Apple has announced new versions of its ultra-slim MacBook Air laptops, revealing they will have significant increases in battery life.
Describing the new models as having 'all-day' battery life, Apple revealed the 11in model will have 9hour battery life and the 13in model will have 12hours (8hours iTunes video playback).
Both these figures mark significant increases over previous versions of these laptops, with the 11in model previous having on 5hours and the 13in having 7hours, again according to Apple's own figures - in our experience the 11in model in particular had more like 4hours battery life.
The main reason for the big increase in battery life is the move to using Intel's new Haswell processors, which are proving to have vastly superior power consumption compared to last year's Ivy Bridge CPUs.
The new Haswell processors also include a significantly faster graphics processor (Intel HD Graphics 5000), allowing for even better gaming performance, or improvements in GPU accelerated apps such as Photoshop.
Potentially disappointing many, the new models don't incorporate the Retina technology of the MacBook Pro Retina, with resolutions instead the conventional options of 1366x768 and 1440 x 900 pixels for the two different sizes. Rumours of a combined MacBook Air/iPad have also been dashed, with the new laptops not even incorporating a touchscreen of any description.
The flash storage in these new models is also apparently 45% faster, while the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is also supported. Storage sizes remain the same with both models starting at a mere 128GB, and only offering 256GB maximum.
Prices for the 11in model remain the same (£849 for 128GB or £1029 for 256GB) while the 13in model has a new slightly lower starting price of £949 for the 128GB version, rising to £1129 for the 256GB model.
Describing the new models as having 'all-day' battery life, Apple revealed the 11in model will have 9hour battery life and the 13in model will have 12hours (8hours iTunes video playback).
Both these figures mark significant increases over previous versions of these laptops, with the 11in model previous having on 5hours and the 13in having 7hours, again according to Apple's own figures - in our experience the 11in model in particular had more like 4hours battery life.
The main reason for the big increase in battery life is the move to using Intel's new Haswell processors, which are proving to have vastly superior power consumption compared to last year's Ivy Bridge CPUs.
The new Haswell processors also include a significantly faster graphics processor (Intel HD Graphics 5000), allowing for even better gaming performance, or improvements in GPU accelerated apps such as Photoshop.
Potentially disappointing many, the new models don't incorporate the Retina technology of the MacBook Pro Retina, with resolutions instead the conventional options of 1366x768 and 1440 x 900 pixels for the two different sizes. Rumours of a combined MacBook Air/iPad have also been dashed, with the new laptops not even incorporating a touchscreen of any description.
The flash storage in these new models is also apparently 45% faster, while the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is also supported. Storage sizes remain the same with both models starting at a mere 128GB, and only offering 256GB maximum.
Prices for the 11in model remain the same (£849 for 128GB or £1029 for 256GB) while the 13in model has a new slightly lower starting price of £949 for the 128GB version, rising to £1129 for the 256GB model.
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