Initial Hands-On Impressions of the New MacBook Air

[AppleComputers]

A great start for sure, but never buy Rev 1 of any tech product! The longevity of the Flash memory becomes a concern, considering some macs from 10 years ago still perform daily service for many. The subsequent models will refine this concept to perfection, hopefully with more user serviceable parts. However, it's easy to see why they made certain design decisions. At least it keeps the customers buying

 

[steveh]

And I'm sure you can find the mute key, the brightness keys, the tilda key, the backlighting brightness keys, and several other obscure keys all by finding the home row too, eh?

Yes.

Kids these days...

 

[mrdj2u]

Not like he cares, Engaged is paying for it and for someone like Josh who's dealt with thousands of gadget its unsurprising he's apathetic.

Plus, by being so nonchalant about the whole thing, he exudes a distinct coolness that we common folk could only dream of having.

The sunglasses are what really make him look like a douche.

I don't know the guy, so if he's blind, I'm gonna feel pretty bad about the glasses comment.

j

 

[spillproof]

Great. Nobody wonders about the eject button on the keyboard

I know! Considering you can drag the CD icon to the trash to eject it.

That button should be for Mission Control and the blank one for Launch Pad!

 

[Adey]

I definitely want one, but what with a Mac Pro, a Macbook Pro, two iMacs, three iPhones (damn the 12 year old) and one iPad in the house already, I can't justify it. Not least because I'd be wanting the Display as well.

It would have been a cool signature as I could have put "MBP, MBA" at the end of my name and sound like I'm... y'know... educated.

Hang on... if I write "MacBook Air" on a sheet of paper and range it left, and then write the price down and range it right... will that justify the expenditure?

 

[MartiNZ]

Hang on... if I write "MacBook Air" on a sheet of paper and range it left, and then write the price down and range it right... will that justify the expenditure?

Maybe not, but if it's an A4 piece of paper or so, you may be hard pressed to tell it apart from a real MBA .

I'm also wanting, but still having a hard time head-scratching over the whole 11" or more powerful, cheaper 13" thing.

 

[Dustsucker]

The 11" looks so good but no backlit keyboard and no SD-card reader means no buy for me.

 

[Adey]

Maybe not, but if it's an A4 piece of paper or so, you may be hard pressed to tell it apart from a real MBA .

Yeah, I remember Steve demo-ing the original MBA by pulling it out of the envelope. I keep checking the post, but no luck yet. Just sheets of A4 paper - many of which have cool words like "Final" and "Demand" written on them!

 

[azurehi]

Good discussion of New MacBook Air:

http://blogs.forbes.com/investor/2010/10/21/what-the-new-macbook-air-means-to-the-future-of-notebook-computing/

 

[Joeytpg]

Pretty cool... love them both. I'd get the 11 inch if I was looking for an ultra portable "netbook-like" laptop.

I'm going to wait untill the MBP line migrates to Flash drive (or untill the other at least one of them with Flash, eliminate the superdrive.

A MBP 13" + ipad is more than enough for me. Portability + power.

 

[ToeCutter]

Please learn to enjoy the small things in life...

You can't justify purchasing something (what?), but you may drop three times as much in beer that you go pee two hours later, or smoke that much in a week, or.... You get the point, don't you?

No, do you have one?

 

[ToeCutter]

Whats with all the comments about the guy? HE isn't the product Apple are trying to sell you.

Seriously, all this "he thinks he looks so cool!" nonsense is hilarious. You all look so cool dissing him on a forum, I'm sure. He's done you a favour - even if it is inexplicably in a coffee shop.

No kidding, what a bunch of uptight Mac users.

I think he said they stopped at a coffee shop right next to the Apple Store to shoot the unboxing video and get it posted ASAP.

And lastly, can someone explain the textbook definition of a "hipster"? I'm pretty sure it cant be used to describe both Josh Topolsky, and forty-somethings referencing Ferris Buellor. Those are completely opposite ends of the spectrum, folks.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Putting a SSD in my Macbook Pro was the best investment I ever made. Boots up in seconds and apps launch in 2-3 seconds. I fire up the entire Adobe suite in about 5 seconds.

Awesome.

Awesome if you're made of money. Frankly, it doesn't take that much longer for a 7200 RPM drive to boot apps and you can get 500GB for as low as $69. I'd rather save my money for a newer computer. Meanwhile, my MBP's fans are starting to make weird noises as if a fan blade might have developed a crack in them or something (not the greatest thing to happen when you're using it to record with Logic with a studio mic in the same room. This thing has been babied from day 1 and has only left the house twice (moved around more inside the house between den and home studio). It'll be fun taking that thing apart to look. Macs are definitely not tanks.

 

[nplima]

The 11" looks so good but no backlit keyboard and no SD-card reader means no buy for me.

win

 

[pr5owner]

Awesome if you're made of money. Frankly, it doesn't take that much longer for a 7200 RPM drive to boot apps and you can get 500GB for as low as $69. I'd rather save my money for a newer computer. Meanwhile, my MBP's fans are starting to make weird noises as if a fan blade might have developed a crack in them or something (not the greatest thing to happen when you're using it to record with Logic with a studio mic in the same room. This thing has been babied from day 1 and has only left the house twice (moved around more inside the house between den and home studio). It'll be fun taking that thing apart to look. Macs are definitely not tanks.

made of money? what the hell are you talking about? 64GB SSD's are like $80 now and thats CANADIAN. (same speed as the new MBA drive, 200MB/s read, 150MB/s write)

128GB SSD's are $149 CDN

all you really need is 64GB for regular laptop activities, ive had a 64GB SSD for the longest time in my old laptop and i had music, moves, and a couple VM's

not much longer to boot? its 32seconds from power off to desktop with browser open vs more than 1 minute on a regular drive. 200% speed is a big diffrence, also try opening 10 programs at the same time with a spindle drive, the guarantee the SSD can do it in less than 5 seconds

Because the form factor IS what some people want. Also, have you even used a machine with solid state storage? I promise you'll notice a considerable performance increase unless you specifically do processor intensive tasks (which most of us don't). I'll take the performance boost from an SSD over a bump to something like an i5 from a C2D any day of the week.

I SOLD my 15" MBP to buy a 13" because I prefer the form factor. Also, the battery life might be better on the MBA. In the conference Jobs said they had adopted more rigid guidelines for how they determined battery life. 5 hours on the 11.6" MBA is greater battery life than the 5 hours advertised on the 13" MBP.

5 hours is useless with that low end of a cpu, most Acer timeline's get 8 hours, and most Asus U series gets over 11.
almost all netbooks now get at least 7-14Hrs

also why compromise between ssd and a decent cpu/gpu? why not just get it all and stop whining like a little bitch, i can tell you right now for $1000 you can get

i3 CPU or i5, 4-8GB of ram,
deticated video card, your choice of ATi or nvidia (4570 or 310-330),
any SSD you want (for regular netbook activites i would get the Crucial REAL SSD C300)

 

[FuNGi]

He must have not slept for days in anticipation of this event. So pardon the messiness and grouchiness... Lol

Totally. Dude was partying it up the night before with all the other techies. Can't blame him for the shades. I wear prescription Raybans and sometimes like to leave them on in well lit stores so I can see....the merchandise better.

They're still over priced. Why pay $999 for the cheapest one when you can get the white MB for the same price with a larger screen, more HD space, longer battery life...

... s o t i r e d o f...

I'm always shocked that anyone actually cares about a backlit keyboard. Don't all you "power-users" touch-type?

In this day and age to be using the hunt-and-peck method for typing is just silly.

.... r e a d i n g t h e s e....

Would someone please explain to me exactly why they insist on using four-year-old processors in their 'new' models? Could one of the world's most powerful consumer electronics companies not look forward and jump onto a newer architecture, or are we expected to put up with second best in terms of CPUs?

They have (and have had) every opportunity to lead the pack with new processor technology. Design isn't everything; sorry Mr Ive.

... s a m e p o s t s a g a i n a n d a g a i n...

Not like he cares, Engaged is paying for it and for someone like Josh who's dealt with thousands of gadget its unsurprising he's apathetic.

Plus, by being so nonchalant about the whole thing, he exudes a distinct coolness that we common folk could only dream of having.

The sunglasses are what really make him look like a douche.

I don't know the guy, so if he's blind, I'm gonna feel pretty bad about the glasses comment.

j

Yeah. Let 'em wear 'em. Just handle those beauties a little softer is all we macrumors mongers want.

 

[Epsilon88]

My cousin's arrives day after. Can't wait to play with it!

 

[tigress666]

I'm always shocked that anyone actually cares about a backlit keyboard. Don't all you "power-users" touch-type?

In this day and age to be using the hunt-and-peck method for typing is just silly.

No, a backlit keyboard isn't essential by all means. Used a non one for my whole life until just a few months ago.

I haven't even yet really come across a time when it was useful (like typing in complete dark, only time I think for me it would be is on an airplane).

That being said, I like it. I just think it looks nicer *shrug*. And that is simply the reason I like my backlit keyboard and why I envied having one when they came out with them and I had my macbook. And I do think it would come in handy in the dark for finding those not used much keys and for aligning my hands in the dark to type correctly. Certainly not totally essential, but helpful.

 

[ntrigue]

I ran Geekbench on a 1.86GHz model and the result was 2756.*
The 1.6GHz model was only 2209.

This is unbelievably close to my 2007 MacBook Pro 2.2GHz which I was very pleased with.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

[rant]I'm ticked about the lack of a anti-glare option[/rant]

I'm with you 100%.

Although I caved and bought one anyway, I did so out of genuine need, to replace my well worn original. A great secondary laptop for my travels, the new 13" I ordered will fill the bill, although the shiny screen will be an annoyance. Sadly Steve Jobs seems to be obsessed with shiny overpriced toys.

At least I was able to choose a matte hi-res display for my main machine, a new 15" core i7 MBP.

 

[Amuraivel]

I bought a 11" for my wife's 30th birthday.


0. It is a replacement for her old 12" PB, which my wife loved and wouldn't replace until there was something suitable, i.e. small. It fits in her purse, which a 13.3 never would.

1. The 13.3" doesn't make much sense IMO, for bit more weight and footprint you might as well get a MBP.

2. Yes, it is pricey, but it's also a sleek ultralight machine (read: luxury item). The weight trade-off might makes sense for some people for my wife 2lbs makes a huge difference.

3. Whether it is "underpowered" is highly user dependent. All my wife has done for the last 6 years is: write Word documents, check email, watch videos, web surf.

It does all these much better than the 12" PB and runs YouTube videos at 2560x1600 smoothly so it's a enough of an upgrade.

Would I buy it for myself: no, the MBP 13.3 2.4 Ghz is a much much better deal (double speed, double batter, double hard drive, SD slot, double memory, FW800. GB ethernet, lock slot, audio in).

I would advise most people to really NOT to buy a MacBook Air unless you are REALLY certain you need a light machine.

I would NEVER buy a 13.3 MBA, the footprint is a contradiction to portability.

{Yes matte display would be better, but the glare is not too bad on the displays.}

 

[pr5owner]

I ran Geekbench on a 1.86GHz model and the result was 2756.*
The 1.6GHz model was only 2209.

This is unbelievably close to my 2007 MacBook Pro 2.2GHz which I was very pleased with.

my 3 year old Asus 12" was still faster? FFS, and that laptop was $999 at the time with a dedicated nVidia 8400GS
that laptop was upgraded a year later to a 2.4Ghz 45nm Penryn

I'm with you 100%.

Although I caved and bought one anyway, I did so out of genuine need, to replace my well worn original. A great secondary laptop for my travels, the new 13" I ordered will fill the bill, although the shiny screen will be an annoyance. Sadly Steve Jobs seems to be obsessed with shiny overpriced toys.

At least I was able to choose a matte hi-res display for my main machine, a new 15" core i7 MBP.

im sorry but it wouldnt be an apple product if it wasnt shiny EVERYWHERE....

 

[firewood]

my 3 year old Asus 12" was still faster?

You're behind the times.

In the 1960's a lot of people used to buy cars because they had bigger engines and were faster. You seldom see these old (noisy and smelly, but fast) Dodge and Chevy muscle cars on the streets any more.

Instead a whole lot of people buy cars nowadays because of their style, fuel economy, safety and comfort, even if they're just barely fast enough and cost more.

It'll be the same with portable computing.

 

[pr5owner]

You're behind the times.

In the 1960's a lot of people used to buy cars because they had bigger engines and were faster. You seldom see these old (noisy and smelly, but fast) Dodge and Chevy muscle cars on the streets any more.

Instead a whole lot of people buy cars nowadays because of their style, fuel economy, safety and comfort, even if they're just barely fast enough and cost more.

It'll be the same with portable computing.

what do you mean? i see tons of Mustang's, Camaro's and challengers (well not so much challenger because chrysler sucks) and now theres even a newcomer, the Hyundai Genesis coupe (i see more of these actually than camaro's and mustangs) to my knowledge the gencoupe puts out 312HP from a 3.8L V6 on regular fuel.

actually even family cars have close to 300HP now, the Camry has a 270HP engine, the accord i believe is 271HP, and the new Sonata will get a 280HP

there are more high powered cars than ever before, just minus the smelly, bad on gas bit.

looking at fuelly.com most 300+ HP V6's from the RWD coupes get 20-23MPG instead of something like 10

 

[Carniphage]

my 3 year old Asus 12" was still faster? FFS, and that laptop was $999 at the time with a dedicated nVidia 8400GS
that laptop was upgraded a year later to a 2.4Ghz 45nm Penryn

Have you ever thought that the typical user might perceive a computer which launches apps in under a second to be "faster" than one with a bigger processor?

C.