Improvements in the new MacBook Air

The second MacBook Air version is highly appreciated for its speed, large hard drive capacity. However, the connection ports are still limited.

Improvements in the new MacBook Air Picture 1
Still looks slim, but the new MacBook Air is stronger. Photo: Cnet .

The most significant change on the MacBook Air is speed. This version uses Intel's Penryn processor architecture, while the previous model uses the old Merom processor. Penryn has 6 MB buffer, Merom only 4 MB, speed improved from 667 MHz to 1,066 MHz.

The next improvement is Ndivia GeForce 9400M graphics card. This change not only takes place on ultra-thin laptops, but Apple also equipped on models launched last October. Compared to the previous generation of Intel graphics cards, the new product supports playing games, watching movies better and more stable.

The third difference is that the new machine uses DDR3 memory, while the previous version uses DDR2. This equipment saves power.

The second generation MacBook Air also uses solid-state hard drives like the previous model. However, the capacity is doubled, from 64 GB to 128 GB. Apple said the new hard drive uses multi-layer cell technology (MLC).

Improvements in the new MacBook Air Picture 2
Restricting ports and using separate standards makes MacBook Air worse than competitors.
Photo: Engadget .

The weakness of the new MacBook Air is to limit the connection port . First, the device had only one USB port, no ethernet (however, the company sold an adapter to extend the USB connection included).

In the new version, in order to save size, the company also does not provide optical drive. Compared to rivals from Toshiba (R600) or Lenovo (X300), Apple's laptops are inferior.

Apple continues to insist users to use the mini port to exit the screen just like other MacBook series. However, Mini DisplayPort will cause them to abandon the purchase of cables to connect to a standard monitor on the market.