Same mass. More muscle.

If a notebook is thin and light enough to carry with you everywhere you go, it should be powerful enough to handle everything you do. MacBook Air is more than up to the task — whatever the task may be.

The latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and graphics.

The latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors give MacBook Air plenty of power. An optional Intel Core i7 processor gives you up to 2.0GHz of processing power and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.2GHz. That, along with faster 1600MHz DDR3L memory, means you’re able to do all the things you love to do on a computer much quicker. Send email, surf the web and share photos and home movies much faster than before. And with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor, you get up to 60 per cent faster graphics.1 So the video you watch, the FaceTime calls you make and pretty much everything else you do is smoother and more detailed.

Faster memory.

Up to 8GB RAM

MacBook Air now features up to 8GB of faster 1600MHz DDR3L memory. That’s twice the memory of the previous-generation MacBook Air. Combine that with powerful processors and faster flash storage and you get a notebook that can run more memory-intensive applications at the same time — without compromising performance.

Faster all-flash storage.

From the moment you start up MacBook Air, you realise this is exactly how a notebook should perform. Much of that is thanks to flash storage. But we’ve taken the performance even further by doubling the maximum storage capacity to 512GB and adding next-generation flash storage that’s even faster. So it’s up to 4x faster than a traditional 5400-rpm notebook hard drive and faster than the previous-generation MacBook Air.2 Apps launch quickly. Files and documents open faster. And even after a month in standby mode, MacBook Air wakes in an instant.

High-speed Thunderbolt and USB 3.

A high-speed Thunderbolt port allows MacBook Air to transfer data at lightning-fast speeds and connect displays like the Apple Thunderbolt Display. So with a few connections, you can turn a highly portable notebook into a highly versatile workstation. And now with two USB 3 ports, you’re able to connect the latest USB 3 devices and access a pipeline that’s up to 10 times faster than USB 2.

  1. Testing conducted by Apple in May 2012 using pre-production 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Air units and pre-production 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 11-inch MacBook Air units with Intel HD Graphics 4000 and 4GB of RAM. 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Air systems and 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 11-inch MacBook Air units with Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 4GB of RAM were production units. Tested at native resolutions using Half-Life 2: Episode Two v(4295)(420) and Portal 2 v(4941)(620) with 4x anti-aliasing and high graphics quality. Half-Life 2: Episode Two timedemo test file: Storm. Portal 2 timedemo test file: Laser stairs. MacBook Air continuously monitors system thermal and power conditions, and may adjust processor speed as needed to maintain optimal system operation.
  2. Testing conducted by Apple in May 2012 using pre-production 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 11-inch MacBook Air units with 128GB of flash storage and pre-production 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Air units with 256GB of flash storage. 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 11-inch MacBook Air units with 128GB of flash storage and 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Air systems with 256GB of flash storage were production units. 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive was tested using production 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems. All units were configured with 4GB of RAM. Testing conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 512KB request size and 8 outstanding IOs. 11-inch MacBook Air test file size = 100GB; all other systems test file size = 150GB. Average rotational media performance calculated by creating the test file on the outer, middle and inner sectors of the drive, and averaging the results from all three measurements. MacBook Air continuously monitors system thermal and power conditions, and may adjust performance as needed to maintain optimal system operation.