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I purchased the Apple MacBook Air MD224LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION) to replace my 2011 Macbook Pro 13". I am a lecturer / graduate student, and this is now my main computer.
BUILD QUALITY
It is surprisingly sturdy. Although I plan to purchase a clear case for it (probably from iPearl), I think you could probably get away with using nothing at all. This ruggedness is an amazing feat, considering its light weight. Owners of previous Macbook Airs will enjoy more of the same.
DISPLAY
The Macbook Air has a beautiful display that is quite bright, crisp, and clear. The automatic dimmer function adjusts the brightness level according to the ambient light, and I have found that this works really well. Personally, I think the colors on the Macbook Pro 13" display "popped" a little bit more, and I liked the bezel-less solid piece of glass on it better. However, there is no denying that the resolution on this machine is far superior. I have seen the resolutions on some of the other ultrabooks (Windows), and I think this looks better (the ppi is actually about the same). [EDIT:] The soon-to-be-released Zenbook and others are supposed to have better displays this year, though, so this may change in the future.
KEYBOARD
It is full-sized and typing on it feels good. The backlit keys are great. The keys don't travel enough for my taste, and it feels a little less solid than the Macbook Pro, but this is a minor complaint. I write for a living, and I am looking forward to writing on this!
TRACKPAD
The glass trackpad probably does not get much mention in most reviews, but it is one of the best features of a Macbook, and it sets Apple computers apart from competitors. I retired my mouse a long time ago because of it. If you take the time to master the gestures (see your preferences), and you give full-screen views on applications a try, you can enjoy an incredible experience on this machine. The slightest touch whisks you from screen to screen.
BATTERY
Far too short. Really, 5 hours is not very much, and it looks like I am only getting about that much with regular use on half brightness [EDITED: after testing a couple of times -just short of five hours]. I wish they could have bumped this up an hour or two more, and I will miss the long life on my Macbook Pro. I guess battery life is one of the trade-offs for this form factor.
SPEED
It is lightning fast. To be honest, I cannot tell a difference yet between it and last year's model. They tell me it is faster, though, so I guess I will have to believe them. Perhaps a few months of usage will give me more perspective. At any rate, it is noticeably faster than the Macbook Pro.
ACCESSORIES / STUFF / PORTS
The cord is a good length, and the power brick is quite small. It is somewhere between the size of my iPad power brick and the Macbook Pro power brick. From what I can tell, it looks considerably smaller than the 13" Macbook Air one. I am thinking that I might not mind carrying it around in my man bag with the Macbook Air. The ports on the machine are very conveniently placed, with one USB port on each side. This is so much better than the Macbook Pro, which had all of the ports on the left, where they would inevitably cause problems. Fat thumb-drives sometimes took up so much space I couldn't get another USB cable into the slot next to it. There is no Ethernet port. No Firewire port either. Be forewarned. It doesn't matter to me, but it might to you.
COMPARISONS
64GB
I purchased the 128GB model. With judicious use of cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox, and perhaps the purchase of a 32GB thumb drive to carry around files in case you are not connected, I think 64GB is also doable. One of the great things about this year's 64GB model is that you get the same 4GB of RAM. I consider that model to be the best value, and I would have gotten it if I didn't have a large number of files in one application that, because of the application's design, I cannot put on the cloud.
13" Macbook Air
The base model 13" Macbook air is a better buy if you want the extra battery life and screen size. I value portability over those things (I can carry this in a small man bag, but if I got the 13" I would have to move up to a mail bag or backback).
13" Macbook Pro
The Macbook Pro 13" was an OK computer last year, and before the Macbook Air's Sandy Bridge refresh, was definitely the best entry-level product. However, they did not update the resolution this year, it is rather pokey compared to the Macbook Air, and it is much heavier. Unless you just simply refuse to use the cloud and have an obscene amount of files to carry around every day, I see no point in getting it.
Ultrabooks
As for Windows ultrabooks, I might actually consider them if there was a significant price difference, but most that I have seen are just about the same price as the Macbook Air. They also have inferior build quality (in my opinion) and no support (all of the good stuff you have heard about Apple's phenomenal support is true). I am excited about Windows 8 (sorry Apple fanboys!) and I like where ultrabooks are headed. [EDIT:] It looks like the soon-to-be-released Zenbook will likely be better in terms of specs and price, so if you are wavering between Apple and Windows, you may want to wait a bit longer.
Upgrade from 2011 model
I don't think I would do it if I had the 128GB / 4GB RAM version. The form factor is pretty much the same, and so is the speed. There are some minor improvements like USB 3.0, but otherwise, it probably isn't worth it. If you have the 64GB /2GB RAM version from last year, you could probably benefit from the extra RAM.
SUMMARY
Because of the high resolution display, and the ability to view applications in full-screen mode, I think this computer is portability perfected. It could definitely serve as your main machine, and I think many people will find that it is a better experience than the Pro models from just a year before. If you are a student, this is probably one of the best computers available on the market, and I highly recommend it.
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UPDATE June 28, 2013: I continue to love my 2012 11" Air. It's my main computer, super speedy, almost unbelievably thin and light, no problems of any kind.
You probably know that Apple has updated the Airs with much better battery life; the 2013 model of the 11" Air is rated at 9 hours, compared to 5 for the 2010-2012 models. This is huge. If you can afford it, get the 2013 model.
But if you do most of your work plugged in, or have a tight budget, you can now get the 2012 model at a discount. It is still a great computer, and, other than the battery life improvement, the 2013 model is little changed from the 2012 model.
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UPDATE Oct 26, 2012: For about four months, my 11" Air has been my main computer. I am just as happy with it now as the day I got it. Battery life has consistently been close to the 5 hours Apple claims, sometimes more. Performance is consistently blazingly fast, and traveling with the Air is a dream (2.4 pounds and super thin instead of 4-6 pounds for a regular laptop). No scratches on the aluminum body or display. No problems of any kind. If my Air was lost or stolen, I would buy the same one again without thinking about it. Here's my original review:
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The 11" 2012 Air is a winner in my opinion. It offers absolutely excellent performance and it is amazingly portable despite having a comfortable full-sized keyboard and an excellent display. The design is beautiful and build quality is exceptional.
I ordered my 2012 11" Macbook Air the day it was introduced, received it a few days later, and have used it intensively since. I also own a 13" late 2010 model MB Air, which was my main computer until getting this one.
The 2012 Air's SSD is literally more than twice as fast as the SSDs in the 2010 and 2011 model Airs. The new ivy bridge processors are more than twice as fast as the core 2 duo's in the 2010 Airs and about 20% faster than the sandy bridge processors in the 2011 Air. Compared to my 2010 Air, the 2012 Air flies and makes the 2010 Air seem very sluggish.
The new ivy bridge processors are faster yet less power-hungry than the processors in the 2010 and 2011 Airs, which makes for a small but appreciated improvement in battery life according to independent published benchmarks. I've had my Air for 4 months now, and I'm getting pretty close to the 5-hour battery life that Apple promises, sometimes more. I usually have the screen brightness at 50% and the keyboard backlight down to the lowest setting (but not off).
This is my first computer with USB 3.0 ports. I have been blown away by transfer speeds to my USB 3.0 flash drive and a 2TB external hard drive. (My other USB peripherals are USB 2.0, so I don't notice any difference with them.)
I used bootcamp to install Windows 7 and some Windows-only software I need for work. Booting into Windows and running Windows natively is a noticeably better experience on this new Air than on the Lenovo Windows laptop that I used to have at my job.
For people who don't have an Apple TV and want to play their Air through a home theater system, it's very helpful that the 2012 Air now has HDMI audio pass-through. This means that a single HDMI cable can transmit video and audio from your Air to your home theater system or television set. (Though, you still need the HDMI adapter because the Air still doesn't have its own HDMI port. But the adapter is pretty inexpensive.) The 2010 Air (and maybe the 2011 Air?) could only pass video through the HDMI cable, so you'd need separate audio cables for sound. I have run my new Air through my home theater and watched a few SD and HD programs I downloaded with iTunes, and it worked really great setup was very easy and sound and picture were very good. I really appreciate this because I recently ditched cable and now depend on iTunes, Hulu+, and similar internet services for my TV needs.
If you have a 2010 Air and can afford it, upgrading to a 2012 Air is a no-brainer. The performance is vastly better, plus there are many small but meaningful improvements (backlit keyboard, HDMI audio pass-through, USB 3.0, better Facetime webcam).
If you have a 2011 Air, the case for upgrading is weaker. Compared to the 2011 Airs, the 2012 Airs have fewer improvements and the performance gain is much less dramatic (the main exception being the much faster SSD).
If you're trying to decide between an Air and a 13" Macbook Pro: The Air is way thinner and lighter than the Pro, so it's much nicer to travel with. The Air's display has higher resolution than the Pro's. The Air's SSD blows away the Pro's sluggish 5400 rpm hard drive. On the other hand, the Pro's display has richer colors and wider viewing angles. The Pro has a built-in optical drive; this is important to some people, but many of us rarely use them anymore and cheap external drives work very well with the Air. The Pro's processor is more powerful (though most people will find the 2012 Air's processor to have more than adequate power and speed). A couple months ago, my employer replaced the Lenovo Thinkpad in my office with a new 13" Macbook Pro. My 11" Air is much faster than the Pro. I usually bring my Air to work every day and often don't even turn on the Pro. If you're trying to decide between an Air and a Pro, visit your local retailer and compare them in person. It's really a tradeoff between the Pro's built-in optical drive and rich (but low-res) display and the Air's incredibly thin and light form factor and blazing SSD.
If you're trying to decide between an 11" and 13" Air, the main tradeoff in my opinion is battery life vs. portability. Battery life is rated at 5 hours in the 11" Air, 7 hours in the 13" Air. This is a big difference for people who regularly do a lot of computing away from a power outlet. The difference won't be as important for people who mostly do their computing near a power outlet (I'm in that category). On the three trips I've taken since getting my 11" Air, I've found the 5-hour battery life to be enough for me to get a ton of work done on the flight plus have juice left to watch a pre-downloaded movie or TV episode. And I can't overstate how wonderful it is to travel with such an incredibly thin and light yet powerful computer. Plus, TSA doesn't require you to remove the 11" Air from your laptop bag at airport security (though you ARE required to remove a 13" Air, go figure). But some people really need those extra couple hours of battery life; if you're one of them, get a 13" Air, it's still amazingly thin and light (just not quite as much as the 11" Air).
Another difference between the 11" and 13" Airs is the display, of course. The 13" is not just bigger, it also has higher resolution. For me, this wasn't a factor in my decision because when I'm not traveling, most of the time I plug my Air into an external 22" or 24" monitor, so the built-in display is less important to me than it might be to you. When it's not plugged in to an external monitor, I am perfectly happy with the 11" display (even though I was used to a 13" display on my previous Air). But you might be happier with the 13" display's higher resolution--to be sure, see both models side by side at your local retailer.
Differences between the speed and performance of the 11" and 13" Airs are small enough that most people won't notice them. Even the cheapest 11" Air feels as fast as the 13" Air for most tasks. And both models can be upgraded with more ram, a faster processor, and bigger SSDs at time of purchase.
In fact, if you want any of these upgrades, you should get them at the time of purchase, since most of them cannot be upgraded post-purchase. Here are some recommendations:
There are three things that can be upgraded: SSD, RAM, and processor. SSD in my opinion is most urgent. The processor and RAM in the cheapest model will be adequate for most users, but the 64GB SSD will not. Paying $100 extra to increase the SSD from 64GB to 128GB should be a no-brainer for all but the most liquidity-constrained purchasers. If you can afford it, get the 256GB SSD. If you can afford the 256GB SSD and still have money left, then upgrade to 8GB of RAM.
In the comments, someone noted that the RAM is not user-upgradable post-purchase but the SSD is. This is true. However, upgrading the SSD post-purchase is very expensive, the Air is not designed to be user-serviceable, and opening up your Air may void your warranty. So, for most people, it will be better to buy the Air with the biggest SSD you can afford at the time of purchase.
One thing I don't recommend is AppleCare. Some of you will disagree and I respect your opinions, but here's mine in case it might help you decide:
It's certainly true that AppleCare will save a few people a lot of money. But the average person won't get their 250 dollars worth from AppleCare--otherwise Apple wouldn't make money off it. When I bought my 2010 Air, I let the Apple salesperson talk me into AppleCare, and I haven't used it once. The only good thing about it in my case is that AppleCare transfers to the next owner, and there's over 1 year left on it, so I can use it as a selling point when I put my 2010 Air up for sale.
But I didn't buy AppleCare with my 2012 Air. If there's a defective part, it'll most likely fail during the standard warranty period. If something fails after the standard 1-year warranty, the repair cost would have to be over $250 to make the AppleCare worthwhile. For me, the decision comes down to this: do I want to part with $250 for sure right now, or am I willing to accept a very small risk of losing even more after a year from now?
Of course, some people are particularly risk averse and will appreciate having the peace of mind. And there are some people who really will get their money's worth, and for them, AppleCare is a life-saver. But for most of us, it will end up being a money-loser.
Whether you get AppleCare or not, I strongly recommend the 2012 Macbook Air, and for many of you, the amazing portability of the 11" model will be the better choice.
Best Deals for Apple MacBook Air MD224LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
I am reviewing this item alongside my Retina Macbook Pro, so I will be doing some comparisons.
I bought this laptop to replace a family members aging Asus laptop. She was not a power user, and was convinced she wanted to buy an Apple. I helped her choose the Air, because she really just needs a general use laptop, not a powerful computer.
Qualifications: Senior At Clemson University in Computer Engineering, and would consider myself a power user, but I will be writing this review for the purposes of non-power users, as I do not believe this laptop to be the best option for people that need processing power, but for consumers that want a quality laptop for everyday tasks.
Build Quality: 9/10. The unbelievably thin of 2008 doesn't seem quite so thin anymore. How times change. That said, this laptop is extremely well built, and feels well built, yet very light and compact. I do feel as if you need to be careful with it, just because it is so thin, but that may me just being paranoid.
Power: 6/10. The Ivy Bridge processors give the Macbook Air a nice boost in graphical performance. However, this is not a processing workhorse. If you need a strong processor, go with the Macbook Pro 13". But for every day performance, its perfectly adequate. If you haven't used flash storage before (SSD's), this laptop will likely feel quicker on most everyday tasks than a Quadcore computer just because everything that isn't processor intensive is so zippy.
Battery Life: 8/10. At full brightness, you can get about 3 hours out of it, but can get 5 at low brightness levels. While I complained about this in my Retina Macbook pro, this is excellent for such a small lightweight machine. You can bump up the battery life by jumping to the 13" size, but for the 11" form factor, this is a reasonable amount in my eyes.
Screen: 8/10. The air is still using the TN display and has not yet switched to the IPS system. The advantage of IPS displays is that they have much wider viewing angles. If you tilt the screen all the way back, you will get a washed out screen. That said, as far as TN displays go, this is an excellent one, and is superior to the 13" Macbook Pro's screen. This screen is not a retina screen, and you can definitely tell a difference between the Air and the Ipad3/Retina macbook. However, the screen still is crisp and beautiful for a non-retina screen. I'd say it was somewhere between the ipad2 and iPad3 in screen quality.
Sound: 4/10. Very Tinny at max volume... but its a half inch thick 11" laptop... you don't buy this for sound quality. The Retina Macbook Pro has a much better sound system, but this laptop is less than half the price, and in a much smaller form factor. I gave it a 4/10 for sound, but really sound quality won't factor much into the overall review. The sound quality is fine at lower levels.
Expansion: 3/10. I gave the retina macbook pro a 1/10. However, today OWC released flash storage for the air. You will never be able to upgrade the RAM/Memory, but you will be able to upgrade the storage.
Sexiness Factor: 9/10. Not quite as amazingly sexy as it was in 2008, but still holds its own. Not many laptops are thinner than this one, and I'd argue none besides perhaps Samsung keeps its quality at this thinness.
Overall: 8/10. This is one of those situations where the final device is better than the sum of its parts. Yes the speakers don't handle high volumes, but did you expect them to? There is only so much you can do when you are working inside a case this thin. The power isn't stupendous, but its more than enough for the target users(people that don't want to run Final Cut Pro, but light to moderate photoshop and internet users). The screen isn't retina, but is beautiful none-the-less. This laptop is perfect for general computing users, and will likely last you for several years before you start thinking about another upgrade.
Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Air MD224LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
I upgraded from an MC375LL/A mid-2010 13" MacBook Pro to a MC224LL/A mid-2012 11.6" MacBook Air, and the difference is like night and day. My new MBA takes 5 7 seconds from pressing the power button to login screen versus about two minutes with my old MBP. The main hardware differences are: Core i5 vs. Core 2 Duo, 1600MHz vs 1067MHz RAM memory, and (very important) SSD vs. mechanical HDD secondary storage. My new MBA doesn't even feel warm when playing Civilization V whereas my old MBP became very hot within minutes, and the graphics performance is at least twice as fast. As for the ergonomics, the keyboard really is full size, and the display is not noticeably smaller than the 13" MBP, yet the 11.6" display has more pixels. Most importantly to me, my MBA weighs less than half of my old MBP. I really am very happy with this 11.6" MacBook Air.
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It's hard (VERY hard) for me to acknowledge that perhaps my decision to drop $2200 on this maxed out 11" Macbook Air would have been money better spent on a 13" Air or Macbook Pro. The truth is that it is an exceptionally well built machine. I love the quality of the screen, the feel of typing on it, the trackpad, the backlit keyboard, how light and thin it is...but part of my wishes that I'd gone for the 13" model. The 13" is only a half-pound heavier, but I think the slightly larger screen would go a long way. This little guy had an exceptionally clear and fantastic screen--the only thing it lacks is the vertical height. The silly thing is that I read reviews prior to purchasing that said the same thing and recommended what I'm going to recommend to you: buy the 13" model. It's pretty much every bit as portable as the 11", only a teensy bit heavier, and you'll thank me for the extra vertical screen viewing area. The 11" just doesn't quite have enough vertical height. It's got plenty from side to side, but vertically it just seems, uh, "short."
That qualm aside, I've installed Windows 8 on it via Bootcamp and it runs fantastically. I actually prefer running Windows 8 on it. Heresy, I know. But yeah, it's FAST, portable, and an all-around exquisite machine. I will admit that I do drool over the new Macbook Air 13" with Retina Display which will be released next week: talk about the ultimate in speed and portable computing!
Anyway, these are simply the best machines out there. I looked at every other option from Dell, Asus, HP, and so on. No one else offered anything as portable, powerful, or well-made, with the same fantastic specs. It's really a shame because, frankly, if there were Windows-based laptops out there equally well-made, I would've preferred to purchase one of them. But, well, if Apple makes the best machine to run Windows on, then a Mac machine it is.
Oh, battery life has been totally sufficient for me. It's not super long but it's long enough for working away from outlets (in classrooms, in meetings, etc.). Anyway, for what it's worth, I really recommend these machines. Apple really knows how to produce exceptional hardware. The operating system is the only aspect of the machine that I don't like as much--but that's why I installed Windows on it!
[UPDATE 12/1/12]
I sold the MBA 11.6". After a while of using it I found the 11.6" size to simply be too small for constant use programming and writing for school, and using Access and Excel for work. I was literally using it up to 8 hours a day intensively, and it was just...too small to be practical. That, and I found myself using Windows 8 most of the time because I just don't like how the Mac OS X multitasks. For me OS X wasn't even as efficient for multitasking as Windows 8 (which is a tad bit less multitasking efficient than Windows 7). But running Windows 8 on a Mac isn't ideal because Apple doesn't care to produce highly optimized drivers to support their users that do run Windows 8. They make it *possible* but not a great experience. Most of the Windows 8 gestures wouldn't work with the Bootcamp 4.0 drivers, and a third-party driver (Trackpad++) was necessary to achieve a tolerable trackpad experience using Windows 8 on the MBA. However, even Trackpad++ wasn't perfect. It had to be constantly updated (every week) which was annoying, and I felt like the trackpad experience was--while better than the Bootcamp drivers--still very much a subpar Windows trackpad experience. The trackpad seemed to be not as responsive as it was in OS X, and less responsive even than the average trackpad on a Windows laptop. There was literally a full second delay between typing and the trackpad accepting input. I'd constantly find myself swiping multiple times because the trackpad hadn't activated yet after I'd been typing. Uber frustrating. In short: Windows 8 on Mac is possible, but less than ideal.
That reality coupled with the small size just not being workable for a full day of work on the MBA, I sold it. Lost a significant chunk of change in the process.
I HIGHLY recommend 1) that you only purchase a Mac if you KNOW you like OS X, 2) that you only purchase an 11.6" MBA as a (much) better netbook/ultraportable experience, and 3) that if you plan to work more than an hour or two a day on your laptop (doing anything) opt for something with a bigger screen: at a minimum 13.3" (either the MacBook Air 13.3" or a Windows laptop with an equivalent screen size).
Bottom-line: It was too small for all-day work, but the screen, keyboard, and trackpad (in OS X) were excellent. If you like OS X, and need something ultra-ultra portable (like netbook size) get the 11.6". If you like OS X and plan to work extensively on the laptop and need something portable, get the 13.3" MacBook Air.
Keep in mind that you're only getting dual-core processors in either MacBook Air... which can prove frustrating if you're really crunching some data through Excel or Access. Two cores, even with hyperthreading, just isn't as capable of dealing with large datasets and operations as a quad-core processor with hyperthreading. I underestimated the performance penalty and found myself frequently waiting for the MBA to finish Excel and Access tasks.
Oh, last note: if you're using Windows 8 on this machine and plugging in an external monitor, expect the fan to run constantly, even loudly. It's more than barely noticeable. In my office environment it was loud enough to find embarrassing--in part because it sounds like the MacBook is struggling so hard. It didn't exhibit this same loud ramping up of the fan when an external monitor was plugged in and OS X was running.
I hope the above information proves useful to you in your buying decision.
