Apple has unveiled an all new MacBook Air, which does away with mechanical hard disks and optical drives in favour of internet services and solid state flash storage.

Apple says its next-gen notebooks are faster (solid state flash storage is up to twice as fast as hard drive storage), more reliable (no more hard drive crashes) and lighter as solid state flash storage is up to 90% smaller than regular hard drives.

The new MacBook Air is available in 11-inch and 13-inch models and weighing just 1.06 kilograms.

They use the same solid state storage technology as iPad to deliver “instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life and up to 30 days of standby time”.

Prices start at NZ$1699 inc GST.