Cracking Open the MacBook Air 11-inch (2012)

On the outside the eleven inch version of the 2012 MacBook Air looks the same as last year's model but what about on the inside. Let's crack the case and find out -- build that -- and this is cracking open. The eleven inch air is Apple's smallest lightest. And lowest priced laptop. And while the company didn't make any big design changes to the 2012 air Apple did make several significant hardware improvements. For starters. Intel's third generation ivy bridge processors. Now power the air. A one point seven gigahertz dual core core I five processor comes standard but our test machine had a two gigahertz core -- seven. The -- twelve Ayers also come with Intel's HD graphics 4000. A step up from the older models HD graphics 3000 system. In addition to the more powerful processor and graphics Apple also beefed up the ram and available storage. The 2012 air can support up to eight gigs of ram compared to that 111 -- And the chips are also faster 16100 megahertz compared to the old models thirteen 133 megahertz. Asked for storage the new air can be configured with up to 512. Games which is twice the Max capacity of last year's version. Rounding out the upgrades are -- news 720. USB three ports. And Apple's new MagSafe to power connector. Now despite all these hardware updates the 2011 and 2012 -- -- -- have identical internal hardware layouts. There's a large battery. Two speakers on either side a small Ohio board. Single cooling fan and motherboard. And just like this year's thirteen inch air the battery is identical to last year's model. So what's not to like about the new eleven inch air well nothing too serious. There's no SD card slot as there is on the thirteen year. The base models 64 gig SSD seems a bit small given the machines 999. Dollar price tag. And for those accustomed to a standard laptop. The machine's eleven inch screen may take some getting used news. As is its larger sibling the 201211. Inch air is a solid update -- the line. Just remember you can't upgrade so get all the ram storage and processing power you'll need when you buy. For more information on the 2012 there including performance and battery life benchmark tests check out Scott -- full CNET review. And if he weren't scared out -- -- And read my full hardware analysis to protect the public dot com forward slash -- and I'm told that while and thanks for watch. It. And -- And -- didn't fund.