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Apple Insider posted a first look at the new 11 and 13 inch Thunderbolt MacBook Air



The use of Intel's Core i5/i7 architecture also puts memory management and other features formerly handled by a separate Nvidia controller chip on the CPU itself, and necessitates that Apple use Intel's own integrated graphics. The new MacBook Airs both use Intel's HD Graphics 3000 chip using shared system RAM rather than the former Nvidia GeForce 320M with its 256 MB of dedicated DDR3 SDRAM on previous Core 2 Duo machines. AppleInsider will publish full graphics benchmarks in our complete review to determine how this architecture change affects performance.

Two other new embellishments to the MacBook Air line include its standard new backlit keyboard, which first appeared on the original MacBook Air but was dropped last year when the line plummeted from a ritzy priced ultralight notebook to being Apple's entry level notebook starting at just $999. The latest models retain the same lower pricing but add back the backlit keyboard feature.
  First look: Apple's new 11 and 13 inch Thunderbolt MacBook Air