If you have been thinking of which laptop to buy this holiday season, you may want consider this MacBook Air 11 review as your guide to getting the most portable one on the planet. 

Released in June of this year, the MacBook Air 11" looks just like its one-year-old predecessor, but it more than makes up for it with faster performance and better battery life. 

Design

Through the years, Apple has preserved the design of its MacBook Airs 2010 edition, and that may come as a disappointment to owners of the previous generation of netbooks. It still has the super slim design that gets as thick as less than an inch at its base, and less than a few centimeters thick at the edges. For people who prefer working while traveling, they can easily place the MacBook Air 11 in a netbook sleeve and put it inside almost any size of bag or briefcase. Unfortunately, the MBA 11 does not have Retina display as previously rumored. 

Performance

The MacBook Air 11 released this year has slower CPU performance than previous editions. While the 2012 edition has 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 as its base, the base model for this year only has 1.3GHz. If you have owned a MacBook Air in the past, you will notice a slight dip in processing speed, but if you're coming from Windows, the increment in performance is absolutely wonderful. 

Battery Life

If you are particular with battery life, then the MBA 11" may leave you satisfied. With a 9-hour battery life, you have more than a day's worth of work, even if you leave the charger at home. Intel's 4th generation Haswell chips greatly helps in battery life, and the MacBook Air 11's solid-slate drive adds to boot up and boot down speeds, further increasing battery life. 

Verdict

If you are looking for a laptop that you would not replace in 2-4 years, the MacBook Air 11" is certainly a great option. It not only boasts among the best performance considering its size, but also provide great portability for consumers who work on the go. At only $999, this is the cheapest the MacBook Air 11" has gone, but if you prefer a bigger screen, just add a $100 and you'll get the 13" edition whose battery life reaches up to 12 hours.