Apple 11-inch MacBook Air review

It would have been nice to see a higher resolution screen

The 11.6in screen is the same model used in last year’s model. It has a resolution of 1,366×768 and it’s a slight disappointment that a higher-resolution screen or Retina model couldn’t have been fitted. We can get over this, though, as fitting a higher-resolution screen would most likely have impacted on build quality, durability and battery life.

Besides, on an 11.6in screen, you’d have struggled to read anything on the screen, without increasing the size of the interface. In all likelihood, then, more resolution would have looked slightly sharper, but you wouldn’t get more on screen.

Fortunately, the screen quality is fantastic thanks to the brilliant IPS panel. Viewing angles are brilliant, the anti-reflective coating means you can read it in practically any lighting condition, and it’s very bright. Colours are vibrant and we saw all of the detail in our high-contrast images. Given a choice between more resolution or better quality, quality wins every time in our book.

You don’t get a lot of ports on the MacBook Air, as the case is too small, but it should be enough for most people

Round the outside of the case, you don’t get a lot of ports, with two USB3 ports, Thunderbolt (fast storage and for connecting to displays) and a headphone jack. There’s no SD card slot, as you get on the 13-inch Macbook Air, so you’ll need to carry a USB reader around for memory cards. The only change to the case is that the single microphone has been replaced with dual microphones, which should make audio clearer when you make Facetime calls using the built-in webcam.

Whether or not the Macbook Air is the computer for you depends on a lot of things. Strictly speaking, we think that the 13-inch Macbook Air, is better value and its larger, slightly higher-resolution screen is that bit easier to read; if you need a more multi-purpose computer that you can carry around, that’s the one to buy. However, if you want an incredible small laptop that’s very comfortable to type on, and you have a main computer for day-to-day work, the 11-inch Macbook Air remains a brilliant choice.

2014 MODEL WITH UPGRADED SPECS AND LOWER PRICE

With a starting price of just £749 for the 11in model, which is £100 less than last year, the latest 2014 Macbook Air is cheaper than ever. You still have a choice of two specifications, but both versions will now come with a dual-core 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor, which we think is a Intel Core i5-4260U model – an updated version of the original Intel Core i5-4250U processor.

If you want a little more processing power, you can upgrade the processor to a dual-core 1.7GHz Core i7 processor (which we believe to be a Intel Core i7-4650U) for another £120. With faster clock speeds, this should mean the new 11in Macbook Airs are faster than last year’s models. However, there’s unlikely to be any increase in graphics performance, as both the Core i5 and Core i7 processors come with the same Intel HD Graphics 5000 chip.

Apart from new processors, the 11in Macbook Air is exactly the same as before. The laptop’s 11in screen has a 1,366×768 resolution and you’ll have storage options of either 128GB or 256GB SSDs.

However, at £749 for the 128GB model and £899 for the 256GB version, the 11in Macbook Air is now more tempting than ever. It was already one of our favourite ultraportables, but today’s price cut makes them better value than ever.

That said, we’re rapidly approaching the time of year when Apple usually releases a much bigger update to its Macbook Air laptops, as the 2013 and 2012 models were both released in June. With this in mind, it may be better to wait a while before buying a new Macbook Air to see if Apple has anything else up its sleeve. After all, we’re still keenly awaiting a Retina version of the Macbook Air, so today’s price cut could mean there’s another more expensive model on its way to plug the price gap.