2010 4gb ram airbook vs 2011 2gb ram airbook

In the UK it's currently possible to buy a new 2010 11" Macbook Air with 4gb ram/128gb storage (and free upgrade to Lion) for similar price to 2011 Air with 2gb ram/64gb storage (comparing Jigsaw24 with Amazon UK).

What would you recommend? The extra storage isn't so important to me - but is an older 4gb model likely to have better performance than newer 2gb. And are there any other new features that are dealbreakers? (I don't currently have a backlit keyboard - but I can see some users love them!)

Many thanks

One of the BIGGEST things to consider when buying a MacBook Air...is that the ram is NOT upgradable after you buy it. So getting as much ram as possible up front is very important. Since OS 10.7 "Lion" minimally needs 2gig of ram...getting a new computer with only 2gig of ram (especially a MacBook Air)...would seem like a pretty risky idea!!!

I personally wouldn't settle for less than 4gig of ram on a Mac Book Air...which coincidentally is also the max. ram you can currently get on a MBA. So I wouldn't recommend to anyone thinking of purchasing a new MBA to get any less than 4gig of ram.

HTH,

- Nick

I agree with pigoo3, RAM is not upgradeable so get the 4GB.

The benchmarks on the i5 are considerably higher than the C2D, though. Is the 2010 model DDR2 or DDR3? That will make a significant difference as well, because you'll want to look at the bus speed.

Any chance you can snag an i5 with 4 gig of DDR3?

Or maybe I'm totally wrong and someone smarter can fix me.

Many thanks for the responses - I'll go for at least 4mb which ever model I get. 2010 and 2011 are both DDR3, but 2011 does seem to do much better on speed tests.