10-21-2010, 04:30 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 498
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Could This Be Your Next MacBook?
"They're a dynamic duo indeed. We just went hands-on with the new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air and wanted to share our first impressions. At 2.9 pounds, the 13-inch Air is about 1.5 pounds lighter than the MacBook Pro with the same size display and it comes with a higher-resolution 1440 x 900 display.The 11-inch Air weighs just 2.3 pounds and goes with 1366 x 768 pixels. Both models measure from 0.16 to .68 inches, which is very svelte. You now get a glass trackpad for gestures and you still have a full-size keyboard, but it’s not backlit." 
Could this be near-perfection in a less than 3-pound package? Apple is getting very, very close. In my opinion, the only thing lacking is a backlit keyboard, the tradeoff: much better battery life (5-hours on the smaller, 7-hours on the larger). And, the little annoyances are gone, the power connector is normal, and there are two USB ports. Oh, one other little nit to pick, no internal SD drive on the smaller model, but I have a whole drawer full of USB SD readers. For my frequent work travel, lightness and travel-ease trumps almost everything, so I will be replacing my Lenovo Thinkpad X100e with the 11.6-inch model. In fact, it's already ordered. Being an old-timer in computing, I can live with a 64GB SSD. Thoughts, readers? Is this a compelling laptop?
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein
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10-21-2010, 04:43 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 498
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and, I'm already using Dropbox for keeping all my documents "in the cloud."
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein
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10-21-2010, 05:05 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Knutson
and, I'm already using Dropbox for keeping all my documents "in the cloud."
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Does Dropbox have a "cloud only" storage model? I thought it pushed all contents down to a folder on your computer...
I'm really surprised you can live on 64 GB...I take it you don't have many photos/music, etc?
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10-21-2010, 05:16 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 676
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Did you splurge for extra RAM? I'm curious to learn your impressions of the 1.4 GHz CPU.
Looks like a great travel Mac though!
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64 GB iPad 2 WiFi, Apple TV 2, 32 GB iPhone 4
Early 2011 MacBook Pro 13" (dual boot with Windows 7), Early 2009 Mac Mini
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10-21-2010, 05:16 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,503
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64GB is fine for a notebook; my Thinkpad with its 160GB drive isn't even at 30% full.
Well, it does look nice, but the thinness means that the width and depth are bigger than many 11.6" notebooks/netbooks. My issues with fitting small notebooks is with their width, not thickness, so looks like Apple has missed this one with me (again) :P.
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Baka. Soku. Zan. - The justice behind the dysORDer.
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10-21-2010, 05:25 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng
64GB is fine for a notebook; my Thinkpad with its 160GB drive isn't even at 30% full.
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I don't understand how that's possible for someone whom I know is a photographer... 
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10-21-2010, 06:11 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,503
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I don't understand how that's possible for someone whom I know is a photographer... |
I don't store my photos on the notebook; they live on the desktop and backups.
BTW, the notebook I compared against was with a Thinkpad X100e. :P
Also, what is disappointing is that the SSD is in multiples of 64GB; the best mainstream SSDs I've seen are in multiples of 60 (OCZ's Vertex series) and 80 (Intel's X25M/X18M series).
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Baka. Soku. Zan. - The justice behind the dysORDer.
Last edited by Lee Yuan Sheng; 10-21-2010 at 06:15 AM..
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10-21-2010, 05:13 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 498
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I have a 27-inch iMac with 1TB hard drive (2TB backup), and 8GB RAM - this is where all my media files live: music, photos, video; and they get streamed to my AppleTV (or elsewhere) as needed/desired. Dropbox does copy everything locally, but I only keep things there that I use often (<500MB), so the 64GB is still sufficient.
My guess on the 60/64 size comments, that the 64 will show up as 60 after 'overhead' is subtracted ... But my first PCs were floppy-drive only, so I can manage, or at least I think I can. OmniDisk Sweeper is a good (free) utility to have, as it allows easy disk management on a Mac. Like TreeSize in Windows.
I do like my X100e, but it's about a pound heavier than the MBA ... I didn't think about the width issue.
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein
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10-21-2010, 07:59 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 431
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I'm sorry, but Apple's fixation on thin certainly should be a case study for sociologists. The new Air models are indeed physically attractive and prove my long held contention that Apple is really not a technology company at all, it is a design and marketing company.
I don't doubt the Air will sell and will be aggressively advertised. I am certain it is well made and- within the severe limitations of its hardware- will work fine. It is clearly a limited functionality notebook. It can't be a netbook because Steve Jobs hates netbooks.
What I hope we can avoid is anyone claiming it is somehow innovative. The first netbook I owned had a 128Gb SSD. And making something thinner isn't innovation unless you have made some breakthough that stands out. I have an HP notebook that is less than one inch thick and under 4 pounds. Getting one more pound and a few more millimeters off the device doesn't make it a better product. At some point, the reductions in weight and size become so small as to be meaningless. It becomes more of a "we're doing this because we can" thing that does not add an ounce of meaningful usefulness for a consumer.
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10-23-2010, 12:26 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randalllewis
What I hope we can avoid is anyone claiming it is somehow innovative.
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I agree with you that Apple is getting a bit carried away with things being thin - hell, the iPod Touch 4G is actually harder for me to hold than my Touch 2G because they made it even thinner (7.2mm vs. 8.4mm). I'd have preferred it to remain just as "thick" and had better battery life instead.
But...when I looked at the guts of the Macbook Air - the way Apple re-thought the motherboard layout, skipped the SSD casing and mounted the chips on the motherboard, and made most of the space for the battery - I couldn't help but be impressed. Not upgradeable in any way, sure, but some damn impressive engineering went into that. It makes all the PC OEMs look pretty clumsy in comparison IMO.
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