I’ve now been using the Air for some time as my only laptop. The Pro still hasn’t left the desktop and I doubt it ever will while I own it. My girlfriend replaced her regular MacBook with an Air as well. The verdict after extended use? L-o-v-i-n-g it. Both of us.
Gruber has a great post today on the appeal of the Air, which serves well to sum up the experience. The machine is plenty fast for everything I do with a computer. It’s plenty fast for emailing, browsing, photos, programming, and more. Probably the only people who wouldn’t find the performance of the Air good enough are the same people lusting after an 8-core Mac Pro.
That’s certainly a fair position. If you do computational intensive work, then you’ll want all the firepower you can get. Most people are not like that, though. I think we’ve reached the point where the computational firepower for laptops is simply Good Enough in the Innovator’s Dilemma sense of the term. Meaning that the puck is going to go somewhere else. That we’ll start caring about other things now.
For a laptop, those other things are exactly what the Air is optimizing: Thin, light, and sleek. But what I continue to be impressed with the most on the Air is simply the build quality. The MacBook Pro has OK build quality, but the regular MacBook frankly blows in this department in my mind. The plastic feels too cheap, it creaks and bends, and the black surface gets permanently smudged way too quickly. It just doesn’t feel tight in the same way the Air does.
The Air also works great with a 24” screen hooked up. I actually enjoyed working on one of those at the office the other day. No, it’s not as gorgeous as the 30” running at home, but it’s still pretty alright. So the only reason I still have the Pro is to run that 30” at home and even that is somewhat of a dubious argument if I hadn’t already invested in it.
That’s a long way around of saying I couldn’t agree more with Gruber. The Air is a perfect one-machine solution for a heck of a lot of people. Dismissing it as merely a 3rd computer vanity accessory, as I’ve seen many do, is misguided and not based on actually using one for a longer period of time.
If you fall into the category of feeling your machine is fast enough to do what you’re currently doing, I’d strongly encourage you to take a look at the Air and enjoy somebody optimizing for other factors than just performance.
BTW, I promise this will be the last love song I write for the Air. At least for a while :)
Mike Trotzke
on 16 Feb 08Just curious—what 24” monitor did you hook it up to?
Johan
on 16 Feb 08David, is the fan spinning when your Air is connected to an external display?
Jim Jeffers
on 16 Feb 08I actually stopped in at the Apple store on Michigan Ave. to play with the Air last Tuesday. It is incredible! I wanted one on the spot. But they didn’t have any of the Adobe Creative Suite software available to demo. And here lies my main deterrent. Doing a lot of intense graphics work as a designer already hangs my MBP 17-inch. When you’re dealing with working between multiple memory hungry apps flinging around huge files it’s hard to say that “computational firepower for laptops is simply Good Enough” in this use case.
I think that the good news is in time revisions of the air will at least be quite as powerful as the current full size laptops and I think that’s acceptable. But I may hold off for a more powerful generation of the Air because of this. I really would much rather lug around an Air instead of my current machine that I now consider a monstrosity after experiencing the Air in person. And it would be a lot friendlier on my wallet too.
Brad M
on 16 Feb 08Out of curiosty, do you have the solid state drive or not?
Adam
on 16 Feb 08First, I have to agree about the regular Macbook plastic, way too creaky, I’d expected more from Apple.
But what I find interesting about the Air is when I was at the Apple 5th Avenue store the day they got them in, I heard an Apple employee explaining to a customer that the machine wasn’t terribly powerful. He said (and I paraphrase), “it’s not designed to run photoshop”. Now I understand Photoshop is more than a little bloated, but that itself is a dealbreaker for alot of people. Would you say the Apple Employee was misguided – can “powerful” programs like Photoshop run on the air no sweat? If so, why are Apple employess being told to put out this kind of info?
DHH
on 16 Feb 08I’d say that the Apple employee is completely misguided! The MacBook Air is FASTER on a lot of tests than the MacBook Pro of just two years ago. Did people not use Photoshop two years ago :)?
That said, I do agree with Jim that huge photoshop file manipulation probably counts as computational intensive work. And that the 2GB RAM limit could be a damper on that fun. Again, people did do this work two years ago on machines slower than the Air, but I could see why a Mac Pro or even a 2.6Ghz MacBook Pro would be more appealing to them.
DHH
on 16 Feb 08Brad, I got the SSD, my girlfriend got the HDD. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s noticeable. It’s hard to argue that it’s worth the $1,000 for most people, though.
Wolf
on 16 Feb 08Most webdesign in Photoshop happens in a file that is +- 960 pixels wide and 800 to 2500 pixels high. Because of the filesize constraints of the web you’ll rarely have performance issues – that is, until you open up Illustrator to do some heavy vector editing.
But then again, we designed everything just fine on our 800Mhz machines a few years ago – I guess quality expectations just run higher now. If you look at what the web looked like eight years ago, we’ve come a long way in bringing design to the browser.
If I only did programming I wouldn’t hesitate a bit, but I certainly understand what Jim Jeffers is saying.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Feb 08“Light” computers, “Thin” clients—whatever. It’s been tried before, and never really caught on. I’m not sure why, but I have some ideas:
The thing is, especially with networking the way it is now, I can do everything I need pretty anywhere. I can buy 2 or 3 or 4 computers with way more power than the Air and put one at each spot if I really want to. Plus, if I need to do some heavy lifting or burn a DVD or whatever, I have lots of space and processing power to do it. If I want to upgrade in the future or add a video card, or upgrade my warranty, it’s easy enough.
I’m not into video editing much or Photoshopping much, but the Air would never work for me—each file I use for work is typically 6 GB. For fun, if I open up a studio session for myself, I’m typically at around 2 gigs within 20 minutes of playing around. That’s with a guitar, a drum track, and maybe a bass line.
I can’t imagine someone (even my Grandma) holding their entire mp3 collection on one computer if it was an Air. Never mind if they want to store hi fidelity stuff in flac or whatever.
If I need an ultraportable device to send email, write and browse I have my cellphone. I can get a new battery without sending it off too.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Feb 08As for the future of the Air—I wouldn’t hold my breath for more power. The limiting factor on computers is not size (it hasn’t been for about 10 years now). It’s heat dissipation. You can only get so many CPU cycles before that thing either shortens it’s life considerably (maybe not an issue) or fries itself outright (certainly an issue!).
DHH
on 16 Feb 08GeelWonder, I hold my MP3 collection more than comfortably on the 55GB SSD. I just have 13GB. But I also tend to delete music that I no longer listen to.
Tory
on 16 Feb 08I downgraded from a 2.4GHz MacBook Pro to the 1.6GHz MacBook Air, and I can honestly say that the Air is the greatest piece of hardware I’ve ever owned.
I only used the SuperDrive on my MBP once or twice since I bought it, and I wasn’t doing anything processor intensive. I only use my laptop for simple tasks like writing papers, reading PDFs, responding to emails, listening to music, and surfing the web. It’s perfect for what I need.
The screen isn’t too small, the keyboard has this wonderful clickety clack feel to it, and the size is just perfect.
So far I have no problems with the speed. In fact, it feels as fast as my friend’s original MacBook Pro. I’m recommending it to everyone I know now.
DHH
on 16 Feb 08The heat generated from the MacBook Pro has not gone up despite the fact that the processors 2 years later are about 50% faster. So I think there’s all the reason to believe that the Air will follow the same pattern for growth in processing power.
I agree that holding your breath for anything in general is not a very good idea, though :). The Air will likely always be a step behind full-size laptops. Just as full-size laptops will be a step behind desktops. So if you must always have the fastest on the market, the Air will not do.
DHH
on 16 Feb 08Tory, that’s exactly the feeling I have. Sort of running big test suites, I never really feel the difference in speed between the Air and the Pro in normal usage.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Feb 08So, umm, why did you guys upgrade from your machines from 5 years ago then?
Nah, just kidding. But this highlights how useful ‘obsolete’ technology can be, and I think it might be a good opportunity to point out to people (especially those considering buying the Air or a new laptop) they can donate their old (even really old) computers to one of many non-profits rather than putting them in landfills.
Peter Cooper
on 16 Feb 08You’d also need to fall into the category of feeling your machine isn’t thin enough and isn’t light enough, since those are the only advantages, other than build quality, that you cite.
I totally agree about the majority of machines being fast enough for the majority of tasks though, even development, although the resolution on the Air is very poor. But I’d also suggest the majority of machines are light enough and thin enough too (except for those cheap PC laptops.. eugh!)
Nathan Youngman
on 16 Feb 08Having already invested in a 30” screen is the show stopper for me, I guess I’ll just be happy with what I have :-)
Geoffrey Grosenbach
on 16 Feb 08I’ve been editing 80+ page documents in InDesign on my 1.6 GHz Air with no problems. It’s a great machine.
If you are happy with your current machine, don’t touch an Air! The size and weight differences are very noticeable after only a few days of use.
mikeal
on 16 Feb 08I have to say that in the majority of my tasks the Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo is basically instant, meaning that I could get by with quite a bit less performance than I have.
The one place I have to say the extra memory and hard drive speed show a noticable improvement is on those terrible occasions I need to run a VM, Parallels or VMWare.
Have you had any time debugging IE in a VM to comment on VM performance.
daGUY
on 16 Feb 08I think you make a good point regarding the Air’s processing power. Yes, the processor is at the low end of machines that Apple sells today, but what about people who are upgrading? For example, I have the exact same computer Gruber has – a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 (recently upgraded from 512 MB to 1.5 GB of RAM). I use it as my sole machine and it does absolutely everything I need it to. And yet the Air, with its supposedly “poor” specs, would easily blow it out of the water.
Now, I’m not in the market for a new laptop, but if I were I think I could definitely get by with the Air. I almost never use the CD/DVD drive on my PowerBook; I only use the Firewire port for my external iSight (not needed on the Air since it has one built in); I have wireless at home so I don’t need the Ethernet port; and I usually only have one USB port occupied at once (for my mouse), unless I’m syncing my iPod (in which case I can use the trackpad on the Air for 3 minutes. Not a big deal at all).
I think Apple’s done a great job at removing the stuff that isn’t totally necessary while making the Air still feel like a “real” laptop (13” widescreen, backlit keyboard, built in iSight, etc.).
Brian Ford
on 16 Feb 08The plastic not only feels cheap - it is cheap. I had mine for about 4 months when I realized the screen casing had split - no drops. That was fixed under warranty, but not long after that I noticed a “chip” in the hinge just under the display. (I think it was chipped during the repair, but it started out as a hairline crack and I didn’t notice it.
While I was at Macworld this year, I noticed that the seam which runs along the bottom portion of the keyboard plane (just under the trackpad, extending to the right side of the MacBook) split. If you look at the top of the Macbook screen, their are two “feet” that come in contact with the area that split, when the lid is closed, and these correspond exactly with the area of the split. I think continued contact eventually caused enough stress to weaken the seam. There is also a crack just under the trackpad button.
I’ve been pretty careful with it, but I do take it to work every day. Still, at just over a year of life, it’s more damaged than I’d like…
Sounds like an air would be better for me.
JF
on 16 Feb 08I get the feeling Apple wants to move away from plastic laptops entirely. I suspect the next rev of the Macbooks will be metal.
Fred Lee
on 16 Feb 08Agreeing with all the comments about the MacBook having poor build quality. I bought one and almost immediately sold it.
I do hope that JF’s prediction for a metal MacBook comes true. If that were to happen, I would get one of those immediately.
The problem with the Air, for me, is not the specs (or lack of specs). It’s the price. For me, it is difficult to justify paying that kind of premium for basically awesome design.
Panamajack
on 16 Feb 08I think it’s fair to say that many MORE folks would be running to this beautiful looking device if it was priced comparably to how my four year old 12” G4 PB was priced ($1600).
My feeling is that any gains in weight/sleek factor (the 12” PB’s STILL look great in any coffeeshop) are offset by the relative downgrading in the graphics cards to being exactly the same with the Macbook. Still, I’ll probably be getting one before the next Steve-note.. although I’m definitely going to wait out for a larger HDD. Oh yeah, what’s a 64 GB SSD going to cost in a year ?
Bizarro Ballmer
on 16 Feb 08My macbook doesn’t fell as solid as my old 12” g4 laptop. The plastic does feel cheap, and the cd eject doesn’t sound as solid as the old powerbook, but I still enjoy it anyways. I was hoping a 13” macbook pro would arrive but it never showed at macworld. I’m sure Apple will see very good sales with the Air and I can only assume that they will build a 15” and maybe a 17” Air in the future. ethernets ports will remain on lower end macbooks. Just guessing.
Terry Sutton
on 16 Feb 08Great post. Don’t ever apologize for liking something – fanboyism is just fine – despite what you hear on blogs all the time.
I think the Air is a great innovation – in that it isn’t an innovation. The Air, to me, is a great example of identifying a need and meeting it. Instead of making the processor faster, adding more ram, making the screen bigger, etc, they’re actually trying to meet a need.
I need 2GB of ram, but everone doesn’t. The 98% of people who surf the internet and type word documents certainly don’t, yet there’s a constant stream of new models with more more more.
This situation is really highlighted in the digital camera world: either you can have a big dslr, or a small compact. Nothing in the middle. I want something small enough to fit in my pocket that has the functionality of my big dslr. But I can’t have it.
I’ve tried the G9, but its just a glorified point and shoot. Its got manual options, but doesn’t function like an slr. Instead of adding more (useless) megapixels, they need to innovate.
Anywho. Good post. Good technology should be praised.
Terry Sutton
on 16 Feb 08its also amazing to me how many people buy technolgoy for the features that they know they’ll never use. A friend of mine bought a computer because it had a Blu-ray thingy in it. He’d never heard of blue-ray, but as soon as someone mentioned it, he couldn’t be disuaded. Another friend upgraded from a Canon G7 to a G9 because of 2 extra megapixels. He’s never shot in raw, never printed a picture, but was compelled to buy b/c of 2 megapixels.
Does anyone think before buying anymore? Does anyone ever say, “humm…..that’s an interesting feature, but I’ll NEVER use it, so I’ll just buy this cheaper model”.
NFL Cheerleader
on 16 Feb 08I’ve got to disagree with all of your ratings/assessments with regards to the MacBook. Feels cheap? Not as solid as a Powerbook? Krike-eee’s! I replaced my Powerbook with a MacBook when I got sick/tired of having the Powerbook repaired. Having done so, I began to be in shock that anyone would buy the Powerbook/MacBook Pro unless they had an absolute NEED for the gpu. In construction-quality terms, my Powerbook was a POS compared to my MacBook- that thing felt like it was constructed in an aluminum can factory (weak!). (I doubt it makes any damn difference, but are the black MacBooks ANY more solid than the white ones? I’ve had ZERO probs with my black one . . . ).
Glenn
on 16 Feb 08I am glad to hear that the Air is meeting all your expectations.
I have a iBook G4 and it is ALMOST fast enough. It really is not powerful enough to run MySQL, a GUI editor, browser, iTunes and a command window. I get the spinning ball of delay (not quite death) a little too often.
My 1.24 GBs of RAM is probably partially the problem as well. I am glad I upgraded to Leopard even at the costs of a few seconds every now and then(happens a little more often now).
An upgrade to a new Mac always seems to be a few months away. I guess that is the trade off for having kids.
Simone Manganelli
on 16 Feb 08Peter Cooper: While the “thin” aspect isn’t really that big of a deal, the weight aspect is absolutely a big deal. Two pounds is significant to many people; for example, my mom continually complains about lugging around 5 pounds of normal MacBook, and she’s really excited about potentially getting an Air. I’ve never seen her use the Ethernet port or the FireWire port, so it’ll be good for her to get a computer that will go much easier on the back.
Current laptops certainly aren’t “light enough”. But, as David noted, laptops definitely are fast enough, so the compromises made in the Air are excellent.
John.B
on 16 Feb 08I convinced myself I didn’t need one, right up until I visited my local Apple store last weekend and got my hands on one.
I get that the size is a tradeoff for features. As in, really get it.
But as a musician with FW audio interfaces - including the new oh-so-portable Apogee Duet and the MOTU UltraLite - the lack of a single FW400 port is a deal breaker of epic proportions. And it kills me because that one missing feature is all that lies between me and the 1.8/SSD model. (heavy sigh)
Which leaves me hoping some of the Air features like aluminum case, backlit keyboard and LED backlit display will eventually get ported back to the MacBook line. But I’m not holding my breath.
BJ Nemeth
on 16 Feb 08If it had a firewire port, which I use for my portable backup drives, I’d definitely be on board with a MacBook Air. The weight difference is worth $1,000 to me.
Without firewire, it’s going to be a slower transition for me. I’ll stick with my MacBook, and in the next year, pay attention to my use of firewire and multiple USB ports. Everytime I need firewire or two USB ports (I’m not a fan of hubs), I’ll make a note of it. By next year’s Macworld Keynote, hopefully 128GB SSD drives will also be a reality (and not completely break the bank).
Rob
on 16 Feb 08I’m reading this very poignant article on my 6-year-old iBook G3 with 640 MB of RAM and a 600mhz processor, running Tiger. I’m on the road for work and staying at a hotel. While I have a new 24” iMac at home for Photoshop and other demanding applications, this computer got me through school and was my primary machine for years. It is more than enough for most of the tasks I need, but it is severely antiquated by the standards of today and a MacBook Air would run circles around it. For almost all of what I do, and certainly for my work on the go, a MacBook Air would be perfect.
Dude
on 16 Feb 08I wouldn’t say the MacBook form factor blows. It feels waaay more solid than the MacBookPro. The MBP hatches suck… while the MacBooks magnetic closing doesn’t. Kind of agree on the “plastic” feel comment about the MacBook… but… it still feels solid overall.
Ribminster
on 16 Feb 08Seriously? Are you a cripple?
Tonio Loewald
on 16 Feb 08If you travel a lot, size and weight are everything. The guy writing this review obvious has plenty of money, so $1000 to him is not worth $1000 to someone earning $50,000 per year or so (the average Apple customer in 1996 earned about $70,000 per year; that’s probably increased faster than inflation).
My take on the Air is this: if you tend to fly business class (i.e. you have access to power on airplanes) then the Air’s battery life doesn’t matter. If you buy Louis Vuitton handbags (or Armani suits, say) then the MacBook Air’s price isn’t really material. This doesn’t make it a vanity accessory, but it places the various design tradeoffs in perspective.
muzo
on 16 Feb 08Inspired by the build quality paragraph, I have written a bit on my blog that compares the Macbook Air to a sports car.. Check it out if you feel like it.
Lon
on 16 Feb 08In the last year I have downgraded from an uber 17” hi-res MacBook Pro to a Black Macbook and now have an Air.
David, you are right, it is Good Enough for most of uses, and the build quality if phenomenal.
Typing on the Air feels like using a solid desktop keyboard, not bouncing on top of a hollow box and the screen is incredible with the LED backlighting.
While portability is a big plus, given its weight and size, the interesting selling point is that you are only paying for what you will actually use.
I don’t need a high end graphics card, redundant USB ports, or unused ethernet port.
The Air is not about “thin” clients or lightweight executive bing, its about guilty until proven innocent design.
How many people ever get a second battery or replace the hard drive in laptops?
Or, use all 3 USB ports, the firewire port and the express card slot – ever?
Some power users need those things, and they have the Pro line to satiate that appetite.
In my mind why buy more than you need? or as Apple seems to have decided, why sacrifice design goals for the sake of outliers in the market.
Gee, who else does that sound like? ;-)
BJ Nemeth
on 16 Feb 08Ribminster—No, I am not crippled. In fact, I run marathons.
But I travel a lot for work, and I carry all my bags on the plane (the airlines are too unreliable with checked bags). I’m lugging clothes, a laptop, and a digital SLR with 2 lenses. When I land in a new city, I still need to carry my laptop and camera with me back-and-forth each day. That’s a lot of strain on my back and shoulders.
The weight difference is worth $1,000 to me, because I make enough in my job that it’s worth investing $1,000 to make that job more pleasant. (I realize that the MacBook Air isn’t $1,000 more than a MacBook, but the weight savings would still be worth it for me if it were.) If it’s not worth that much to you, that’s fine. Everyone is different.
I always fly coach (yes, long distances), and I make less than $80,000 a year. But I don’t cut corners on the tools that allow me to do my work to the best of my ability.
However, I’m still not convinced I can get by with the tradeoffs (one USB port, no firewire port), so I’ve been paying close attention to my usage of my MacBook. I’ll reassess this summer, and I expect to have a MacBook Air by 2009.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Feb 08Crippled people run marathons. I’ve done ironman with a few.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Feb 08why sacrifice design goals for the sake of outliers in the market
Outliers? Hmm. Not sure about that. I’d postulate they’ve decided their target audience for this product is a narrow one. Nobody who needs a 40GB iPod (which apparently is everybody) can manage their music collection on a 4GB hard drive.
BJ Nemeth
on 16 Feb 08GeelWonder—I think you’re missing my point. I’m not saying anything bad about the handicapped; I’m just pointing out that I am more than capable of carrying the weight of a MacBook, but I would prefer to carry the weight of a MacBook Air.
Chris
on 16 Feb 08but the regular MacBook frankly blows in this department in my mind. The plastic feels too cheap, it creaks and bends, and the black surface gets permanently smudged way too quickly.
You say the right thing with your comments about the feel of the Macbook Air. But I have to disagree with what you say about the regular Macbook. Now, I have never used a Macbook Pro on a day to day basis or used an Air, but my Macbook gives me the same feeling you describe – the good build quality just makes it a joy to use. Compared my Windows laptop at work, my Macbook leaves no question as to what is good design. Definitely does not feel like cheap plastic to me.
João Gomes
on 17 Feb 08“Nobody who needs a 40GB iPod (which apparently is everybody) can manage their music collection on a 4GB hard drive.”
Are you sure about that?... That was what a lot of people said when Apple introduced the 4GB iPod mini a few years ago, and look where the iPod nano has went, so far…: it tops out at 8 GB! And its bigger sibling, and the potential substitute for the Classic iPod, the iPod Touch, has room for only 32 GB.
That, for me, is not enough (that’s why I have an 80 GB Classic anyway), but for people who have paltry libraries, both an iPod nano and a MacBook Air would suffice. And the most popular iPod models, by far seem to be – guess which – the mini and the nano…
Anonymous Coward
on 17 Feb 08one can only hope.
Lon
on 17 Feb 084GB hard drive? Not sure what you are talking about.
Everyone does not have a 40 GB iPod, last I checked there is a vast range of iPods to serve different markets.
As David’s post illustrates, filing the Air away as merely some narrow minded niche product is a mistake.
GeeIWonder
on 17 Feb 0864GB.. obviously a typo. How much of that is taken up with your productivity software?
Well it can’t be your single computer if you want to install some software from a CD, as the Apple AAir video nicely demonstrates. So it’s a second for someone with another computer. That’s a niche. It’s also got a hefty pricetag. That’s a niche.
Knowing your market is a niche isn’t narrow minded, it’s a design decision, and really a great strategy for most businesses. Too many people try and do too much.
oomu
on 17 Feb 08I do have a big music library on my desktop mac
but I use an 8go iphone with pleasure, I do not need all my music all the time . only my favorite. I let itunes synchronize.
- in the same way, the mba would totally be enough for my need when I travel or would like a nice mac at my workplace.
— not everyone is a big computer user reading wonderful blog like 37signals. or even wanting to be one.
but for what I can see, that mba is good enough to do many things. five years ago, I was doing many things (and gain money) with a computer less powerful and a lot of bigger.
Mister Snitch
on 17 Feb 08As it happens, I just bought a MacBook. I had owned a MacBook Pro for a few years, until it finally broke down beyond (worthwhile) repair.
My philosophy, after years of having Apple technology come and go in my possession, is that we are foolish if we buy our equipment without an upgrade path in mind. That hard drive, that scanner, that peripheral – it’s all a stepping stone.
I did not buy a MacBook Pro specifically because the Air isn’t ready yet – not for me, anyway. Not robust enough, not tried and true enough. So I bought the ‘lesser’ MacBook intentionally, to fill he need between the not-ready-for-prime-time now and the every-notebook-is-more-portable future that the Air points to.
My new, current MacBook – which I like just fine, by the way – will serve me for a few years. Then, inevitably, there will be something else. I know this because there always has been, always is, something new and incrementally superior. When it’s time for me to take that next step, the Air will be far more mature and robust. I may buy one. Or there may be a MacTablet – probably called an iPhone Pro or some such. I don’t really know what that next step will bring, but I do know that it will be a step up. The Air, or something else equally nifty, is in my future, and I’m content to wait. The fact that the machine is here, now, is to me like a look into the future. And the future looks good.
George
on 17 Feb 08If one proposes to use the MBA as a primary computer, how does one deal with DV? I haven’t found a camera yet that doesn’t use FW for the DV output.
BJ Nemeth
on 17 Feb 08If someone needs to deal with a DV camera for video editing, then they are not in the market for a MacBook Air. It’s as simple as that.
Andrew Kueneman
on 17 Feb 08I also must sound off on my experience with the Macbook. I have a first generation black one and the build quality, which was solid from the start, has held up beautifully. This machine feels very solid and has traveled well. It is a little smudgy looking – on that i agree. Now my powerbook g4 1ghz – that thing was a piece of junk – froze up all the time, because of some kind of keyboard problem, and the case was coming apart from the beginning. Titanium was a joke compared this this plastic machine.
Andrew
on 17 Feb 08I currently own a 17” PowerBook, which I bought thinking I’m going to need the one that goes to 11.
Now, I can look back and say that I don’t. It’s too heavy to carry around a lot. I used to mess around in Photoshop, but nothing really heavy and, that’s now how I put bread on my table, so I don’t need to render filters in the shortest time possible. I haven’t even opened it in the last year or so.
That being said, I like things on my machine to be a little speedy, not 8-core 32GB RAM Mac Pro speedy, but a little zippy. That, and the price of the Air, have me on the fence between the Air or the low-end 15” MacBook Pro. That, and the screen size, having been using a 17” for the last 4 years now, I like a bigger screen, and evertime I play around with a MacBook I keep thinking it’s a little too small.
How are you Air users fairing with only 1 USB port? I’ve got two on my PowerBook – one with a hub that my mouse and USB drive connect to, and the other for charging/syncing my iPhone and iPod (the phone doesn’t sync through the hub, and the iPod always shows as fully charged). What about media playback, or conversion?
LichMBA
on 17 Feb 08I’ve had my SSD MBA for 2 weeks, it’s easily the best laptop I’ve ever had, for travel. I fly between 60-100k miles per year between work, family and vacation. I usually also carry a digital RF camera and a few lenses. My 15” MPB was killing my back. I now graces my desktop, connected to 2 TB of storage and a 30” screen. I use it for for long photo editing sessions, moving large files around and backing up all my data. My MBA is with me constantly, fits in my small messenger bag for running around the city, I can easily carry the MBA, a small USB 250 Gb drive, my camera, 2 lenses and SD cards and batteries. 6.5 pounds total. It can easily run Aperture and PS, holds 8 Gigs of my favorite music, 20 odd podcasts, iWorks and a couple of movies with 25 Gbs to spare on the drive. And it’s quiet, rarely hear the fan and very little heat. A real pleasure to use.
Julian
on 17 Feb 08Has anyone compared the MBA’s and MB’s battery life directly? And even if so, won’t the MB get an extra hour when they get LCD displays? That’s what bothers me the most, besides FW400—because it means the MB would still be better for long, economy train rides :/ I’ll just cling to my iBook for another year, I guess.
But I’ll take a look at it for sure, I stopped going after specs since I have a Shuffle. Really, people laughed at me for getting something that hasn’t no display and just 1 GB, … but the thing just feels damn good and I never, ever wasted a second deciding on which music to put on it. (I know it would have taken me days with a Nano!)
xxloverxx
on 17 Feb 08I could never stand using a MBA – even my Macbook, which is 2x faster than the Air, is starting to lag on my 10,000 photos in Aperture, and using FCS on the MB…well let’s just say you can’t do anything else with it using FCS
I’m lusting after a 16 core Pro, not an 8 core =)
I wish I had a 30”…
Mathew Patterson
on 17 Feb 08@george – perhaps if one needs DV one should consider one of the many other Mac laptops available.
George
on 17 Feb 08BJ Nemeth, what is the problem with DV on an MBA? I do this now on a 1.25 Ghz G4 Albook without difficulty. This is home video, not pro stuff. iMovie is not that heavy of an application. The AlBook is just getting long of tooth and its a little heavy to lug around.
BJ Nemeth
on 17 Feb 08@George—I’m sure you could edit DV footage on a MacBook Air (the processor could handle it), but why would you?
Digital video takes up a lot of hard drive space, which the MacBook Air does not have. More importantly, DV cameras generally connect to a computer using firewire ports, which the MacBook Air does not have.
Most of the people complaining about the MacBook Air are wishing it were something that it’s not. If you are working with digital video, you will almost certainly be happier with a MacBook (at the minimum) or a MacBook Pro (much better suited for digital video).
Jonas
on 17 Feb 08my history goes as followed: mac mini g4, powerbook 17”, macbook 2.2 ghz and now a mac mini intel 2.0 ghz. For most of my work the mini is great. I have it hooked up on a 24” monitor and I can listen to music, surf the web and develop software. But as soon as i startup my photo library in aperture the thing gets really slow. Ill be upgrading to 2 gb of ram tomorrow so that might help a bit. I now have to choose a new laptop for work but I’m not sure what to get. The macbook pro 17” is rather heavy, but I’ll be using it on a desk most of the time.. Only carrying it with me from home to work in a car. I really like the high resolution of the 17” . As far as the photography issue goes. I actually never drag along my dslr camera because its to heavy. I love the raw shooting and the speed, the quality and dof you can have. But I haven’t touched the thing since september, and even on vacation I hated dragging the camera along with me. I left home my lenses . Maybe I could better just buy a decent compact camera, and shoot in normal jpg. and use iphoto instead of aperture. It might yet choose the air …
Josh Rothman
on 17 Feb 08I too have the Air and love it. My question: what are you guys using as a laptop sleeve? I’m using the one from my old 15” MBP because I haven’t seen one that I want quite yet. Anyone found any good sleeve solutions?
George
on 17 Feb 08My point was, that for all but FireWire, I could use it as a primary machine. Portable USB drives are big and cheap, I use those now for DV scratch space. However, without FireWire, there are usages that prevent it from being a primary machine. Even the MBP does not really have enough disk space anyway, an external drive is necessary for more than a few hours worth of video. The MBA has plenty of processor smoke, even at 1.6 GHz is is probably faster than my iMac CD which is clearly plenty fast enough.
There will always be somebody, like me, that will complain about feature X that is missing. I applaud Apple’s highly focused design, but it seems to me that maybe they focused just a tad too much.
John.B
on 17 Feb 08Huh, how do you figure the MacBook is 2x faster than the Air? The fastest BlackBook is 2.2GHz, the slowest Air is 1.6GHz…
I use a 2.0 GHz MacBook and spent a considerable amount of time with a 1.6 GHz Air last weekend. The MB isn’t twice as fast and the Air definitely wasn’t twice as slow. Either I’m missing something here or your math is off…
Paul Stamatiou
on 17 Feb 08David – Do you know if the Air play an HD movie (such as 720p) without issue? The reason I ask is my MBP usually hooks up to my 24-inch, or projector, to play HD movies and the processor can deal with them no problem. I’m wondering if the Air is the same way.
James
on 17 Feb 08“The MacBook Air is FASTER on a lot of tests than the MacBook Pro of just two years ago”
What a ridiculous statement, the Air is a great machine and has its place but this sort of article just sounds like new toy syndrome
nick s
on 17 Feb 08If someone needs to deal with a DV camera for video editing, then they are not in the market for a MacBook Air
They were, however, in the market for an upgrade from a 12” PowerBook G4, and that space in the product line is now occupied by the MBA. The ‘small form factor, power user specs’ machine is AWOL. Yes, the MB packs a lot of oomph, but you need a Pro for dedicated graphics, and the Pro starts at 15”.
I appreciate Gruber’s argument about relative processing power. But extendability also matters: the G4 PowerBook could support Firewire DV input with a fast USB external drive for storage.
My guess is that upgraders will now head towards a top-end MB and end up paying Apple $500 less than they budgeted. Nice for them, slightly bizarre on Apple’s part, since if a 13.1” MBP does appear this year, plenty of G4 PB owners are likely to have made the jump, and may well feel comfortable at a lower price point.
Chris
on 17 Feb 08@James
Tottally Agree with you. The air is just the middle grade apple laptop. As the Caymen is to Porsche.
GeeIWonder
on 17 Feb 08I think nick s makes very good points all.
On a ‘for the record’ note, measuring processing power by clock speed is basically not a good approach. Especially if you’re talking about stepping processors in portables (see, I brought my heat dissipation issue back! Sweet!).
tintinto
on 17 Feb 08what about beach balls? I hate beach balls..
sloan
on 18 Feb 08If you haven’t touched one, picked it up, held it, it is really difficult to explain to you the appeal. It seems limited, but it has plenty of processing power, and a normal sized HD and RAM capability. My concern is that HD though. What is interesting to me is that it has a slow HD, but relatively fast networking. If Apple’s new Time Capsule product can be accessed over the web, you have an interesting little .Mac system of your own.
In your own home/office, it is easy enough to connect to the wireless HD (1 TB $500), and use to your heart’s content. Now imagine wireless access anywhere at 802.11b speeds. WiMax is not that fast, but in a world with “always available wireless”, MP3s and pictures could be kept off your main HD. The local HD could simply be used to cache whatever you typically need. If you know you will be out of range of ANY wireless access, then you change your caching scheme. We are a couple years away, but with always on and accessible WiFi, you can have access to your own cheap HD cloud.
Again, this doesn’t work well for really high performance needs, but it changes the paradigm. Maybe they should switch to super fast, but smaller GB locally and utilize the cloud? In time maybe?
Alex
on 18 Feb 08I “upgraded” to a MacBook (13”, white plastic) after my 12” PowerBook G4 bit the dust – literally, it was dropped onto concrete from three feet, took all the impact on a corner which put a hairline fracture in the portion of the logic board that carries the highest current for the power supply and battery.
I miss the 12” form factor.
I have only looked at the Air from glossy websites, but for my purposes it would be just fine except for one thing: I want a version of iTunes which can turn my laptop into a iPod-ish utility. I want to keep my ~30GB music collection on my desktop (with 200GB of space), and sync across ~8GB of stuff to listen to at work/on the road.
Wireless is good enough for my needs. I also have a USB 2.0 hub on the desk, everything plugs into that then I have 1 cable to plug into the MacBook. In fact, most of the time the only thing plugged into my MacBook is a power cable – it sits beside my desktop machine, being my iTunes, mail and IM console while I’m playing games on the iMac.
Cost is another factor – I got my current iMac and MacBook together for less than a MacBook Pro.
The only thing stopping me upgrading to the Air is that it costs so much (and my MacBook isn’t dead yet). I’ll wait for the clearance sale next year when Apple introduces the newer model :)
TFerraro
on 18 Feb 08David, The title of the article says MBA can be “only machine,” but then you say you are using it as your “only laptop.” While I agree that chasing the highest clockspeed is usually unwarranted for what most people do most of the time (heck, for most people ALL the time), it’s just not clear to me that a lot of people will be buying the MBA as their “only machine.” (That’s not to say Apple won’t sell a lot of them.
DHH
on 18 Feb 08TFerraro, as explained by previous investments in a 30” and the fact that I already have a MBP. If I didn’t have either, I don’t think I would have bothered. Just get an Air, a 24”, and an external HDD for archival media storage. The Air is the only machine my girlfriend has.
an
on 18 Feb 08Goh koon
Harvard Irving
on 18 Feb 08I, too, am struggling to understand the comments about the Macbook’s “poor build quality”.
I still own my iBook G4 12”. It is still going strong, after years of abuse. I know dozens of people who also bought iBooks and Powerbooks, and have seen the results.
A good portion of the people who bought Powerbooks at the same time have had endless problems with them, even when treating them with kid gloves. But nearly all the iBooks are still going strong, they are practically bulletproof. The plastic is simply more rugged than the titanium/aluminium. And shock absorbent. Those who have had accidents, have had their iBooks bounce back, while Powerbooks tend to get bent out of shape, particularly having problems with the lid and connectors.
Almost universally, those who paid more for the “Pro” model ended up wasting their money and spending a lot of time in the shop, while the entry-level iBooks G4 are considered by many owners to be the best value, most reliable computer they ever bought. Personally, I’d say the Powerbook G3 was similar in durability – but those were damn expensive. The iBook gave a similar ruggedness at a fraction of the cost.
As for the Macbook and Macbook Pro, those haven’t really been around long enough to show consistent trends in failure and ruggedness – but they seem almost identical in construction to the iBook and Powerbook G4. I would imagine the same trends hold true for the new models.
Bottom line – unless you really need the GPU or other features of the Pro, the plain-Jane Macbook is the one to go go for. The aluminium case may seem nice, but it’s no more rugged than plastic, and it actually interferes with the wireless signal. It’s mostly just to make you feel better about paying more, and for the snobs. Most people would be better off upgrading their entry-level Macbook more often, than buying something more expensive less often.
I guess the other argument for the MBP or Air is the backlit keyboard, but it must be a vanishingly small market that actually needs their keyboard backlit – again seems more of a vanity thing.
What I’d like is a modern Intel Mac in a Powerbook G3-style enclosure with modular bays for battery and drives. No aluminium/titanium case. Just a practical, rugged case that adds flexibility and function.
RF
on 18 Feb 08Eee PC.
That’s the new 2lb laptop from Asus, with a slow (630mhz) processor and tiny (2GB-8GB) solid-state disk. It runs Linux, with OpenOffice, Firefox, Skype, and some other stuff preinstalled. Its screen is 7 inches across; Asus has suggested they’ll improve on that but we’ll see. It’s distantly related to the One Laptop Per Child project; it actually comes from Intel’s effort to create a non-AMD competitor. It costs $300-$500. Clearly no way it could replace your primary laptop, but it’s very interesting for the price point and, if you’re a geek, for its free-software basis.
I’m not sure it’s practical—tiny screen and keyboard (you can plug in external ones) issues with laptop Linux and Asus’ particular distro. But people who have ‘em just love ‘em, and I’m sorely tempted to play early adopter here.
Macbook Air
on 18 Feb 08I am still not sure about this product. But then, i dont have one. I looked at the spec and questioned it, yet you guys seems to love it. In full fairness I rarely use my CD drive thats not a problem. But the USB thing is somehting worth complaining about!
Jim Jeffers
on 18 Feb 08@DHH You are right about running photoshop on less powerful machines in the past. I think I’ll just splurge for the next generation MacBook air. I have a first generation MBP 17inch so the current Mac Book Air may already be more powerful then what I’m using now, the next one should surely surpass it and justify that I’ve gotten enough utility from this purchase to justify pawning it and migrating to an Air. You are lucky to have both :)
Jesus A. Domingo
on 18 Feb 08I code a lot, and do quite a bit of image processing with Photoshop. I also do a lot of gaming (World of Warcraft, Granado Espada, Lineage II) and I want my games to have the highest vis settings. All this I can have on my Dell XPS M1330. Great computing power and graphics performance, 4GB RAM, all under ~2k USD. It’s also lightweight and sleek looking.
But I do understand that MBA is lighter and sleeker than my notebook. And it has the apple brand. But i’m a pc user. And for me, looks and style isn’t everything.
There are a lot of people who prefer to get more for their money. If not, then how would we explain the great number of PC users.
This could somewhat be related.
The Street Says Mac Users are Snobs, PC Users are Cheapskates
joecab
on 18 Feb 08Boy, do I hate you for posting this review.
I’ve been doing everything I can to talk myself out of the MBA as a replacement for my first-gen PowerBook G4 and here you had to ruin it all for me with a sensible thumbs up. sigh
It’s really everything I’ve been waiting for. I’d been wondering if weight/thickness was more important than overall size (12” fits great on airline tray tables), but I do want that screen size. I’m also an Adobe Creative Suite user but it’s as you say: the MBA is slow when compared to current laptops, but, hell, look at what I’ve been using on the road these past 5+ years. If CS3 tests out comfortably next time I go to the Apple store, I’m getting one.
andy
on 19 Feb 08The Air is great for all the reasons pointed out here – I own one and haven’t picked up my 15” MBP since getting the Air. I feel Apple will reduce the price slightly, and the SSD price will come down with the market—but I don’t think we’re going to see an upgrade here for a while. A firewire port would have been nice but they were probably trying to discourage the videophiles from adopting the machine for work it was not designed to perform. Still, it would have been nice to have a FW port.
Esd
on 20 Feb 08@RF about the Eee:
It won’t replace your primary laptop if you’ve got one already, but it does nicely as your primary laptop if you’re the kind who never uses laptops because they’re a pain to haul around, like myself =)
This discussion is closed.