Can I install macOS 10.6.8, Snow Leopard, to a mid-2011 MacBook Air that came preloaded with macOS 10.7.0, Lion, like the MacBook Pros can?
Or even a mid-2012 MacBook Air that came with 10.7.4 to capitalize on the 8 GB RAM upgrade?
I’m looking at purchasing an early model MacBook Air, preferably the 2012 model where they bumped up the capable RAM to 8 GB. In 2011 the early MacBook Pros came with macOS 10.6.6, Snow Leopard, the late 2011 models came with Lion 10.7.2 but from what I’m told these late model MacBook Pros are capable of having Snow Leopard installed even when Lion was pre-installed.
I know that you can’t back install macOS platforms on MacBooks like you can with iMacs but 2011 seems to be a particular case between late models having the ability to accept early model macOS 10.6, Snow Leopard.
Best Answer
This really ends up build you asking yourself "What installer do you have to install 10.6.8?"
You can know the exact build and version of the potential installers and go through the documentation to see which models "support" that installer.
Furthermore, even if you don't have Apple official support, then you can see if you want to consider modifying the OS to hack it to try the install anyhow and see how badly it breaks. Lastly, some people use an installer to install from a supported machine to an external drive and then take that drive to the Mac that's not supported and see how badly things break when you boot. On iMacs, typical failure modes are WiFi not working and AirDrop / bonjour not working. Some of those items you can get around with USB adapters, other items you can't get around since the kernel and low level drivers are just not present to start up unsupported machines.
That last link shows all 2012 MacBook Air shipped originally with 10.7 so you would not expect 10.6 to have the drivers needed for full compatibility.