Only Out a Day and Already 5 Stars for the 13-Inch MacBook Air

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/apple-macbook-air-13-2011.aspx' target='_blank'>http://www.laptopmag.com/review/lap...ir-13-2011.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"'It's kind of hard to improve on a 4.5-star rating. And yet Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Air (starting at $1,299, $1,599 as configured) is better than its predecessor in some key ways,' Mark Spoonauer reports for Laptop Magazine."</em></p><p><img height="256" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1311297102.usr105634.jpg" style="float: right;" width="600" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Well this didn't take long, saying that <em>"when you combine a sleek ultraportable design with a great display and touchpad then nearly double the performance-without sacrificing battery life-you're left with a winner." </em>I really do love these laptops (once they put in the SSD that is), but can't everything be improved at some level? Then again, when this beauty <a href="http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2011/07/20/2011-macbook-air-benchmarks-are-amazing-outperforms-all-2010-macbook-pros/" target="_blank">outperforms the MacBook Pro</a>, what other rating can you give it?&nbsp;</p>

[Brad Adrian]

The form factor of the Air is hard to beat, but I've got a pretty slim Toshiba notebook for which I paid $500. Give me an additional $1,100 and I could turn it into a pretty sweet ride, too, with a processor upgrade, more RAM, SSD, etc.

It speaks to the fact that, just like was seen during the early days of the iPod, part of the allure of owning an Air is simply the "cool" factor. There's nothing intrinsically useful about the "cool" factor; it simply impacts the way the owner feels.

[Dyvim]

I get really tired of Mac vs. PC comparisons. They're Apples and Oranges. True, you can put Windows on a Mac (I do for work), but the reverse isn't true (I'm going to ignore the Hackintosh possibilities as being too fringe).

If you need a Mac (e.g. to do Xcode development work), then you need a Mac and the existence of slim $500 non-Mac computers has absolutely no bearing on the matter.

So, if you need a portable Mac then you're either looking at Air vs. Pro. In addition to the so-called "cool" factor, the Air is the cheapest way to get an SSD-based Mac (the cheapest SSD MBP is $1,449). With this latest refresh both models have a lot to offer, and it's really down to your use cases. (Before last Fall's refresh I feel the Airs were too expensive and too slow. As of this week, I think they've really caught up in terms of value and performance relative to the Pro line.)

[Michael Knutson]

We all seem to agree on the "use the right tool for the job mantra." I've had my new 13-inch MacBook Air for two days, and I haven't used an older computer since then, Windows or Mac, and even my iPad 2 has sat unused. The Sandy Bridge i5 seems faster than the gen one i7 on my MacBook Pro, and the 1440x900 resolution "seems" (again, after two days) adequate for everything that I'm doing. I've also got a small Samsung netbook (10.1-inch, but with 1366x768 video) that I use for when I need Windows, with Windows 7 Professional, but, for now, this MBA seems really, really good.

[Sven Johannsen]

I get really tired of Mac vs. PC comparisons. They're Apples and Oranges. True, you can put Windows on a Mac (I do for work), but the reverse isn't true (I'm going to ignore the Hackintosh possibilities as being too fringe).
It's not apples and oranges by any means. The are both personal computers with differrent OSs and different applications to do basically the same functions for most people. Certainly you can bring up applications that cannot be done on but one, but these are 'specialized' functions. The vaste majority of folks are surfing the web, reading e-mail, hitting social networks. You can extend that to doing a paper, a spreadsheet, handling finances, reading e-books, what have you. Both platforms do those mundane routine functions well, if you discount any result compatibility requirements for the documents produced. Even then, both platforms handle MS office well, which seems to be the defacto standard when you have to share something or turn it in.

So it is a legitimate comparison, and there is a value element to the choice. Once my needs are met, I can start looking at wants. I want lightweight, long battery live, bueatiful engineering design, but I have to put a dollar value on that want. Most of us do.