AppleInsider Staff
Unboxing notes
AppleInsider reader Renegrub submits the following photos of a new 128GB SSD-equipped 1.86GHz MacBook Air with some brief notes on the unboxing experience compared to the earlier 2008 model.
As can be seen in the photos, Apple's new eco-friendly packaging is actually slightly larger in volume due to the shift in materials, and somewhat less glamorous than the one used for the inaugural MacBook Air. Overall, the no frills packaging resembles that of the boxes used for the new unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
Another noted change is that the included install discs are now broken out into two separate DVDs, one for Mac OS X and another for Applications. The second-to-last photo also reveals the revised drop-down port compartment where the mini-DVI port has been replaced with a Mini DisplayPort.
Internal design changes
In addition to gaining NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400M integrated graphics system and industry standard Mini DisplayPort, the new MacBook Airs also run on a new version of Intel's special-run 'small form factor' mobile processors introduced in August.
The original MacBook Air contained a 65-nanometer versions of the processor that Intel shrunk extensively and exclusively for Apple and Lenovo.
Nicknamed the Core 2 Duo S, the new 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz parts run at nearly the same clock speeds as the processors used in the first-generation MacBook Air, but support a faster 1.06GHz system bus (up from 800MHz) and a larger 6MB Level 2 onboard memory cache.
They new 45-nanometer chips also consume less power at just 17W compared to the 20W of the custom-ordered 65-nanometer versions.
Unboxing photos
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
47 Comments
Wait...if those pictures are legit, you're telling me that the MBA still has a trackpad with a click button? Why would the new MBs and MBPs lose the button but the Air keep it?
Wow...it looks like...a MacBook Air. Amaaaazing. Thank you so much AI for showing us how the MacBook Air with nVidia card looks like. I would never have guessed.
Wow...it looks like...a MacBook Air. Amaaaazing. Thank you so much AI for showing us how the MacBook Air with nVidia card looks like. I would never have guessed.
Stop being an ass. Appleinsider is a news website, and whatever news they have, they publish it for their readers. Be grateful to have a resource like AppleInsider.
You may not be interested, but who cares about what you think? Other people might be in the market for one and are now looking for what stuff has exactly changed (and in this case, what stayed the same).
Now, go! ssshhh.
Stop being an ass. Appleinsider is a news website, and whatever news they have, they publish it for their readers. Be grateful to have a resource like AppleInsider.
You may not be interested, but who cares about what you think? Other people might be in the market for one and are now looking for what stuff has exactly changed (and in this case, what stayed the same).
Now, go! ssshhh.
Yeah, I've been a bit harsh lately on people of the forum and AI. I apologize to AI and everyone I have offended in the past few weeks.
Wait...if those pictures are legit, you're telling me that the MBA still has a trackpad with a click button? Why would the new MBs and MBPs lose the button but the Air keep it?
The MacBook and MacBook Pro get the new trackpad because they got all-new redesigned cases. The MacBook Air keeps the old trackpad because it keeps the same case. It would not be worth re-engineering the MacBook Air's case and producing new tooling just to change the trackpad.