Apple rolls out faster, cheaper MacBook Airs

Apple has updated the MacBook Air with faster processors and lower prices in the US as of April 29. Now starting at US$899, the MacBook Air features new processors, faster flash storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, up to 12 hours of battery life and Apple’s iLife and iWork apps.

Said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing at the time: “Macs have never been more popular, and today we’ve boosted the performance and lowered the price of MacBook Air so even more people can experience the perfect everyday notebook.”

Fourth generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors work in conjunction with OS X Mavericks to give the 13-inch MacBook Air up to 12 hours of battery life and the 11-inch MacBook Air up to 9 hours of battery life. iTunes movie playback times have increased to 12 hours on the 13-inch notebook and 9 hours on the 11-inch notebook, adding up to two hours of playback time to the updated MacBook Air.*

iLife and iWork come free with every new Mac. iLife lets you edit your favorite videos with iMovie, create new music or learn to play piano or guitar with GarageBand, and organise, edit and share images with iPhoto.  The iWork productivity apps – Pages, Numbers and Keynote, make it easy to create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork for iCloud, in beta, lets users create a document on iPhone or iPad, edit it on the Mac and collaborate with others, including PC users.

The 11-inch MacBook Air comes with a 1.4 GHz processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 4GB of memory and is available with 128GB of flash storage starting at US$899, and 256GB of flash storage starting at $1,099. The 13-inch MacBook Air comes with a 1.4 GHz processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 4GB of memory and is available with 128GB of flash storage starting at US$999, and 256GB of flash storage starting at US$1,199. Configure-to-order options include a 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, up to 8GB of memory and up to 512GB flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/macbook-air.

*The Wireless Web protocol testing was conducted by Apple in April 2014 using preproduction MacBook Air configurations. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. For more information visit www.apple.com/macbook-air.