- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How it compares
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen
- 13"
- Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz Dual core
- 4 GB DDR3-1066
- 256 GB SSD
Released October, 2011
Rated 100% by by Pierre-Pham (Dec, 2010)Light weight makes a huge difference when walking between airport terminals.4GB memory is plenty for daily computing needs.
Conclusion Check out the Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen
First reviewed December, 2011
Features Key features of the Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen
1.86 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600
Rated 100% by by Nino-Nadiradze (Jan, 2013)I absolutely love the MacBook Air and highly recommend it to those interested in lightweight and easy to handle laptops.
screen size
13"
17.3"
15.6"
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Wm_247 (Jan, 2011)This gives me plenty of desktop space to work with (13.3" widescreen is barely enough to display half a vertical page of text at a comfortable font size), while giving me the power to carry my work with me wherever I go.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Marin (Dec, 2012)The screen is very sharp for a laptop of it's size, and it seems to handle the basic tasks needed for a student with relative ease.
screen resolution
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Wm_247 (Jan, 2011)Fullscreen high resolution Flash video, 1080p H.264 decoding (with Plex or a similar package) and running quantum computational software is enough to turn the fan on at high speed.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Jeff (Feb, 2013)The most obvious difference is the screen quality, resolution and I am still trying to adjust the MBA 11 screen to my preference.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 2.7 GHz   | 3 GHz |
MacBook Air 3th Gen by James-Makasiar--McGyver (Jul, 2008)I am certain a 2.0 or 2.4 ghz will be in the market soon, but i cannot wait.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Wujdi--Dynamic-Ghost (May, 2011)at the beginning I wasn't expecting this fantastic performance given that the processor is 1.8 GHZ core due 2 , however comparing to other laptops and even my macbook pro it can do basically everything I can do on my macbook pro (except games and some heavy duty graphic apps) apart from this.
processor
MacBook Air 3th Gen by KatzenKlo (Jun, 2012)The performance of the computer is not sufficient, my computer has a Dual-Core processor and 4 Gb Ram and 256 SSD HD memory.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Hofner-Guy (Dec, 2010)I have been hooked on running Activity Monitor durring every application use and combination to try to notice any memory or processor issues - none to speak of.
memory
| 0 GB | 8 GB  | 8 GB |
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Brian (Jan, 2011)But there are some times when I'm doing light photo editing that I'm glad I have the extra RAM, and there always is the speculation that more RAM will be needed in the future.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Gabriel-B.-Frederico--O-Homem-prancha (Feb, 2011)This 13" Macbook Air with 4Gb RAM is very quick, does everything well.
Performance Real world tests of Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen
battery life
5 hour
9 hour
2 hour
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Bill-W. (Jun, 2012)It's thin, light with a nice screen, good keyboard, and beautiful battery life, it's exactly what I wanted, expected and got.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by David-S.-Patchen (May, 2011)Aside from being amazingly light and beautifully designed, this machine is super fast and has excellent battery life.
cinebench r10 32Bit
MacBook Air 3th Gen by Eric-Peterson (Aug, 2012)It uses the new Ivy Bridge chipset (core i5 instead of the old core 2 in the old MacBook) and new Intel graphics chip, and it shows with a noticeable performance improvement running all types of software.
MacBook Air 3th Gen by E.-Tucker--Looking-for-the-Best (Jan, 2013)In fact the Solid State Storage drive is most likely the responsible reason for the speed so I cannot even be sure of the speed contribution from the extra Ram and processor.
Our analysis How does it stack up against its top 10 competitors
pros
-
6 MB (Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600) -
0.1 ms (SSD) -
1,320 g -
SDSC -
130 ppi -
24 Mbit/s (Bluetooth v4.0) -
17 mm
cons
-
None -
None -
13" -
-
256 GB -
1.86 GHz -
3,281 (Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600) -
5 hour -
57 MB/s (USB 2.0)
Reviews Word on the street
 |   Rated by 105 users at amazon.com Rated 100% by by JD-AZR (Aug, 2008) Rated 60% by by Adam-Dachis--adachis  Rated 80% by by G.-Muscat--Sound-Lover (Jul, 2008) |
|---|---|
Storage
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by BRing (Nov, 2012)Storage space isn't as much of a concern for me because I back up my work using online storage (box.net).
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--RonBut what stands out most to me is the performance gain from an SSD instead of a spinning magnetic hard drive.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by Rick-Richmond (Jan, 2013)The lack of an internal CD/DVD drive isn't an issue for me, since it's easy to access the CD/DVD drive on another computer via the network.
Harddrive
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by MDThis is the best laptop as far as I got in my life - its light and the way it's booting so fast with SSD is absolutely crazy.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Bill-W. (Jun, 2012)I love how thin and light it is, the super fast startup is also a plus, 256Gb SSD is awesome.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Brendon (Nov, 2012)If I could get the SSD in a 512GB size, this would be the all-around perfect laptop.
Battery
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Bill-W. (Jun, 2012)I absolutely love the battery life and the speed of this little machine.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--RonAt this moment, I've been running my MBA 5 or 6 hours since the last charge, and the battery meter still shows 44% remaining.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Phil-B. (Feb, 2011)First use got me around 8-9 hours, and then it only took a bit less than 2 hours to fully charge from dead empty.
Screen
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by PB (Feb, 2013)This notebook is light (exactly what I wanted), small but with a very bright screen, FAST and easy to work with-and again, I've never used a MAC before.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by Eddie-W. (Nov, 2012)I got this 13" Air as a replacement for an 11" MacBook Air (2011 version) because I wanted more screen real estate than I got on the 11" screen.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by Wm_247 (Jan, 2011)I love the mouse gestures.
Type
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Nathan-Hipsman (May, 2013)I love Windows, I know almost everything about Windows, and I'm an expert at bending it to my will.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--Ronwith Windows laptops work with the Macbook Air, whether I boot into Windows or OS X.At this time, I have fully migrated to the Macbook Air as my main computer. I'll be retiring the Dell soon and most likely never buying anothe.
Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--RonOf course, part of the performance gain could well be due to the Mac OS X. OS X seems more stable and refined than Windows 7 (and I like Windows 7, though I'd like anything after the disaster that was Windows Vista).
Competition What else you should consider
 | 2 | Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 4-way tie: Has a memory card reader 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD vs 3th Gen 13", 1.86 GHz, 4 GB, 256 GB SSD |
 | 3 | HP Envy 14 Spectre Longest battery life HP Envy 14 Spectre vs Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen |
 | 4 | Dell Latitude E6420 Fast internal storage Dell Latitude E6420 vs Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen |
 | 6 | Dell XPS 12 Has a touch screen Dell XPS 12 vs Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen |
 | 7 | HP ENVY 17-2290NR Quite good CPU benchmark score HP ENVY 17-2290NR vs Apple MacBook Air 3th Gen |
New duel?
Let the battle continue or dare to compare.
