Worth Reading?
+13 [15 votes]
Alright, so, I don’t have any experience actually using a Mac, so I didn’t even bother using the software, I’ll stick to talking about the hardware. Lets start with the weight, 3 pounds sounds like a lot for something that is so thin, but I’ve had analog notebooks (as in paper) that were only marginally thinner but still weighed more.
At its thickest point I think it might be thinner than just the screen portion of my laptop, it is so thin, and when it closes, there isn’t a latch per se, but it closes firmly, quietly, and gently, so you don’t feel like you are going to break it every time you close it. There are precisely 4 ports on the whole of the MacBook Air, the MagSafe adapter, the mini-DVI connection, the single USB port, and the audio out.
The screen looks amazing as you’d expect from Apple. Also, the gestures not only work, but are instantly recognized unlike some other implementations I’ve seen where it takes forever for the machine to recognize you are performing a gesture or you have to hit a toggle switch for it to work. I mean, I’ve never seen multi-touch gestures like this in a touch pad, but I’ve seen other related implementations. The keyboard is large and well spaced out, it’s easy to type on. And the added features of the Wireless N and Bluetooth are nice in combination with the 2 gigs of memory and the Intel Core 2 Duo.
Now for the bad, first off, if you do any power user tasks, you’ll definitely want to go ahead and pass, this is not meant for you. There’s no FireWire, as a PC user, that’s not that big of a deal, but as I understand it, a lot of things you use with a Mac operate with FireWire. There is no expansion slot, such as ExpressCard/34, so that means with the lack of FireWire and ExpressCard, everything has to be done via USB, of which there is a whole one port, I really think they should have built wireless USB into this thing.
The battery isn’t user replaceable, sure, replacement is free and the battery is only $129. However, that means that after 5 hours you have to break out a large external backup battery or find a place to plug in because 5 hours is it, there is no changing your battery out in the field.
You can’t upgrade the memory or the hard drive on your own either, I know that generally you’d order whatever you wanted from Apple when you ordered your product as their prices for such upgrades are highly reasonable, but not being to upgrade at all on your own kind of sucks. While I am on the subject, a 64GB SSD drive upgrade for a cool G is ridiculous, I know that for an SSD drive that size, installed that, that price is cheap, but it’s still ridiculous.
Personally I can deal with the lack of an optical drive, the lack of just about any/all expansion ports, and the fact that you need a dongle for just about everything. But a laptop coming from a largely media-centric company and having a meager 80GB in storage space is the most disappointing thing to me. I mean they have 160GB HDDs in the iPod Classic, and if I had to guess, the HDD in the Air and the HDD in the 80GB iPod are exactly the same, so why can’t they offer a 160GB version as well?
The bottom line? If I got one for free, I’d take it, love it, stroke it, and call it George. If I had to pay for it though, I’d take that $1800 and either add a little to it and get an MBP or by a MacBook, a spare battery, some other necessary accessories/software and still have beer money for a month. There is no way you’ll catch me buying one of these, not till they upgrade it with enough new features to make it worth while.
Most of the complains about the MacBook Air (here and elsewhere) are not valid. They seem to forget/ignore that this preciousness is aimed at the ultraportable customer, which need a light and portable laptop usually lacking many features and lacking processing power. Therefore, Air is better than existing up’s by including 2GB memory pre-built, 5 hour battery life, 3lbs weight, and it adds up very thin and small form factor, more OS options and multi-touch. The price is not high considering other up laptops.
Also, it should set a new pace for others to follow, which basically (I think) started with the Motorola Razr (the whole anorexic gadget trend).
The thing that makes me sad about the “Air” is that it has the same footprint, well slightly larger, than my current Macbook. Due to this the size, I’m limited to how I can carry it. Dont’ get me wrong, I’m amazed at how Air is, but having a smaller footprint would have made this more interesting to me. As it is, I’m just Going to spend 400 on an EEE Pc and try to hack the Mac Os over to it.
Now, before anyone wants to flame me, I understand what they where attempting (to make a full laptop in thing superlight form factor), but it would have been nice to have had something more size wise to the 12″ laptop. Those, IMHO, had the best blend of size and usage.
That’s just my 2 pennies.
Ragnobash
*lol* Ok, I was little tired when I wrote that.. Sorry for the odd sentences..
Ragnobash
http://gizmodo.com/346797/ultr.....pad-leaked
13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a REMOVEABLE 64 GB SSD, WIFI, WiMax, WWAN, GPS, Firewire, 3 USB ports, PCI slots, 4-in-1 MediaCard Reader, VGA Adapter, Internal DVD Burner, WebCam/Mic, Stereo Speakers, Fingerprint Reader, Touchpad and TrackPoint, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, 4 hours of battery life and choice of O/S (XP or Vista 64). Options include a USB Modem and Dock.
Apple, take notes. You lost market-share (business users) on this one.
I forgot to mention… the battery is removeable too.
;-)
oh damn
well, considering fujitsu just released a MacBook Air competitor, and so did Lenovo, i think they were all waiting for Apple to make their move so they could ambush Apple with these new products
in fact, with all the suspicion of a MacBook Tablet, i bet a lot of these companies have a new tablet in their wings that they can now wait and release when they want to instead of using it as ammo against Apple, i think its kind of funny though
but if i had to choose, i’d definitely go with the Lenovo
God… Most people writing reviews about MacBook Air are either PC guys (like to open up computers or put pieces together) or don’t know how to read.
From my understanding, the Air targets users already own a mac at home, so they give up the optical drives and ports. And it targets frequent business traveler, lighter to carry and thinner to fit in briefcase. In general, it targets mac users who frequently travel and with spending power.
First of all, the upgrade problem, come on guys! The targets of Air are not you guys!! It targets people who can afford it, and can afford to buy a new computer every year or two, namely rich business person. I never upgrade my Mac, I just buy a new one every 12months or so. Sell my old one for 40% off, add a couple hundred bucks and I get a spankin new Mac.
Expansion ports? I mean, I guess people don’t understand the word “portability”. If I want a really portable computer, would I carry a printer, a camera, a scanner, a mouse, a keyboard, and possibly a USB drinks warmer with me?? hm… I don’t so. So why would I need 20 ports on a ultraportable notebook?
Non-removable battery is a problem?? who would carry extra battery for notebooks? It’s not a camera or cell phone! If you can’t find a outlet within that 3 hours of battery life and you need to work that bad… you’d better off just staying home. Again, we are talking about portability, and why would you want to carry more stuff with you?
Lack of optical drive… This is a real problem! But not a big one. Think about it, how often you stick a CD/DVD into you laptop when you are on the road? Besides large size software, you can pretty much get anything from the internet these days… so, I don’t think its a real big problem.
I am photographer and I have a MacBook. It is a pain to carry my laptop on a trip with me when I already got 20 pounds of photo equipments with me already. And the “Air” seems to be a solution to my problem. Of course, as a smart Mac user… NEVER buy their first patch of products, they are usually over priced or have some problems (like iPhone, !st gen MacBook). I will wait til they get their second generation out, then I’ll definitely buy the version with SSD.