Apple MacBook Air User Review

im not a mac guy, but if i were, the macbook pro would be better imo. More ports, more power, more space, cheaper. Plus it can still fit into a manilla envelope .

since when has a laptop been "difficult" to carry around weight wise? I find that anything under a 17" screen is in no way going to break my back. A typical text book (so...for about 10 years of a student's life) weighs over 5 pounds. If somebody has spent so many years with a textbook in the backpack/bag, just imagine switching one book with a laptop.

Seriously, weight shouldn't be an issue in laptops unless it weighs over 8 pounds... How weak are people that hate laptops if they weigh ~6 pounds? The macbook air is merely unnecesary in apple's lineup and now that it is in the lineup, is blown out of the water by sony SZ.

 

Good review, I enjoyed reading it.

Was your review "biased" because you announced your preference for one OS over another? The ability to run OSX on the Air is clearly a differentiator between it and other makes. But what's more biased; a preference made by a user who's extensively used both OSes, or a preference made by a user who's only used one?

Back on topic; I feel that there are a lot of compromises made with the Air which makes it more of a concept, as already mentioned, than a true option for many users. The optical drive is a big one for me personally.

Also, looking at the bezel one can see that it's quite a bit larger than that of the MBP. Maybe it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch for apple to make the footprint of the air smaller while keeping the 13" screen (?).

I have to say after playing around with one, its build quality is second to none IMO. I think with the experience gained from making the Air, apple is well positioned to possibly offering a good 12-13" MBP in the future; which is what many users have longed for, and had hoped the Air would be and were ultimately disappointed.

 

I am one of those who hoped the Air would be the new version of the 12" Powerbook.

 

Hi there,

I'm very glad you enjoyed my review! Thanks for reading it!

As I said in my review, my OS of choice is Leopard. I've used XP, Vista, Tiger, and Leopard, and the Leopard experience is the most enjoyable for me. That's the case with a lot of Mac users...they love their computers and their OS. I didn't want that to get in the way of my review. If you read the discussion a few pages back my review was said to be "biased" but I disagreed with the commenter on that one.

Biased, to me, doesn't matter if you've used both or not, imo for a review to be biased, the reviewer would use OS X as a way of praising the laptop i.e. I wouldn't put "OS X" as one of the "pros" of the MacBook Air because it could definitely be a con for other people, and the whole Mac vs. PC thing has been done to death, so I didn't want to involve that debate in my review, I really wanted to focus on Apple's machine here and not their OS.

 

For what its worth, I didn't think any part of your review was biased. What I meant about including OSX in this review wasn't an OSX vs Windows thing (yes, that has been done to death) but rather the Air's ability to run both OSes is an advantage to quite a few people - nothing wrong with saying that here IMO.

 

Agreed, it is a nice advantage to be able to run OS X as well as Windows. The same goes for any Mac as well. I could have talked for pages and pages about OS X, and how intuitive I find it, how I like the software package the computer comes with, etc., but as I said, I tried my best to focus on the hardware. I really do think a lot of people judge before they try...there are so many Mac haters I know who have never even sat down with a Mac and seriously used one!

 

This was several years ago: If Sony could do it then, then why can't Apple do it now? The MBA is better because it is up-to-date with the technology of today, just as the Sony was then. You realise that a bigger screen actually makes it less portable?

 

I don't know how you guys use your laptops but it's fairly common that I have at least two usb-items connected at once. I always carry with me a 2 GB USB-stick for things which I may have a use for daily. I also commonly connect an 2.5" usb-drive which require two ports, sometimes a larger 3.5" drive, charge my cellphone using a usb-cable while on the field and fetch pictures from may camera..

I'm not doing all of these things at once but I would hate the idea of having to unplug my cellphone (which also acts as a 3G modem) to fetch a few pictures from my camera and than unplug the camera to copy the pictures to the usb-stick and than unplug to usb-stick to once again connect my cellphone to mail the pictures to my boss.. Especially since many of these things may be quite slow to execute.

If all a user does is surfing the net I'm sure one usb-port is ok but for the rest of us "active users" I possible can't see how it can be enough with one usb-port without it being a major issue.

Quite frankly, besides being a fashion statement and Apple's lightest laptop I can't see what the MBA has going for it and the fact that it's being mentioned in the same sentence as respected series as the X60 is just silly.

 

Bigger screen = less portable - I agree with you.

It really comes down to choices. Sony had a good thing going, and if Sony had followed up on it, I'm not sure which machine I would have bought. Perhaps if they dropped the price a bit, shifted the keyboard up and added a touchpad, it would have been a real tough choice. Apple and Sony are both very innovative companies, and I'm not trying to put Sony down in any way with my review or my posts.

 

That is exactly why I don't recommend the MBA as a sole computer. I have tons of stuff plugged into my desktop right now!

Edit: sorry for not multi-quoting, this quote popped up after I posted my previous response!

 

Ah, that one port supports 127 USB devices at the same time... a lot of people forget that. the MBA might be too machine for you since you are still using out of date equipment... so you might want to get an iPhone so you don't need to charge as often, putting a wireless memory card in your camera will free up another usb port and a 2.5 drive doesn't require two usb ports unless you are still trying to use Windows. so I think some education is all you need.

Here is a little 3 port USB hub that will work if you want to stay in the "retro" cable world a little longer

http://www.drbottkg.com/prod/T3Hub.html

make your camera wireless

http://www.eye.fi/

enjoy!

 

Sony continued the x505 line, not in the same form but I'd say the Sony TZ is the newer x505, it's a similar design, uses the same keyboard, only Sony realised that they could put a dvd - rw drive in a 11.1" notebook and did it, and the Sony TZ is extremely portable. The macbook air is good in theory, but I don't see it being particularly useful, since although Apple probably could have asily given it a dvd-rw drive, more ports, etc. they didn't because they wanted to add the line 'thinnest laptop', adding the above would only add a few millimeters, which wouldn't make it so much less portable.

 

well, the reason is apple is phasing out all optical devices since they no longer make sense with the advent of fast wireless. music, movies and of course data are all wireless now so it's up to the public to move up to this level or be left behind. last time i looked, the product has "Air" in the name, thus "19th Century Spinning Disk" or "Obsolete Ports" weren't even considered for the name.

the MBA is a highly advanced product, but people using ancient devices like dvd drives really won't understand it for about 4-5 more years.

the MBA is just like the iMac in 1998. People were beside themselves when Apple removed the floppy drive from all products going forward, it created quite a firestorm, but looking back it was the correct long term move. Trust me, it's the same thing, so in 10 years people will look back and laugh at optical drives just like they do the floppy drives today. Apple has the burden of moving the industry forward so people can complain all they want but it won't make any difference since Apple has to set the rules or nothing advances in this industry.

 

Very much a niche machine. But there is a market for this kind of notebook. I was going to say the Sony TZ cost allot more then the air but it looks like they have a new model the TZ2000 which is more in line with the cost of the Air. I used an older 11" sony tx notebook for a few days awhile back to clean some spyware/viruses out. All I can say is Sony makes killer ultra portables. I found amazon still sells a new tx with two gigs of ram for around 1600 dollars. IMO, this is probably the best bang for the buck for a sweet ultra portable. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGN-TXN29N-Laptop-Processor-Business/dp/B000MQTHKG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4029086-7459321?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1210608590&sr=8-1

You can probably load XP on this which would run allot better. The lightness, built in optical drive, and great battery life for the same price as the air makes the sony tx a much better value.

 

Since when are optical drives out of date? Every form of media comes on a CD or DVD, movies, games, CD's, operating systems, backups, general software, industry software, free software, magazines.

They are certainly not out of date and all wireless does is take the DVD drive out and stick it next to your router or as Apple did themselves sell you a dvd drive for £65 which is actually wired.

And I refuse to buy music or anything from Itunes because whatever you buy doesn't belong to you, it belongs to your Ipod and when I pay I expect to be able to use that music/movie across all platforms and you can't do that unless you pirate things or go buy the cd/dvd.

If the MBA was so highly advanced why do they try to sell you a wired DVD drive at £65? Why do they try to sell you a USB to Ethernet adapter at £20 if their wireless was so great? Why do they try to sell you a wired USB hub if they didn't need it? Why do they try to sell you a USB modem if wireles is so great? Apple contradicts it's own marketing strategy so much with the MBA that makes it obvious it isn't 'the next gen' it's compromise after compromise to get the label 'thinnest laptop'.

A next gen notebook to me, would be a powerful graphics chip, cpu, large SSD hard drive, Blu - ray RW, wireless and TV capabilities in a 12" chassis.

The MBA is none of the above, infact the Asus EEE 900 has a better selection of ports and has wireless with no dvd drive, so the Asus EEE 900 is just as if not more 'next gen' as the MBA by your own standards, and it costs 1/4 as much.

Removing accepted industry wide technology is not moving forwards, it's taking steps back, to attain a label.

 

Wow Rodent, you sure packed a lot of ignorance into such a small space.

From the top. In the Mac world everything is already online so it's only a small step to get to fast wireless. The PC world is still encumbered by having CDs packed with bits, put in boxes and shipped to stores, but mac users are way beyond that old distribution method and have been for about 6 years.

Most of the songs on the iTunes Store are not copy protected, so by your comment it's easy to see you aren't keeping pace with what is going on. iTunes is just a media organizer and wireless player. I have 14,000+ songs, a couple hundred movies and not a single one has been purchased from Apple. So please learn about products before you make invalid judgments.

Apple doesn't try and sell you anything, much less the obsolete DVD drive or the USB to ethernet adapter. Those are just for people that are called laggards in the industry, people like you it seems. Once you move up to the level of the MacBook Air you would no longer need them, they are just a temporary crutch for people still living in the past.

I realize you still like to live in the 90's with a bunch of wires, ports and other nonessential devices. You are not ready for the MacBook Air and that's okay! But please reserve judgment for people that want to move forward in life since they are paving your future.

 

OK, fine I'll stay here, in the 1990's, I'll keep my interesting case designs, my top of the range components, great prices on most hardware if you search, not using propriety components making upgrading difficult, having access to almost 100% of software, being able to play games, and not make the statement how easily influenced I am by advertising. And hey! this costs less, works better, and is faster, so yeah I'll stay here. OH wait, I'm in 2008 of computer components, whereas Apple are still stuck in 2006, I found it funny how many people were amazed that they were bring the 8800GS to their desktops, when it's one of the worst cards you can get for your money (though that makes it a prime Apple product I guess).

So yeah, stand high on your pedestal, but please feel free to get knocked off and walk around down here with 95% of the computer industry who have access to top of the line components and the best compatibility in the world.

I find it amazing how many people are so easily affected by advertising, please look at the evidence that surrounds you, 99% of the industry uses tangible media, not music and movies locked onto your hard drive, and when did I mention using Itunes as a library? I simply mentioned buying stuff from Itunes locked it into your itunes and you can't tale it out, which means it doesn't belong to you, they control your use, that and Winamp is much simpler, faster and reliable as an mp3 player.

 

You know what...the flame war needs to end. So calm down and play nice with each other.

 

You know something? When I bought my Dell Latitude D420 I didn't also have to buy a Dell wireless router, a dell TV to stream content and a Dell smartphone. Maybe some of us don't want to convert to Jobsism, I'm an atheist thanks.

That's a pity, I was hoping to buy a mac sometime. Perhaps I should get one before Apple ruin them.

Do you have anything constructive to say?

Check your history, good sir, it was only recently that Apple even gave people the option to pay extra in order to be DRM-free.

Apple sell them to make money, don't even try to pretend it's for "the greater good". My Latitude D420 came with an external drive for free.

Wired=faster than wireless. Apple made compromises, deal with it. Comments like this are what give Mac users a name for fanboyism.

 

Apple doesn't use proprietary components and hasn't for about a decade, oh but you are still in the 1990's so that comment does make sense.

Macs are the only computers that run 100% of the software built today. if you use a Mac clone your locked into running only Windows or Linux, but any Mac can run about 35 OSes, and several at the same time provided enough memory. very slick if you still need to run old software, and something a Mac clone cannot do.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

I'm not sure why you are so perplexed about advertising, I totally ignore it myself. I simply look for the best products in a certain class and find the lowest price. That happens to be Apple more often than not for most computer gear but has nothing to do with their advertising.

Lastly, you are confusing iTunes from the iTunes Music Store... they are two different things. iTunes is just the most popular media player in the world, plus database for audiobooks, music, radio, movies, games, podcasts, etc. And the iTunes Music Store is simply where you go to get the most DRM free music in the world. Regardless of the player or store, nobody "owns their music" everything is based on a license. So while Winamp isn't as sophisticated or as advanced as iTunes the music utilized is not your own.

Now back to comments on the wonderful MBA...

 

But Apple was the first major music store to offer DRM free music and that was about a year ago, and now it has the largest library of such. Apple doesn't make much money on the iTunes music store, they make money from the iPods, which obviously has been for the greater good.

Actually, 802.11n is about as fast as 100baseT / wired, once you get your wireless network up to speed you'll understand what I'm saying.

Not sure what a fan boy is, but I'm a perfectionist that's for sure.

 

Just so you know, but any PC can run ANY operating system a Mac can. Including your fabled Mac OS-X (Google is your friend).

I suggest you consider your comments carefully, I'm getting tired of reading your insults to everyone else.

 

Well, sealed unupgradable desktops and ipods lock to one music player sound pretty propriatory to me.

Agreed, the job of advertising is to sell you the product. Considering the options for yourself is the best way to go.

iTunes Music Store is fairly well entwined with iTunes. iTunes isn't a bad music player, on the whole, but I don't like the way it defaults to Apple formats and doesn't pick up media on your drive properly. With a music Library of 54GB the organisation and media sniffing start to become important.

Agreed (Yes, I admit it's a wonderful machine) .

And we could all buy it on CD long before that. I was pleased when Apple started offering it DRM-free, now they just need to up the quality and I might actually start buying it.

My wireless network has been running a Belkin pre-n router for the past year or so. In practical terms, you don't get those speeds in day-to-day usage. Actually, a bit of a background note: I switched to wireless several years ago, around the time it started to come into mainstream usage. I bought an external wireless card for my last laptop and my current two have them internally, since then it is my primary form of connecting to the internet; even my desktop uses it! I believe it is certainly the future but I don't believe it is the be-all and end-all.

Fan Boy, at least by the definition I am using it means someone who is obsessed with a certain company to the point of refusing to admit that there might be flaws in anything of theirs.

 

Ah, running OSX on a Mac Clone is pointless since the hardware so poor. OSX allows you to run all these OSes seamlessly, try that on a Mac Clone... it's an exercise in pain.

My comments are fine as long as I'm not presented with false information, so be aware of that. Let's get back on topic Greg...

 

Correct me of I'm wrong, but the hardware is better than that of a standard mac.

Telling the moderator that your comments are fine isn't that much of a help.......

 

You don't need a mac clone anymore to run OS X.

 

Apple's desktops aren't any more sealed than any other manufacturer, and the parts are the same, so it's just educating people is the problem. You can upgrade a Mac just the same as a PC, there is no difference after it leaves the factory.

The iPod is open as well, that's why it can run Linux if you want. Only the "DRM" that was imposed by the Recording Companies was a problem in the past, but Apple had no choice. They certainly didn't want it and have always fought for open standards. (or at least the 1976-85 then 1997-2008+ Apple does)

What default Apple format would that be in iTunes? Apple doesn't have a "Music Format", but if you are thinking AAC... that's the Open Format that has replaced MP3. If anything, that's Fraunhofer, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dolby and Nokia's format... not Apple's. Everything will be in AAC in the future, not MP3 since Fraunhofer has stopped development for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

They upped the quality around the same time, they are all now 256kbps. Here is an old press release that illustrates the change.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/10/17itunes.html

Sure, then there are probably Apple fanboys out there, but I'm not one of them, I just look with a very critical eye at anything and point out flaws, and point to the "good" in products as well.

 

Sealed cases where all components are contained in the screen - not exactly easily upgradable.

Being locked down to a propriatory media player doesn't sound very "open" to me. I don't know what the politics in the DRM were, but Apple doesn't have a great history on lockdowns (iphone, anyone?); this is the company that refuses to license their OS for hardware other than their own.

"Has replaced" is subjective, most players still run MP3 and not all have AAC support.

I'm waiting for 320kbps (The rate at which I encode my mp3s)

Claiming that Mac users are the pinnacle of understanding and all those who disagree are not advanced enough to appreciate the MBA really doesn't give that impression.

 

Apple does use their own sealed systems, looks back at the Radeon 1800 thread in the desktops section, Apple had their own, different propriety version so they couldn't be switched out easily. And their most used desktops are difficult to get into, and even more difficult to switch out many components. It's the same with their newer cards they use proprietary or versions with different BIOS's embedded to make installing new hardware difficult.

The problem with the Ipod I have isn't that it is a closed system because it isn't (though Apple doesn't like to widely advertise that), it's because when an Apple Ipod nano 2gb costs me £100, I can easily go to Archos and get the exact same thing for about £50. It's not effective from a price point or particularly from a quality point since my parents Ipod is scratched and has needed the screen replacing several times, and they are people who really nanny whatever electrical equipment they are handed.

And I don't really like .AAC, it was designed primarily for usage in players but it compresses music too much for my liking. I still use .mp3 files and .OGG if the player allows.

 

Ah, what hardware? Currently, there isn't hardware on the Wintel side that exceeds the MacTel side at least for the price.

Let's take the "standard" iMac for example: 24" 1920 by 1200 high end screen, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 6MB shared L2 cache at full processor speed, 1066MHz frontside bus, 1GB standard with support up to 4GB. Fits into a small, silent design... full ambient light sensor, 802.11n, firewire 800 and 400, 3 USB, Bluetooth 2.1, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory. iSight Camera, microphone, etc. Weighs 26 pounds or less and fits on a mono angled stand.

http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/

If you can find a WinTel machine that exceeds "this middle of the road" Mac, please advise. Price you have to beat is $1,694... good luck!

http://www.pcprices.net/imacinteltracker.shtml

The moral of the story is trying to accomplish this on the Wintel side would take $2,300, PLUS several million in research and engineering design.

The WinTel world has nothing even close to Apple's "middle of the road", so once you understand this, you can clearly see Apple is ahead on every front.

No wonder Apple is now worth 4 TIMEs the Value of DeLL.

Quality pays, that's a given...

-
-

 

Wow, calm down everyone. It's just a computer. I didn't know this was going to turn into an Apple vs. World thing. Stop the insults and learn how to respectfully disagree. There are no right answers to these questions.

 

Well since you challenged me...

NZXT Hush case - $120
Asus p35 mobo - $140
2.4GHZ Intel C2D - $200 (easy to overclock this to 3.00GHZ or more)
4GB high quality OCZ memory - $120
8800GT - $200 (which beats the GS hands down in every possible way)
500GB Hard drive - $100 (though your mac doesn't seem to come with one)
DVD drive - $40
aftermarket cpu fan + silent case fans - $75
PC power & cooling 700W PSU - $150

comes to $1145 plus $70 for Windows and maybe $150 for a decent screen

So I just beat your Mac by almost $300 on the 'wintel' side of things. There you have a silent, powerful, and small computer that will beat the Mac in aplications and by a hell of a lot in gaming. Macs may be quality, but value for money they are not.

Please note I took the above from UK websites then doubled the price to get $$$, so please take into consideration that all hardware is more expensive over here so the windows specs I listed are likely to be more expensive then they would be in real life.

just to sum up, because I don't want to be involved in this flame war anymore

my view on macs: well built, good quality machines, easy to use however they suffer from lack of compatability, design sense, and too often make too many compromises then is good for them.

 

There are laptops that can beat that:
Alienware m17x
Dual 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8800M GTX – SLI Enabled
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 512MB
Up to 1tb of storage

On the desktop front:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 GT – Superclocked!
2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 1024MB
250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache
$1,949.00

and that's a low end model. The mac you quote is a top-of-the-range iMac costing $2,199.00 from Apple

Let's see what happens when you open the taps a bit:
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz 12MB Cache 1600MHz FSB
Dual 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800 GX2 – Quad GPU Technology
4GB Patriot EP+ Low Latency Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 x 2048MB
2TB (2 x 1TB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 2 x 32MB Cache
2TB (2 x 1TB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 32MB Cache [+$710 or $22/mo.]

Those machines can be bought for considerably cheaper, Alienwares aren't cost efficient but on a pure performance basis can you get a Mac to beat that?

 

If you do a little bit of research, you'll find that the Apple computers and the PCs use the same hardware. Same RAM sticks, same processors (Intel), same Intel chipsets, same GPUs. And with VMWare (and other tools) it is a piece of cake.

 

Correct Greg! That's why Apple wins every time, PCs simply don't have the design or manufacturing resources to compete. Let's see if anyone even gets close to an iMac, it should be a hoot!

 

Though I've disengaged from the flame war, I found it funny that you thought his comment was meant to back you up

 

Alright, I think we've had enough of the flame war. I wasn't "backing you up," I was stating that your thinking that Apple has the best hardware is wrong.

Thread closed, since you obviously do not want to (or are able to) understand everyone else's position on this matter.