The subtle change in clock speed from 1.4 to 1.6 GHz in the 2011 11-inch MacBook Air might sound small on paper, but in terms of benchmarks, it’s nothing short of monumental. Using Geekbench as a baseline, the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air scored 2681 with its Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz processor while the 11-inch 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo managed a respectable 2024. Ready to have your mind blown with the 2011 MacBook Air Geekbench results? We thought so.
We’ve been anxiously sifting through the Geekbench results browser all morning, hoping and praying that a kind soul would benchmark the new 11 or 13-inch MacBook Air. Our prayers were answered by Laptop magazine, whose report confirmed our suspicions. The new 13-inch MacBook Air earned a Geekbench score of 5860, a bump in performance of over 100 percent compared to last year’s model. The 11-inch MacBook Air was even more impressive, skyrocketing from 2024 to 5040 for 149 percent increase.
To put these benchmarks into perspective, the 2010 17-inch 2.67 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro scored 5423. For £849 the 11-inch MacBook Air offers a benchmark on par with last year’s £2099 17-inch MacBook Pro. How these benchmarks translate into real world performance remains to be seen, but we’ll be sure to find out in our upcoming review. Stay glued to the site as we put the 2011 MacBook Air through its paces.
We have a feeling there will be a sudden surge in eBay listings for 2010 MacBook Pros.
Out Now | Apple | £849 and up
