Apple's 11-inch Upgraded MacBook Air: Do 1.6GHz and 4GB Make a Difference?

Last month we looked at Apple’s new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs. I concluded the 11-inch was the pinnacle of portability, delivering the weight and form factor of a netbook but without the drive-you-crazy performance of an Atom. The 13-inch was more of a regular, get-your-work done notebook - just in a very thin and very light chassis. I liked carrying the 11-inch MBA, but I liked working on the 13-inch. My typical workflow was simply too slow on the 1.4GHz 11-inch system.
Apple offers two potentially important upgrades for the 11-inch MacBook Air that could alleviate some of my concerns. For $100 more than its $999 starting price, you can outfit the 11 with 4GB of memory instead of 2GB. Light web browsing and writing don’t need more than 2GB, but start editing videos, photos or open way too many apps at once and you’ll quickly want more memory. If you’re planning on keeping your system for a while, the 4GB upgrade makes a lot of sense. And many Apple stores actually stock the upgraded 4GB model.

The next upgrade is a bit harder to swallow. The base 11-inch MacBook Air can’t be upgraded aside from memory. The $1199 model however, can. You get a 128GB SSD (up from 64GB) as well as the option to pay $100 for a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo.
Normally 200MHz isn’t much to write home about, especially not for $300 more than the standard 11. However, 200MHz is a 14% increase in clock speed compared to the base model. In applications that are CPU bound, you may see close to that percentage in improved performance. The magic number for feeling a performance increase is 10%. Anything below that is tough to feel in real world use, but anything at or above that 10% mark usually feels quicker.

MacBook Air Spec Comparison
	11-inch	Upgraded 11-inch	13-inch
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz (2.13GHz optional)
Memory	2GB DDR3-1066 soldered on-board	4GB DDR3-1066 soldered on-board	2GB DDR3-1066 soldered on-board (4GB optional)
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce 320M	NVIDIA GeForce 320M	NVIDIA GeForce 320M
Storage	64GB SSD	128GB SSD	128GB SSD (256GB optional)
Connectivity	802.11a/b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR	802.11a/b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR	802.11a/b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Battery Capacity	35 Whr	35 Whr	50 Whr
Dimensions	11.8 " x 7.56 " x 0.11 - 0.68" (29.95 cm x 19.2 cm x 0.3 - 1.7 cm)	11.8 " x 7.56 " x 0.11 - 0.68" (29.95 cm x 19.2 cm x 0.3 - 1.7 cm)	12.8 " x 8.94 " x 0.11 - 0.68" (32.5 cm x 22.7 cm x 0.3 - 1.7 cm)
Weight	2.3 lbs (1.06 kg)	2.3 lbs (1.06 kg)	2.9 lbs (1.32 kg)
Price	$999	$1399	$1299

Combine the two upgrades and you’ve got a fairly expensive MacBook Air ($1399 if you’re keeping score). But if you want the portability of the 11 and are looking to get as much performance as possible, it’s your only option.

Luckily we happened to come across such a system. And we didn’t hesitate to test it.