Apple MacBook Air 13-inch

The MacBook Air 13 - inch ( Mid 2012) ( $ 1,199 direct ) is thin , light , and has a decent capacity battery . A whole new category of laptops , the Ultrabooks , became popular based on pioneering efforts in the Apple . For mid- 2012, Apple updated its system with a new Ivy Bridge processor from Intel . There are other new features , such as a USB 3.0 port and the potential to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion . If your MacBook Air is less than a year old, you can skip this generation because the Ivy Bridge processor is only a slight speed bump in the past generation . But if you are running an older MacBook ( of any kind ) with a Core 2 Duo or Quad processor , now is the time to upgrade . An Ivy Bridge processor in the new MacBook Air 13 - inch , with a $ 100 price drop ? That's a pretty good deal .

Design and Features
The new MacBook Air looks very much like the previous models , the MacBook Air 13 - inch ( Thunderbolt ) ( $ 1,299 direct , 4 stars ) . It has the same wedge shape - almost chassis tapers to a sharp point . It even weighs the same as the previous iterations , to £ 2.85, as in the previous model . The screen is a 13.3 - inch widescreen display with a 1440 -by - 900 resolution . This is the same resolution as the previous two generations of the 13 - inch MacBook Air systems . For the time being , the Retina display is limited to the new MacBook Pro . The screen is still bright and clear , though , and should keep most users happy .

The system has the same aluminum unibody , silver bezel around the screen , and a similar set of physical ports on the side (with some exceptions ) . The new MacBook Air uses a MagSafe2 power connector that is shorter and wider than the original MagSafe connector . 45 - watt AC adapter MagSafe 2 The MacBook Air has T - shaped connector ; hopefully , Apple will have corrected the problems that led to frayed MagSafe cords in the late 2000s . MagSafeand MagSafe 2 physically different connectors , so current users or users who have spare MagSafe adapters lying around Apple MagSafe display will need 2 - to- MagSafe adapter from Apple ( a $ 9.99 purchase) . The two USB ports are USB 3.0 , which is faster than the previous USB 2.0 connectors right now . Of course , USB 2.0 ( and USB 1.1/1.0 ) devices will still work with USB 3.0 port , although the speed of transfer will not be as fast as those with USB 3.0 . The Thunderbolt connector , headphone , SDXC slot , microphone and carry over from the previous MacBook Air .