Anyone who's spent time with a unibody Mac can tell you that smooth metal finish is as scratch-prone as it is beautiful. If we could ask Apple to change one thing about the Air, it would be to make that pretty aluminum casing a little more durable. (See this roundup of Ultrabooks from this month's Computex show if you need proof that not all Ivy Bridge-packing ultraportables are created equal.)

At this point, it doesn't necessarily feel better-made than, say, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, but it's fair to say the build quality is top-notch, and that this kind of attention to detail remains rare. And despite being 0.11 inches thick at its skinniest, it still feels reassuringly solid in-hand. At 2.96 pounds (1.35kg), the Air is still lighter than most 13-inch Ultrabooks, which is saying a lot, given how many are hitting the market. The good news: the existing design was already pretty swell. Still, with so many comparable products on the Windows side, we have to wonder, does Apple really continue to define the category or have other companies narrowed the gap? Let's find out.%Gallery-158436% Look and feelĪs it turned out, those rumors of a MacBook Air with Retina display were greatly exaggerated: with the exception of those USB ports, this year's model is exactly the same as last year's, right down to the unibody aluminum shell and contested wedge shape.

That sounds promising, making an already-excellent laptop faster and less expensive. (The 11-inch version still goes for $999 and up.) Oh, and the 13-inch version now starts at $1,200, down from $1,300. Additionally, the Air can now be configured with more RAM and roomier storage. Apple, for its part, has stuck with the same Air design we liked so much the first time around, though it's refreshed the lineup with speedier Ivy Bridge processors and traded those USB 2.0 ports for 3.0. Today, there are 110-plus Windows-based Ultrabooks on the horizon, leaving consumers with an overwhelming smorgasbord of thin, shockingly powerful laptops. A year ago, too, Ultrabooks, as we now know them were little more than a concept as far as the computer-buying public was concerned. Companies like Lenovo and Toshiba already had deep experience making ultraportables, but those notebooks generally weren't as light, or as skinny, as the Air. Sure, there was the original Samsung Series 9, but it was more expensive, at $1,649, and ran off a standard-voltage processor, often at the expense of battery life. The last time we reviewed the MacBook Air, we didn't have a whole lot to compare it to.

Apple announces refreshed MacBook Air: Ivy Bridge processor, USB 3.0, shipping today.

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