633GR router). As already mentioned there is no hard wired LAN port. Optionally there is, however, a USB adapter available (100 Mbit), which already worked well in the test of the first MacBook Air.

Apple provides a 12 month warranty and 90 days telephone support for the MacBook Air as standard. Both of which can be extended to 3 years for the sum of 249 Euros.

Input Devices

Keyboard

The integrated chiclet keyboard in the 11" MacBook Air is similar to the current Apple keyboards with one small exception. The row of function keys has been compressed a lot, and now also includes the power on button.

As with all current MacBooks the black keyboard can impress with its good properties. Despite of the short travel of the keys, it is possible to work with them tirelessly. Since the keys are directly connected to the unibody case, any annoying bending or looseness is prevented. The layout adheres to the usual Apple style, and could take some getting used to for Windows users.

However, the practical backlit keyboard familiar from the older MacBook Air and MacBook Pro series is unfortunately no longer available.

Touchpad

The glass trackpad has fortunately also found its way into the MacBook Air models. It impresses with exceptionally good glide properties, and for laptops, enormous dimensions. In the 11" model the height has however been slightly reduced, in order to find enough space in the smaller case. Dedicated buttons are not available for Apple's touchpads, but the whole surface of the pad (up to the upper edge) can be mechanically pressed. Thanks to the clever Mac OS X software the trackpad can also be used like a traditional touchpad with dedicated buttons. Various multi-touch gestures (including the helpful Inertial scrolling) with up to 4 fingers allow the effective use of the large surface area.

Apple's solution continues to be clearly the best integrated input device for laptops, and stays out of reach (using Mac OS X) with respect to precision and user comfort. Using Windows (bootcamp), compromises have to be made unfortunately, although the rudimentary driver allows for half decent use in the mean time.

Display

The reflective 11.6" display has a relatively fine resolution with 1366 x 768 pixels, and thus offers a lot of virtual space. As the first Apple notebook the 11.6" Air receives a 16:9 display.

317
cd/m²
333
cd/m²
340
cd/m²
285
cd/m²
306
cd/m²
325
cd/m²
234
cd/m²
257
cd/m²
264
cd/m²
Distribution of brightness
tested with Gossen Mavo-Monitor
Maximum: 340 cd/m² (Nits) Average: 295.7 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 69 %
Center on Battery: 306 cd/m²
Contrast: 537:1 (Black: 0.57 cd/m²)39.98% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
56.2% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
38.54% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)

With a measured average brightness of 296 cd/m² the widescreen display is very bright. The illumination of only 69% is however only below average. Nevertheless, it is only possible to recognize minimal deviations with single color backgrounds - the limited viewing angles of the TN display panel are much more noticeable here.

The representable color space is more or less the same as that from the white MacBook from 2010, and that from the 13" MacBook Air. It is thus significantly smaller than the sRGB color space, and also the color space of the MacBook Pro models.

Color space
Color space
Comparable color space from the 2010 MB white (t)
Comparable color space from the 2010 MB white (t)
The sRGB color space (transparent) is clearly bigger
The sRGB color space (transparent) is clearly bigger
13" MacBook Pro (transparent) with bigger color space
13" MacBook Pro (transparent) with bigger color space
Calibration result with the i1 Display2
Calibration result with the i1 Display2
Outdoor use
Outdoor use

Thanks to the high maximum brightness of the small display, outdoor use is definitely possible. The strong reflections from the reflective display are however annoying though.

Due to the adopted TN panel the viewing angles can unfortunately not keep up with those on the IPS equipped iPad. Especially from above and below the colors invert very quickly. Compared to other TN panels the scope is however good.

Viewing angles Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10
Viewing angles Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10

Performance

Apparently Apple currently is not happy with the performance, feature set or drivers for the integrated graphics card in the new Core-i processors. Due to this Apple's choice for the design of the new Air models has been limited to the old Core 2 Duo processors combined with the high performance Nvidia chipset graphics, or the modern Core-i processors with an additional dedicated graphics card. Due to the extremely limited space availability in the new Air models, the second of these options seems to have been a no go.

As a result the newest mobile Netbooks from Apple contain a combination of  relatively old Core 2 Duo ULV processors and the Nvidia MCP89 chipset, which contains the powerful Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics card. Thus Apple has foregone several percentage points of processing power (e.g. compared to Core i5 or i7 UM processors), and in return receives a significantly better graphics performance (compared to the Intel HD graphics card).

System info CPUZ CPU
System info CPUZ Cache
System info CPUZ Mainboard
System info CPUZ RAM
System info CPUZ RAM SPD
System info GPUZ
System info HDTune
System information Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10

Processor Performance

The adopted Core 2 Duo SU9400 was already introduced by Intel 2 years ago, and belongs to the class of Ultra Low Voltage energy saving processors. It offers two processor cores which operate with a maximum clock speed of 1.4 GHz. In our test  using Windows 7 (Bootcamp) the processor offered a significantly better performance than the usual Intel Atom processors in this weight class. A N450 (e.g. Eee PC 1008P) for example only offers 25% of the performance compared to the SU9400 in Cinebench R11.5. The Core i5-520UM in the Alienware M11x R2 is however 25% faster. The 520UM can even set itself apart by a considerable 63% in the Asus PL80JT with EasyNote Butterfly S.

In the 3DMark CPU test, the distance to the i5-520UM is somewhat less with 12% (21% to the Asus PL80JT), the N450 is also somewhat closer with 39%.

Considering that only Atom based Netbooks (Sony Vaio Z) infringe into the weight class of the MacBook Air 11", the processing performance is still considerable.

Cinebench R10 Rendering Single 32Bit
1502
Cinebench R10 Rendering Multiple CPUs 32Bit
2852
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit
2172
Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64Bit
0.83 Points
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit
10.67 fps
Help

System Performance

Thanks to the fast chipset graphics card and the SSD system drive, the 11" MacBook Air can shine in PCMark Vantage, and even leave the 13" MacBook Pro (with a normal HDD) behind. This confirms the perceived speedy application performance during use. The slow clock speed of the dual core processor only seldom becomes a bottleneck.

PCMark Vantage Result
4095 points
Help
4.3
Windows 7 Experience Index
Processor
Calculations per second
4.3
Memory (RAM)
Memory operations per second
4.9
Graphics
Desktop performance for Windows Aero
4.9
Gaming graphics
3D business and gaming graphics
6
Primary hard disk
Disk data transfer rate
6.9

Using the Mac OS X system benchmark XBench 1.3, we tested the system performance using Mac OS X. Unfortunately the results varied widely during several sub-tests, which is why several iterations are depicted in the diagram using the same color.

With the exception of the disc test, the 11" model performance is clearly behind that of the 13" MacBook Air, and the MBP from 2010. This is obviously due to the weaker CPU. Surprisingly this also appears to effect the graphics tests. The MacBook Pro 17" with a Core i7 processor is in another league, although its lead is diminished a little due to the standard HDD in the last few sub-tests.

XBench 1.3 comparison - MacBook Air 1.4 GHz clearly lags behind, with the exception of the HDD tests thanks to the fast SSD.
XBench 1.3 comparison - MacBook Air 1.4 GHz clearly lags behind, with the exception of the HDD tests thanks to the fast SSD.

The usual applications such as for surfing the web, or for simple HD video editing (viewing angles video above) the system feels quite fast. The SSD and the dual core processor can lift the typical application performance well above that of an average Netbook.

Graphics Performance

The graphics performance of the MacBook Air is surely one of its prominent features. The integrated GeForce 320M has not been throttled compared to the larger MacBooks, and therefore achieves the same theoretical performance as older dedicated mid-range graphics cards.

The result of the 3DMark Vantage GPU Score test places the 320M just ahead of the current Mobility Radeon HD 5470, and even on the same performance level as the 9600M GT. Older 3DMark tests show a higher processor influence, whereby the 320M falls a little behind. Thus the 320M could easily be compared to an HD 5470, which is however only found in bigger and heavier notebooks.

3DMark 2001SE Standard
13694 points
3DMark 05 Standard
6483 points
3DMark 06 Standard Score
3824 points
3DMark Vantage P Result
1694 points
Help

Gaming Performance

Thanks to the potent GeForce 320M, it is even possible to play several current games smoothly with the small Apple subnotebook using attractive graphics settings. For example Fifa 2011 worked without problems with high details. Even the demanding Battlefield: Bad Company 2 worked just about smoothly with minimal settings.

Compared to the bigger Apple notebooks with a GeForce 320M, the influence on the gaming benchmarks from the weaker CPU are noticeable. Thus the MBP13 for example reached 48 FPS in the Resident Evil 5 benchmark, which is clearly better than that of the small 11" MB Air. More details on the gaming performance of th 320M can be found on our graphics card webpage for the GeForce 320M.

low med. high ultra
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007) 21 14.3
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009) 27.4 22.4 15.7
Resident Evil 5 (2009) 27.5 20
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010) 33 21
Fifa 11 (2010) 98 57 50 26

HD Video Performance

The HD video decoding performance is somewhat divided. As far as the GeForce 320M can lend a hand, even full HD videos are not a problem for the 11" Mac. Unfortunately there is only support for a limited amount of formats in Mac OS X. VC-1 coded movies for example have to be played back with VLC, and already overload the CPU. In our test with Elephants Dream it therefore came to brief interruptions from time to time with a high CPU load. Using Windows 7 the test videos however played smoothly with a low CPU load, thanks to the GeForce support.

Also Flash videos cannot fully utilize the GPU in their current version. Thus smooth replay of YouTube videos is not possible above 720p (occasional single frames dropped in 720p). A 1080p trailer was not smoothly replayed in our test using Mac OS X.

Windows 7 - VC1 1080p smooth
Windows 7 - VC1 1080p smooth
Windows 7 - H264 1080p smooth
Windows 7 - H264 1080p smooth
Mac OS X - VC1 1080p interruptions
Mac OS X - VC1 1080p interruptions
Mac OS X - H265 1080p smooth
Mac OS X - H265 1080p smooth
Mac OS X - Youtube 1080p very juddery
Mac OS X - Youtube 1080p very juddery

SSD Performance

The Micro SATA Blade SSD manufactured by Toshiba is called by Apple as "SSD TS128C" (128 GB version). Toshiba itself sells the SSD as the Blade X-gale THNSNC128GMDJ. Users that are keen on upgrading the SSD to the 256 GB version will unfortunately not be able to do so with the MBAir due to its thicker construction. As an alternative there is also an upgrade kit from PhotoFast with a fast SandForce controller.

The performance of the Toshiba SSD compared to current high end SSDs from Intel (X25-M) or SandForce (e.g. OCZ Vertex 2) is significantly lower. The total score from the AS SSD benchmark is roughly on the same level as the Samsung PM800. This may show worse read rates, but can make up for these with faster write access speeds.

According to Anandtech the controller is very resilient against degrading (see SSDNov V+100 test). This is particularly important since Mac OS X still doesn't support TRIM. At the end of our tests it still came to noticeable performance degradation in Windows with HDTune though.

AS SSD
AS SSD
AS SSD points in comparison
AS SSD points in comparison
ATTO
ATTO
ATTO in comparison
ATTO in comparison
CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark 4K performance
CrystalDiskMark 4K performance
HDTune
HDTune
HDTune degraded
HDTune degraded
HDTune in comparison
HDTune in comparison
 
Toshiba THNSNC128GMDJ
Transfer Rate Minimum: 147.4 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum: 188.8 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average: 176.7 MB/s
Access Time: 0.3 ms
Burst Rate: 150.4 MB/s
DPC Latency Checker Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10
DPC Latency Checker

The DPC latencies could unfortunately only be measured in Windows. There wie saw a very bad picture with DPC Latency Checker. Even after deactivating the WLAN and the Apple Bootcamp driver, the latencies stayed above the critical 2000 ms level. This implies that the use of external soundcards in Windows is impaired.

Emissions

System Noise

Apple has merely equipped the MacBook Air with a small cooling fan that draws cool air from the back and also blows the warm air back out there as well. This cooling fan runs constantly with 2000 revolutions per minute without load. Thanks to the SSD drive, the system noise is limited to the cooling fan.

Without load the MacBook stays practically inaudible (the measured 28.1 dB(A) or 1 Sone from a distance of 15 cm hardly eclipse the ambient noise).

Using Mac OS X the cooling fan stays at 2000 RPM even after 5 minutes of importing videos with iMovie and a stability analysis, and thus practically inaudible. Also when surfing and using office the cooling fan doesn't turn faster, and stays inaudible from about 15 cm.

At a high load the small cooling fan turns up to 6000 RPM smoothly. This is for example reached when playing StarCraft 2 in Mac OS X, or also in Windows with demanding games. The maximum 44.8 dB(A) or 4.7 Sone then make the MacBook clearly hearable, although the sound characteristics stay pleasant.

During average load the cooling fan varies between 30 dB and 38 dB (e.g. 3DMark05 33-38.4 dB or Resident Evil 5 benchmark 30-37 dB) depending on the temperature of the components. This is very quiet for the small case, and not unpleasant.

Immediately following the load phase the Air cooling fan quickly turns back down to a practically inaudible 2000 RPM.

Frequency diagram of the system noise from the MB Air 11". 2000rpm - green, hardly noticeable; normal load - black and blue; 6000 rpm - red - maximum load
Frequency diagram of the system noise from the MB Air 11". 2000rpm - green, hardly noticeable; normal load - black and blue; 6000 rpm - red - maximum load

Noise Level

Idle
28.1 / 28.1 / 28.1 dB(A)
HDD
28.1 dB(A)
Load
36 / 44.8 dB(A)
  red to green bar
 
 
30 dB
silent
40 dB(A)
audible
50 dB(A)
loud
 
min: dark, med: mid, max: light   Behringer ECM8000 / Terratec DMX6Fire USB / Arta 1.6.1 (15 cm distance)
Stress test
Stress test

Temperature

The temperature of the aluminum case stays within acceptable levels despite the quiet cooling fan. Nevertheless the case already shows a clear heating of the top surface with a maximum of 39°C even without load. The surfaces that contact is made with (bottom, keyboard keys, palm resting area, trackpad) feel cool despite of this though (32-34°C).

After several hours of extreme load the case reached its highest temperatures in our tests. The palm resting area still stays very cool. Alone the bottom heats up noticeably as a point of contact. The measured 42°C are nevertheless not critical.

The internal temperatures after our several hour extreme load test are only a little on the critical side for the graphics card, according to the integrated sensors. This is however also over exerted by the constant Furmark test. The two processors are far from their theoretical maximum (105°C according to Intel) with  measured 78°C by the internal sensors.

Max. Load
 44 °C
111 F
45 °C
113 F
38 °C
100 F
 
 43 °C
109 F
44 °C
111 F
36 °C
97 F
 
 32 °C
90 F
33 °C
91 F
32 °C
90 F
 
Maximum: 45 °C = 113 F
Average: 38.6 °C = 101 F
37 °C
99 F
42 °C
108 F
42 °C
108 F
35 °C
95 F
36 °C
97 F
34 °C
93 F
32 °C
90 F
33 °C
91 F
34 °C
93 F
Maximum: 42 °C = 108 F
Average: 36.1 °C = 97 F
Power Supply (max.)  54 °C = 129 F | Room Temperature 20 °C = 68 F | Fluke 62 Mini
(-) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 38.6 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 30.7 °C / 87 F for the devices in the class Subnotebook.
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 45 °C / 113 F, compared to the average of 35.9 °C / 97 F, ranging from 21.4 to 59 °C for the class Subnotebook.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 42 °C / 108 F, compared to the average of 39.4 °C / 103 F
(±) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 32.9 °C / 91 F, compared to the device average of 30.7 °C / 87 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (33 °C / 91.4 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 28.3 °C / 82.9 F (-4.7 °C / -8.5 F).

Speakers

Surprisingly Apple has managed to include stereo speakers in the slim case. These also sound astoundingly good for their size. Nevertheless they are more suitable for less demanding use (e.g. internet radio or YouTube videos). Their maximum volume of 87.2 dB / 67 Sone (pink noise; 15 cm distance) is definitely usable, also with quieter source material. In comparison to the 13" MB Air (see diagram) the 11" version is however quiet (13" max. 92.5 dB / 98 Sone) and also has less bass frequencies.

The 13" MBAir is 46% louder (maximum) with pink noise, and also has more low frequency sound.
The 13" MBAir is 46% louder (maximum) with pink noise, and also has more low frequency sound.

Battery Life

Apple touts the battery life of the 11" MacBook Air to be up to 5 hours with productive working. Without Flash advertising / videos, and using reduced brightness this is definitely realistic. With the mentioned resource hungry features (many YouTube videos, Flash rich websites using WLAN) we reached a useful 3.5 hours using the full brightness in our practical test. With the optional external DVD drive the Air lasted just about 3 hours  playing back a video DVD (also with full brightness, but without WLAN). If you want to play StarCraft 2 on the go, then this is possible for just over 80 minutes (using Mac OS X).

In Windows the typical battery life is usually shorter. In this case the perfect adaptation of the operating system to the hardware is missing. Without load the 11" Air therefore for example only lasted 5.5 hours instead of 8 hours and 40 minutes using Mac OS X.

Battery Life Windows 7 64-bit Mac OS 10.5
Idle BE Reader: 5h 33min iMacros Script / Reading Text: 8h 40min
Full Load BE Classic: 1h 55min StarCraft 2: 1h 23 min
Battery Runtime
Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)
8h 40min
WiFi Surfing
3h 32min
DVD
2h 53min
Load (maximum brightness)
1h 23min

During our power consumption tests Mac OS X shows how well it is optimized for saving energy (specifically for the adopted hardware). Without load the 11" MacBook Air reaches offers the best in class results using Apple's operating system. Using Windows 7 (Bootcamp) these become significantly higher. Under load the results are similar though, as could already be seen from the battery tests.

Power Consumption Windows 7 64-bit Mac OS X 10.5
Idle, display off, WLAN / BT off 5.6-5.7W 2.5W
Idle, min brightness, WLAN / BT off 5.7-6.8W 3.5W
Idle, max brightness, WLAN / BT off 9.2W 5.8W
Idle, max brightness, WLAN / BT on 10.2-10.3W 6.9W
Furmark, max brightness, WLAN / BT on 26.5-29.5 W
Prime95, max brightness, WLAN / BT on 23.9-25.6W
Furmark+Prime95, max brightness, WLAN / BT on 34-35.4W
StarCraft 2 22.6-27.7W
Power Consumption
Off / Standbydarklight 0 / 0 Watt
Idledarkmidlight 3.5 / 6.9 / 12 Watt
Load midlight 30 / 35.8 Watt
 color bar
Key: min: dark, med: mid, max: light        Voltcraft VC 940
Currently we use the Metrahit Energy, a professional single phase power quality and energy measurement digital multimeter, for our measurements. Find out more about it here. All of our test methods can be found here.

Verdict

The 11" MacBook Air is an exceptional subnotebook. The case, input devices, and the graphics performance have yet to find an equal in this class. The antiquated Core 2 Duo SU9400 may be significantly slower than modern Core i5 ULV processors, but nevertheless there are no other notebooks in this weight class with faster processors. In addition to this, the inaudible system noise without load is also an impressive plus point.

On the down side the missing upgrade possibilities and UMTS modem are factors. It is also unfortunate that Apple has not included the useful backlit keyboard in the new Air models, as well as still opting to use reflective displays.

Competitors in this weight class are few and far between. The Sony Vaio VPC-X13D7E/B may be even lighter, but only provides significantly less performance, with the included Atom processor and integrated graphics card. 11" subnotebooks such as the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 11 usually weigh a lot more. The iPad may often be mentioned as a competitor, but actually plays in a different league. A bigger competitor would be the 13" MacBook Air, also from Apple.

Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10
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In Review: Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10
In Review: Apple Macbook Air 11 inch 2010-10

Specifications

Apple MacBook Air 11 inch 2010-10 (MacBook Air Series)
Graphics adapter
NVIDIA GeForce 320M, Core: 450 MHz, 256 MB shared (Mac OS X), 257.46 (Win)
Memory
2048 MB 
, DDR3, non removable
Display
11.60 inch 16:9, 1366 x 768 pixel, LED Backlight, LTH116AT01A01, glossy: yes
Mainboard
NVIDIA MCP89
Storage
Toshiba THNSNC128GMDJ, 128 GB 
, Half-Slim mSATA SSD
Soundcard
Cirrus Logic CS4206A
Connections
2 USB 2.0, 1 DisplayPort, Audio Connections: Headphones (Apple headset), Cirrus 4206ACNZ
Networking
Broadcom BCM943224 (a/b/g/h/n = Wi-Fi 4/), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 1.7 x 300 x 19 ( = 0.07 x 11.81 x 0.75 in)
Battery
35 Wh Lithium-Polymer, non removable, 7.3V
Operating System
Apple Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Camera
Webcam: FaceTime Camera
Additional features
alternative power cable, USB Recovery Stick, iLife 11, 12 Months Warranty
Weight
1.062 kg ( = 37.46 oz / 2.34 pounds), Power Supply: 185 g ( = 6.53 oz / 0.41 pounds)
Price
1200 Euro

 

The trackpad is also narrower than in other MacBooks.
The trackpad is also narrower than in other MacBooks.
The air is drawn and blown back out of the back.
The air is drawn and blown back out of the back.
The 11" model is significantly smaller than the 13" model.
The 11" model is significantly smaller than the 13" model.
The single wide hinge gives hope for better hold.
The single wide hinge gives hope for better hold.
Unfortunately the widescreen is reflective.
Unfortunately the widescreen is reflective.
The heat generated stays within limits.
The heat generated stays within limits.
Unfortunately without backlit keyboard.
Unfortunately without backlit keyboard.
Only the function keys have been compressed.
Only the function keys have been compressed.
The viewing angles much better with iPads IPS display.
The viewing angles much better with iPads IPS display.
The webcam is now called FaceTime camera.
The webcam is now called FaceTime camera.
The power on button migrated to the keyboard.
The power on button migrated to the keyboard.
5-star security Torqx make disassembling much more difficult.
5-star security Torqx make disassembling much more difficult.
Few ports as usual with Apple.
Few ports as usual with Apple.
The DisplayPort can feed 2 24" monitors with 1920x1200 using DualHead2Go from Matrox (or one 30" display with 2560x1600).
The DisplayPort can feed 2 24" monitors with 1920x1200 using DualHead2Go from Matrox (or one 30" display with 2560x1600).

Similar Notebooks

Devices with the same GPU

Review Apple MacBook Air 13 Inch 2010 Subnotebook
GeForce 320M, Core 2 Duo SL9400, 13.30", 1.327 kg

Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight

Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 review - A lot faster and with Wi-Fi 6E
M3 10-Core GPU, Apple M3 M3, 13.60", 1.237 kg
Apple M2 SoC Analysis - Worse CPU efficiency compared to the M1
M2 8-Core GPU, Apple M2 M2, 13.60", 1.215 kg

Links

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Pros

+Extremely thin and light
+Exceptional manufacturing quality
+Robust and high quality aluminum case
+Exceptional input devices
+Quiet with a low load
+Graphics performance
 

Cons

-Few interfaces
-No UMTS
-Few and difficult to access upgrade possibilities
-No backlit keyboard

Shortcut

What we liked

As usual for Apple unibody notebooks - design, build quality, and material quality.

What we missed

A non reflective display, and a longer battery life.

What surprised us

The enormous stability of the aluminum case, despite the thin build.

The competition

There isn't really any. The closest one would be the Sony Vaio X13, which has a much worse performance though.

Rating

Apple MacBook Air 11 inch 2010-10 - 12/03/2010 v2(old)
Klaus Hinum

Chassis
98%
Keyboard
90%
Pointing Device
98%
Connectivity
55%
Weight
95%
Battery
82%
Display
74%
Games Performance
64%
Application Performance
80%
Temperature
82%
Noise
96%
Add Points
90%
Average
84%
88%
Subnotebook - Weighted Average
Klaus Hinum, 2010-12- 2 (Update: 2013-06- 6)