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."

Comments

I dunno man

[Pojut]

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.

Re:I dunno man

[TheRaven64]

I don't really see the attraction of thin laptops. Small, yes, but I don't think the thickness of a laptop has been the limiting factor in portability for me since my 386 laptop. A few centimetres is fine. I'd be really excited by something like the MacBook Air where the top and bottom halves both folded in half again so you got something the same thickness as a normal laptop but half the top area when it was completely folded, but the Air seems to have the same portability limitation as my current laptop: I could only take it somewhere where I'm taking a reasonable sized bag. Fold it in half, and I could fit it into a large coat pocket.

Not a netbook? What?

[WilyCoder]

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...

Re:Not a netbook? What?

[Anonymous Coward]

So if Newegg decides to charge $1000 for an Eee, it's no longer a netbook. Got it.

Handled one today, so...

[joh]

...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.

11" Air + 27" iMac

[dwightk]

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.