Review: 11

Over the past few years, I have found myself turning more and more to my iPad when on the road or in need of mobile computing. Even though it can be somewhat challenging to get certain types of heavy-duty work done on the iPad, there was one reason I usually still grabbed my iPad over my laptop - battery life. Taking my laptop on the road or using it to get work done out of my office often turned into a hunt for the nearest outlet as my battery would drain after only a handful of hours. Nothing could beat the confidence of not having to worry about an outlet or charger that the iPad's 10 hour battery gave me when I was out and about.

When Apple introduced this year's Haswell processor Macbook Air as having all day battery life, I was intrigued. It almost seemed too good to be true that a laptop could have battery life that rivaled the iPad in battery longevity. If the battery life claims were true, I would no longer have to trade productivity for battery longevity.

I opted to give a test drive to the 11-inch Macbook Air over the 13-inch Air as I value the extra portability the smaller model gives. As a teacher, I constantly am moving from different classrooms, to my office, to home with my work. Though the 13-inch Macbook Air is also very thin and light, the slightly smaller size and weight of the 11-inch model makes it super easy for me to toss it in my bag and pull it out quickly in all situations.

The model I reviewed is the 11-inch model with a 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Haswell processor, 4 GB of Ram, and 256 GB hard drive.

Design

There is virtually no design difference between this year's Macbook Air model and last year's version. The only difference from last year's model to this year's is there is now a second minuscule microphone hole on the left side of the machine that improves noise cancellation. Everything else about the Air's wedge-shaped aluminum body remains very familiar and unchanged.

While it can be fun to experience a new design, Apple has chosen to not mess with something that works. The gap between the Macbook Air and the Ultrabooks of other manufacturers has certainly closed in the last 12 months, but the Macbook Air is still one of the sleekest feeling small laptops on the market. Apple clearly isn't going to force any trivial aesthetic changes as long as what they have now is clearly working and remains the most popular Ultrabook by far on the market.

The trackpad on the Macbook Air is still the best in the industry by far. If you have never used the trackpad of a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro, there just is not comparison in quality and ease of use. Whenever I use any other computer, I always find myself frustrated with the lack of responsiveness of the touchpad after being spoiled by the Macbooks I have used. Though the trackpad is a bit more cramped on the 11-inch version vs. the 13-inch, I never found myself having trouble executing any of the gestures or getting work done on the slightly smaller space.

Many were disappointed by the lack of a Retina screen on the newest Macbook Air. However, Apple's focus on this model was clearly battery longevity. Having a Retina screen certainly would have been nice, but battery life would likely have suffered significantly, and the price of the Macbook Air would also likely have increased.

The 1366×768 display on the 11-inch model is definitely beginning to show its age, but is still a very workable display. Before spending time on the Macbook Air, I did most of my computing work on a Macbook Pro with Retina display. I did find myself having to adjust to the lower pixel count, and I'd be lying if I said that this didn't feel like a significant step backward at first.

After using the Macbook Air for a few days, I stopped noticing the lower resolution and never had an issue with reading text or enjoying images on the display. In fact, the screen does show very vibrant and accurately reproduced colors. To me, the lower quality screen was more than worth the tradeoff for a huge increase in battery life that will be discussed later in the next section of this review.

Performance

I will start with the most important number for this year's Macbook Air: 10 hours 15 minutes. This is how much time I was able to get on one charge of my 11-inch Macbook Air. I was excited to see that the Macbook Air does live up to Apple's all day longevity claims and then some. I spent most of this time word processing, doing some light web browsing, and checking and responding to emails. While I did not push the machine to its limit during this test, this type of work is how I use my machine 90% of the time I am at work. I now can happily leave my charger at home with the same confidence that I could with my iPad.

Though the outward appearance and screen of the Macbook Airs remain mostly the same, the outstanding battery life causes me to view this year's Air as a big step forward. The battery longevity is easily double what I could get on last year's 11-inch model under the same work load and now rivals the iPad in longevity.

Now, cranking up the screen to full brightness, streaming background music, and downloading large files does definitely put a dent in the outstanding run time of the Macbook Air's battery. However, even when doing these activities heavily, I still wasn't able to run down the battery of the Air in any time less than about 6-7 hours. For most people, this laptop will easily last a full day of work.

I didn't notice much difference in everyday performance from last year's 11-inch model and this year's Haswell model. This year's model, in fact, has a lower processor clock speed. However, the faster SSD drive seems to more than make up for the lower clock speed and everything I launched was always quick to spring open. The average user will not notice any difference from last year to this year. As last year's model had plenty of power to operate smoothly and quickly, this is not a bad thing. In addition, similar performance with a gigantic leap in battery life is well worth not taking a big step forward in processing power.

One performance area I did notice a day-to-day difference in was how quickly the machine woke up upon opening the closed screen. When using last year's model, I always had to wait a few seconds to be able to move the cursor and select anything upon opening the cover. This year's model is, impressively, ready to work the moment the cover is opened. There is absolutely no waiting to begin working.

Graphics performance was also noticeably better in this year's model. The HD 5000 graphics in the 2013 model are most noticeable when doing light gaming. Games such as Civilization V and World of Warcraft run very smoothly on this year's Macbook Air. I was able to get about 10-15 more frames per second in these games than I could manage at the same graphical settings on last year's model. This resulted in smoother gameplay and frame rates well above 60 frames per second during most of the time I spend with these two gaming titles. While the Macbook Air will never be confused for a heavy-duty gaming machine, owners of the Air will be happy to know they can do some lighter gaming quite capably.

Verdict

Because the physical appearance and screen of the Macbook Air remained basically unchanged from models of the past few years, it might be easy to assume that this year's model isn't a big step forward for the Macbook Air line. This assumption, however, couldn't be further from the truth. The huge step forward in battery longevity that the 2013 Macbook Air brings to the table is truly a game changer for anyone looking for productivity in a highly mobile machine.

Though some parts of the Macbook Air design are beginning to show their age, most users will agree that the areas of the Air that lack innovation are a worthy tradeoff for the confidence that one gains from having a machine that truly runs all day. Though the gap is closing, the Air's build quality, portability, productivity, and longevity still place it firmly on the top of the Ultrabook heap.