Apple has just opened the crates holding its latest Macbook Air models for the world, sure to send technophiles into a tizzy with the sleek, light-as-air laptops’ slew of new-fangled features. The new line of tech toys come charged with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors as well as Thunderbolt I/O technology, making the gleaming beauties twice as fast as the previous generation of Macbook Airs.

“MacBook Air features our most advanced technology and is an ideal match for Lion, especially with its new multi-touch gestures, full-screen apps, Mission Control and Mac App Store,” said Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a press statement.

The laptops come outfitted with a snazzy backlit keyboard and a glass Multi-Touch trackpad, the latter supporting the newly released OS X Lion’s  Multi-Touch gestures capabilities – this means users get to zoom in or out on a Web page or image by tapping or pinching their fingers, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full-screen apps, much like on an iPhone.

The other major tech upgrade involves the introduction of Apple’s next-gen Thunderbolt I/O technology, which will allow users to connect to high-performance peripherals, including the new 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt display. Deploying a single cable, users can connect Thunderbolt-enabled Macs to the display and its FaceTime camera, audio, and Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports.

Four new MacBook Air models, at different price points and with different storage spaces, are available for order starting today from the Apple Online Store and in stores tomorrow. Here’s a quick runthrough of the models’ specs and RRP:

11-inch MacBook Air (1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 64GB Flash Storage): US$999
11-inch MacBook Air (1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB Flash Storage): US$1,199
13-inch MacBook Air ( 1.7GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB Flash Storage): US$1,299
13-inch MacBook Air (1.7GHZ, 4GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage): US$1,599

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