Comments on: MacBook Air 2011 Benchmarks Show Huge Speed & Performance Gains

By: shawn

shawn — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:06:32 +0000

Every imac and MBP I’ve had I maxed out the RAM and saw really little need post install.

With the SSD you be swapping RAM at a rate that will make no difference between a 4 or 16 machine for 99% of the users out there…

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:30:34 +0000

Hi, I am in the same boat as you, debating whether to get the 2011 MBA i5 with 256G flash, or by a 2011 MBP i5 2.8Ghz 500GB hard drive. Both are priced around the same, but as soon as I add an 256Gb SSD on the MBP, the price shoots up. So I ordered the MBA hoping that the SSD would make up the slower CPU and less RAM. We shall see.

By: Pitcher

Pitcher — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:18:53 +0000

It’s not really “Apples” and Oranges when comparing the stock 13″ MBA (with Flash HD standard) to the base model 13″ MBP (with stock HDD) as they are at the same price point. Therefore, I imagine many potential buyers (myself included) are trying to decide between the early 2011 13″ MBP 2.3 GHz i5 and the Late Summer 2011 13″ MBA 1.7 GHz i5. If you buy the base model 13″ MBP and upgrade to a 128GB SSD the price goes up by $250 so obviously it should have a higher performance.

All that said, there are buyers at all different price points (well, “high”, “higher” and “money is no object”, because lets face it, we’re talking about Apple notebooks here – not cheap) so I do think it would be helpful to include a benchmark of the various MBP models with the SSD upgrade as well as it would be helpful on deciding whether or not it is worth your $250 to spring for the SSD. Another perk of the SSD is durability and it is totally silent and I imagine cooler. Also I believe the MBA has no fan so it is even quieter (yet stays cooler than any laptop on the market that I am aware of).

I am sure these benchmarks are available somewhere on the web if you look hard enough.

Based on this information, unless you edit videos, need a bunch of extra ports, or are a hardcore gaming nerd (and therefore wouldn’t get caught dead with a Mac anyway as you probably run in circles of anti-Apple trolls) I think the MBA is the way to go. I am actually having a hard time deciding about the high end 11″ MBA or the base model 13″ MBP as they basically have the same specs (except for the monitor size of course). I was worried the 11″ would be way too small but I checked it out in the store and I’m sure I would be worth it for it’s increased portability (although it would be a minor concern that it has decreased battery life vs. the 13″).

By: test3r

test3r — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:40:57 +0000

you’re comparing apples and oranges here. if you do a comparison between a mbp and a mba, make sure both are equipped with the same ssd. else you simply measure the performance difference between a classical hard drive and an ssd. which is obvious.

i’m also looking for a benchmark comparison of gpus only.

By: Ist das Apple MacBook Air das neue, echte MacBook?

Ist das Apple MacBook Air das neue, echte MacBook? — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:56:24 +0000

[...] und in einigen Bereichen auch das eine oder andere MacBook Pro abhängt. In diesem Zusammenhang hat OSXDaily einen umfangreichen Benchmarktest zum neuen MacBook Air veröffentlicht, der die Ergebnisse [...]

By: margaret

margaret — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:10:46 +0000

I bought the latest Macbook Air 11.6, last week – cost $1000 Australian – reduced from $1099 –
so far very happy – Seems fast and user friendly.
I want to put word processing on it, and bought the software at the same time but i have no idea of how to get the word processing onto the Air.
.
I would recommend some kind of a clip on case to protect the Air – as the metal casing looks like it would scratch easily

By: robrxgz

robrxgz — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:54:19 +0000

Are here any comparisons between the 2011 MacBook Air and the late-2009 MacBook White Unibody?

By: Varun

Varun — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:14:05 +0000

The 2.3 ghz is on the 15in mbp with quad core. While the 2.7 is on the13in which has dual core.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:26:33 +0000

Am I reading this right, but the MBPro 2.3 beats the more expensive 2.7?

I’d like to see the 2.2 quad core thrown in there just for some more perspective.

By: Apple is preparing a larger 15-inch MacBook Air « Heptanews * Entertainment * Politics * Opinions * U.S. * Technology * Health * Leisure * World * Sports

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:02:57 +0000

[...] new 11 and 13-inch MacBook Airs are just so fast (faster than a 2010 Core i7 17-inch MacBook Pro) that it wouldn’t be too hard to stuff a [...]

By: Apple is preparing a larger 15-inch MacBook Air « The Joe Lake Blog The Joe Lake Blog

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:26:20 +0000

[...] new 11 and 13-inch MacBook Airs are just so fast (faster than a 2010 Core i7 17-inch MacBook Pro) that it wouldn’t be too hard to stuff a [...]

By: galven

galven — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:57:20 +0000

Just to let you know there is no “13″ MBA 1.6 GHz. I think the first image you have has a typo. Perhaps you mean 11″ MBA 1.6GHz?

By: New York Website Design

New York Website Design — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:41:43 +0000

Ordered my 13 inch mac, getting it on thursday!
I’m not a gamer so I don’t really care about graphics. As long as it can playback 1080 HD movies I’m fine..

By: The Macbook is dead. Long live the Macbook air! - Page 4

The Macbook is dead. Long live the Macbook air! - Page 4 — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:59:21 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:33:58 +0000

You could probably find some GeekBench results on their website with SSD’s, but yes the MacBook Pro series with SSD is also very fast. That said, the Core i5 and Core i7 CPU is vastly superior to the Core 2 Duo, so even lower clock speeds can outperform the older chipset.