Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2009-06 MC234*/A

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Reviews for the Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2009-06 MC234*/A

87% Apple MacBook Air - Mid 2009 (2.13 GHz/9400M/128GB SSD - MC234*/A)
Source: Notebookcheck DE→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 09/22/2009
Rating: Total score: 87% performance: 76% display: 90% mobility: 88% workmanship: 99% ergonomy: 95% emissions: 82%

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Series: The original MacBook Air, “the world’s thinnest notebook” was introduced at the 2008 keynote by Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs. Key advantages are thinness, durability, high quality display especially the input device when compare with other netbook at the time. However, it was also heavily criticized for lack of Optical Disc, only one USB port, not user-removable battery among other things. At that time, nobody knows that these disadvantages of the MacBook Air series would be the pinnacle of Intel’s concept for next generation notebooks which will be the newest trend for 2012.

In 2011, Apple has introduced the latest update of the MacBook Air Series, with Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge Series, which doubling the performance. Major advantages of the 2011 MacBook Air in our reviews are the light weight, outstanding, unrivalled design and robust build quality thanks to the aluminum case, very good backlit keyboard plus glass track pad, as well as a very good performance for a subnotebook. The 2011 MacBook Air still shares some of the original’s disadvantages like limited ports, heavily reflective display, non-upgradeable memory and non-user-removable battery. Still, the MacBook Air outclasses almost every other Ultrabook out there with its advantage, save only for Samsung’s newest Series 9 model. On average, the review-ratings are very good, which always assure a place in the top 3 Subnotebook of Notebookcheck.

Rumor has it that Apple will introduce the new MacBook Air within a month during Apple’s usual WWDC with Retina-display, USB 3.0 and Ivy-bridge processor, so stay tune for the newest update of the most popular Ultrabook from the tech giant in Cupertino.

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G) / ION (LE): Integrated (shared Memory) graphics adapter. Built in in current MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air laptops and also used in the ION (LE) platform for netbooks. Also called GeForce 9400M G. Fastest available motherboard GPU (in 2009). Integrated PureVideo HD (VP3) video processor to decode HD videos with the GPU.

Only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

Intel Core 2 Duo: This is the Core Duo and Core Solo successor with a longer pipeline and 5-20% more speed without more power consumption. As an addition to the Core Duo design there exists a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU).

The Core 2 Duo for laptops is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors but the notebook-processors work with lower voltages (0.95 to 1188 Volt) and a lower Frontside bus clock (1066 vs 667 MHz). The performance of equally clocked notebooks is 20-25% lower than Desktop PCs because of the lower Frontside bus clock and the slower hard disks.

SL9600: Low Power Core 2 Duo chip with a large 6MB level 2 cache and therefore potentially good performance per MHz (but beware of Throttling in the MacBook Air).» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

13.30":

There are hardly any tablets in this display size range anymore. For subnotebooks, on the other hand, it is the standard format.

The advantage of subnotebooks is that the entire laptop can be small and therefore easily portable. The smaller display also has the advantage of requiring less power, which further improves battery life and thus mobility. The disadvantage is that reading texts is more strenuous on the eyes. High resolutions are more likely to be found in standard laptops.

Apple: Apple is a US company founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the company is known for its innovative products such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, and manufactures computers and consumer electronics as well as operating systems and application software. Apple is also a leading provider of software and services such as the App Store, iTunes and iCloud.

Apple has earned a reputation as a company that focuses on design and ease of use. As for their notebooks, they are mostly in the high-priced segment, have their own operating system, but also run Windows on the newer Macbooks.

Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world and has a loyal following of customers and fans. The company also has a strong presence in the entertainment industry, with services like Apple Music and Apple TV+. In 2023, Apple had an approximate 8% market share of global PC sales, ranking it 4th after Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

87%: This is an above-average rating. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that about one fifth of all tested models receive a better rating.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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