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MacBook Air First Impressions and Notes
- Thread starter arn
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First impressions: Packaging is notably high quality, the computer is the definition of sleek, the screen is bright and vivid, initial boot-up was pretty fast (1.8/SSD), and the keyboard is marvelous given the form factor.
That's all I got for now, just got home 15 minutes ago
That's all I got for now, just got home 15 minutes ago
my work at best buy
has 2 units set up (1.6/80gb and 1.8/64gb)
and the 64gb is so fast and quick...boot up in like 20secs
much faster opening iTunes and iPhotos
has 2 units set up (1.6/80gb and 1.8/64gb)
and the 64gb is so fast and quick...boot up in like 20secs
much faster opening iTunes and iPhotos
Haven't posted on here in ages, but I'm here at an Apple store tinkering on one and thought I'd post my thoughts.
-I'm on the 1.8, 64GB SSD unit and it's definitely snappy... haven't compared it to the 1.6, 80GB unit yet... Not sure if this store has one
-The screen is very bright and crisp. Glossy doesn't bother me, so it looks great
-The trackpad is a bit larger than the MB and MBP. I compared it to my iPhone and it's as tall as the iPhone is wide and almost as wide as the iPhone is long.
-The 3 finger page back in Safari is SIMPLE and works really well
-There is a Sudden Motion Sensor
-This unit in the store is running 10.5.1... Not sure if I remember people saying the demo units at MWSF had 10.5.2 or not.
-The eject button doesn't do anything... than I can figure...
-The rotate gesture works well... I haven't watched the demo videos but I could only get it to work in Preview instead of iPhoto
Since there's only two units here I won't hog it... but that's all I've seen so far... very beautiful unit...
-I'm on the 1.8, 64GB SSD unit and it's definitely snappy... haven't compared it to the 1.6, 80GB unit yet... Not sure if this store has one
-The screen is very bright and crisp. Glossy doesn't bother me, so it looks great
-The trackpad is a bit larger than the MB and MBP. I compared it to my iPhone and it's as tall as the iPhone is wide and almost as wide as the iPhone is long.
-The 3 finger page back in Safari is SIMPLE and works really well
-There is a Sudden Motion Sensor
-This unit in the store is running 10.5.1... Not sure if I remember people saying the demo units at MWSF had 10.5.2 or not.
-The eject button doesn't do anything... than I can figure...
-The rotate gesture works well... I haven't watched the demo videos but I could only get it to work in Preview instead of iPhoto
Since there's only two units here I won't hog it... but that's all I've seen so far... very beautiful unit...
Was the xbench run on power/maximum performance?
Was the xbench run on power/maximum performance?
Was the xbench run on power/maximum performance?
I got my MacBook Air (1.6GHz, 80GB HD) and SuperDrive this morning at the Apple Store in Short Hills, NJ.
I posted unboxing pics to my blog:
http://gadgetsonthego.net/2008/02/macbook-air-unboxing.html
From the second you begin opening the box of the MacBook Air you know you're in for something good. It's packaged in typical Apple fashion, it's in the detaulsl, the box even has soft fabric on the top making sure to cushion the MacBook Air (only Apple would pay this much attention to the box). Enough about the box..
You truly have to hold a MacBook Air in your hand to appreciate what Apple did in terms of design, and making this laptop so thin and solid. Looking at it in pictures, videos, etc. doesn't do it justice. The cool aluminum case feels great, the thinness is unbelievable. For the few hours I've had it I keep closing it, opening it, carrying it, I've said out loud "wow" a few times, it just looks and feels amazing. I'm just in awe of this machine.
The screen is so bright and clear, I have a 17" iMac (1st gen Intel) and the MacBook Air's screen blows it away.
The backlit keyboard "knows" when to come on. The Multi-touch trackpad is much cooler than I thought it would be. It just makes sense to swipe your fingers to go back and forward in apps like Safari. Pinching to zoom is awesome, you can view much more of a webpage without scrolling, or changing the resolution of the screen. iPhoto also is amazing with the Multi-touch trackpad, it's that "wow" feeling when you first did it on the iPhone.
The mono speaker sounds better than I thought it would. My iMac sounds better of course.
Battery life is almost on par with Apple's estimates, it definitely outlasts my previous 12" PowerBook.
Performance wise it feels fast, I think the 2GB of RAM make up for the processor. It does take longer to bootup than my PowerBook or iMac.
All in all, I am extremely happy with my purchase. OS X on something this thin and beautiful is amazing. You just can't help but love holding, carrying, and using the MacBook Air. It almost seems fake.
I posted unboxing pics to my blog:
http://gadgetsonthego.net/2008/02/macbook-air-unboxing.html
From the second you begin opening the box of the MacBook Air you know you're in for something good. It's packaged in typical Apple fashion, it's in the detaulsl, the box even has soft fabric on the top making sure to cushion the MacBook Air (only Apple would pay this much attention to the box). Enough about the box..
You truly have to hold a MacBook Air in your hand to appreciate what Apple did in terms of design, and making this laptop so thin and solid. Looking at it in pictures, videos, etc. doesn't do it justice. The cool aluminum case feels great, the thinness is unbelievable. For the few hours I've had it I keep closing it, opening it, carrying it, I've said out loud "wow" a few times, it just looks and feels amazing. I'm just in awe of this machine.
The screen is so bright and clear, I have a 17" iMac (1st gen Intel) and the MacBook Air's screen blows it away.
The backlit keyboard "knows" when to come on. The Multi-touch trackpad is much cooler than I thought it would be. It just makes sense to swipe your fingers to go back and forward in apps like Safari. Pinching to zoom is awesome, you can view much more of a webpage without scrolling, or changing the resolution of the screen. iPhoto also is amazing with the Multi-touch trackpad, it's that "wow" feeling when you first did it on the iPhone.
The mono speaker sounds better than I thought it would. My iMac sounds better of course.
Battery life is almost on par with Apple's estimates, it definitely outlasts my previous 12" PowerBook.
Performance wise it feels fast, I think the 2GB of RAM make up for the processor. It does take longer to bootup than my PowerBook or iMac.
All in all, I am extremely happy with my purchase. OS X on something this thin and beautiful is amazing. You just can't help but love holding, carrying, and using the MacBook Air. It almost seems fake.
underwhelmed
I placed my order the second you could at apple.com. Received my Air yesterday (Thursday) from Fedex.
The packaging was beautiful, and the AIR itself really is amazing. Very beautiful. I know this may sound silly, but it is larger and heavier than I had expected. And I believe I was more sold on the idea, then its actual practicality.
I purchased the standard base model with Apple Care being the only addition I added to my order.
I want to use this AIR for my email, web browsing, and music/video use. The problem is, when I ran the migration assistant, I realized that I was 11 GB over in available space. I tried cutting things down. But realized that this computer just isn't going to work for me. I will be contacting the online store to send it back. I'll just wait until they release a generation of the laptop with more space.
I placed my order the second you could at apple.com. Received my Air yesterday (Thursday) from Fedex.
The packaging was beautiful, and the AIR itself really is amazing. Very beautiful. I know this may sound silly, but it is larger and heavier than I had expected. And I believe I was more sold on the idea, then its actual practicality.
I purchased the standard base model with Apple Care being the only addition I added to my order.
I want to use this AIR for my email, web browsing, and music/video use. The problem is, when I ran the migration assistant, I realized that I was 11 GB over in available space. I tried cutting things down. But realized that this computer just isn't going to work for me. I will be contacting the online store to send it back. I'll just wait until they release a generation of the laptop with more space.
If space is your only nuisance, why dont you get a portable hard drive (lets say 80-120GB since you dont need that much)? I know it will defy the whole purpose of the Air, but remember, this laptop's purposes are few (at least on the fewer side), and not intended as a media powerhouse. I for one, although I am absolutely mesmerized by it, am waiting for the MBP update, as I have the very first one (first switch to intel) and it is time to switch. Just like another reviewer said, it really is the IDEA that is winning you over, not the specs. I read this great article, where the author compared the Air and one of the TZ series side by side, and from an objective point of view, the TZ is alot better in so many ways (of course the key is the OS, which tilts the picture) as a portable device.I placed my order the second you could at apple.com. Received my Air yesterday (Thursday) from Fedex.
The packaging was beautiful, and the AIR itself really is amazing. Very beautiful. I know this may sound silly, but it is larger and heavier than I had expected. And I believe I was more sold on the idea, then its actual practicality.
I purchased the standard base model with Apple Care being the only addition I added to my order.
I want to use this AIR for my email, web browsing, and music/video use. The problem is, when I ran the migration assistant, I realized that I was 11 GB over in available space. I tried cutting things down. But realized that this computer just isn't going to work for me. I will be contacting the online store to send it back. I'll just wait until they release a generation of the laptop with more space.
I placed my order the second you could at apple.com. Received my Air yesterday (Thursday) from Fedex.
The packaging was beautiful, and the AIR itself really is amazing. Very beautiful. I know this may sound silly, but it is larger and heavier than I had expected. And I believe I was more sold on the idea, then its actual practicality.
I purchased the standard base model with Apple Care being the only addition I added to my order.
I want to use this AIR for my email, web browsing, and music/video use. The problem is, when I ran the migration assistant, I realized that I was 11 GB over in available space. I tried cutting things down. But realized that this computer just isn't going to work for me. I will be contacting the online store to send it back. I'll just wait until they release a generation of the laptop with more space.
Thanks. My main concern was the space. I had to hold off buying the model until I hear more real life space issues. Other than space, everything else is smooth?
Anyone here have the SSD drive that can say how much of the hard drive was left when you booted it up for the first time?
SSD reads faster than it writes
I was looking at the transfer speed ratings on NewEgg for the OCZ 64GB SSD. They rated it as 58MB/s sequential READ and 35MB/s sequential WRITE. In other words, the read speed is quite good. The write speed is average.
The Xbench sequential and random 256K results appear to show the same tendency. The SSD write speed was slightly slower than the HDD, while the read speed 2x to 3X faster.
Of particular interest is the small 4K random results. Note the read speed of the SDD is 20X faster and the write speed is 4X faster than the HDD. That bodes well for virtual memory and Photoshop scratch area since those tend to be vary small block size transfers.
What would really be interesting is to see the results for QuickBench 4.03 from SpeedTools. which measures both sequential and random from 4K to 1MB block sizes. If any of you with access to the MacBook Air with either the HDD or SDD would contact me, I can arrange for you to test with QuickBench at no cost to you in exchange for posting your results here as well as letting me publish the results on BareFeats.com.
I was looking at the transfer speed ratings on NewEgg for the OCZ 64GB SSD. They rated it as 58MB/s sequential READ and 35MB/s sequential WRITE. In other words, the read speed is quite good. The write speed is average.
The Xbench sequential and random 256K results appear to show the same tendency. The SSD write speed was slightly slower than the HDD, while the read speed 2x to 3X faster.
Of particular interest is the small 4K random results. Note the read speed of the SDD is 20X faster and the write speed is 4X faster than the HDD. That bodes well for virtual memory and Photoshop scratch area since those tend to be vary small block size transfers.
What would really be interesting is to see the results for QuickBench 4.03 from SpeedTools. which measures both sequential and random from 4K to 1MB block sizes. If any of you with access to the MacBook Air with either the HDD or SDD would contact me, I can arrange for you to test with QuickBench at no cost to you in exchange for posting your results here as well as letting me publish the results on BareFeats.com.
The Manila Envelope Test
I decided that Apple's advertising claims needed some independent verification, so i got some 10x13 manila envelopes and headed to the local Apple Store. When I pulled the envelope out of my pocket, the employee guarding the table started laughing. As you can see, The MBA does indeed fit inside a manila envelope. I could have closed the envelope, but then you wouldn't know what was inside. For comparison purposes, I tried the envelope on a normal MacBook. The MacBook was certainly thin enough to fit inside, but the last picture shows it crammed in as far as it would go. I don't think I could have closed the envelope. It was a tight squeeze to begin with, though, and probably wouldn't have made a very good commercial.
One other thing I don't think I've seen anyone else mention is that the new multi-touch trackpads are a little screwy. The cursor seemed to jerk around a lot on all three of the store's display models. I made a point of only touching the trackpad with one finger at a time, with nothing else (shirt sleeves, etc.) touching it, and the cursor still jumped around. It made it difficult to open the Apple menu, and I had trouble launching applications from the dock. Hopefully it's something Apple can fix via Software Update soon. Other than that, I don't have anything new to contribute. I agree with most of the other first impressions.
I decided that Apple's advertising claims needed some independent verification, so i got some 10x13 manila envelopes and headed to the local Apple Store. When I pulled the envelope out of my pocket, the employee guarding the table started laughing. As you can see, The MBA does indeed fit inside a manila envelope. I could have closed the envelope, but then you wouldn't know what was inside. For comparison purposes, I tried the envelope on a normal MacBook. The MacBook was certainly thin enough to fit inside, but the last picture shows it crammed in as far as it would go. I don't think I could have closed the envelope. It was a tight squeeze to begin with, though, and probably wouldn't have made a very good commercial.
One other thing I don't think I've seen anyone else mention is that the new multi-touch trackpads are a little screwy. The cursor seemed to jerk around a lot on all three of the store's display models. I made a point of only touching the trackpad with one finger at a time, with nothing else (shirt sleeves, etc.) touching it, and the cursor still jumped around. It made it difficult to open the Apple menu, and I had trouble launching applications from the dock. Hopefully it's something Apple can fix via Software Update soon. Other than that, I don't have anything new to contribute. I agree with most of the other first impressions.
