New MacBook Air Models Unveiled By Apple, Available In Stores Now! [Hands-On Video]

Yesterday, Apple held a surprise event called “Back to the Mac” which didn’t bring much surprises eventually since the major highlights of the show including iLife ’11 and new Macbook Air rumors had already been leaked weeks ago. But nonetheless, Apple does have a way of unveiling its new hardware with all the glory and minimalistic style of the modern era. The newly announced Macbook Air models are one such example and bring the much hyped 11.6-inch models for the first time to the Apple’s growing range of Macbooks. The New Macbook Air is available in Apple Stores starting today and comes in 13.3 and 11.6-inch models.

While introducing the new MacBook Air, Steve Jobs joked:

“What would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up?”

“the future of notebooks!”

Saying this, he was actually pointing at the introduction of flash drive for Macbook Air’s reliability and its instant-on capability. The design is more elegant, sleek and even thinner than the previous MacBook Air with just 0.68 inch at its thickest point, tapering to 0.11 inch. There is no hard drive or optical drive and the 13-inch version weighs 90% less than the older model. There are two USB ports, one on each side. An SD card reader as well as mini displayPort are also present like a standard MacBook. Both MacBook Airs have good battery power allowing up to 5 hours (for the 11-inch) and 7 hours (for the 13-inch) of wireless web browsings. Standby time for either model is claimed to be a whopping 30 days!

Interestingly, Apple is also including a “Software Reinstall Drive” USB stick with every new Macbook Air which carries a unique Apple design and can be used to restore Mac OS X and iLife. iWork is also included on the drive if the machine has been custom-configured to include the software.

Apple Software Reinstall USB Drive

Pricing for both models with various storage capacity options are:

• 11.6-inch, 1.4Ghz, 64GB for $999
• 11.6-inch, 1.4Ghz, 128GB for $1199
• 13.3-inch, 1.86Ghz, 128GB for $1299
• 13.3-inch, 1.86Ghz, 256GB for $1599