It's kind of hard to improve on a 4.5-star rating. And yet Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Air (starting at $1,299, $1,599 as configured) is better than its predecessor in some key ways. Just like before, this ultraporable is wonderfully thin and light and wakes up instantly when you lift the lid, but the new Air ups the ante with a backlit keyboard and a faster Core i5 processor. The notebook is also more versatile, thanks to a new Thunderbolt port that allows you to connect the laptop to a growing number of super high-speed peripherals, including Apple's new Thunderbolt display. Is there anything not to like?
Design
While the 11-inch MacBook Air has a netbook-on-steroids vibe, the 13-inch Air truly feels like a full-grown laptop. It's just one that you can take anywhere--and look damn good doing it. The sturdy unibody aluminum construction, magnetic latch, and rounded corners make this machine just as elegant and futuristic-chic now as it was nine months ago.Because it now has a backlit keyboard, the 13-inch Air weighs just a little bit more than its predecessor (3 pounds vs. 2.9 pounds), but this is still among the lightest 13-inch notebooks available. Only the 2.6-pound Sony VAIO Z weighs less. This laptop is still amazingly thin, too, measuring 0.11 inches to 0.68 inches at its thickest point.
Heat
The 13-inch MacBook Air kept its cool when we played a Hulu video at full screen for 15 minutes. The touchpad registered 85 degrees, and both the area between the G and H keys and the bottom of the notebook reached 87 degrees. All of these measurements are well below what we consider uncomfortable, which is 95 degrees.Keyboard and Touchpad
If you're bored by lots of praise, just skip to the next section. The 13-inch MacBook Air sports an excellent backlit keyboard. Both the letters and the area around the keys glow brightly, and you can easily customize the intensity using the F5 and F6 keys. The tactile feedback is springy and responsive as well, especially considering this laptop's svelte profile.
The 4.1 x 3-inch glass touchpad on the 13-inch MacBook Air is simply second to none. We easily executed two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom gestures. Plus, with Mac OS X Lion, you can pull off lots of neat little shortcuts. A pinch with three fingers and your thumb automatically launches the iPad-style Launchpad menu for accessing your apps, while a three-finger swipe up launches Mission Control (which provides a birds-eye view of open programs).
As expected, clicking down on the trackpad with one or two fingers always felt sure and accurate.
Display and Audio
If you're torn between the 11-inch MacBook Air and the 13-inch model, you'll want to take a good look at this display. It's not only larger but provides more resolution (1440 x 900 vs 1366 x 768). Having this extra real estate--whether it's for surfing the web or just seeing more of a document--goes a long way toward making the 13-inch Air feel more like a primary computer.In addition, the panel is quite bright and provides wide viewing angles. When watching the 720p trailer for Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows Part 2, we could easily make out Voldemort's eerie eyes from a couple of feet away.
The speakers located beneath the keyboard on the 13-inch Air certainly don't project booming sound, but the audio quality is better than you might expect from such a svelte design. "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars and other tracks certainly had enough punch to keep us entertained while writing this review. However, we kept the volume at about 80 percent to avoid harshness.
Ports and Webcam
The right side of the 13-inch MacBook Air houses a Thunderbolt port, which provides 20 times the speed of USB 2.0 and works with a new breed of peripherals. This includes Apple's new Thunderbolt display, which doubles as a docking station. The Pegasus RAID Storage device (starting at $1,000) is another option, but more affordable peripherals are also on the way.
When you're not attaching a Thunderbolt device to the Air, this connector doubles as a DisplayPort, which you can use to hook up a high-res display (duh) but also adapters for Ethernet and FireWire 800.
The right side of the 13-inch Air also includes a SD card slot--something the 11-inch model lacks--along with a USB port. We wish memory cards inserted further into the chassis, but it's not a big deal. The magnetic power connector, a second USB port, and headphone jack line the left side of the notebook.
Just as with the 11-inch Air, the 13-inch model features a high-quality VGA webcam for conducting FaceTime video chats and calling friends over Skype. The camera performed exceptionally well even in low-light conditions, and you can have lots of fun with the hardware when you fire up the PhotoBooth app and apply one of many special effects.
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