MacBook Air First Impressions and Notes

[ctt1wbw]

I have a question for the haters and trolls out there:

How are all these people with Macbook Airs able to post online here without a firewire port or an optical drive? I thought all of you trolls said that made an underpowered computer and therefore worthless. So how are they able to do it?

 

[butterfly0fdoom]

The demo unit at my place of labor (my university's bookstore's computer department) arrived (but only the demo unit, much to the disappointment of the 40 people that pre-ordered an MBA). Naturally, it's just a 1.6 with the HDD.

Of course, it's a clean machine, but it was still rather swift (for everyday tasks). Garageband took a decent amount of time to load (but it was still faster than my former 1.5 Core Solo Mac mini, of course).

It's so thin and sleek, I was absolutely mesmerized. The fit-and-finish for the port slide-out could use some examining, however; in the close position, it still protrudes slightly. It's heavier than you'd think it is, too. I thought it would be a featherweight, but it felt substantial, like the iPhone. I'd count that more as a benefit, however. In contrast with the Sony TZ, which feels like nothing, the Air has substance.

One of the full-timers wanted to try out remote disk, but either the installation screwed up or the school's network isn't remote disk-friendly since we couldn't get it to work (to be fair, the installation of the drivers was completed a minute before closing, giving us little time to experiment.

Given the way the MBA is designed (both the computer and the packaging), it's clear to me the direction Apple's going with the MBA. The iMac was revolutionary because in how it eliminated legacy ports and floppy drives, features that people bemoaned and have now become myth to the younger generation. Media is shifting towards online distribution as the younger generation, making the requirement of an internal optical drive less absolute. Many mobile devices use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, either natively or through accessories, reducing amount of USB ports needed. Wi-Fi hotspots are also increasing and as 802.11 technology improves, wireless speeds and coverage will improve, making ethernet, and not Wi-Fi, the optional connection means. As airlines retrofit their planes and acquire new planes, power ports are being added; new airport terminals increasingly have easy-access power ports, and many public areas are making power ports more accessible. With access to electricity becoming easier and the power brick being shrunken, the integrated battery becomes less of a crippling factor. The only thing the MBA really needs in order to be as revolutionary as the iMac is an internal tri-band HSDPA/UTMS radio, as cellular internet is increasing in coverage and speeds, as well. Sure, IBM/Lenovo's X series has been around for a while, but Apple receives a lot more media coverage, is more prominent in the mainstream consciousness, and tends to be more influential in the technology industry than IBM/Lenovo.

 

[profiteor]

Same issue.. the fan on this thing goes wild.

I have iStat Menus and the processor on this thing peaks a lot. syslogd seems to be the culprit much of the time. Perhaps its Time Machine?

Anyways, I really hope that Apple releases something to deal with the fan issue because I don't think they've quite tweaked the temperature settings on this thing properly. It's at full blast way too often. Maybe the thing doesn't cool well enough, but it's way too loud of a computer right now.

By chance, did you migrate your settings from another Mac?

I had this problem for an hour. Yes I was plugged into AC, but smcFanControl was showing me that the fan was going bonkers (which my ears confirmed). Ended up being a problem with the imported Airport settings -- the machine somehow got confused as to which en0 was (I had the USB Ethernet thing plugged in). It tried to control transmit power on the Ethernet adapter, which was monumentally fail on its part. I had to nuke some configuration files, and the log stopped spewing. Fan calmed down after that.

The machine does seem allergic to medium processor loads, especially on AC. The machine does not feel hot to me, but perhaps the fan is being proactive.

 

[netdog]

That's surely only a matter of time? If you don't count the Mini, it's the only Mac line that isn't aluminium/black now...

I guess they'll let the MBAs bed in for a while, and then do a revision to the 'babies' of the line. That would be my guess, anyway.

Um....the MacBook is now the only Mac line that isn't aluminum and black?

• MacBook Pro - Aluminum with silver keys. White Apple.
• Mac Pro - All aluminum. White keys on included keyboard. White Apple.
• Mac Mini - White and Aluminum. Grey Apple.
• MacBook - As already pointed out, not aluminum and black. Black or white with white Apple.

Guess that means that the iMac and the MacBook Air are the only Macs that are aluminum and black.

I'm okay with the alu/black on the air but I think it is pretty wretched on the iMac. That black Apple is really kind of gross. All in all, a flashy design, lacking the quiet elegance and taste that Apple is so famous for.

 

[trojanman2011]

Blown Away

I got my 1.6 ghz 80 GB HD MBA today. My first impression when seeing it in the store was shock. Photos of this thing simply do not do it justice. As a long time Apple fan and former Apple employee, I can honestly say that from a design standpoint, this is probably the most impressive product Apple has made. It is without a doubt the most attractive, if not downright sexy notebooks I've ever seen, and it provides the large screen and full size keyboard of full notebook, vastly out-classing all of its subnotebook competitors. Even if you have no plans to buy one, it's worth a trip to the Apple Store just to play around with one.

Before purchasing mine today, I played around with the SSD model in the store. I have to say, it is FAST. Apps launched instantly. There was absolutely no delay. It was unreal.

Despite the fact that I'd just bought a MacBook Air, I left the store a little disappointed that I couldn't afford the SSD version. I was pleasantly surprised however after working on mine all day that the 4,200 RPM HD is nowhere near the issue I thought it would be. It feels quite snappy overall, and only shows its slow speed when booting (about 90 secs) and launching larger apps (iphoto and garageband are noticable examples here), but otherwise it does not seem to be an issue.

Apple also considerately left out any trialware like office or iWork to avoid cramping the already small HD.

Really no complaints so far. Overall I give it A (would have been A+ if the battery life were a tad better).

 

[diabolic]

Before purchasing mine today, I played around with the SSD model in the store. I have to say, it is FAST. Apps launched instantly. There was absolutely no delay. It was unreal.

It's amazingly quick. For me Mail loads in 1 second, Safari in less than 2 seconds. Starting at powered off, it takes 37 seconds to boot. A restart takes 28 seconds.

After a day of using it, I haven't found anything terribly wrong. No wobbly feet on mine. My first battery charge did get me over 4 hours of use set on "Better Battery Life". I didn't do any huge file operations and was mostly using it for email and web browsing. The only slight annoyance is that the front edge seems a little sharper than I'd like.

 

[burlsnuff]

Get The Dongle (Ethernet > USB)

Was happy to snag a MBA at the 14th St Store in NYC yesterday morning - Got home and began the migration via WiFi....BIG MISTAKE - I migrated 55 gigs from my old MacBook to the MBA and it took a ridiculous 18 hours! First Apple should put their pride behind them and not really promote the WiFi migration as a practical method of the first transfer and include the $29.00 Ethernet-to-USB dongle in the box; if they are not going to do that then salesman and people at the register should ask how you will be migrating your files to the MBA and that the dongle would save you loads of time and highly recommend buying one at $29.00.

I admit that I was naive in not calculating the time it would take to migrate 55 gigs of files - given the rate of transfer via WiFi it makes sense that it took 18 hours - but this is one of those calculations that most people (including myself) do not fully understand just how much information 55 gigs is - but if we think about it, it is a hell of a lot of info.

So that it is - GET THE DONGLE and save some yourself some time so you can start fondling the MBA asap which is the reason we are so eager to get one in the first place.

 

[barefeats]

I love my SSD

I drove the 140 mile round trip yesterday to the only Apple Retail Store in San Diego County with the 1.8GHz MBA with SSD in stock. They were nice enough to call me when it came in and put my name on it until I could get there.

The SSD is great. It's fast. Small random reads are twice as fast as the 7K 200G drive in the MacBook Pro in our lab. Small random writes are equally as fast. Open the lid to "wake" the MBA? Boom! Instant response. And it's quiet. I bet it's easy on battery life since it doesn't have to spin up.

Great keyboard. Love the key action. Love the backlighting.

It's the MINI Cooper S of Mac laptops: small, quick, light, and fun. And being a proud owner of a MINI Cooper S "JCW," it's the perfect accessory to take along for the ride.

 

[mctheriot]

1.6 80G Model Feedback

It goes to show you how fast computers are for common tasks - you use very little of the power you have.

- For common tasks: web, email, word processing, general applications - I notice no difference in the "speed" of the unit compared to my old 2.16 MacBook or my 2.4 iMac.

- Booting up is slower - about 20 seconds.

- Simple excel spreadsheets show no speed difference. Recalculating a very, very large table was noticed as being slower

- Using the DVD drive on my iMac was simple and worked well. (Reboot the Air also after installing the SW on your desktop). Office 2008 loaded painlessly in about 8 - 10 minutes

- I found it easier to copy all my data to a USB drive and then load directly from there to the Air. The wireless capabilities work well with no flaws that I noticed but it will be slow.

- Sitting at my desk right now with USB keyboard and mouse driving a 20" display and the experience in this mode (including speed for all but the largest spread-sheets) is idential to my MacBook yesterday.

Hope this helps!
Mark

 

[bjdraw]

A couple of things I'd like to mention.

Migration Assistant works much faster from a USB Time Machine backup, plus this is a great test to ensure TM is actually working. (duh, 480Mbps, is faster than 802.11N or 10/100 Ethernet)

If you plan to do a re-install to save ~8GB of space (YMMV) use the USB Ethernet adapter and a cat5 cable plugged directly into your other Mac running remote disc to speed things along.

Did I mention, that I love this thing?

 

[jameskohn]

Monolingual

After reading about it in these threads, I downloaded and ran monolingual last night. I freed up 2.6 GB on my SSD. I now have 41GB available out of a total capacity of 55GB. That's more than I can imagine ever needing on my laptop.

Yesterday I put my 12" PowerBook on eBay. Before I did a clean install of OS X, I checked the hard drive: after using it for 2 1/2 years I still had 20GB available on the 60GB drive. That's with tons of vacation photos, some music, and everything else that accumulates over time.

Drive space will not be an issue, and I'm really glad I opted for the SSD. The irony is that it makes some of the applications on my MacPro 3Ghz quad seem slow by comparison!

 

[scottkifnw]

Build issues, my take

hey guys, im considering purchasing the 1.6 model, but i have a few questions about the build of the machine. i'm looking for very objective opinions so please guys, be as honest as possible

first, how is the heat on the 80gb hdd model? All the reviews and first impressions have been kinda vague and inconsistent. People say it doesnt get too hot, and others say it does and loud...? All i really want to know is how does this thing compare to the macbook's heat issue? I have a 1.6ghz core duo (not c2d) macbook and it gets really uncomfortable when i have it on my lap...is the mba also like this?

next, im really concerned with the hinge on the MBA. How is the build of it? sturdy? Does it look like it's gonna get really loose after a year of use?

And also..any signs of discoloration below the keyboard like the macbooks? i guess this is pretty early on to be asking a question like this, but i figure it's worth mentioning

Are the uneven rubber feet a widespread problem on these revision A MBA's?

Yeah, answers on any of these questions would be great, and so would any other comments about the hardware on this. Honestly, im looking for more negative comments more than anything--i already know what i like about the machine heh (and plz, no comments on the price of the thing or its lack of ports)

Just got my MBA 1.8/80 yesterday. The unit gets a bit warm, but didn't cook my nads. The hinge looks solid. It was noted that it only opens to ~ 120 degrees, and I agree-it would be better if it opened more, however the screen has a wide viewing angle and is awesome. I really don't notice significant noise. The wobble is present for mine too, but it depends on the surface it is sitting on.

So far, for writing, surfing, etc. the machine is more than enough zippy. The HDD is much slower booting, but otherwise very fast. Hope this helps.

 

[scottkifnw]

1 Password Question Please?

1.8 wth SSD

arrived at 10am EST today(monday)

unboxed, charged (about an hour)
used mac synch to populate key apps: mail, cal, address book. safari, settings, keychain

downloaded 1password.

used dongle to hook up to a plasma tv. awesome

loaded max osx disc in my imac and added disk sharing software(haven't tried it)

time to sit down with the book and learn how to use it(finger swirls, ...)


had a group of 4 home theater techs over working on a new setup. they all loved it!

Just got my MBA yesterday 1.8/80, and so far, loving it. I am a newbie convert. The guys at applestore said I really don't need any software, but I was wondering about the 1password program. You have it obviously, would you recommend it and why/why not?

Thanks for you feedback.

 

[scottkifnw]

My 2 cents

I want to buy a new Mac laptop for my wife. We don't have any Mac computers yet, but we are about to migrate our home to Macs.

She wants a laptop with a backlit keyboard. The current choices are: MBP and MB Air. I don't like the way MBP looks at all. Additionally, it gets very hot, so I would much rather get her a Mac Book, but it has no backlit keyboard, so it's out. I was very excited about the MB Air, especially the fact that it has a backlit keyboard. I got my wife really interested in this laptop when it came out three weeks ago. We went to a couple Apple stores last weekend and played with the MB Air. I personally consider MB Air to be a niche product and in no way a laptop that can become a replacement for your home computer. Instead, it complements a desktop or another more powerful laptop. However, I admit that students may find the portability factor of this laptop compelling enough to make it their own computer while attending college.

The problem I have with this laptop is the fact that the price is basically the same as MBP when you add a NIC and an external Superdrive, but the specs are way below MBP. I am not so much concerned about the HD space because I keep all of my files on a NAS, but the HD speed (4200 rpms) and the fixed amount of RAM (2GB) is a major concern. What I am afraid of is the fact that this laptop may not be up to par when doing something a little more resource intensive, such as editing photos, making home videos, maybe recording in Garage Band, etc. We don't do much of that now, but as we go forward, this is something that we might be interested in.

The thing that really got me concerned about the performance of MB Air was the fact that the Apple store I was in last weekend had the background set for a slide show. So, the background was changing every 5 sec. I opened Mail and locked one of the keys on the keyboard to make the effect of “llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll”. Every time the background was changing, the string of repeating characters would stop for about 0.5 sec and then accelerate again. So, the simple task of changing slides was too intensive for this laptop to do in parallel something as simple as text entry. I decided to repeat the same test on a MB, and the delay in the repeating characters was barely noticeable – maybe 1/10 of a sec instead of half a second on the MB Air.

I understand that this laptop was not designed to be a powerhouse, and I am not talking about doing professional video editing with Final Cut Pro, etc. I would like to know, though, if this laptop is more than just a glorified iPod Touch, and can do normal day-to-day tasks beyond mere text editing, internet, and email. So, has anyone tried to use this laptop for more than just text editing, internet browsing and email?

I have heard rumors that MBP is about to be updated. Has anyone heard when this update is expected? I would be willing to wait a few weeks if MBP are going to be updated soon. Maybe Apple will put MBP in a new enclosure and do something to prevent it from getting so darn hot!

Last question -- Has anyone heard if MBs are going to be updated soon? Will Apple finally put them in aluminum this year? If so, when? Any rumors if MBs will get a backlit keyboard just like MB Air's?

Thanks.

You may want to wait to see what is offered in the next couple of weeks. Anything you do will be a compromise as you noted above. You just have to decide on the best fit for you, and new units are rumored to be in the offing in the next couple of weeks or so.

 

[jjd]

XP on SSD

Has anyone yet got XP up on running on an SSD with Bootcamp? What about with Fusion/ Parallels?

 

[teerexx52]

Does anyone know if the MacBook Air Super Drive works with other Apple Notebooks?

 

[jjd]

There are some really tiny external drives out there these days. Small ones are powerable by USB and so very handy and easy to travel with if you want it. Personally, I love the WD Passport for sleekness and portability (0.2 lbs).

Thanks for this and the other Passport recommendations. But, I have read that some laptops do not have sufficient power through the USB port to power these drives reliably. Some people resort to using a Y connector to draw power from 2 USB ports - not gonna happen on an MBA. Could someone who has their MBA lets us know whether you able to mount and use a UBS-only powered external HDD?

 

[kming05]

so i guess i'll post up my "first impressions" after getting it yesterday morning and using it all day.

1.8/80HD + superdrive

well first off, i'm a convert. i have used a dell 600m for the past three years. i had been waiting awhile for a new release of the macbookpro, but after the macbookair came out, i really realized that i would never use a pro to its full potential, in that all i do is browse, chat, use ms office applications, watch dvds, and yeah thats really about it. so pretty light stuff which i was sure the mba could hold up for me just fine - in that it will be my primary computer for the time being with maybe a imac in the summer.

the mbair - did not dissapoint at all. its beautiful. build quality is impeccable to say the least. screen is bright as heck, even at half brightness brighter than my former dell.

as for speed, not that im a huge computer savy guy or anything, but it feels fast for all of my needs. only time i noticed something remotely close to slow was that it took about 10 seconds for word 08 to load.

as for USB issues, i have a powered hub connected to a external HD, shuffle dock, ipod dock, and printer and its working great - no issues at all.

the operating itself, is amazing. i keep asking myself "why didn't i switch earlier?"

so for most of you, the mba fits into your life as a great secondary computer, but for my needs, it looks like it will work just fine as my primary.

overall... impressed and more than satisfied. no regrets at all.

though i do enjoy using firefox more, hope they update it soon to incorporate the gestures!

 

[clayj]

Does anyone know if the MacBook Air Super Drive works with other Apple Notebooks?

It does NOT work with ANY other notebook or desktop computer. The MBA SuperDrive requires more power than is provided by typical USB ports; only the USB port on the MBA provides sufficient power to power the MBA SuperDrive.

 

[Catch]

It does NOT work with ANY other notebook or desktop computer. The MBA SuperDrive requires more power than is provided by typical USB ports; only the USB port on the MBA provides sufficient power to power the MBA SuperDrive.

Good news on the power. Should power the WD Passports fine then I hope; since I have one on order.

C

 

[clayj]

Good news on the power. Should power the WD Passports fine then I hope; since I have one on order.

C

Me, too. I have one of the new WD My Passport Essential 320 GB HDs coming in tomorrow... my plan is to put all of my media on it (even though I found out last night that my 1.8/SSD MBA *does* have enough space to hold my entire music collection, which is nice), as well as other stuff I might need, and do all that from my Mac Pro. Then I'll just stick the hard drive in my backpack and only plug it in to my MBA if I really need a file I don't already have.

 

[robby818]

Just got my 1.8/80. I had an IBM Thinkpad X41t that also used a 1.8" hard drive and lagged horrifically on basic tasks such as loading the start menu (widely attributed to the HD speed) so I had fears about ordering the HDD instead of the SSD. Thankfully, the MBA doesn't seem to be anywhere near that bad.

I returned an x40 for an x32 a couple of years ago because the hard drive on the x40 was so slow. What a difference the 2.5" drive made!

I agree that the MBA doesn't have the same annoying lag as the x40 BUT if you try using the SSD MBA then you will really notice how much better SSD is. The MBA coupled with SSD is a great match, now the HDD seems a bit out of place with the design goals of the MBA. A compromise to get it below $2000. Good for those of us looking for an "affordable" ultraportable, but still after using SSD, I really want it. During the keynote I eliminated it due to the exorbitant price, now i am thinking I am really going to regret not getting it.

 

[ahaxton]

I returned an x40 for an x32 a couple of years ago because the hard drive on the x40 was so slow. What a difference the 2.5" drive made!

I agree that the MBA doesn't have the same annoying lag as the x40 BUT if you try using the SSD MBA then you will really notice how much better SSD is. The MBA coupled with SSD is a great match, now the HDD seems a bit out of place with the design goals of the MBA. A compromise to get it below $2000. Good for those of us looking for an "affordable" ultraportable, but still after using SSD, I really want it. During the keynote I eliminated it due to the exorbitant price, now i am thinking I am really going to regret not getting it.

Well for those who got the basic, I think you'll be fine. Just think, you have some saved up money for rev 2

 

[richard371]

The 1.8 SSD is 1300 more. For the avg Joe that's a lot of money. Unfortunately I have more time then money so I went with the HDD. I think the biggest diff in speed will be when you boot but I hardly ever do that as I just suspend and it is fast.

If your company is paying for it or your loaded go with the SSD. If you are practical or even somewhat practical go with the HDD. I can tell you the ssd technology will depreciate faster then you can say "air". Also the hdd is durable enough. They have been used in millions of ipods and they bounce around more then your laptop.

Also the 16 extra GB is a nice bonus on these small drives.

Well for those who got the basic, I think you'll be fine. Just think, you have some saved up money for rev 2

 

[SteveSparks]

So Far, So Good

I've had my Macbook Air for about 24 hours.

What I have liked:

Size is amazing. I love a "small" computer and while this is a 13" screen it is small in a form factor that I will really use.

The screen is very nice. I have almost the same screen on my MacBook Pro, but the new screen in a 13" factor is very nice.

Keyboard lighting is great. I have the backlight keyboard on my Pro and having in on my "everyday" system is going to be a huge bonus.

The system performance is doing just fine. I've loaded up the typical applications, added lots of tunes for itunes and imported photos into iPhoto.
The time to get this all loaded was what I would expect.

The battery life seems to be nice. I doubt I will get 5 hours, however its a lot longer than my Macbook Pro and after I turn down the display backlight and a few notches on the keyboard light, I am getting a clock that shows 4+ hours. It's saying 4:05 right now and I have been at lunch for an hour, and 40 minutes have been reading mac rumors.

The 45W power adapter size is VERY nice!

Things I don't like:

The superdrive needs to work on a USB hub. I am thinking of returning the drive and just using my old clunker DVD drive in place of the super drive. With one USB port I can't run the drive and ethernet at work. We have secure wireless but I need to get access to the SECURE! SECURE! network and that is wired only.

The audio jack should be a audio/mic jack like the iphone. Thus allowing fora breakout cable or using an iphone headset.

The Ethernet jack is too expensive. This should be $10. I know its from apple but really the price is stupid.