2010 MacBook Air: ultimate-edition lab tests

The 2010 MacBook Air models offer impressive improvements in both design and in performance when compared to previous MacBook Airs. But with just 2GB of RAM and the slowest Intel Core 2 Duo processors in the entire Mac lineup, we were interested in putting some of the build-to-order options to the test.

Luckily, our local Apple Store was more than happy to sell us the “ultimate” configurations of the MacBook Airs with twice the RAM and faster processors. The ultimate 11-inch MacBook Air takes the  $1199 MacBook Air ( ) and adds 2GB of RAM (4GB of RAM total) and bumps the processor from the stock 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo to a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor. These upgrades cost $100 each, bringing the 11-inch ultimate MacBook Air to $1399. The ultimate 13-inch MacBook Air configuration starts with the $1599 13-inch MacBook Air ( ); the RAM gets bumped to 4GB and the processor gets a boost from a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo to a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo. It sells for $1799.

Our Speedmark 6.5 results show the BTO 11-inch MacBook Air topping its standard configuration version by 12 percent, overall. The biggest individual test gains were in iTunes encoding and our multitasking test, which were both 16 percent faster on the BTO 11-inch MacBook Air. Aperture was 14 percent faster, and iPhoto and HandBrake were both 13 percent faster.

The 13-inch MacBook Air BTO configuration was 10 percent faster than its stock configuration. Individual application highlights include Aperture and our multitasking tests that were both 15 percent faster, and iPhoto was 14 percent faster.

Comparing these BTO Airs to the white 13-inch MacBook 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, we see that the MacBook is 5 percent faster overall than the fastest 11-inch MacBook Air, but the 13-inch BTO Air was 20 percent faster than the MacBook. CineBench CPU, Handbrake, and MathematicaMark were still faster with the 2.4GHz MacBook, but any test that involve heavy drive usage benefitted from the flash storage.

Several readers have asked for results from a 2009 BTO 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Air and SSD, and while we did test such a system last year running OS X 10.5 and Speedmark 5, we no longer have that system. The best I can do is provide the file duplication, zip, and unzip tests results as the file sizes we use for those tests have not changed. The new MacBook Airs duplicated the 1GB file twice as fast as that BTO 2009 Air. Zipping the 2GB folder was a little slower on the BTO 2009 Air than the new 13-inch BTO Air, but 22 percent faster than the new 11-inch BTO Air. Unzipping the same file was 35 percent faster on the new 11-inch Air versus the 2009 BTO MacBook Air and the 13-inch BTO Air was 47 percent faster than the 2009 BTO model.

We plan on running some more flash storage tests on the new MacBook Airs, so check back soon.

[James Galbraith is Macworld’s lab director.]