I have a somewhat interesting take on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air. I chose the 13-inch model for myself, but my father who is always on the go for business, chose this 11.6-inch model. He wanted the extra portability, and I wanted the extra performance of the larger machine.
Visually, the machines look different. My 13-inch model does not look significantly different from the front or rear compared to a full featured MacBook Pro. In other words, on the 13-inch model, which I love, the footprint of the device is basically the same as a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The difference is the slim side profile, and the two missing pounds.
This 11-inch model is not only light and thin, but has a smaller footprint too. It is striking to see. It looks small, and it's gorgeous. I do have some envy for the portability of this model compared to my own, which is light, but yet takes up just as much space so to say as a MacBook Pro.
The drawbacks to this model and the reason I chose the 13-inch? The processor included in this 11-inch machine is a fair bit slower. Comparing some online benchmarks, this entry-level 11-inch model with the 1.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo brought in about 70 percent of the processing speed of the entry level 13-inch model. While other parts of the machine are equally as fast, such as the graphics processor, solid state storage, and memory, the processor performance difference is not insignificant. You do feel a slight performance difference between the 13 and 11.
The included storage on this model is 64 GB. This will be plenty to store text documents and a moderately sized photo library. However, you will not store much video on here. However, the storage is solid state and fast, which enables fast startups and allows the machine to still feel snappy despite the slower processor.
Apple specs the battery in this model at 5 hours, whereas the 13-inch model has a quoted 7 hours. Apple is using a new battery testing procedure, which is said to more accurately predict real world battery life. Nevertheless, the battery life edge does go to the 13-inch model.
The display is no slouch despite its 11.6-inch size. Indeed, its resolution is similar to the Mac Book Pro's 13-inch display, so there is no question that the display is gorgeous.
iLife 11 is included and already installed on this device, so you will be able to take advantage of the latest iLife software right out of the box. Two USB ports and a mini display port allow for expandability and compatibility with external devices. Connect an external hard drive for expanded storage, or sync up your iPhone. No problem. Indeed, believe it or not, this small 11.6-inch MacBook Air can drive the 27-inch Cinema Display that Apple sells. That shows the impressive graphics performance this small machine offers.
I was able to spend another hour today with the 11.6-inch model. I am nearly beginning to question my decision to choose the 13-inch model. The 13-inch asks you to take fewer sacrifices in terms of performance and storage. However, this 11.6-inch is oh so portable. Honestly, it's surprising when you see it in person. This 11.6-inch is probably destined to be the "cool," choice.
Overall, it is clear to see there are several drawbacks to the 11-inch model. Less storage, shorter battery life, and slower processor. However, there are several benefits: a smaller footprint, lighter weight, and therefore easier portability. Plus, there a cool factor that makes jaws drop when you pull this 11-inch model out of your bag. Despite its diminutive size, it's a quality product. Make no mistake about it, while it might be less powerful than other Mac notebooks, the 11-inch Air is no net-book. The quality and performance far outshines any net-book. This machine will serve your word processing, consumer photo editing, music listening, email writing, and web surfing needs without issue. I might caution its use as one's sole computer only due to the limited onboard storage (64GB) and somewhat slower performance (1.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo Processor). Highly recommend product for the correct application/use.
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I have a MacBook Pro 15 inch and love it for every day home use. But, I sometimes travel overseas and to lug the 15 inch all over due to size and weight is not ideal. Currently I have a Samsung NC10 Netbook with Windows XP, 2gb ram, 160gb hard drive and use that for travel. I like the netbook for travel as it is small and light and has built in camera for Skype when traveling. Overall, not a bad device except for one thing.....it is slow!!! Even after upgrading to 2gb ram on the netbook it is just plain slow and sometimes moving around is painful and frustrating. But, it was the best choice until now. I checked out the new MacBook Air and it is a thing of beauty, so I picked one up. I like the slightly larger screen size then the netbook, which at times seemed too small. I also like the larger keyboard on the Air compared to the netbook. But what I like most is the speed. With the core 2 dual core processor and flash storage, the Air is quick. I never feel frustrated. The Air is also lighter then the netbook which for the size screen and keyboard is amazing. So here are my pro's and con's.
Pro's
1. Quicknot a full speed notebook but for the size and weight this thing is great compared to netbooks.
2. Light2.3lbs for 11.6 inch Air is fantastic.
3. Keyboardkeyboard feels good.
4. Mac OS Xenough said. If you have never tried it compared to XP or Win 7 then you don't know what you are missing.
5. Storagefast flash storage. More dependable compared to hard drive on mobile device.
Con's
1. Price1k for base 11.6 inch unit is not cheap by any means.
2. Storagethe storage is fast and more dependable but its expensive and limited. The 64gb works for me as this is for travel and not my main notebook so I keep a lot of "stuff" off of it and just do internet, email, word docs etc.
3. Upgradecan't upgrade RAM if needed after purchase.
Overall, I'm thrilled with my purchase. Yes its pricey but for the size, speed, quality and OS it is worth it in my mind. I probably wouldn't buy it for my only notebook but its a great travel notebook while my MacBook pro stays at home. My netbook did well for what it is but time to sell it as for me it is just too slow and XP is getting old as an OS.
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I hesitated a lot to buy this thing, costing as much as it does.
I finally did, and LOVE it.
I have been using PCs for years. Have a PC at work, figured I'd just do the same at home.
Bought a netbook price was great but the screen was small and it just never was easy to use. Gave it to my neice.
Bought a 17" laptop with Vista I actually thought Vista was OK, and I loved being able to make the screen resolution larger so it was very easy on my 52 year old eyes. But the thing was HEAVY. So big and bulky I would often leave it home when going on a trip. Also got real tired of having to run anti-virus software (and pay for it), and having glitches regularly with various types of software adobe, the sync programs, etc. In addition, if I was in bed and wanted to check something real quick, it took 30 seconds or so to boot up, and then had a glitch where the screen wouldn't turn on, so I'd have to put it to sleep and wake it up again.
I bought an iPad, and the instant on was great, but after using the iPhone4 I didn't like the screen resolution. In addition, it was quite heavy for holding up to read, did not have a keyboard, and couldn't play Flash videos. Sold it.
So finally bought this little guy, and it really fits the bill. I thought the 11" screen would be too small, but for some reason it seems much bigger. I think it's because it is so easy to scroll up and down, back and forth using the touch pad. (On the PC, the scroll never became "unconscious" it often seemed to distract me just enough to find the proper place to push on the touchpad). Maybe it's the resolution of the Air, maybe it's the fact that it is so small I can position it right where I want it to be.
It jumps to life right away, I love that. Easy to look stuff up, or send that one email, or whatever I want to do. (I think I have a little ADHD, so when I turn on my computer and it takes 60 seconds to get ready, I often forget why I turned it on!).
It downloads web pages much faster than my PC laptop or my PC desktop, and handles pictures much faster too.
And the size makes it so I can just grab it and go, rather than having to make a conscious decision about "should I bring the laptop?" It easy fits in my hand next to my notepad/binder and I hardly notice carrying it.
IMHO, this is what a laptop was always supposed to be. I LOVE it, LOVE it, LOVE it. Thanks, Apple!! Now I have to decide if I'm going to move everything from my home PC to Mac platform and if so, should I use only this little guy? (i.e. TurboTax, all those accumulated Word documents, etc)
Oh, BTW, I did hook it up to my 24" HP monitor, and it works great. You can use two screens if you want (i.e. have the AIr open and the desktop monitor is an "additional" screen or having them duplicates of each other, but the resolution is less than the desktop can handle. It doesn't look quite as stunning as those iMac screens, but very close.
And the final thing the "chicklet" keys very worried about getting used to them, the spacing seems a bit different than my other computer keyboards. It did take a day or two, and I still make the occasional mistake, but overall I like them BETTER. I can type faster on them for some reason -?less key travel? Anyways, that turned out not to be an issue for me at all.
I just think it's amazing to have this little slab of metal that I can pick up and take anywhere in my house, or anywhere in town, and have full computer access and use within seconds. Right now I'm standing in the kitchen (it's sunny in here but not in the office) typing away. I'm a happy camper! (And now I have to make my lunch can't afford to eat lunch out for a few months to pay for it, but it's worth it!)
Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Air MC505LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
I mostly do film, video and photo and use a 2006 MacPro for editing and a recent MacBook Pro for writing. Two weeks ago, I got the 11' Macbook Air with a 64GB Flash Drive and 4GB of Ram to replace the MacBook on a few occasions. Or so I thought...
Ergonomics:
Ever since they replaced the 12' for the 13' in 2005, I was hoping for something smaller. In a interview, a 13' or 15' screen acts like a wall and it's size and weight keeps you from grabbing it easily. The 11' Macbook Air makes this possible again. Closed it feels more like a small binder then a computer. Open, it feels like a normal laptop but the screen is low enough, not to separate you from the person in front of you.
The Screen:
The resolution is very high, but this also makes everything a bit small for my eyes and the colors change a lot depending on the angle in which you view the screen. But, and this is big... the screen has a luminosity of 360 cd/m². This means that you can go out on a sunny day and work without straining your eyes. This is head and shoulders above anything else on the market.
The Battery:
I would definitely wish for more then 5h, but this is probably the price to pay for a bright screen. I'm actually wondering how they got a battery into the casing.
Processing Power:
Office: Very fast. The Flash drive works wonders here. Absolutely no problems.
Photo: The Air is just as fast as the new 13' Macbook Pro or the older but mach bigger MacPro. The mix between 4GB of ram and a fast flash drive lets Aperture work swiftly trough the 20MB files from the Canon 5D Mark2. Attention tough, it also seems that the 2GB version tends to joke on the amount of data.
Video editing: I can perfectly edit and grade a ProRes 1080 24p file in Final Cut Pro with the MacBook Air. There are a few differences to the MacPro. It plays h.256 video files smoother then the MacPro with its older 7300 Graphic card. But the 4 processors of the MacPro are faster for video exports and transcoding. It's a tie...
Connectivity:
A 11' screen is rather small for video or sound editing, but when you add a keyboard with a mouse and an external HD, you can close the Air and use it with the full native resolution of the 30' screen. This is very cool. Same goes for TV. Just attach a HDMI cable to the Air's video port and you have a beautiful 1080p image on the big screen. As nice as this is, the Air hasn't been built for professional editing tough. You cant hook up 3 screens at once and when you have 16 TB of data to work with, you end up with a lot of external cables. But the new video port works wonders and the fact that you can close the computer and still use it, is very nice.
Conclusion:
Because of the flash drive, there actually is only a small performance difference between the new 13' MacBook Pro and the 11' MacBook Air. Compared to a 1e generation Intel MacPro it does a few things faster, like playing h.264 video files and a few things slower, like exporting and transcoding video files. Thanks to Moors Law, we got now a extremely silent, small and powerful computer at a very low price. The new Air isn't some crappy net-book that can barely run a text-editor, it's a computer that can hold it's own against a 1e generation Intel MacPro in a package that is about 200x smaller.
The Macbook Air feels like a glimpse into the future. Who else has access to the cheap flash, the precision machining and the electronic know-how that is necessary to create such a slim, portable and capable computer at this price? Just a year ago, the 64Gb Flash option costed as much as this whole computer costs today. The luxury prototype of yesterday has turned into the most affordable laptop in Apple's lineup today.
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As a student in high school, I depend on a computer daily to do assignments. My teachers distribute rubrics and have us turn in all of our projects online via a website. Many students use the 400+ school computers that the school provides, however, I used an iPad for three quarters of the school year. It worked good, but I always had the feeling that something was missing. I felt like I had to adapt my entire workflow based on the apps, which should never be the case for a daily-use device. The iPad 2 has nothing new to help with this issue, so I decided to sell my MacBook Pro 13" to buy a MacBook Air 11.6".
As far as specifications go, the MacBook Air is a great upgrade from the iPad no matter how you look at it. The MacBook Air has a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual Core), the original iPad has a 1GHz single core A4 chip (iPad 2 has a 1GHz dual core A5 chip). The MacBook Air also has a much better GPU with it's NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics chip. It has a FaceTime camera, USB ports, MagSafe charger, and it runs OSX, which is far more sophisticated than iOS in every way. It is a phenomenal operating system. It also has a larger screen with a higher resolution, a full sized keyboard, and stereo speakers (you wont be rocking a party with these tiny speakers, but it is impressive sound considering how small this laptop is). Not to mention the fact that the MacBook Air can run Adobe Flash (even though it isn't installed out of the box).
To me, this MacBook Air is really everything that I wanted the iPad to be. It is small, compact, silent, fast, and light. This laptop feels weightless when in my backpack, and leaves plenty of room for other items even in the smallest pouches. Apple also claims that this computer has "instant on", just like the iPad. Many people have misinterpreted this. The screen wont turn on instantly, rather, everything is up and ready to go right away. On my MacBook Pro 13", the screen turned on very quickly, however, after the screen turned on, everything felt very slow for about 30 seconds. This is not the case on the MacBook Air. The screen turns on at about the same time, however, everything is all ready to go. There is absolutely no lag, thanks to the SSD. The SSD is also why the laptop feels much faster than the specs give it credit for. It is amazing; the laptop manages Pages, Keynote, iPhoto, and Safari flawlessly. It's speed is equal to my 3.06 GHz iMac in basic tasks (iPhoto, Pages, Safari, etc). The USB ports on the MacBook Air are on separate sides of the product. This is nice if you have very large cables that take up a lot of space, because you don't have to worry about covering up the other port. I'm sure this was unintentional, but it is very nice to have. There is no backlit keyboard, however, the brightness from the screen (50%) offers plenty of lighting for the keys. The lack of an optical drive has not been an issue for me at all. There is something about this computer that I have yet to figure out that makes it very very zippy. It is the perfect coffee-shop companion. It is ideal for people who are always on the go, travelers, and (maybe) college students.
All in all, if you want more power and freedom (with the OS) out of your iPad, you will be very satisfied with the entry level MacBook air. The screen resolution is great; it makes you feel like you are working with a much bigger screen. Build quality, battery life, speed, and portability are all phenomenal. I highly recommend this Mac. If you are on the fence, I recommend heading over to a Best Buy or local Apple Store to get your hands on one. Simply, the specs do not give this laptop justice, and will perform perfectly for 90% of Mac users out there.
