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
In my previous post, I mentioned that for the first few moments, I thought I was using the "old" MBA. That also included the keyboard. I didn't find any noticeable difference with the keyboard compared to my 1st-gen MBA. That's how close they kept it. I myself was not bothered by the keyboard. Felt the same to me.
I?ve never had a bad experience with an Apple keyboard so I?m sure I?d be fine with the current MBAs.
Here is one users breakdown of an earlier MBP keyboard. It?s hard to tell but it looks pretty dang thin. Of course, that doesn?t exclude that a reason for them not being able to include it with this model. Maybe a savvy DIYer will attempt to add it.
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.
...the 11 inch model shaves off a little weight and significant size while retaining a full sized keyboard and trackpad. It does give up some display area, and the subtraction is most obvious in the vertical axis. So much so that you may want to reposition the Dock on the side or configure it to hide in order to have enough vertical room to work on your documents.
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'm a programmer. I want to checkout my code on an 11" MBA and go to a cafe or work where I please. I have a 15" MBP and I'm really looking forward to my MBA being delivered in a week. In the store they seem responsive but I didn't have a chance to test Xcode. Maybe I'm a fool for rushing to it, but that little 11" is really moving. I just wish they didn't have the nasty silver bezel around the screen.
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.
..... I just wish they didn't have the nasty silver bezel around the screen.
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.
Boy if you are HP, Dell, Microsoft and all the other guys. You have to be wondering, Is this ever gonna stop. NOOOO Way Man. Just thinking about some off the things they have rethought about lately, new AppleTV, Mac App Store, FaceTime, etc.
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.
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, it?s overall height is thinner, but it?s a consistence thickness actually making it?s 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, it?s 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 it?s 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 it?s 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.
I don't like that power button so close to the delete key. I hit the eject key by accident all the time; if that was a power button that would be very annoying.
I don't get it. Why would I buy an Air 11" but for the same price, I get a much better machine buying the MacBook 13"? Makes no sense to me.
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)
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.
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.
Beautiful machine and I'd take one over an iPad anyday, but my next PC will be a desktop of some flavour. I just need Apple to make an iMac with USB 3 and Blu-Ray and I'll click 'add to cart'.
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.
Guess you won't be getting an iMac then. Jobs HATES BluRay. It's not gonna happen...
I wouldn?t 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 can?t 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.
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.
Air is about ultimate mobility. You want something that won't do much more then web and office then air is perfect for you. Intended Audience would be journalists, bloggers, and frequent travalers (though bettery life needs to improve a bit for this category).
If you want video editing, music editing, auto cad, programming, and other CPU intensive tasks you would just buy a pro. I think air will replace MacBook when SSd prices drop.
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.........
Comments
In my previous post, I mentioned that for the first few moments, I thought I was using the "old" MBA. That also included the keyboard. I didn't find any noticeable difference with the keyboard compared to my 1st-gen MBA. That's how close they kept it. I myself was not bothered by the keyboard. Felt the same to me.
I?ve never had a bad experience with an Apple keyboard so I?m sure I?d be fine with the current MBAs.
Here is one users breakdown of an earlier MBP keyboard. It?s hard to tell but it looks pretty dang thin. Of course, that doesn?t exclude that a reason for them not being able to include it with this model. Maybe a savvy DIYer will attempt to add it.
...the 11 inch model shaves off a little weight and significant size while retaining a full sized keyboard and trackpad. It does give up some display area, and the subtraction is most obvious in the vertical axis. So much so that you may want to reposition the Dock on the side or configure it to hide in order to have enough vertical room to work on your documents.
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'm a programmer. I want to checkout my code on an 11" MBA and go to a cafe or work where I please. I have a 15" MBP and I'm really looking forward to my MBA being delivered in a week. In the store they seem responsive but I didn't have a chance to test Xcode. Maybe I'm a fool for rushing to it, but that little 11" is really moving. I just wish they didn't have the nasty silver bezel around the screen.
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.
..... I just wish they didn't have the nasty silver bezel around the screen.
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.
Boy if you are HP, Dell, Microsoft and all the other guys. You have to be wondering, Is this ever gonna stop. NOOOO Way Man. Just thinking about some off the things they have rethought about lately, new AppleTV, Mac App Store, FaceTime, etc.
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.
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, it?s overall height is thinner, but it?s a consistence thickness actually making it?s 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, it?s 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 it?s 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 it?s 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.
I don't like that power button so close to the delete key. I hit the eject key by accident all the time; if that was a power button that would be very annoying.
You have to hold down the power key.
I don't get it. Why would I buy an Air 11" but for the same price, I get a much better machine buying the MacBook 13"? Makes no sense to me.
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)
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.
My thoughts exactly. 16:9 on a 27"+ display works fine- but it's just wasted on small displays.
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.
Beautiful machine and I'd take one over an iPad anyday, but my next PC will be a desktop of some flavour. I just need Apple to make an iMac with USB 3 and Blu-Ray and I'll click 'add to cart'.
Guess you won't be getting an iMac then. Jobs HATES BluRay. It's not gonna happen...
Guess you won't be getting an iMac then. Jobs HATES BluRay. It's not gonna happen...
I wouldn?t 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 can?t 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.
It?s just a bad decision all around.
Air is about ultimate mobility. You want something that won't do much more then web and office then air is perfect for you. Intended Audience would be journalists, bloggers, and frequent travalers (though bettery life needs to improve a bit for this category).
If you want video editing, music editing, auto cad, programming, and other CPU intensive tasks you would just buy a pro. I think air will replace MacBook when SSd prices drop.
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.........