This may sound weird, but the new MacBook Air (MBA) can literally be faster than the latest 2.4 Ghz MacBook Pro (MBP) 13-inch edition (with 5400 rpm HDD). MacWorld recently performed a few tests with a range of MBA and MBPs and got the following results. Thanks to the new flash drives (SSD) in the MBA. The older MBAs had a much slower 4200 rpm HDD, which are now replaced with 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB Solid State Drives.

However, the new MBAs are still no match for the 15 inch MBPs running the Intel i5 processors.

The verdict by MacWorld indicates the following:
“1. Flash storage is fast;
2. The flash-storage capacity did not affect performance;
3. The new MacBook Airs are faster than their predecessors.”

[MacWorld]