Same wrapper, all-new candy center: The 2013 MacBook Air reviewed

Same wrapper, all-new candy center: The 2013 MacBook Air reviewed:

Meet 2013's MacBook Air. Look familiar?

Andrew Cunningham

Specs at a glance: 13-inch 2013 Apple MacBook Air
Screen	1440×900 at 13.3" (128 PPI)
OS	OS X 10.8.4 "Mountain Lion"
CPU	1.3GHz Intel Core i5-4250U (Turbo up to 2.6GHz)
RAM	8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 (non-upgradeable)
GPU	Intel HD Graphics 5000 (integrated)
HDD	128GB solid-state drive
Networking	802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports	2x USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, card reader, headphones
Size	12.8" × 8.94" × 0.68" (325 mm × 227 mm × 17 mm)
Weight	2.96 lbs (1.35 kg)
Battery	7150 mAh
Warranty	1 year
Starting price	$1,099.99
Price as reviewed	$1,199.99
Other perks	Webcam, backlit keyboard, dual integrated mics

While many PC makers introduce new or tweaked laptop designs just about every year, Apple tends to stick with the same design for a few years before changing everything all at once to reflect changes in internal hardware (the move from HDDs to SSDs, for example) and evolving design tastes (the move across the lineup to aluminum unibody chassis). 2013's MacBook Air retains the same basic design that the laptops have used since their late-2010 rebirth, when Apple refined the design of the existing 13-inch Air and introduced the 11-inch model.
Set the brand-new Airs on a table next to last year's models and it's unlikely anyone could tell the difference. Even changes to the speeds of the I/O ports, like what happened in 2011 with the addition of Thunderbolt and in 2012 with the addition of USB 3.0, aren't here to convince would-be upgraders. Everything that's new about the 2013 Air is hidden away inside the laptop. While no one thing will convince 2011 or 2012 Air users to upgrade, the year-to-year improvements are still impressive when taken as a whole.
For the bulk of this review, we'll be comparing the entry-level 13-inch 2013 MacBook Air to the equivalent 2012 MacBook Air. Both laptops' 4GB of RAM have been upgraded to 8GB of RAM—$100 is a bit steep for this sort of upgrade, but since the MacBook Air's RAM is soldered to the motherboard, this is an upgrade most of you will probably want to make. The 11-inch MacBook Air shares all of the same internal specs as the 13-inch model (with the exception of the battery), so most of the observations here will also apply to the smaller model.

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