MacBook Air (Late 2010)

The 2010 Air is where the idea stopped being a demonstration and started being a laptop you would actually buy. Apple fixed almost every complaint about the 2008 model. An 11.6-inch size joined the 13.3-inch. Flash storage became standard across the line rather than a costly option, which falling SSD prices had finally made possible. A second USB port arrived, answering the most mocked limitation of the original, and the 13-inch got an SD slot. Waking was instant. That single quality changed how the machine felt more than any specification, because opening the lid and having it there is closer to a tablet than to a laptop that boots. The processors were Core 2 Duo from 1.4 to 2.13GHz, which was not Apple's fastest architecture at the time, since Core i5 and i7 were already in the MacBook Pro. Apple traded that for thinness and thermal headroom, and reviewers who wanted more CPU said so. It sold to students, travelers and ordinary people in a way the 2008 model never did, and Intel launched its Ultrabook program the following year explicitly modeled on it, pushing every PC manufacturer to chase a category Apple had invented on its own.