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MacBook Air real numbers starting to come in

We knew this thing wasn’t going to be a speed demon and the numbers are proving it.  Gizmodo ran a series of test on it.  Boot time is 50% slower than a base model, generation old MacBook Pro and around 10% slower than the comparably footprinted base model, generation-old  MacBook.  This is most likely due to the 4200 RPM 1.8 inch hard drive.  When the SSD MacBook Airs come out, we expect much better results.

In other tests, the MacBook Air faired  better and even managed to prove itself the king of the MP3 compressing – which is likely attributed to its more modern processor and 800mhz front side bus:

A few notes on testing from Gizmodo…

The Computers:
• The MacBook Air has a 1.6 GHz custom Intel processor, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, and an 80 GB, 1.8", 4200 RPM HDD.
• The MacBook (a generation old) has a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, and a 120 GB, 2.5", 5400 HDD.
• The MacBook Pro (also a generation old) has a 2.2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, and a custom 160 GB, 2.5", 5400 RPM, Seagate Momentus HDD.
The Tests:
• For the MP3 Encoding, we used iTunes and Seu Jorge’s album Cru, which is 46 minutes long. We set up custom import settings, which were 192 kbps VBR, set at high quality.
• The Video Conversion test was done using a trailer for 300 that was 1:46 in length and 73 MB (.mov). We converted using the export option in Quicktime 7.4 that used the iPhone export preset.
• The Thumbdrive to MacBook file transfer test was done using an 803 MB .zip file and a 2GB Lexar Lightning Thumbdrive (30 MB/s read, 21 MB/s write).
• The File Duplication test was done on the Lexar thumbdrive using the same zip file used in the previous test.
 

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