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Early Review of 11" Macbook Air
adeelarshad82 writes "Apple's latest entry into the ultraportable space is no netbook, even though it's the closest the company has come to making one. Its chassis is, amazingly, even thinner than the original MacBook Air, with a screen two sizes smaller. Moreover, the MacBook Air's 11.6-inch widescreen is not the only first for Apple; so is its 1,366-by-768 resolution. Although Apple found a way to squeeze in two USB ports and a speedy solid-state drive (SSD), the MacBook Air (11-inch) is not nearly as feature-packed or as fast as the rest of the MacBook family, primarily because its 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 Ultra-Low Voltage (ULV) processor is running on previous-generation Intel technology. Still, it will give the latest batch of Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) laptops a run for their money."
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I thought Steve said they don't make netbooks?
I like having a thin laptop, but I think this one might be a bit too thin. There comes a point where sturdiness plays a role. Even if it's as solid as a rock, I would constantly be worried about it being cracked due to it's crazy-thin profile.
I like the fact that it comes with a USB stick instead of the standard "recovery disc"...good call on that one, Apple.
Living With a Nerd
Cool, an Ipad with a real keyboard.
And why exactly is the new 11" Air *not* a netbook? Sounds like we are mincing words here...
Its a damn netbook, and not even a full year after Steve claimed at the iPad keynote that netbooks have no use...
I'm typing this on a Mac Mini (running FreeBSD), but still the MB Air seems like a lot of money to me for a netbook running OS X. Especially when you see how nice Ubuntu is (for n00b types, anyway) on a netbook that costs half as much or less...
Caveat Utilitor
Just because someone says it isn't a netbook doesn't make it true.
My biggest gripe with these latest MacBook Air configs is the lack of ethernet port...and for this reason am not as enthused about it. Love the form factor and weight.
In case you're interested, Ars has a good piece on why Apple chose the Core 2 instead of an i-series chip. Basically it boils down to
a) Graphics performance. The integrated graphics on the i-series can't touch Nvidia's 320M, and Nvidia hasn't come out an equivalent for Arrandale yet.
b) Arrandale needs a separate memory controller, and there's no room for it on the MBA's tiny motherboard.
Good points, though I still want to see head-to-head performance numbers to see if the choice was a good one.
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No ethernet? No laptop.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
So, it's pretty much just like a Lenovo Thinkpad X series laptop from 2 or so years ago - screen size
Biggest quantifiable differences appear to be:
* price (after two years of market change, you'd think the same thing would be cheaper)
* no repairable/replaceable parts (battery, etc.) as is easily done on a Thinkpad
* Ergonomics of the device itself
* White instead of black
* negligible external interface ports
* thin enough it can tentatively be used to cut veggies in the kitchen or sever one's penis in an accident (intentional? design flaw? you decide.)
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"It is way overpriced like all Apple products"
"Closed system sux"
"Apple is going to stamp DRM on your ass"
"It sux because i can not edit feature length movies in HD on it"
"It sux beacuse i can not play the latest games in 1920x1080 at max settings"
"It sux beause i can not download the source for OSX"
"This was not on my Windows Phone 7 talking points power point for astroturfers so I am not sure how to respond."
did i mess any?
I want you
I need you
But-there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad
'Cause two out of three ain't bad
I heard rumours of this system and held off on a new laptop purchase until after the announcement in the hopes they'd release something at a reasonable price tag and with hardware I'd like.
And they didn't.
$999 for the 11" cheap version of a system with a CPU that is already outdated? No thanks.
Instead, I bought an ASUS U30Jc: Core I3, 4G of RAM, 13.3" screen, aluminum, replaceable battery, relatively light, albeit not as thin as the macbook, and all for $200 less. Throw in an SSD and we're still at $100 less.
I mean, 1.4GHz? The used laptop I sold for $200 last week had a 1.6GHz dual core.
Is that what constitutes a review today?
It reads like an ad for Toshiba. The battery life wasn't compared, they performed a test, declared it awful while acknowledging the test was completely unfair and they didn't do the same on the other devices compared. Statements like that in an article are intended to put a bad taste in someones mouth, while its dismissal is intended to imply they are being fair by not using it in the comparison.
Complete lack of professionalism.
I have an Acer One. It has a screen that is only 600 pixels tall which makes most browser use a pain in the ass. It comes with 1g memory and supports a maximum of two gig. It is tiny but its not thin. It is powered by an Atom processor, weak internal Intel Graphics, and has a 4200rpm drive (120 or 160, I forget - its fairly large). Comparing this to the MBA 11.6. The new MBA has better processor power, incredibly better graphics ability, and its damn small. It also appears more sturdy than netbooks which all I have seen are just black plastic jobs with an odd battery hump. Now my Acer's screen is pretty , its LED lit, but the 600 resolution in vertical really hampers its usage. I found Chrome to be ideal compared to other browsers which hog a fourth of the screen for the top bars and title.
That out of the way, the Air is very high priced in the standard 11.6 configuration. My Acer One with Windows 7 Starter was only $200 dollars at Target. Granted it was a sale but damn, throw on a monitor/kb/mouse for another $100 and you have a wonderful little machine to read mail/surf/etc at home for anyone. Something that takes up hardly any space. Still I would like to buy the Air. It comes with OS X, I can bootcamp to 7 or possibly use Parallels with it (not sure - will need to see some performance tests). The boost to 4g memory and flash drive should really kick up performance.
Not a netbook, its an ultra portable notebook. It has a real screen and a real keyboard and that is what separates the two
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
1) because it has a real laptop processor in it...netbooks are usually characterized by their anemic Atom processor.
2) because it is too thin and high quality to be a netbook
3) because it has a full sized keyboard and a large touch pad
At least the screen bezel, why is that not black in keeping with the rest of Apple's current design scheme? For $1k, I'd expect perfection across the board, not halfassedness.
Before you tag this as flaimbait, it's just critique. I've had a Mac in some manner since 1988. But fanbois won't read this far down anyway.
To be technically correct, there are no SSD in the new MacBook Air. Flash in located directly on the PCB.
It competes with the Viao-Z and other CULV high-margin lightweight laptops.
Netbooks, from my direct experience, have major issues with hardware quality (trackpad false clicks, keyboard crammed, screen too small, you name it). An Atom chipset does not compare to C2D+320M in capability.
Even when running the nice Ubuntu Unity, the hardware quality really does the OS no favors. I don't see the use of having to plug in a mouse to avoid the false-click-fest. Let's just assume that Win7 (No) Starter is not a option.
You pay for what you get, apprently.
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Machines like this don't need the latest and greatest CPU. There were very few things that I do on my original air that tax its CPU. That's because I'm not editing video, etc on it. You basically have grown-up machine that you can do actual work on and it's not much bigger than an iPad.
Do I see a need to have both an ipad and an air? Probably not. If you have an ipad already, then chances are you would be better served with a larger laptop.
As far as the ethernet port. On a machine like this, it's not that important. I have a USB ethernet dongle and I've used it 2-3 times.
As much as people want to kvetch and moan about this, I can see the 11" MBA decimating the basic Plastic Macbook sales. They are priced the same yet here you get slicker design, more portability, SSD, aluminum case. I don't think either serves as a main computer, so why not go for the extra portability.
As far as Jobs building a netbook (I hate that designation) after saying Apple wouldn't, what he actually said Netbooks are just cheap laptops, all they did better was be cheaper. Clearly this isn't Apple moving into sub $500 laptops (and it also not Atom powered with horrid graphics). This is not Apples Netbook.
I think they are viable options that will move a lot more MBA, but naturally the same people that complain about every Apple product will complain about these.
...a few words.
First, all who are saying that thickness is unimportant should try one. This thing is thin and small enough to slip into a bag all by itself and once in there it's light enough you hardly notice it at all anymore. What's not to like about that?
The keyboard is the same size as all Mac keyboards and feels very much the same, the trackpad the same width as in the other MacBooks but not quite as high. Works perfectly well though and I did not miss a mouse. The screen is a bit smaller of course, but has the same resolution as the 13" MB and MBP.
The machine felt surprisingly snappy, the SSD and rather fast GPU seem to compensate for the not so fast CPU just fine.
There's no TRIM support in the (Apple-branded) SSD according to System Profiler.
All in all it feels like a real laptop when you use it and almost like nothing when you carry it. I liked it very much and had my credit card nearly jumping out of my pocket.
for one of these - or one of those pointlessly thin TVs - to suddenly roll up while making that 'twup-twup-twup' sound of a 1940's cartoon window shade; possibly also ensnaring a luckless house cat.
Because on Apple's website they keep saying flash storage...
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I just looked at the wikipedia entry, and the Acer's processor is 1.8gHz, the Apple is 1.4. So the acer is faster.
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Seriously?
Costs around $250 less than a Maxed 15" Mac Book Pro
(including Apple Care)
Food for thought.
Although that is mostly due the cost of the 512GB SSD in the MBP.
Like anyone can even know that
I have a first generation MacBook Air. Although it's generally pretty good, if I try to watch video for any length of time (netflix or skype video) it always overheats, turns off one of the cores, and then becomes unusable for video (one core on its own can't keep up). If the new Airs are better at video I'd love to get one to replace mine!
The article mentioned that this unit has an SSD in it. That is incorrect. Its uses custom Apple Flash memory
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That they don't know about the PowerBook 2400c is clear.
Fandroids hate facts.