Apple updates MacBook Air lineup with full-day battery backup

Phil Schiller the senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple introduces the new MacBook Air laptops during the keynote address of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 10, 2013 in San Francisco. Photo: AP

Nidhi Singal

Apple announced the updated MacBook Air WWDC in San Franciso on Monday. The new machines will feature an all day battery life along with fourth generation Intel Core processors with faster graphics.

The new 13 inch MacBook Air features fourth generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors that awards it up to 12 hours of battery life and up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback. On the same lines, the 11-inch MacBook Air can deliver up to nine hours of battery life and up to eight hours of iTunes movie playback. The MacBook Air has also got support for next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi for wireless performance that is up to three times faster when connected to an 802.11ac base station. The gaming and graphic intensive apps will be up to 40 per cent faster as Apple has used the new Intel HD Graphics 5000. The company has also used a new flash storage that provides speeds up to 45 percent faster than the previous generation MacBook Air. It will be nine times faster than traditional hard drives. There is also a thin and light design features dual microphones, a FaceTime HD camera, a high-speed Thunderbolt port and two USB 3.0 ports.

The MacBook Air will run OS X Mountain Lion that will bring messages, notification center, system-wide Sharing, AirPlay mirroring, dictation, game center and the enhanced security of Gatekeeper to the machine. There is also a redesigned AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsure base station that feature three-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology with a maximum data rate of 1.3Gbps, almost three times faster than 802.11n. The new MacBook Air will be right away through Apple Authorised Resellers.

The 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.3 GHz processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.6 GHz, 4GB of memory with 128GB of flash storage is priced at Rs 67,900, while the one with 256GB of flash storage starting at Rs 81,900. The 13-inch MacBook Air will be equipped with a 1.3 GHz processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.6 GHz, 4GB of memory and is available with 128GB of flash storage starting at Rs 74,900 whereas one with 256GB of flash storage is priced at Rs 88,900.