First look: Apple's new 11 and 13 inch MacBook Air - Page 2

Well, a year ago, some people said they hoped the iPad would be an ultraportable, keyboardless Mac. Well, this is as close as you're going to get to such a thing.

Thanks for the review, BTW. Haven't been to the Apple Store, but this answers a lot of my questions about the MacBook Air, its size, and weight. I want one, but I think my iPad would get jealous

13 MBP v. 11 MBA (iFxiit hasnt done a 13 MBA teardown). Notice how much space the HDD and ODD take up.

The speaker on the 11 MBA look pretty good compared to the 13 MBP. They sounded pretty good, too.

11 MBA speaker assembly *

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/v...heF5sJW.medium
13 MBP speaker assembly http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/F...VpRfe3N.medium

Ive never had a bad experience with an Apple keyboard so Im sure Id be fine with the current MBAs.

Here is one users breakdown of an earlier MBP keyboard. Its hard to tell but it looks pretty dang thin. Of course, that doesnt exclude that a reason for them not being able to include it with this model. Maybe a savvy DIYer will attempt to add it.

http://johannesluderschmidt.de/lang/...with-ftir/271/

Certainly, a couple of years ago the MBA was at the top of the sexy tech pyramid. But these days with the iPad out, even such a nice upgrade can not help to get that old magic back. Still it's Apple competing with itself so what the h.

I don't understand why anyone thinks 16:9 displays are a good idea on a small notebook. On a large display like an iMac, you can display documents side by side. But on a notebook, most documents are too small to read side by side. So 16:9 is only good for widescreen videos, and it doesn't give you enough vertical space to work on documents or view photographs with a portrait orientation.

I like the design and I'd want the 11 inch if it were not $999. I can't justify that price for what you get

Yes, please report back. I've also got a 15" MBP and would like to see how usable the slower MBA is for coding. Since Apple isn't known for bloaty software releases (unlike, say, Windows Vista), it's hard to imagine that XCode could somehow not run well on a 1.4Ghz Core 2 Duo. The C2D is a really good chip design, and it put Intel back in the saddle. Plus long time Cocoa/NeXT developers have been using XCode (Project Builder) for years on far slower systems (PowerPCs, Intel 486s, and even the NeXT Cube's Motorola 68030). There would be something seriously wrong with Apple if XCode could not run adequately on a 1.4Ghz Core 2 Duo.

Second, I expect the switch to SSD to speed up a disk-heavy activity like compiling code, which could compensate for the slower processor.

That made me smile, seeings as how when Apple first put the black bezel on their laptops (not very long ago at all) a lot of people thought it was hideous and made them look like generic Windows laptops.

You can get a lighter and thinner machine than the new MacBook Air from Sony, the Sony X series; it's about the same price.

Yes, its overall height is thinner, but its a consistence thickness actually making its internal space larger than the more condensed MBA.

Yes, if you want the 3 hour battery that will probably yield you about 1.5-2 hours in a wireless productivity test it weighs in at 1.6lbs. If you go with the larger battery it weighs as much as MBA, of course that costs more.

No, its not about the same price as the MBA. it starts at $300 more than MBA. Seriously! Even if they were the same performance like the original MBA copycat ultra-portables, but its not.

Why not? The MBA uses C2D and Nvidia GPU those components by themselves. push it past the average selling price of a typical netbook which, coincidentally, is what the Sony Vaio X is, a very expensive netbook as it uses an Atom CPU.

Granted, a lot of the other components are pretty nice in the Sony Vaio X, but when your CPU -and- GPU are dog ass slow its not good. Plus, looking at the components used and knowing basic costs for components (e.g.: Atom Z550 CPU ≈$60, SFF CULV C2D SL9600 ≈$280) you realize that Sony is counting on people only looking at the Intel 2GHz processor statement and not dig any deeper.

You have to hold down the power key.

Some people don't need the extra power but value lightness and smallness, eg. a writer who travels a lot: they need a physical keyboard (not iPad) but having up to 8gb RAM, a 500gb HDD, and an i5 would be uneccisary.

Personnaly I know someone with all three (iPad, MacBook Air, MBP)

My thoughts exactly. 16:9 on a 27"+ display works fine- but it's just wasted on small displays.

After all this time we still have the "I don't get the MacBook Air" brigade spouting their mouths off...

Seems to me people like to speak their opinions for no good reason at all. The Air has sold well and these models will too. They are perfection to their target market. To the rest of the world they aren't. If that is you don't bother stating the obvious.

And as for the moronic comment about 4gb of RAM not being enough... I would guess that 90% plus of MacBook Pro's DON'T have any more than this in them today.

While someone is lunging these new Airs, cannot help thinking that iPad is the way to go. I can get almost all I want to do on a mobile computer with this 1.5 lb 10+hr 3G Internet and touch screen. See image below and compare to real estate shown on the first post.

Guess you won't be getting an iMac then. Jobs HATES BluRay. It's not gonna happen...

Soooo Im debating between a macbook pro and a macbook air. The mba looks really sleek , but I am trying to figure out what performance am I going to lose as compared to a macbook pro. What are the major differences? Im trying to see if it is worth the extra money in buying a macbook pro with all the bells and whistles. I really don't care for the optical drive.

Ferget it. I can't figure out how to upload a picture!

I wouldnt say he hates Blu-ray. In fact, I bet 100:1 odds in your favour that Jobs has Blu-ray players in his home. Perhaps in a home theater setup.

Now Apple, Jobs and rational people see that Blu-ray in a PC makes little sense, especially when most of your Macs have 13 displays, when the drives would cost at least $500 each (going with the less expensive tray-loading drives because i cant find any 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drives), when these drives are slow to read and write, when they take up a lot of room, need a lot of power, have many moving parts, are being far outstripped by digital streaming, and still behind DVD media in sales and rentals.

Its just a bad decision all around.

Why did they leave off an optical drive? This is important to some people who view movies or listen to music.Good prices.I just bought a new MBP 13inch.

Exactly. I've been waiting for years for a low profile, small form factor laptop from Apple that I can travel with. I'm on the road 3-4 weeks of every month, logging well over a hundred flights annually. I've grown tired of lugging my 13" Al MacBook along, it's just slightly too large screen-wise & base-wise for the aircraft seat back tray, and the weight starts becoming very annoying along about April.

The 11.6" looks almost perfect, save for the lack of Gig Ethernet and very tiny storage. I'm looking at my MacBook now and I've already got 111GB used out of the 300GB HDD I installed immediately after I bought the machine. No way 128GB SSD is going to work. I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to be able to put my whole life and business on this gorgeous travel companion.

So, then I think: hey, I can possibly pair this with a desktop iMac 27", and move a bunch of Applications and photos and music and movies, etc., over to that machine & use Apple Remote Desktop and tunnel into the office via SSH while on the road.

But then I remember, drat, there's no Gig Ethernet on the new MBA11.6, the connection to the remote machine's going to be slow as molasses. Plus, without GigE, I won't be able to really take advantage of the office's amazingly fast internet connection (we do not have a wireless network at work). I am pleased that Apple at least put an extra USB port on the machine. But I did notice on the original MBA, running Ethernet over USB just slows things down anyway.

I love the iPad - bought one for my wife and she just adores the machine - but it can't run Excel (Numbers won't cut it) or PPT or Word or Photoshop, it's not the machine for me. So I waited for the company that invented the small footprint laptop market to get back into the game. I wanted a small footprint OS X unit built for road warriors. But road warriors need to haul a lot a crap with them... when you're sitting in front of a customer after traveling 18 hours to get there, you better have all the specs and installation presentations with you.

So, I'm really torn at this point. And I'm pissed that there always has to be some sort of compromise, that Apple is constantly asking us to settle for this or that. I guess that's how they get $51B in the bank. Apple does not have an application or system that allows a user to clone a partial replica or sub-set of their User from a desktop machine to a portable, and since the new MBA11.6 does not have a fast Ethernet connection, making remote connections painfully slow, this has become a difficult decision.

At I time when I feel I should be rejoicing, I'm also feeling frustrated, dammit. Almost exactly what I want but yet, unusable. Grrrr.........

Is that a serious question?

USB Dongles are so cheap nowadays, they were the prime giveaway at GSMA last year with the companies marketing docs on them. I would assume that if apple buys millions, they can get them cheaper than what I can get them for which is about 2-3 bucks for a 2 gig stick. Also the design isn't really new, there are a few out there that basically shed the shield around the connector , Sandisk's Micro USB dongle that they were supplying with their cards used the same principle and was basically a thing to put on your keychain...

A

I can live with everything except for the battery life.

Considering its read-only flash, it could be significantly cheaper than other flash drives at cost.

Can you kindly give me a link where you buy a 2GB USB stick for $3? I would really appreciate it. The last quote I got was almost $8 for a 1GB drive. Thanks so much!!!!

agreed!!!
I would care to add that while I will never get OER UNDERSTAND the MBA OR THE IPAD While i can use my 15 in 2 gpu chip MBP 3.02GHZ > I would never ever have time to use these great devices anyway .

Scores upon scores of millions agree with me .

But there are many more who travel long ways all YEAR long where 6 less pounds to lug around is a god like joy !!

An ODE to all those who must travel light and fast has been written by apple .

I feel the MBA will grow larger and larger in footprint and the MBP will one day be in a classic mode .One or two 15in plus perfect models that mimic the 160g ipod of today .


9

SANDISK PUT SUPER CHEAP small drives on sale at best buy all the time .Not as cheap as you say .
but still $8 bucks for 4g sounds about right .

Here is Google Shooping.

•

http://www.google.com/search?client=...52f06f275464f7 The lowest they list right now is $5, but if you buy in bulk, wholesale or find some “slickdeal” you can get them for the prices he stated. I’ve seen them that low before.

Note that the USB Restore Stick for the MBAs is apparently 8GB. Those are as low as $10 on Google Shopping.

•

http://www.google.com/search?client=...52f06f275464f7 If we consider the low-grade read-only flash that Apple needs for these Restore Sticks and quantity it’s pretty damn cheap. Certainly a lot cheaper than including an ODD in a Mac notebook. My questions are: How long until other Mac notebooks start replacing the ODD to use that 25%* internal space and that 5” of port-side space? What are the specs on the flash they used? How did they the entire Mac OS X and iLife onto 8GB, when before it came on 2x DL-DVDs?


* Percentage based on 13” MB and MBP.

I now hear that all blu-ray codes have been broken by the pirates / Some recent boots i got are encoded in blu tray and hd -dvd at the same time .

Blu ray will now start to become very very cheap . look at what a plasma 50in cost 4 yrs ago 3k ?? More ?? Today you can buy for 800$

The incredible country wide battle for our media dollars means APPLE will have to get blu ray in its computers .

RANT OVER.


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Same here, it's an obvious point. And a dissapointing choice by apple. I think screen manufacturers forced them to go this way, since the 16:9 garbage aspect (to me of course, I don't claim this universally) has become industry standard.

Blu-ray players are already cheap. Last holiday season they were under $100, now you can even one for under $27. Id expect B&M retail stores will have plenty around $79 this holiday shopping season.

But they arent any good. Having a video take 5 minutes to load, be choppy and blocky, pause between chapters, or simply quit altogether doesnt make for a good experience. But, hey, tey technically can play Blu-ray.

Bu those are large, clunky drives that are poor in every way. Apple would have to use a 9.5mm ultra-slim tray-loading Blu-ray player. But how makes those? Why would Apple invest in them?

I download a lot of torrents of UK shows (cant get them in the US) and Ill go for the SD AVIs over the HD MKVs if available. on my 13 MBP I just dont get a visual advantage.

Its clear that Blu-ray is great for an home theater setup, but its pointless for notebook users, which is Apples Mac bread-and-butter.

Honestly, Bruce, what benefit would a $700 option for a $999 MacBook would Blu-ray offer on a 1280x800 13.3 display?

I picked up an 11.6" MBA yesterday, and after getting it set up I have to say, I am going to sell my 13.3" MBP and my iPad. Even with the paltry 2GB of RAM, this thing does just fine.

I used to be heavy into photography and spent lots of time in Aperture and CS3, but I'm not doing that anymore and have found that, quite frankly, there really isn't much a difference in terms of performance between the MBA and the MBP for everyday computing tasks.

Where the difference is huge, however, is just in the experience of having such a light and nimble machine. I guess I won't know for sure until I get more time under my belt, but I like the idea of being back to bringing one device along instead of two.

I think that every once in awhile we need to step back from our geek-roots, and pick up a device and just try to do some real-world stuff with it instead of getting wrapped around the axel over specs and benchmark results.

Here is a geek-fact that I find amazing, though: For about $1100 bucks I got a sub-three-pound computer without any moving parts that runs for five hours on a charge and does everything I need it to. That is pretty amazing! By the time I factor in the sale of my MBP and iPad, my computer bag is lighter and my wallet is heavier.

These are sweet machines. They look nice they are built great but a little underpowered for me. I run CS4 and I just don't want to step back on speed. However if I in school, a lawyer, a writer or someone else that just typed and video I would go but one today.

My current lineup is such: 2006 imac (works great), 2007 macbook (wife's, works great), and 2 iphone 4s. The wife doesn't like sharing her macbook, so I'd like to get something for mobile computing that is more capable than my iphone. I thought ipad at first, but there are some really irritating things about iOS where it won't/can't play embedded videos about 50% of the time (depends on format, of course... just going from my experience of what hasn't run on my iphone). Plus, I'd like to be able to competently run Excel and Word. So, I'd like to have OSX. We already have a macbook and the weight and size of it really dragged on me when we were traveling in Europe last month. Seems like the MBA fits my niche. Building non-mac netbooks gets me to around $700 for most when I've swapped in an SSD and upgraded the ram to 4GB. So, $300 gets me OSX instead of Windows, which is pretty much worth the cost of entry itself. And it is made of a nice aluminum case instead of a chintzy plastic-fantastic case.

I'm in the AppleStore now looking at the new MBA. The 11" model is just gorgeous. I'm so frustrated that you can only buy a 2GB RAM version in the AppleStore. I can't buy online so I'll have to order a 1.6GHz 4GB RAM model through an independent dealer. Come on Apple I would rather buy it in the AppleStore. Walking out without a MBA today

Why cant you buy online? Cant you use cash to get gift cards which can be redeemed online, or is there another reason?

It's a premium netbook (11 inch model).
Portability of ipad + power of OS-X = macbook air(11 inch).

I would rather have 11 inch macbook air than (ipad + macbook white).

If you think about it:
(Cheap PC with lots of storage + 11 inch macbook air + iphone.) is best deal
maximum features with minimum money invested.

It depends upon the carrier of course but I understand your issue with MBP and using them on a plane. The weight isn't an issue for me but the size means you might as well leave the machine in your bag.

The lack of GigE is very significant. I know a lot of people will say but you have WiFi to which I have to say so! WiFi is often not available or so slow as to not be usable, but at the same time the hotel may have a high speed ethernet connection. Even if both is available the wired connection can be extremely fast.

I'M also with you on the storage issue. My installation is a little thinner at around 80 to 90 GB so a 128 GB SSD is too small. Especially when I carry my iTunes library on a second harddrive. Due to large transient files a 200GB drive barelly covers my needs.

In the case of the 11" AIR the problem is truly artificial as the 13" machine uses the same card format from what I can see. Apple is really missing the boat here with respect to storage.

Especially with a SSD where extra capacity helps prevent nasty slowdowns. If your average usage is that close to 128 GB then you might as well not bother. The only possible solution would be compression but that only works if your data compresses well. It is also a pain in the a$$.

What isn't clear yet is if this SSD module is based on open standards that would allow for upgrades. If you could get a reasonably priced replacement SSD with greater than 256GB of storage the 11" AIR suddenly becomes a much more interesting machine. Hopefully we will know the details shortly but if we are limited to Apple solutions for storage then these new machines are a little bit more disappointing.

The problem here is that you now have to count on some sort of internet access. That is the last thing you want to do wben contacting a client. There is less risk in carrying a external disk or a large capacity compact flash card, and that is risky.

Even if you have GigE you still can't rely upon having a connection when you need it. Especially for people working with clients in the field.

This is where AIR comes up short that is having the room storage wise to make sure everything is there.

I understand, it is frustrating no doubt. At best you can hope for third party support for more storage. If that doesn't happen the little AIR is useless. More frustrating is that this seems like an artificial limitation on Apples part. In any event there is always the 13" machine which is a lot less gimped than the 11" machine.

Also feedback to Apple might help.

OUt of curiosity, when did we start classifiying netbooks on (what I assume is) the display size? Is this magic number under 12.1 thus excluding Apples preevious PowerBook and iBook, or are they now considered netbooks, too?

Personally, I classify netbooks based on other factors. Lets jump back a couple years when netbooks came into being. They were given life because Intel released an x86 capable chip called the Atom processor that was low-power, low-performing, cheap and small. The C2Ds used in the MBAs are low-power and small, but they are much more capable than Atom and a lot more expensive because of it. They also have full-sized keyboards, which those 10 netbooks do not. Both the cramped keyboard and under-powered Atom makes them okay for using the net, hence the nomenclature, but thats about it. Surely, the 11.6 MBA isnt better than the 13.3 MBA isnt better than the 13.3 MB/MBP isnt better than the 15 MBP isnt better than the 17 isnt better than the iMac isnt better than the Mac Pro depending on your workload, but to call it a netbook seems disingenuous when you consider the origins of those first netbooks.