No Lion USB drive :(

[jenzjen]

There's no Lion USB stick in the 2011 MBA box (unlike the Snow Leopard USB stick that came with the 2010s).

There reads to be a recovery partition resident on the drive, so you restart the machine while holding some keys to launch the OS X Utilities application that will reinstall the OS for you. Plus, it requires an internet connection so it probably fetches all the appropriate software.

Update, mods I just saw the front page article, so feel free to delete/merge this thread
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/2...-new-macs-install-os-x-from-blank-hard-drive/

 

[Intell]

Here's Apple's solution: https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/2...-new-macs-install-os-x-from-blank-hard-drive/

 

[shurcooL]

Yeah, I like the internet recovery thing.

You can buy OS X Lion on a USB stick for $70 in August.

On the one hand it sucks they don't package a free OS Reinstal USB anymore, but on the other hand you can do the same thing over internet and hopefully they'll be passing on some of the savings to consumers. I'd rather my money goes towards a better MBA than lesser MBA + USB stick.