Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION)

Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION): Let’s begin with the feel of the Air, because for the technical specs and other details, you can check on the internet, so I am not going to discuss it here.

You know, I was just like you now, browsing online, seeing reviews and pictures here and there, but until you have the Air, it’s not easy to feel its portability and the size. This thing is super light that you can just randomly spin it around with one hand. If there is a drawback, it would be, “it’s too compact and portable”, I got it on Monday, and when it was in my college bag, I couldn’t tell it was there. The other drawback would be, a little bit paranoid of your new cool thing, I found myself checking my bag for a few times, to see if the Air is still there. I hope you won’t have this paranoid too much like I do.

Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A laptop new hardware

1. Size and weight. I always consider portability whenever I need a new laptop, because if’s heavy, it’s not portable enough to me. Like I mentioned above, if you never own the Air, you will be impressed by the size and the weight alone. This means, you can easily hold it with your one hand, how nice is that. With only one hand, you can comfortably walk with the Air move from one room to another while watching video in the house. But of course, I have to mention that for long period of time, I guess it won’t be that comfortable enough to have your laptop on your hand while standing.

2. Power. My Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A laptop comes with the standard 4GB of RAM and Intel’s new dual-core i5 Ivy Bridge processor. My first Air was 2009 model, I was incredibly impressed with the size and weight, but if you compare it with this new model of Air, you will actually notice the hardware differences which is significantly improved for multitasking tasks and other computing productivity. My 2009 MBA had only 2gigs of ram and missed the Intel’s i-series CPU generations. While I am currently typing this review, I have 10 tabs opened, iTunes, Skype, Firefox tabs, and Dropbox, as well as running Java. Yet, I haven’t found any issues with the performance so far.

3. The Solid State Drive or SSD, there is really nothing to say here. If you have never had a laptop that has SSD, then you will be extremely impressed with how fast the booting and loading times will be. Yes, SSD laptops are pricey, but it’s better to have a laptop that has 128 SSD than a laptop that has huge storage in 7200 RPM 700GB hdd but slower.

4. Accurate Trackpad and backlight keyboard. I know most MBA users usually don’t think it’s one of pro of the hardware. But one of my biggest reasons why I choose this Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A laptop is the trackpad. The trackpad on the Air just works and it works so great that I don’t want to use any external mouse with my laptop. I was tired of unintentional moving cursors and other frustating touchpad gestures. Trackpad is a very important factor on a laptop’s hardware, because you will actually use it to interact with the laptop. The backlight keyboard is very appreciated feature and it won’t impact your laptop battery life.

5. USB 3.0. The USB 3.0 is rapidly growing and it’s more affordable than Thunderbolt devices. In my opinion, the USB 3.0 will be more used than Thunderbolt, because it’s less expensive to manufacture, and compatible with the USB 2.0 peripherals which are already available in the market.

6. The Facetime camera is an HD camera. I know I don’t take my own photos quite often, but I use it frequently to do video conference with my colleagues with remote connections. This alone is an improved feature from my old MBA.

One thing not forget to mention is the same aluminum material that is used with the laptop casing, it’s standard material with all Mac laptop models, so this Apple MacBook Air MD231LL/A laptop has the same solid construction with MacBook Pro laptops.

Why I decided on upgrading or purchasing this new Air (MD231LL/A model)?

The new Ivy Bridge and SSD were my biggest reason why I bought this Air MD231LL/A model, there is no other laptops that can beat this Macbook Air’s size and weight when you have the SSD to be an important factor, other than that, the 6 hours battery life and screen resolution (1440 x 900) are fabulous!