Why Apple saddled the MacBook Air with "gimped" CPUs
At long, long last, the Macbook Air has been updated. But if you were hoping for enough CPU muscle in the new models to keep a bunch of Flash-addled webpages from bringing the entire portable to its knees, then you're going to be sorely disappointed—the Core 2 Duo is still with us in the new models. In fact, the 11" Macbook Air actually trails its predecessor in clockspeed, while the 13" model hasn't changed at all.
Given that Apple really went all-out to upgrade the rest of the Air package, the choice of a geriatric CPU is a giant slap in the face to Intel's latest portable processor options. Apple looked at Arrandale, Intel's 32nm CPU with a northbridge/GPU combo integrated into the same package, and said, "No thanks, but do you have any more of the really old chips?" Ouch.
We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so—twice, even. When Intel unveiled the Arrandale ULV parts for ultraportables a few months back, it was obvious that they were not destined for the Macbook Air. The problem wasn't so much the CPU part of Arrandale—even though the ULV variant is indeed deficient in the cache and clockspeed departments when compared to the Core 2 Duo—the problem is the GPU.
