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1 month owners are you still impressed?
- Thread starter Cybergypsy
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Yes, it's a great computer. It's not my dream computer but it's a departure from previous Apple laptop. I have the SSD model and it's a perfect "solid-state" Mac. Silent, small and light.
My personal perfect laptop computer would be a 15" 1680x1050 display, 128GB or larger SSD, and everything else like the Air. Maybe someday.
My personal perfect laptop computer would be a 15" 1680x1050 display, 128GB or larger SSD, and everything else like the Air. Maybe someday.
Loving It!
So far, I love it! It certainly makes the daily commute easier given the size.
A great buy and compliment laptop to my Macbook Pro!
Arc
So far, I love it! It certainly makes the daily commute easier given the size.
A great buy and compliment laptop to my Macbook Pro!
Arc
Couldn't agree more, compliments the commute (being lighter), along with my desktop 24 inch iMac Aluminum 2.8 GHz, and my 17 inch MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz.
I bet the next gen MBP will probably have a
9600m GT
1680X1050 rez
128gb or larger SSD (option)
on top of a new case design.
Rev 2 should be out of that by the time i am done with college, then this MBP will become the wife's and i'll buy me a new one
I still love it... I have to say that the "new" feel may last longer for me since, with my MBA, I went back to Apple after more than 12 yrs using PCs...
So yes, my "love" is a combination of Apple (in general) and MBA (in particular).
And kicking myself for not having made the move back to Apple before...
So yes, my "love" is a combination of Apple (in general) and MBA (in particular).
And kicking myself for not having made the move back to Apple before...
Absolutely love my MBA - since i got it, I've not used my Mac Pro at all apart from for ripping DVDs to my iTunes library: It takes everything I throw at it in it's stride and is easily the best notebook I've ever owned
Lovin' my MBA, much more than I ever loved my MBP... especially now that the one dumb issue I had, wireless network drops, seems to have mostly gone away. My MBA runs cool, fans hardly ever come on, and it's great to use to surf and e-mail when I'm watching TV in bed. I even brought it to work today, to help with t-shooting a client's Mac-related issue... and I can't even tell that it's in my backpack.
[checks to make sure MBA is in backpack; it is]
[checks to make sure MBA is in backpack; it is]
My old MBPs are getting dusty
Bought the MBA for travel to replace a 12" 867 MHz G4 MBP. Had a 17 " 1.6 GHz G4 MPB that I expected to keep using at home (a monster to travel with). Time to get rid of both as I'm only ever using the MBA. It's easy to carry and quick to boot up. Benchmark rating is much better than both and 50% better than my G5 desktop at work. Even been using photoshop on the MBA instead of desktop and larger monitor. Been on two trips, made several presentations and it's everything I needed. I know I could have gotten more power with a new MBP but here is a gain in efficiency by being able to take it everywhere.
Bought the MBA for travel to replace a 12" 867 MHz G4 MBP. Had a 17 " 1.6 GHz G4 MPB that I expected to keep using at home (a monster to travel with). Time to get rid of both as I'm only ever using the MBA. It's easy to carry and quick to boot up. Benchmark rating is much better than both and 50% better than my G5 desktop at work. Even been using photoshop on the MBA instead of desktop and larger monitor. Been on two trips, made several presentations and it's everything I needed. I know I could have gotten more power with a new MBP but here is a gain in efficiency by being able to take it everywhere.
Wouldn't replace it
The fans are driving me crazy. Purchased my machine 1st week of Feb.
I went to an apple store in Palo Alto today so they could have a look at the wireless and fan issues I'm having......and tried to get it replaced. The "Genius" would only send it in for repair. I'm traveling at the moment and need my machine for the next few days so am going to take it on Saturday.
Any tips that will get them to replace it?
get it fixed, or replaced
The fans are driving me crazy. Purchased my machine 1st week of Feb.
I went to an apple store in Palo Alto today so they could have a look at the wireless and fan issues I'm having......and tried to get it replaced. The "Genius" would only send it in for repair. I'm traveling at the moment and need my machine for the next few days so am going to take it on Saturday.
Any tips that will get them to replace it?
I'm surprising my wife with one at our August 38th Anniversary.
She will flip, she's drooling over my MB, but would LOVE a MBA
Only 3 weeks into mine, but many thousands of miles traveled and loving every minute of it. Here's my hands on review if you're interested in my full accounting of the unit.
The moment I first picked up a display MBA at the local Apple store I fell in love.... I knew I was a goner when before leaving the store, I just had to give it a hug! Had to wait about a week to actually buy mine since at that time the store had just a few for display. Once they had the machines available for purchase I was over there and brought my very own 1.8/64 SSD home with me....
I'm still in love. Today I had to take a friend to a couple of doctor's appointments and while she was in with her physician and other people in the waiting room were looking at old, well-thumbed magazines I was happy as can be taking advantage of the office wireless to hop on the internet.... My MBA was so light and easy to carry, so light and comfortable on my lap, so much fun to use with the finger scroll and other gestures.... A couple of different times, people came over to me and asked, "ooh, is that one of those new really thin computers?" and oohed-and-ahhed at it.
Later on I showed off my MBA to yet another friend, someone who travels frequently. She was VERY interested and kept saying, "this is so sweeeeet!"
Methinks I see a MBA in her future.....
As we were going around later running more errands The MBA in my Crumpler laptop bag felt no more heavy than a regular purse would.
Right now she's recharging even as I type. I love my MBA more than I ever would've imagined -- a truly portable laptop computer at last!!! I use it at home, I take it with me when I'm going out, I'll be using it when I travel.... I'm a very happy camper!
I'm still in love. Today I had to take a friend to a couple of doctor's appointments and while she was in with her physician and other people in the waiting room were looking at old, well-thumbed magazines I was happy as can be taking advantage of the office wireless to hop on the internet.... My MBA was so light and easy to carry, so light and comfortable on my lap, so much fun to use with the finger scroll and other gestures.... A couple of different times, people came over to me and asked, "ooh, is that one of those new really thin computers?" and oohed-and-ahhed at it.
Later on I showed off my MBA to yet another friend, someone who travels frequently. She was VERY interested and kept saying, "this is so sweeeeet!"
Methinks I see a MBA in her future.....
As we were going around later running more errands The MBA in my Crumpler laptop bag felt no more heavy than a regular purse would.
Right now she's recharging even as I type. I love my MBA more than I ever would've imagined -- a truly portable laptop computer at last!!! I use it at home, I take it with me when I'm going out, I'll be using it when I travel.... I'm a very happy camper!
Since I got the Air I've been carrying it around on a regular basis, largely foregoing use of my other ultraportables.
Prior to this my recent ultra/moreportable history has been the Sony SZ / G11 / TZ / UX and Dell D430. I currently have 4 UX's (3 390's, 1 490), 2 SZ's (71VN's - Penryn 2.5Ghz in a 1.8Kg frame), 3 TZ's (180, 21, 22) as well as a remaining G11 and D430. These are spread around various places I live and work in. I had planned to do the same with the Air and bought two to start with, but rethought the situation given the specs and decided to start with one.
It's a beautiful machine, but curiously half-assed in almost every way and seriously compromised in others. I like it on a superficial level, but I can't say I'm impressed by any particular aspect of it apart from the image and the feel of the device. The build quality has gone up over the MBP (but then I was never impressed by the MBP's build), but there are clearly still a number of engineering lessons Apple has to learn from other makers.
While Leopard needs a decent processor to be snappy (especially for media use) and it was clearly the reason why Apple opted for a shrunk C2D over a ULV, I think shoehorning the 1.8 into the size was a bit of a flawed compromise. Performance is nominally very decent but it can become unstable once heat issues comes into the fray, and once a certain threshold is reached the Air is actually noisier than many ultraportables. Perhaps the 1.6 is a slightly better compromise, I'm not sure as I don't have it. Either way, similar basic Office-type app performance compared to a 1.33 C2D ULV running Vista on an SSD is not as earth-shatteringly superior in everyday usage as things might seem, especially for an ultraportable - i.e. a second travelling PC sense - the faster processor, especially with the compromises it comes with, is of debatable benefit.
The other functional compromises compared to the other more genuinely cutting-edge-engineered ultraportables from Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba et al are obvious and evident, so I'll not go into them here. The relatively short battery life of ~3.5 hours in daylight-viewable mode with wireless on wouldn't be a huge issue if charging was as quick as Dell slim&lights for example in order to allow topping up of the charge during the course of the day, but it isn't - and neither is the battery removable to compensate for that. The flexibility of the TZ's for example can't be overstated: you can opt for a 6+ (real) hour battery or a 10+ (once again, real) hour battery, with the 10+ hour TZ being barely a teaspoonful of sugar heavier than the Air.
There are also less evident compromises. A Megabit LAN interface for example, which given the uses for which a wired LAN might be put to nowadays seems somewhat redundant. And as for wireless problems, as clayj and others have related I have frequent problems connecting to and keeping connections to certain wireless networks and SMB shares that my Vista machines have zero problems with. This could be an OS X issue more than an Air issue, since I have similar problems with a limited selection of other Leopard gear - but nevertheless, such a critical part of its connectivity should work flawlessly, especially in a single-manufacturer ecosystem.
The Superdrive works fine, and I don't even care that it seems to be specific to the Air - but my problem with it stems from the image-centric nature of the Air, and that the Superdrive's design language is more in tune with the Mini than the Air. Standing the two side by side, the drive does not evoke a coherent design statement. While on any other notebook it may not be a big issue, on such a design-driven machine it screams mismatch. The USB cable of the drive is also free to whip around and scratch other items, unlike other separate drives made by better manufacturers. Basically, it has 'afterthought' written all over it.
The screen is fine, LED is what I've been used to on ultraportables since my Sony G11 of early '07. However given the screen size, I'd like better use made of it in terms of resolution for mobile use. I know Spaces can alleviate this problem, but 1440 x 900 wouldn't be a huge stretch on a screen of this size - and indeed, Lenovo offers it. To be fair to Apple though I have the same problem with the Sony SZ, although the TZ offers a slightly higher 1366 x 768 resolution in a more baggable size.
I like the look and pitch of the backlit keyboard especially with the Air's key colour combination, which is IMO a far more practical colour for backlighting than the MBP. But I don't like the 'straight down and thump' feel of the keys. I can get used to using it fine, but I'm accustomed to more refinement in the key action, even on ultraportables.
Ultimately though, as pretty as it is the Air is yet another piece of marketing brilliance from Apple for the credulous that has failed to impress me on a fundamental level. As an attention-getter, it will continue to be fished out of my bag for public engagements (until something better looking comes along) but as it stands, I have to conclude even at this stage that it's inadequate and unfocused as a working ultraportable for me, no matter how nice it feels to hold.
I suspect I'll be back more or less exclusively to the Sony TZ's (a refresh to the TZ31 1.33Ghz models will be soon) and my recently refreshed SZ's for the foreseeable future, although the Toshiba R500 and the Lenovo X300 arriving soon may be in with a chance.
Prior to this my recent ultra/moreportable history has been the Sony SZ / G11 / TZ / UX and Dell D430. I currently have 4 UX's (3 390's, 1 490), 2 SZ's (71VN's - Penryn 2.5Ghz in a 1.8Kg frame), 3 TZ's (180, 21, 22) as well as a remaining G11 and D430. These are spread around various places I live and work in. I had planned to do the same with the Air and bought two to start with, but rethought the situation given the specs and decided to start with one.
It's a beautiful machine, but curiously half-assed in almost every way and seriously compromised in others. I like it on a superficial level, but I can't say I'm impressed by any particular aspect of it apart from the image and the feel of the device. The build quality has gone up over the MBP (but then I was never impressed by the MBP's build), but there are clearly still a number of engineering lessons Apple has to learn from other makers.
While Leopard needs a decent processor to be snappy (especially for media use) and it was clearly the reason why Apple opted for a shrunk C2D over a ULV, I think shoehorning the 1.8 into the size was a bit of a flawed compromise. Performance is nominally very decent but it can become unstable once heat issues comes into the fray, and once a certain threshold is reached the Air is actually noisier than many ultraportables. Perhaps the 1.6 is a slightly better compromise, I'm not sure as I don't have it. Either way, similar basic Office-type app performance compared to a 1.33 C2D ULV running Vista on an SSD is not as earth-shatteringly superior in everyday usage as things might seem, especially for an ultraportable - i.e. a second travelling PC sense - the faster processor, especially with the compromises it comes with, is of debatable benefit.
The other functional compromises compared to the other more genuinely cutting-edge-engineered ultraportables from Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba et al are obvious and evident, so I'll not go into them here. The relatively short battery life of ~3.5 hours in daylight-viewable mode with wireless on wouldn't be a huge issue if charging was as quick as Dell slim&lights for example in order to allow topping up of the charge during the course of the day, but it isn't - and neither is the battery removable to compensate for that. The flexibility of the TZ's for example can't be overstated: you can opt for a 6+ (real) hour battery or a 10+ (once again, real) hour battery, with the 10+ hour TZ being barely a teaspoonful of sugar heavier than the Air.
There are also less evident compromises. A Megabit LAN interface for example, which given the uses for which a wired LAN might be put to nowadays seems somewhat redundant. And as for wireless problems, as clayj and others have related I have frequent problems connecting to and keeping connections to certain wireless networks and SMB shares that my Vista machines have zero problems with. This could be an OS X issue more than an Air issue, since I have similar problems with a limited selection of other Leopard gear - but nevertheless, such a critical part of its connectivity should work flawlessly, especially in a single-manufacturer ecosystem.
The Superdrive works fine, and I don't even care that it seems to be specific to the Air - but my problem with it stems from the image-centric nature of the Air, and that the Superdrive's design language is more in tune with the Mini than the Air. Standing the two side by side, the drive does not evoke a coherent design statement. While on any other notebook it may not be a big issue, on such a design-driven machine it screams mismatch. The USB cable of the drive is also free to whip around and scratch other items, unlike other separate drives made by better manufacturers. Basically, it has 'afterthought' written all over it.
The screen is fine, LED is what I've been used to on ultraportables since my Sony G11 of early '07. However given the screen size, I'd like better use made of it in terms of resolution for mobile use. I know Spaces can alleviate this problem, but 1440 x 900 wouldn't be a huge stretch on a screen of this size - and indeed, Lenovo offers it. To be fair to Apple though I have the same problem with the Sony SZ, although the TZ offers a slightly higher 1366 x 768 resolution in a more baggable size.
I like the look and pitch of the backlit keyboard especially with the Air's key colour combination, which is IMO a far more practical colour for backlighting than the MBP. But I don't like the 'straight down and thump' feel of the keys. I can get used to using it fine, but I'm accustomed to more refinement in the key action, even on ultraportables.
Ultimately though, as pretty as it is the Air is yet another piece of marketing brilliance from Apple for the credulous that has failed to impress me on a fundamental level. As an attention-getter, it will continue to be fished out of my bag for public engagements (until something better looking comes along) but as it stands, I have to conclude even at this stage that it's inadequate and unfocused as a working ultraportable for me, no matter how nice it feels to hold.
I suspect I'll be back more or less exclusively to the Sony TZ's (a refresh to the TZ31 1.33Ghz models will be soon) and my recently refreshed SZ's for the foreseeable future, although the Toshiba R500 and the Lenovo X300 arriving soon may be in with a chance.
Hey There Thanxs that is one of my favorite reviews! Anyway still love my MBA. The only problem is I also got a new 2.5 MBP and I find myself spending most of my time on the MBA. Very Happy!