[jdb8167]

I want a comparison between a 2011 1.8 GHz i7 11" MBA vs a 2012 2.0 GHz i7 11". I'm seriously considering that upgrade if there is a noticeable speed increase. A speed bump along with the 8 GB RAM might get me to upgrade off of my normal 2.5 year cycle.

[HalanR]

 trichardlin, on 15 June 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

 starbird2005, on 15 June 2012 - 10:06 AM, said:

The big improvement however, is that you can get 8 Gb of Ram instead of 4 Gb of ram. Its the only thing I dislike with my current Macbook Air.

Now that's the question. If I have to guess, 8GB is not going to speed up the new Air that much, simply because the disk operation is so much faster it makes the RAM advantage much smaller. Macworld will do it's reader a real favor by comparing the same Air with 4 vs 8 GB of RAM.

I'm with ya! I'm ready to purchase one now, and plan to configure it with a 256G SSD, but I'm really on the fence about whether the extra memory will be worth it.

MW, are you listening? (grin)

[trichardlin]

 HalanR, on 15 June 2012 - 07:51 PM, said:

... I'm ready to purchase one now, and plan to configure it with a 256G SSD, but I'm really on the fence about whether the extra memory will be worth it.

MW, are you listening? (grin)

It's a bit of taking advantage of the system, but Apple has a 14 day hardware return policy, right? Why don't you buy two of them (same configuration except the RAM), try them out, return the one that does not meet your expectation, then report back to us what you find?

[CPage]

 karotto1, on 15 June 2012 - 08:59 AM, said:

This review IS FRUSTRATING! No way to compare benchmarks to other machines, like the Retina Macbook or older machines. In fact, even the type of testing you do between machines seems different. And no comparison with the faster 2ghz configuration. This article is NOT helpful as a buyer's guide!

It's not meant to be a review.

[KPOM]

Do you have any of the 2.0GHz i7s in the lab? Last year, the i7 upgrade brought a 20% improvement to the 11" in CPU-intensive tasks, but a much smaller improvement in the 13". I'd be curious as to the gap this year.

[HalanR]

 trichardlin, on 15 June 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

 HalanR, on 15 June 2012 - 07:51 PM, said:

... I'm ready to purchase one now, and plan to configure it with a 256G SSD, but I'm really on the fence about whether the extra memory will be worth it.

MW, are you listening? (grin)

It's a bit of taking advantage of the system, but Apple has a 14 day hardware return policy, right? Why don't you buy two of them (same configuration except the RAM), try them out, return the one that does not meet your expectation, then report back to us what you find?

I'm guessing that's a joke, since you're the one that asked MW the same thing? So yeah, that's pretty funny.

"Macworld will do it's reader a real favor by comparing the same Air with 4 vs 8 GB of RAM."

[SmithChuck]

I too would love to see a comparison of a 2012 vs. 2011 i7 MacBook Air, as I just purchased (and am typing on) an Apple Refurbished 2011 13.3" 1.8 i7 4/256 which they're currently selling for $1199. I figured that's $500 (29%) discount, which is a lot better than Apple's usual discount for recent machinery. I thought the price was so low that it might be a mistake, so I snapped it up right away!

[ckasper]

The newer computers outperformed the older ones? Unprecedented!

[killer9]

Macworld--please test high-end 13 inch with 8MB RAM and i7 processor. Please also comment on video-editing capabilities of this configuration.

Thanks.

[killer9]

Sorry--when i asked Macworld to test high-end version, I forgot to include 500GB SSD along with 8MB RAM and i7 processor. Please also comment on video-editing capabilities of this configuration.

Thanks again.

[trichardlin]

 HalanR, on 16 June 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

...

I'm guessing that's a joke, since you're the one that asked MW the same thing? So yeah, that's pretty funny.

"Macworld will do it's reader a real favor by comparing the same Air with 4 vs 8 GB of RAM."

Read into it any way you like. I'm glad you found it entertaining.

On the other hand, there is lab testing, then there is the real world. When a lab test found a 25% improvement on speed, that may or may not translate into 'barely perceptible' differences. But this is rarely discussed.

[trichardlin]

 killer9, on 16 June 2012 - 01:06 PM, said:

Sorry--when i asked Macworld to test high-end version, I forgot to include 500GB SSD along with 8MB RAM and i7 processor. Please also comment on video-editing capabilities of this configuration.

Thanks again.

You must be one of those old timers like myself. The world has since moved onto 8GB RAM these days.

[encre]

Test suggestion: the old 11'' MacBook Air could only support one Apple Thunderbolt Display. Could you indicate whether the new 11'' MacBook Air can support 2 Apple Thunderbolt Displays simultaneously? Many thanks.

[Vafudhr]

 soulatrium, on 15 June 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

I got the 13" Air over the 13" Pro because I assumed that its SSD would make it a faster day-to-day machine than the Pro even though the Pro has a beefier processor. Seems like that was a correct assumption - 3.5x faster on a disk-intensive activity like copying is no small beans!

But you can add a SSD with a hundred bucks in the MBP with no sweat and still have the normal HD to use externally (USB3) or even put it inside removing the Superdrive.

Sorry, but the flash Storage is not a plus on the Air since you can have better options on the MBP with almost the same money. Only things really good on the Air are the weight and the slightly better resolution than the MBP non Retina.

Cheers