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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."
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
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...
Just because someone says it isn't a netbook doesn't make it true.
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.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
How can you guys say this is a netbook? It's WAY too expensive.
But, I bet you read the article about the new version of the Linux kernel and didn't whine about that, right?
Just turn off the Apple section or stop clicking the links.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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...
Of course it's a lot of money, we're talking about the top 5% of the laptop market. They really couldn't give a crap about us; the 0.1% of the market who build their own machines and recompile the kernel.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
If you think a link to a review is an ad, that suggests you simply don't like Apple and don't want to see them reviewed favorably in any form. What other reason could you possibly have? Otherwise, you would have just not replied to the story out of disinterest. In other words, though you accuse the site of bias, the only bias is from you.
I thought I checked that "Ads disabled" option checkbox at the top of /. page
I hate to break it to you, but we geeks really do have an appetite for blinky things that cost money. I can only imagine the amount of emotional turmoil this site is causing you.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
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 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
Am I going to buy one? Let me sleep on it, baby, baby Let me sleep on it... Let me sleep on it, I'll give ya my answer in the morning. Apple Clerk: "I gotta know right now!"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
Steve Jobs:
"Hey, remember when I said that netbooks aren't good at anything and that they're just cheap laptops?
Well... I fixed the cheap part!"
http://twitter.com/object404
Well, to be fair, when Netbooks first started coming out it was $200-$400 for a netbook versus $800-$1000 for a laptop.
The advantages the Netbooks offered were portability (size/weight), with a tradeoff for power/ease of use (battery/cpu/gpu/smaller screen and keyboard).
Additionally, the low price compared to a "real" laptop, meant there was less worry involved in them getting damaged, so you could (for instance) give one to a younger child and if they broke it, go buy another.
The specs and price of "Netbooks" have since crept up quite a bit, and the price of laptops has dropped to the point that there is currently less disparity between a small low end laptop and a large high end netbook, but things weren't always like this.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Because now you can shave with it.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Uhhh...why not have both? I've been selling my customers looking for a thin and light the new AMD Neo x2 based netbooks and they are nothing but happy. It has the smaller screen and better battery life while coming with 2Gb of RAM (easily upgradeable to 4Gb) and a nice Radeon 3200 GPU (sure beats the Intel GPU you usually get) and can be gotten at Newegg and the like for around $450. Sure it isn't gonna be as fast as the $500 one, but it also isn't gonna weigh a ton or cause you to need to carry around an extra bag. These things are just 3 lbs and play video nice and smooth on Windows 7 HP. My customers are quite happy with them and after setting up so many I've decided to get my oldest one for class, as it'll be just the perfect size for him to carry around in his book bag at the college while still giving him enough ooomph he can relax with a video or probably play his LOTRO with it.
As for TFA? Must be nice to be rich. The rest of us have kids and GFs (oh, this is /. those aren't supposed to exist, sorry honey. She just rolled her eyes and said "nerds") and bills and frankly I could buy both kids a Neo based netbook and have cash left over for the price of a single MBA, and that of course is without figuring in the Applecare, which is extra for the extended warranty, yes? I really gotta give old Steve credit, he took a company that had been turned into total shit by the Pepsi guy and in just a couple of years turned it into a company that prints money. Give credit where it is due, the man knows how to get his customers to shell out the $$$$.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
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.
...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.
Your Aspire One with no SSD, smaller screen, lower resolution, twice the thickness, 6 ounces more weight..
It does include a web cam (Now called face time camera). I can not find your reference to room for in any of the specs..
No, the Aspire is quite a bit slower. It runs at a higher clock speed, but a Core2 Duo is going to get more (much more!) work done per time unit.
You can't just look at the clock speed and say "the one running at a higher megahurtz is faster lol" because that only worked in the old days, or when comparing processors of nearly identical internal design.
Not defending either machine, just straightening your facts.
The Acer is more extensible, with user-replaceable battery, savvy-user-replaceable hard drive and RAM (though the RAM is a total pain to get to, not just a door on the back, everything has to come out to get at it) and the possibility for a lot more storage as laptop hard drives get bigger. If it gets stolen, and your data on it is backed up and protected from malcontents, it's $300 and not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things.
The Macbook is much thinner, a little lighter, significantly more powerful with it's 64-bit dual core processor, has reportedly better battery life (Apple's reporting has been pretty close to reality lately) and a full-sized keyboard and almost full-sized multi-touch trackpad (compared to the postage stamp Acer calls a trackpad,) slightly larger screen with quite a bit higher resolution, higher resolution webcam, much faster but more limited storage, can be configured with 4gb RAM (must be done at config time, part of the logic board) and for those that care, Apple's customer service and reliability are rated much higher (per the keynote video.)
Between the two? I'm probably going with the Macbook Air. I don't mind the premium for what I think will be better usability. I'm a larger gentleman with larger hands, and I haven't found a netbook keyboard and/or trackpad yet I want to use for more than a few minutes at a time... too small, slash key and period/comma keys are half size, etc. While the machines are similar in size, the MBAir has it beaten quite soundly in specs. It's really easy to say "haha, Jobs-o made a netbook after putting them down..." but he really didn't. This is no netbook. I had a netbook for two months, gave it to my mother, and I'll never own one again.
Of course it's iCrap because it is made by Apple! Otherwise it would be Krap, GCrap or MS Crap.
But... the future refused to change.
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
It may have a faster clock speed than the 11" MacBook Air but it does *not* have a faster processor. Your Aspire One has an Atom processor while the 11" Air has a Core 2 Duo processor, which does more, clock for clock. Looking at the GeekBench Results Browser, It looks like the 11" Air scores are at least double what your Aspire One's score would be.
I don't get what is so difficult. If you don't want a $999 11" machine, then don't buy it. Who cares? This machine isn't for you, any more than a Porsche 911 is for me. I don't spend too much time going in depth about cars I'll never own. So why spend time bitching about a computer you'll never own? For the specs, and in comparison to the Sony 11" machines (of which the Air is the closest to) the price is very much on par. it's not a 1.4" thick plastic laptop with a cheap Atom processor and slow hard drive.