

On Geekbench 3, which measures multi-core performance, the 13-inch Air scored 5,393. The result is a system that's fast and responsive - whether you're editing photos in Pixelmator or opening multiple files at once - but not superior to its predecessor in all ways. That's below the category average of 83dB and behind the Spectre 13t (84dB), but only slightly lower than the Dell XPS 13 (74 dB).Ĭlick to EnlargeApple now equips the MacBook Air with a 1.5-GHz Core i5 processor, up from 1.3 GHz on the previous model, along with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of PCIe-based flash storage. On our audio test, the 13-inch Air registered 73 decibels at a distance of 23 inches. The chanting at the beginning of Bastille's "Pompeii" had significant oomph given the Air's slim profile. The Air's speakers, which are located beneath the keyboard, got plenty loud when streaming Alex Care's "Too Close." However, the instruments and vocals weren't as distinct as we'd like.

The same Acer scored 6.1 on this test, and the average ultraportable gets an even higher rating of 6.6. The MacBook fared better on the color accuracy test, notching a Delta-E rating of 2.5 (closer to 0 is better). The Acer Aspire S7, by contrast, hit 98 percent. However, the HP Spectre 13t mustered just 231 nits.Īccording to our colorimeter, the 13-inch Air produces 63.3 percent of the color gamut (closer to 100 percent is better). The Dell XPS 13, for instance, averaged 356 nits. Click to EnlargeThe screen's average brightness of 288 nits outshines the average ultraportable (251 nits) but is not the best in class.
