2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN 720P
2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN SKIN
2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN SERIES
2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN MAC
2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN WINDOWS

The result was a clear, much-appreciated improvement over the looser keys used on the earlier models. When Apple re-issued the Air last year, it introduced a retooled keyboard with springier, bouncier keys and also backlighting. It's still the best keyboard-and-touchpad combination you'll find on a laptop this size.

2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN 720P

Finishing our tour, the FaceTime camera tucked into the bezel now does 720p video. If you think you might buy the 11-inch Air instead, that, too, has been refreshed with MagSafe 2 and USB 3.0, but lacks a memory card reader, as it always did. Move along to the right, where you'll see another USB 3.0 socket, along with a Thunderbolt port and SD card reader. On that same side, you'll also find a 3.5mm headphone jack and microphone, just as before. The USB port adjacent to it has naturally been upgraded from USB 2.0 to 3.0. If you're dead-set on reusing your scratched-up old power brick you can make it work using a $10 adapter, but that makes for a rather clumsy setup. Unfortunately, that flattened shape renders it incompatible with older adapters.

Starting on the left side, the tried-and-true MagSafe connector has been replaced by MagSafe 2, which has a thinner opening. Given that the dimensions and overall aesthetic haven't changed, the only cosmetic differences between this year's Air and the last-gen model are the ports.

2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN SKIN

To avoid doing any immediate damage, we'd buy some sort of skin along with the laptop itself (Speck's SeeThru Satin case is an Engadget staff favorite). Unless you handle it with kid gloves, the likelihood that you'll ding it within the first day is fairly high, which kind of saps the fun out of unboxing a new $1,200 toy.

2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN MAC

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.

2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN WINDOWS

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 feelДЄs 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.

2012 APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1466 SCREEN SERIES

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.

2012 apple macbook air a1466 screen