The envelope had been lying there on the minimalist desk all throughout Jobs’ keynote. The rumours had been clear: Apple is going to launch a subnotebook, a sort of MacBook Mini. Despite the rumours, the collective gasp of amazement was clearly audible when Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of the envelope. I have to admit, even I was all wowed. Consequently, you can imagine I was delighted when Apple NL agreed to loan me a review unit as soon as they had the MacBook Air in stock. Read on for the review. Apart from the ‘wow’ feeling when I first saw the MacBook Air, I immediately had my doubts too. The device was light, thin, good looking, yes – but also appeared to be awfully limited, with barely any input/output options, no optical drive, and no upgradability of any mentionable kind. Even though these might not exactly be features one would look for in a notebook of the MacBook Air type, it did worry me, especially seeing the fairly hefty price tag.
In any case, I now have the MacBook Air, I have been testing it for a while now, so I can now see if my reservations had any validity.
They sent me the following configuration:
They also included the USB-to-ethernet adapter and the external USB SuperDrive.
The look
The MacBook Air comes in black packaging, and when you first pick up the box you actually wonder if they put bricks in there – the box is heavy. In fact, the empty box of the Air is much heavier than the Air itself, which only illustrates how light this notebook actually is. After unboxing the whole thing, and holding the Air in my hands for the first time, I have to admit that my usual cynical self was nowhere to be found – I was absolutely baffled by the thinness and lightness of the MacBook Air. I kept turning it around in my hands, weighing it, and seeing how many fingers I needed to pick it up. Do you remember Apple using the “Where did the computer go?” tagline for the iMac G5? Trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Simply put, the MacBook Air is a normal MacBook, made out of aluminium, squashed to a third of its thickness. This is a completely different approach to ultra-portable notebooks than many other manufacturers have taken.
I subjected the MacBook Air to a ‘wow’ test. This is a simple test that you can perform on just about any item; just show it to your friends and family, and see how many times people go ‘wow!’ or something similar. I always got a whole lot of ‘wows’ when people saw my Cube, but that was nothing compared to the amount of ‘wows’ the Air received. Boys, girls, young, old: they were all drawn towards the Air, they wanted to hold it, pet it, and play with it. This machine has a seriously high ‘wow-factor’.
The build quality seems excellent, but despite what other reviewers have said, this device does in fact flex quite easily. I could get various surfaces and corners to bend fairly easily by applying minimal amounts of pressure. In other words, I am not so sure about its sturdiness as many other reviewers and bloggers have been. Since I am not rich, and oh, also because this MacBook Air is actually not mine, I do not have the means to actually test its durability properly.
Looks are, of course, heavily subjective, but personally, I really like the looks of the device. It has more curved surfaces than Apple’s other notebooks, giving it a distinctive look, even from a distance. Its exterior surface is completely smooth, except for the collapsable ‘slot bay’ (and a few other obvious things like air vents and the rubber feet). As soon as you open the device, you will notice the black keys of the keyboard, the large touchpad, and the apparent lack of speakers.
The keyboard
The Air’s full-size keyboard is a gift – many devices this small and light tend to have crammed, unusable keyboards, so having a full-sized one is a relief. The keyboard has one much-touted feature that needs quite some work: the keyboard lighting. In all honesty, it is driving me nuts. Let me explain. Without the keyboard lighting, the keyboard is unreadable in lower-light conditions (which basically means the second the sun goes down, I prefer few lights in my house – much cozier that way), so you really do need the keyboard lighting.
The normal way in which Macs handle keyboard lighting is by using the ambient light sensor (my PowerBook G4 does that too); the lower the light conditions, the brighter the illumination. Sadly, this somehow never works quite the way I want it to, so I just put the lighting to maximum manually using the dedicated function keys. All good, right?
No. The Air insists on turning the lighting off after a short period of inactivity – watch a scene on TV, and the illumination turns off. The problem? It does not automatically turn on again. In other words, you need to turn it on manually every time. Trust me – this gets real old, real fast. There is a slider in Keyboard Preferences that lets you set the illumination to never turn itself off – but this option does not work. It will still turn itself off.
On a keyboard that actually requires this lighting in order to be used properly, these sorts of bugs or errors are unforgivable. I hope a software fix is all it takes to fix this.
This does not mean, however, that the keyboard does not look good. Trust me: the black keys, with the white illuminated symbols on it, and a white glow surrounding each key – it looks nothing short of stunning. I hope Apple fixes the bug soon.
The speaker
The speaker actually deserves a special note. Yes, you read that right, that is the singular form. That in and of itself is not a problem at all; seeing this device’s intended use cases, there is no need for stereo speakers, in my opinion. The speaker’s quality is of course abysmal, but again, I have no problems with that. This device is not intended for playing music out of its own speaker – nor is any other laptop for that matter.
So, what is the problem then? Well, the location of the speaker. It is located underneath the keyboard (slick!), to the right. Meaning, all the sounds you hear come from the right. This may seem like a trivial thing, but trust me, this is really, really annoying. I certainly would have preferred the mono speaker to be centered.
The trackpad
The MacBook Air is the first Apple notebook which incorporates the multitouch technology used in Apple’s iPod Touch and iPhone. While on those two devices it actually makes sense to have such features, I am a bit more skeptical about this technology on my touchpad.
First of all, Apple made the touchpad big. As in, really big. This is a good thing, as it gives you more room to play with. The bad thing is that they made the trackpad button significantly narrower than on other notebooks, and this poses problems for accuracy – Fitts’ Law, anyone? It is really easy to miss the button now during some serious touchpad action.
The big thing is of course the multitouch gestures that are implemented in the new trackpad. You can ‘pinch’ to zoom photos/images, you can rotate photos/images, you can ‘swipe’ through lists, and zoom the desktop. You can activate and deactivate these gestures in the Keyboard & Mouse preferences panel, where videos are shown that explain how the actions work – nicely done.
To me, the multitouch feels like a fun but rather useless gimmick. It has not been implemented in a wide-enough fashion for it to be of any real use, and the places where it is implemented, it simply lacks refinement. For instance, you can pinch and zoom in Safari, but it only zooms the text, not the images or the webpage itself. The desktop zoom does zoom everything, but of course just makes it all look blurry. In all honesty, I have never seen any use in desktop zooming without proper resolution independence anyway.
The ports (or lack thereof)
Three ports: mini-DVI, USB 2.0, audio-out. No, FireWire, no ethernet, no second USB port. Apple has concluded that the world is going WiFi anyway, so let’s discard of all those ugly holes in the side of your laptop. The three ports are located in a collapsable ‘slot bay’, which has its ports all cozily snuggled next to each other, which means you need really small plugs in order to actually use the ports.
The MacBook Air also lacks an internal optical drive. While this surely helps in keeping the Air light, thin, and beautiful, it also severely limits the device. This means you are always dependent on other computers or peripheral devices if you want something off a CD or DVD.
Apple has two ways to get around this problem: the first solution is optical drive sharing. Any Windows box or Mac can share its optical drive with the MacBook Air, which then becomes accessible on the Air itself, provided they are on the same network (of course). There are limitations; you cannot watch DVDs or listen to CDs, and you cannot rip them either. This feature also allows you to remotely install Mac OS X on the Air.
The second solution Apple came up with is a really, really slick external Superdrive, which comes in at USD 99/EUR 89. The device uses the USB 2.0 plug, and works just fine, and looks really good while doing it. Sadly, the drive only works with the Air, so forget using it on your other Macs (I would have bought this drive immediately to ‘upgrade’ my PowerBook from its combodrive to a superdrive if it were not for that fact). The drive works with just about any format, including dual-layer discs.
The lack of an ethernet port also raised some eyebrows. This issue can be solved by the optional USB-to-ethernet adaptor (USD 29/EUR 29), but that means yet another device to carry along – which kind of defeats the purpose of the ultra-portable.
In conclusion, I am guessing whoever thought of the brilliant idea to leave out all the ports and the optical drive never really left the Apple campus or the local Starbucks, since out in the real world, freely accessible WiFi is uncommon. Sure, my university has WiFi, but that is only for students and employees. Cafeteria with WiFi are still a rarity in The Netherlands (even in Amsterdam), and WiFi hotspots out in the wild? You have more chance of spotting a dodo in Antarctica than finding one of those around here. And this is The Netherlands we are talking about – a country with very high internet and broadband penetration, and one of the richest countries in the world with a very high population density. What about the rest of the world? Anything else but the western world? Rural Germany, France, or United States?
While I would love to see a world where wireless internet is ubiquitous, we still have a very, very, very long way to go before we ever reach that utopia. In other words, the MacBook Air caters to a world that does not exist yet; a world that the Air will most likely not even see in its lifetime. For a device that is meant to be taken on the road, it simply lacks the connectivity options to deal with actually being on the road.
The setup
Settig up the Air is a breeze, just like any other Macintosh, thanks to the excellent migration assistant that ships with Mac OS X. Just boot up your ‘old’ and new Mac, load up the migration assistant, connect them via a FireWire cable, and off you go… Wait, the Air lacks a FireWire port, right? How would this work?
Enter, unsurprisingly, WiFi. Yes, you can now use the migration assistant over WiFi, and contrary to the experiences of other reviewers out there, it worked just mighty fine for me. The Air had some trouble finding my PowerBook, but once they found each other, it just took a lot of waiting to transfer the 8GB of data that I needed transferred (just 8GB? I am such a lousy geek). I in fact do not know how long it actually took, seeing I needed to leave for work about 3 hours into the process. When I got home three hours later, it was all done, and my Air looked exactly like my PowerBook.
The performance
In all honesty, I do not think I am the right person to be telling you about performance, since I do not place my computers under a lot of stress. I do not play games, do not do any heavy compiling, and I do not edit video like Eugenia does all the time. I do use Photoshop, but since even my 1.25Ghz PowerBook G4 with 2GB of RAM serves me just fine on the Photoshop front, you can see how I would not be hindered in any way by the Air’s supposed lack of power compared to the ordinary MacBook.
The Air performs just fine in my book, and I feel little in the way of slowdown for my usage patterns (email, IM, browsing, university work) compared to the ordinary MacBook I tested in November last year.
The conclusion
The MacBook Air is an excellent piece of engineering by Intel and Apple, and both companies deserve praise for making such a slim, beautiful, and sexy laptop. If it are looks you are looking for, look no further than the MacBook Air – I find it the best-looking notebook money can buy.
It does have a serious set of limitations, but those limitations are based largely on personal usage patterns and expectations of what a laptop of the Air type needs to be able to do. My personal opinion is that since the Air is supposed to be used ‘on the go’, it better be equipped for being ‘on the go’ too, and in that area, the Air simply does not deliver. It works fine for an urban, western lifestyle (did I actually use those three words in a single sentence? May god striketh me down), going from work/university to Starbucks, back to home. But leave that comforting triangle, and the MacBook Air kind of starts acting like a fish that cannot swim. However, that opinion is based on my personal expectations of an ultra-portable notebook; seeing there is no set definition of this niche of the market, it is hard to generalise that opinion to the rest of you.
Then there is the issue of money. The MBA costs USD 1799/EUR 1699, which is a lot of money for a laptop that actually does less than the 1099 ordinary MacBook – and let’s face it, the normal MacBook is no heavyweight either. It is completely up to you if you are willing to spend that much more money on a laptop that gives you fewer features, better looks, and more portability.
An eery feelings creeps up my spine. Are we looking at the laptop equivalent of the PowerMac Cube? Yes we are, with one major difference: Apple is on a winning streak. The Cube was launched in a pre-OS X, pre-iPod world, and those two things alone seriously hindered the Cube. The Air does not have those disadvantages, and as such, I am sure it will be a hit for Apple.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
Apple has two ways to get around this problem: the first solution is optical drive sharing. Any Windows box or Mac can share its optical drive with the MacBook Air, which then becomes accessible on the Air itself, provided they are on the same network (of course). There are limitations; you cannot watch DVDs or listen to CDs, and you cannot rip them either.
You didn’t try using VLC? CDs I can understand because they aren’t volumes in any filesystem sense, but DVDs?
Edited 2008-02-29 15:57 UTC
While I would love to see a world where wireless internet is ubiquitous, we still have a very, very, very long way to go before we ever reach that utopia. In other words, the MacBook Air caters to a world that does not exist yet;
Ehm, yeah. Indeed, if it had a normal ethernet connector, everything would be fine, since, well, as we all know, the world (including rural Germany) is full of network cables waiting for your laptop to be plugged in.
JAL
As if the ethernet port is the only thing that is missing. Please do not take any quotes out of context just to make them fit your argument.
As if the ethernet port is the only thing that is missing. Please do not take any quotes out of context just to make them fit your argument.
The context is just above it Thom:
since out in the real world, freely accessible WiFi is uncommon. Sure, my university has WiFi, but that is only for students and employees. Cafeteria with WiFi are still a rarity in The Netherlands (even in Amsterdam), and WiFi hotspots out in the wild? (…) What about the rest of the world? Anything else but the western world? Rural Germany, France, or United States?
I was obviously also reacting to that. Your point seems “the MacBook Air should’ve had an ethernet port, since there’s no WiFi in most parts of the (western) world”, but in most parts of the (western) world, there’s also no ethernet cables lying around to attach to (let alone in “rural Germany”).
JAL
I think Thom’s point was simply that wired connections are still much more common than wireless – and that the lack of built-in ethernet will be an inconvenience for users in many situations.
In my personal experience, I’ve also found wireless networking to be less reliable and, often, much more hassle to get working. For a simple thought experiment, imagine a random sample of 2 typical laptop owners and stick them in a room with their laptops and a crossover ethernet cable. Then ask them to try to connect their laptops to one another via an ad-hoc wireless network, and then do the same using the x-over cable.
And then ask either of the typical laptop owners what a “crossover cable” even is.
Edited 2008-03-03 21:29 UTC
Doesn’t matter. All they will see is that the ends of the cable have plugs that look like they should fit into those sockets on their computers. That’s the way end users think. I’ve spent hours trying to track down strange problems at client sites… only to discover in the end that the customer had added a “hub” to their network. A “hub” which which was actually a router… with DHCP server fully functional and enabled. End users go by what things look like and whether the plug fits.
It would be more interesting, I think, to give them a straight through cable and watch them struggle. Smile! You’re on Candid Camera! 🙂
Edited 2008-03-03 21:40 UTC
…and? You could make the exact same point about ad-hoc wireless networks.
Crossover cables aren’t exactly exotic pieces of hardware either – it’s hard to find a computer or electronics store that *doesn’t* stock them.
Wow, that was either a bad attempt at sarcasm or someone just being a jackass.
Well the university I work at does have its own W-LAN, but I’t not necessarily always available. Most time it works, but when you are in a room on the border of the campus then the connectivity is not really good. Also it gets worse when some people start machines that emit electromagnetic waves.
BUT there are wired-network ports EVERYWHERE. Now what? Hope that the people will shut off the machines and stop their tests just so you can reach the network?
Good review. I’ve never been a iShinyGadgets-freak, but the Air has my interest, as I am really pining for something lighter and smaller to carry around to work every day.
However, I’m afraid that the Air might be too “light” for me – in the sense of flexibility. I can’t believe they haven’t put an ethernet port and modem into it. How much extra space could this take?
Also, the sturdiness is something that will have to be proven in the real world. I would consider the Air for a ‘take-it-everwhere’ scenario. If I only need to be portable once in a while, I could do with a cheaper and heavier normal laptop. So, I will await the reports during the next months…
For now, I tend to think that the Lenovo Thinkpad X300 (just released, but not yet in EU) might be a better choice for me. Its physical specs are mostly in line with the Air, but it has all the ports, and you just know a Thinkpad can’t be damaged by a tank… Unfortunately the price tag is somewhat higher as it only has a SSD disk, which is optional for the Air. But, maybe the shininess and the ‘wow’-factor of the Air will win me over regardless.
Time will tell!
Get a thinkpad X series laptop and call it a day. They are “really” meant for mobile roadwarriors. The Air, as Thom pointed out rather well, is more meant for someone with a strictly uptown trek, or never leaves the triangle of starbucks/mall, work, home…and assuming they all have wifi access.
This is one of the better reviews i have read, seemed really objective and balanced, unlike most that sound like adolescent jerkfests.
The Air is kewl, its sleek, and had the ultimate WOW factor rating, but that’s where it stops. This isnt the machine you want wandering in and out of businesses,datacenters, on the road. I read that so far only one usb broadband adapter (novatel by sprint I believe) is narrow enough to fit into the USB slot sans using a usb extension cable…another little item you end up carrying.
Sorry, but I don’t think Apple meant the Air for rural Germany.
They cater to people who are surrounded by wifi spots. It’s not like anyone forces you to use it near a bovine university.
It’s just not designed to blend and there’s nothing wrong with that.
That’s awesome!!!
A mobile computer you can only use when surronded by wifi spot. Great idea, and so very mobile.
Mobile means you can move around at will with it. How far are you going to get with that cat5 cable connected to your “mobile” laptop?
I’m not trying to defend the fact that it doesn’t have one, but your argument that it makes it less mobile is just quite idiotic.
I’m waiting for the 9″ versions of the EeePC or the Everex Cloudbook – with 1024×600 screens (800×480 is too small for me). For me, for about $500 I would have all the portable computer I need. I, too, am tired of “luggable” laptops. I have a fat desktop for power computing, and I can always access it remotely from anywhere in the world if I need the “oomph” while I am on the go. I believe sub-notebook computing has finally arrived – it is quickly becoming the norm for people to have multiple computers. I wish I had money to burn for something like the Air, but $500 is more my range for my second computer. I actually have about 15 computers (oldie goldies), but that is another story!
I second that.
13″ is not portable enough, I want DVD size. I hate my 15,4″ dead weight Acer’s electronic guts, I’m dying for something cheapish I can take on holidays, but capable enough (and enough screen real-estate) to do a bit of work in a pinch. The day I can get a 1024x(whatever) EEEPC (or similar, I hear MSI are cooking something up too), I’m sold.
And by the way, I know there exist 11″ and 12″ laptops with fabulous specs, but they’re hellishly expensive…
I’ll be changing my old 15″ notebook to something smaller after summer but I have already started looking at available options. There are some 12″ ones with rather nice specs for way less that I would have imagined.
For example, 12″ Fujitsu-Siemens, C2D T5250 (1.5GHz), 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel X3100 graphics, 3h battery life for about 680 euro. It’s not as sexy but is powerful enough and 2.5x cheaper that McBook Air. Not hellishly expensive for sure.
Does the machine have a drive bay? I have a Fujitsu T4210 that lasts for a realistic 5h of good usage with the secondary battery inserted in the drive bay.
The notebook I’ve been talking about is Esprimo Mobile U9200. Fujitsu-Siemens website says that you can buy secondary battery and claims up to 8h of work, “imaginary”, I suppose. It will considerably increase the price though.
For example, 12″ Fujitsu-Siemens, C2D T5250 (1.5GHz), 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel X3100 graphics, 3h battery life for about 680 euro. It’s not as sexy but is powerful enough and 2.5x cheaper that McBook Air. Not hellishly expensive for sure.
hu? the only laptop from fsc with an t5250 which i can find is the “Esprimo Mobile Edition 9 V 5505″ – 15,4′ big and weighting 2,7 kg, selling for close to 700 €. the cheapest 12” with an c2d seems to be the “Esprimo Mobile U9200” for around 1000€.
There are some places (here in Poland) that sell Esprimo Mobile U9200 with C2D T5250 for 680€.
Here’s a polish pricegrabber site if you don’t believe me
http://www.ceneo.pl/;004c0+su9200;0112-0.htm
they only sell it with an c2d t7300 in germany. seems like i should risk a look on the other side of the oder/odra next time i buy a computer.
dzien dobry,
those prices are in zloty ?
that is working out at around £500, but the op was looking for something like $500, which is around half what they are looking for.
Now, I love Krakow, and think it is a really cheap place to visit, but computer prices there are just too expensive. Especially laptopi.
Yes, PLN is polish zloty. I realise OP was looking for something Eee-ish in terms of size and price but Dryhte mentioned 12″ notebooks being very expensive – which seems not to be the case anymore, at least not with my example.
I don’t know if I understood you correctly but do you mean to say that laptops are particularly expensive in Poland? I know a lot of people who bought notebooks in UK but I thought they did it just because they work or worked there
Edited 2008-03-02 12:41 UTC
No, Poland is very expensive for both laptops and Desktop machines.
They are round about 1000 to 1200 zloty more expensive than over here.
A decent laptop can be bought for around 400 pounds which translates to around 2000 zloty.
Tyskie and Zywiec are very expensive here though
I third it. 9″ -> 12″ seems to be the sweet spot for mobile PC’s. Those screens have a resolution high enough (usually similar to the 15.4s) to look amazing and are “hand-baggable”. If it’s not baggable then I want it small enough to be pocketable. Oh, and less than 2 kilos please!
I just wanted to make a comment based on the thickness of the MacBook Air. I think the shape of it is genius, because it tricks the eye into seeing it as thinner than it actually is. The slight scallop toward the edges shows you the absolute thinnest part of the laptop at all times when viewing it from the side. While this laptop is extremely thin, it isn’t quite as thin as it appears to be at a glance.
It’s a great design illusion and I hope it’s adopted by more laptops in this category.
You’re right, and that is the problem; the difference in thickness isn’t all that much – and worse, to actually make the whole venture of purchasing the machine worthwhile one has to shell out a few more dollars to get the SSD drive. If the base model included an SSD drive standard and maintained the price, all good, but that isn’t the case.
For me, I have a Black MacBook, and I take it everywhere with me; and the thickness? its a non-issue. a few extra millimetres gives me nothing in the way of space. As I said on a previous forum, if you’re complaining about the ‘weight’ of your MacBook I think that the solution isn’t getting a lighter one but going to the gym and building some muscles. One shouldn’t be so damn unfit to find that the current crop of laptops ‘bulky and heavy’ to carry around.
Great review Thom.
I can’t understand why such a prestige machine can’t have a touch screen.
I could see this machine failing, commercially, and if it does, its real success will be from its effect on the industry.
It is interesting how Apple are going closer and closer to an Internet Tablet model on both ends with the iTouch/iPhone/iPod on one end and the Air on the other. If only they would be open up a tad bit more *sigh*…Should be interesting to see where they end up…
It would seem the age of truly personal computers is upon us; Just like out of StarTrek (Tricorders)or the Shadowrun or BluePlanet RPGs…
Until we are in the thick of it, however, Ill just keep hacking Ruby on my N800!
Edited 2008-02-29 18:34 UTC
I thought your review was good Thom. Thanks.
I did want to comment on the lack of ports… I don’t see that as a problem at all since the MacBook Air is for a specific kind of use.
I am a software engineer, so I use a 17″ MacBook Pro. It gives me all the power I need, is lighter than all the Dells and HPs I’ve used in the past, and it has a nice, wide screen that lets me see as much code as possible. It is perfect for me.
My friend is a financial advisor and travels a lot and does a lot of presentations. He recently got a MacBook Air and he says that it is perfect for him because it is light, ultra portable, and provides every feature that he needs to successfully do his business. In other words, the MacBook Air is perfect for him.
I would never buy a MacBook Air for my job because it doesn’t fit, but the MacBook Pro does. My friend feels the same about his MacBook Air.
Isn’t it wonderful that Apple provides us with a choice?
I think the idea that every product should suite the needs of every individual is flawed, but perhaps that is just me.
Edited 2008-02-29 18:59 UTC
The most sane and intelligent comment I’ve ever heard about this topic. Congratulations !
I carry my Macbook everywhere and I wish I could replace it for a lighter Macbook Air. It delivers simply much more than enough for almost everyone. The main drawback is it’s high price.
As someone who visits lots of corporate customers, I find it very strange that your friend doesn’t miss an ethernet port on the Air…
About half the customers I visit have wireless networks (and will let me use them), all others require me to plug in…
I really can’t understand how they think ethernet has lost relevance.
Luckily for you, ethernet is a merely $29 adapter away…
That’s still 29 EUR in Europe, and, gone is the one USB port. And you have to carry that dongle around (and try to not lose it while on the go).
No one wants to carry around another adapter though. My first laptop didn’t have an ethernet port and I had a stupid PCMCIA card with a dongle that was nothing but a pain in the ass. Haven’t we progressed beyond this? I can perfectly understand leaving out the modem, I haven’t used a modem in about ten years and have never had a need for one in that time frame. I just noticed my Macbook doesn’t have a modem, so I would guess Apple has pretty much put the modem to pasture. My year old HP notebook does have a modem though, for what its worth.
I was going to say “that’s one expensive USB ethernet” but then I realized it’s from Apple so I’m sure the Apple logo…errr… I mean superior engineering justifies the price.
As others have also stated, the problem is not with the $29 price (which is still not something to be dismissed, not alone for the amount, but for what you pay it), but with it costing the same amount in euros, which is a 1.5 times price increase. We, on this side of the pond, know all too well, that this not something we didn’t get used to by now, still, $29 euros for being able to use eth through a usb adapter, which is laughable at best, when you can’t even say you have an abundance of usb ports available, well, it’s just funny.
The only problem I see with the Air is the lack of ethernet and a second USB port, and perhaps the awkward placement of the ports it does have.
Other than that, the device seems perfect. I have not experienced it first hand, though.
now I wonder how well it will run osX? Damn apple…
Maybe itunes will get big enough that they can open OSX up to other hardware?
Once it is such a small part of their business???
I want a $1500 dollar tower with a real graphics card…. Please Steve come one? Your monitors are over priced and under featured! And I can’t justify the juice to drive the mac pro much less the price.
Or just sell me OSX for the pc for $500? come on? you know you want too Stevie….
I’m not in the market for a mac — but I am one someone who likes his laptops small or even tiny. My first laptop was a 9″ compaq contura aero, and now I’m using a Lenovo X61 tablet.
That laptop doesn’t have a dvd drive either — and I very seldom miss it. It does have an ethernet port, but I never use it. Everywhere I go, there’s wifi. Railway stations, KDab offices in Berlin, home or with friends, conference centers, hotels and motels. Wifi is pretty ubiquitous nowadays.
But I never could live with just one usb port. Thumb drive, external mouse, external tablet (yeah, I know, but I need to test rotation and tilt in Krita) — external hard drive, camera, a bunch of usb ports is necessary.
And for the same price as this mac, I get not just three usb ports, but also a tablet screen that makes the x61t just the perfect sketchpad. And a nipple and three mouse buttons built-in 🙂
Unless you HAVE to have OSX, there are plenty of other laptops that fit the bill. I just got a Dell XPS m1330 and I love it. Only a little heavier and thicker than the air, it has a real graphics card (nvidia) and a slot load dvd burner. I spent $1600 total and got a 4 gig C2D 2200 that runs linux perfectly and has about 5 hours battery life. Plus, virtual box and kvm will soon support OSX without hacks, although this might be against the EULA. The validity of the EULA is questionable anyway since I didnt sign anything when I bought my copy of leopard.
Fair review overall of the MacBook Air. Where as some other websites and newspapers praise the MacBook Air as the greatest notebook computer ever built; unrivaled in the universe… THE UNIVERSE!
Cool.
I don’t think this is aimed necessarily at people constantly on the road. I think the target market is more likely to be someone who has a Mac Pro or Imac in the home/office for all his/her real computing needs but wants the option to take stuff along on holiday or to and from the office. A very light device onto which he/she just transfers the stuff they need for that trip.
I am considering it for this purpose (though the price point is annoying- its sitting annoyingly between the Macbook and MacBook Pros – making me think I could save and get a more features on the macbook or splurge and get serious laptop. Decisions, decisions.)
But neither the MacBook nor MacBook Pro would cover what you originally wanted the Air for!
I agree that the price is too high for such a device, though.
So were the original iPod, the Netwon, the Lisa, …
Typical Apple; pushing the envelope (no pun intended), resulting in too high prices, in some cases selling like hot cakes anyway, being a reason for the rest of the industry to be on their toes.
How is Apple “pushing the envelope?”
…I always find laughable is the notion that my usage patterns exactly match yours.
This laptop is not many things that some of you expect it to be. That’s fine. Apple still makes both the Macbook and Macbook Pro, please stop pretending these options don’t exist.
I have a MacBook Pro at home. I use the ethernet connector about once every 6 months. I use the USB port about once a month. I use the DVD drive about once a year. I have NEVER had to swap my battery out.
The MacBook Air is perfect for ME and there are more people out there like me than you swissLaptop users fail to realize.
So the MacBook Air doesn’t have all the features you need, WHO GIVES A MONKEYS ARSE! Get a laptop that does, it’s not going to hurt Apple’s sales.
No ethernet,no CD/DVD,integrated graphics,1800,–$$ – this is insane or probably I am just not rich enough to appreciate the sexy design.
Anybody else but Apple put something like that on the market could look forward for filing chapter 11 next week.
What is the battery life on that thing? Did I miss that part somewhere?
In conclusion, I am guessing whoever thought of the brilliant idea to leave out all the ports and the optical drive never really left the Apple campus or the local Starbucks, since out in the real world, freely accessible WiFi is uncommon. Sure, my university has WiFi, but that is only for students and employees. Cafeteria with WiFi are still a rarity in The Netherlands (even in Amsterdam), and WiFi hotspots out in the wild? You have more chance of spotting a dodo in Antarctica than finding one of those around here.
When was the last time you were in Amsterdam ?
http://www.jiwire.com
Uhm, last Thursday?
I’ve bought a macBook Air and I should say that it’s a great disappointment to me.
But it’s very likely that Apple Will improve these laptops…