Review: Apple's Haswell-Powered 13-Inch MacBook Air

Intel's roll-out of their 4th generation Haswell-based Core series processors has been a little pokey, quite frankly, when you compare this launch to the deluge of products that hit the market when Ivy Bridge broke cover last year.  Regardless, Apple always seems to have an inside track on Intel's latest technology and so, as it turns out, our first Haswell-powered notebook has finally arrived and it's none other than the Apple MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air for 2013 is virtually indistinguishable from the previous gen model, though if you'll look closely there actually two tiny pinholes on its left edge, for dual omnidirectional microphones, versus a single mic on previous models. Beyond that, it's the guts of the new Air that bring the glory.

In addition to the anticipated performance gains that Intel's new CPU might bring to the table for the MacBook Air, there are additional component-level enhancements that Apple baked in to their new ultra-light machine; namely a higher capacity 54 Whr battery and a PCI Express-based Solid State Drive (SSD)...



Let's see what the new MacBook Air is made of and if it holds its own versus Windows-based Ultrabook offerings in the market.