MacBook Air Upgrades

The ultraportable MacBook Air was introduced in July 2008. All MacBook Airs have had no internal optical drive, fixed (non-upgradeable) RAM, and a 1.8" form factor SSD or hard drive. The original MacBook Air had a 13" screen, a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and used 1.8" IDE type drives. Apple's specs here.

With the second revision in October 2008, the range moved to a SATA type 1.8" drive. The screen size was 13" and there were 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo CPU options. Apple specs here.

The line was refreshed in June 2009, with CPU options increasing to 1.86GHz and 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo. Apple specs here.

With the October 2010 revision, Apple introduced the smaller 11" screen model while still selling the 13". The 11" model had 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU options, while the 13" had 1.86GHz and 2.13GHz. Apple specs here for the 11" and here for the 13".

The July 2011 moved to 1.6GHz Core i5 and 1.8GHz Core i7 options on the 11" and 1.7GHz Core i5 and 1.8GHz Core i7 for the 13". Apple specs here.

There was an Education only model released in early 2012, but the next full revision was June 2012 which saw a 1.7GHz Core i5 and 2.0GHz Core i7 for the 11", and 1.8GHz Core i5 and 2.0GHz Core i7 for the 13". Apple specs here.

In June 2013 new revisions were introduced. The headline specs were similar to the previous revision with both the 11" and 13" having dual core 1.3GHz Intel Core i5 CPUs as standard, with a dual core 1.7GHz Core i7 as a Build to Order option. Both models had 4GB of RAM as standard with an 8GB option - not upgradeable after purchase. But internally there were significant changes, with upgraded graphics and much extended battery life. Also the SSD was changed from a SATA type to PCI Express, allowing for performance gains on drive of 2x - 2.5x. Apple specs here for the 11" and here for the 13".

In April 2014 the line was refreshed with slightly faster CPU speeds, with both 11in and 13in models sold with a 1.4GHz Core i5 processor, with a 1.7GHz Core i7 Build-To-Order option. Apple specs here for the 11in, and here for the 13in.

Another refresh in March 2015 kept the same case design, but had significant upgrades to CPU and GPU architecture, and the Thunderbolt ports upgraded to Thunderbolt 2. Both 11in and 13in revisions were shipped with a 1.6GHz Core i5 CPU, with a 2.2GHZ Core i7 available as a Build-To-Order option. Apple specs for the 11in here, and the 13in here.

The MacBook Air ultraportables are unique with their extremely thin form-factor and light weight. They also do not have an internal optical (CD/DVD) drive.

The memory for these machines is fixed to the board and not upgradeable.

The MacBook Air does not have an internal optical drive.

We have drives available for MacBook Airs. There are different ranges of drives available for different revisions.

We no longer have drives for the original (Early 2008) revision.

If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.

Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.

The graphics chipset is not upgradeable on these machines. We do have some fixed-price repair services for some models.

The MacBook Air does not have any expansion slots.

Standard desktop keyboards and mice can be connected to the MacBook Airs via USB.

We do not have any power supplies available for the MacBook Air.

Listed below are power cables, tools and related products we supply for this Mac.

The MacBook Air has a single USB port, which can be used for an external hard drive. All the drives we list are full-sized desktop type ones that require mains power.

Any complete machines of this type or similar that we have for sale are listed here. Please note that these are refurbished models with a 3 month warranty, and that delivery is likely to take 3 - 5 working days. These can be purchased online with the standard website courier delivery charge for the mainland UK only. Please contact us for a quote on shipping to other areas.

Here are the various repair services we offer for this Mac. You can have us take the machine in for evaluation, or book a fixed-price repair if you already know what the fault is and the service is listed below (for services without parts, please see the relevant tab on this page for compatible parts that we sell). If you know what the fault is, but we don't have a fixed-price repair listed below, please contact us for a quote.