The Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013) ($999 list) is the latest iteration of Apple's ultraportable laptop. It retains all of the features that MacBook Air fans have grown to expect, though there are a few facets that are starting to seem dull and could bear a little improvement.

Great battery life; Thin; Light; Fourth Generation Intel Core processor; Bright screen; Nice multi-touch trackpad; Backlit keyboard; Thunderbolt port.

1,366 by 768 resolution; No SD slot.

Netbook? No thanks. The smallest and cheapest notebook that Apple currently has to offer is called the MacBook Air 11. It weighs in at less than a kilogram and is just 1.7 cm at its thickest point. On the outside: an aluminium unibody case.

Low weight and small size; Outstanding aluminium case; Very good input devices; Keyboard backlighting; Very good application performance; This is exactly what an "entry-level" model should look like

Not so many ports; Reflective display; RAM is soldered down

The 11-inch MacBook Air has been on a tear ever since it first debuted back in October of 2010, combining a razor-thin design with instant-on responsiveness for an affordable price.

Comfortable backlit keyboard; Faster Core i5 processor; Very thin and light; Flash memory helps machine wake instantly; Bright display with wide viewing angles; Thunderbolt support

Below-average battery life; Starting configuration has only 64GB of storage; No SD card slot

Apple updates its smallest MacBook Air for 2012 with a speedier CPU and USB 3.0 ports, while retaining the design elements that make it an outstanding ultraportable. It faces more competition these days (from Windows ultrabooks), but it's still the best 11-inch laptop you can buy.

Speedy Intel "Ivy Bridge" processor; solid-state storage; and USB 3.0 ports; Familiar sleek and sturdy design; Excellent keyboard for such a small and slim laptop

Not any thinner or lighter than last year's model; Battery life a bit less than last year's model

Last year we reviewed the MacBook Air 11-inch (late 2010). Almost 10 months later, Apple has rolled out an update to the Air, the MacBook...

Blazing fast performance; same lightweight and chic design as with the previous Air model; excellent value; now with backlit-keyboard too; perfect for laptop serious travelers and those always on the go; super responsive – and did we mention how fast it is!

Base $999 configuration only comes with 2GB of ram; lacks SD card slot; we're not sold on Thunderbolt yet

Macbook gets an average life to around 5 hours with screen brightness set to medium and laptop brightness turned off. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it comes with a backlit keyboard! This is great for anybody who is on the go and is often in dark rooms or just when there is no light.

You could call it the ancestor of the Ultrabook. When the Apple MacBook Air first came out, it was a very innovative product. It was small, light, constructed in aluminium and thanks to the built-in SSD the smallest MacBook also performed really well. Since then a lot has changed.

The refresh of the new 11.6″ and 13.3″ Macbook Air last July 2011 has introduced more powerful Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors into the line-up. I got the 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD Core i5 Macbook Air 11.6″ to test out. See full review after the jump.

If there's one complaint we have with Apple and the 2010 MacBook Air it's that Apple didn't release the notebook earlier. If it had been been available just a month before I probably wouldn't be typing this review from a MacBook Pro.

Apple's recently launched MacBook Airs (11- and 13- inch) are the successor to Apple's MacBook Airs that debuted in October last year. The previous generation 11-inch MacBook Air was the slimmest, smallest and the most portable laptop ever made by Apple.