- 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 5th Gen
- 13.3"
- 1.8 GHz Dual core
- 4 GB
- 128 GB HDD
#1 in Lightest 2012 laptops
Released June, 2012
Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--Ron (Jun, 2012)I have run my new Air through my home theater and watched a few SD and HD programs I downloaded with iTunes, and it worked really great - setup was very easy and sound and picture were very good.
Conclusion Check out the Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
First reviewed June, 2012
Features Key features of the Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
1.8 GHz
Rated 100% by by Eric-Torres (Feb, 2013)My one complaint is I would have liked an sd card slot like in the 13.3 model, but overall very happy.
screen size
13.3"
12.5"
14"
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Roger-A.-Adams (Apr, 2013)This is the best laptop I have ever owned, the small size of the laptop was a concern at first but after several months of use I have come to love the small 11.6 inch screen.
MacBook Air 5th Gen by bsg0331 (Dec, 2012)The screen is not too small and with modern Safari and Chrome extensions text that initially displays as small - such as an article on a large-formatted website - becomes very easy to read.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 3 GHz  | 3 GHz |
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Farb-DannonOf course the Air (which I got factory upgraded to the 2.0 GHz i7 processor and 8GB of RAM) is lighter, slimmer, and sleeker than the Pro, and yes, it does have a much higher resolution display, but I was surprised just how much faster the MacBook Air is compared to the Pro is despite the Air's slower CPU clock speed.
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Farb-DannonWhile the MacBook Air models are at a disadvantage to the MacBook Pro models in terms of CPU clock speeds, any performance disadvantage from the processor speed is more than made up for by the lightning fast performance of the Air's SSD hard drive, which Apple markets as "Flash" storage.
processor
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Abraham-BurnettKeep in mind that you're only getting dual-core processors in either MacBook Air... which can prove frustrating if you're really crunching some data through Excel or Access.
MacBook Air 5th Gen by DJMoody (Jul, 2012)6/10. The Ivy Bridge processors give the Macbook Air a nice boost in graphical performance.
memory
| 0 GB | 8 GB  | 8 GB |
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Roger-A.-Adams (Apr, 2013)There is very little difference in the performance of the macbook air to the macbook pro, and if you install the extra 4gb of ram like I did this small laptop preforms almost every macbook pro.
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Christopher-Mayo (Jun, 2012)If you have the 64GB /2GB RAM version from last year, you could probably benefit from the extra RAM.
Performance Real world tests of Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
battery life
5 hour
9 hour
8 hour
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Tanara (Jul, 2012)It is also lightweighted, but it lacks a core feature I was expecting from such an expensive piece of hardware - a good battery life.
MacBook Air 5th Gen by Ron-Cronovich--Ron (Jun, 2012)Battery life is rated at 5 hours in the 11" Air, 7 hours in the 13" Air.
Our analysis How does it stack up against its top 10 competitors
pros
-
Jun, 2012 -
SDSC -
24 Mbit/s (Bluetooth v4.0) -
572 MB/s (USB 3.0)
cons
-
128 GB -
13.3" -
1.8 GHz -
5 hour
Reviews Word on the street
 |   Rated by 235 users at amazon.com Rated 100% by by Selden-Deemer (Aug, 2012) Rated 100% by by CostBenefitAnalysis (Aug, 2012) Rated 100% by by Eddie-Landsberg--My-10th-year-as-a-reviewer--... (Oct, 2012) |
|---|---|
Screen
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by C.-Goldblatt (Feb, 2013)The sound is adequate, graphics are suitable for light gaming, SSD is quiet and quick, display is bright but not bright enough to overuse the battery and the battery is adequate (although if they were able to add in a bigger battery without changing the weight I probably would be a little happier).
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by AlooshScreen: Perhaps you might find this strange but I prefer the Macbook Air screen over the pro or retina because its less glossy than both.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Mihir-JoshiFor the unacquainted, TN panels are the bottom shelf of LCD panels in terms of color quality.
Battery
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 80% by by K.-Chan (Jun, 2012)The battery charges pretty fast - it's at 22% right now and OS X estimates that it'll take an hour and 16 minutes to charge the rest of the battery.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by JoshM568310/1/12. The battery life on this thing is pretty good.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Andrew (Jul, 2012)When I first got it, everything's good, except for the battery life.
Type
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--Ron (Jun, 2012)Booting into Windows and running Windows natively is a noticeably better experience on this new Air than on the Lenovo Windows laptop that I used to have at my job.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Abraham-BurnettThat, and I found myself using Windows 8 most of the time because I just don't like how the Mac OS X multitasks.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Susan--Susan (Jan, 2013)But it is far more intuitive and faster compare to Windows laptops.
Harddrive
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Esteban-Vallejo (Dec, 2012)The SSD hard drive on the MacBook Air makes a big difference in performance vs. the HDD drives.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Ron-Cronovich--Ron (Jun, 2012)Compared to the 2011 Airs, the 2012 Airs have fewer improvements and the performance gain is much less dramatic (the main exception being the much faster SSD).
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by the-Lorax (Aug, 2012)This is what gives the Air it's long battery life, and its impossibly sleek dimensions, but the great thing about solid state hard drives is that they are much more reliable than optical hard drives, especially in laptops, where they experience drops, shock, and impact more than desktops.
Storage
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by J.-Murphy (Oct, 2012)CD/DVD. Because I have an old 2004 iBook and my wife has her MBP, I can "borrow" (through CD/DVD sharing) one of those drives to rip/pla.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by WhatsTheHurry (Sep, 2012)Note that you can't change anything in this computer yourself - hard drive nor memory, and there's no optical drive so buy what you think you'll need even if eventually.
Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 13.3", 1.8 GHz, 4 GB, 128 GB HDD | Rated 100% by by Jack-Bulat (Feb, 2013)One thing I haven't touched on is storage space - the 128Gb hard drive.
Competition What else you should consider
 | 1 | Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Has an accelerometer Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 2 | Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen Quite good CPU benchmark score MacBook Pro 8th Gen vs MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 4 | HP Envy Spectre XT Has a CD writer HP Envy Spectre XT vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 5 | Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C Longest battery life Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 6 | ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD Quite fast RAM ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 7 | Acer Aspire S S7 Fastest processor Acer Aspire S S7 vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
 | 8 | Dell XPS 12 Sharpest screen Dell XPS 12 vs Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen |
New duel?
Let the battle continue or dare to compare.
Editions Editions of the Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
| Price | Edition | Internal storage random access time | Clock speed | Manufacturer code | Compare | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | 10 ms | 1.8 GHz | MD231LL/A | | ||||
 | | 0.1 ms | 1.7 GHz | MD224LL/A | | ||||
