Macbook Air, I salute you

[bayerische]

Hi guys,

From the previous Macbook Air threads I've been tempted into finally buying a MBA.

So I did, had it for two days now, haven't had time to use it very much, but I've sort of gotten an idea of it.

I've been on macs since 2006. I will probably never go back to Windows or any other platform.

Last 3 years I've been using Macbook Pro's, the 17" size, I choose this since I do a fair bit of photography, and thought it will be a good alternative to a small laptop and a home computer with a larger screen. My last one was the mid 2010 model, i5 2,53ghz processor, and when I got it new I installed a SSD drive from Kingston in it, upgraded the ram to 8gb. It was a screamer!

When the new Macbook Air's were launched last autumn, I was utterly disappointed in the specs... Only thing I really liked was the 256gb of HD. I was angry, since I wanted one, but I didn't want something that had "only" 2gb of ram standard, and a processor from what the eighties? No, but seriously in a day of i5's and i7's what the heck could I possibly do with a Core 2 Duo in 1,86ghz...?

Finally frustrated with carrying along the 17"MBP, I bought the MBA on wednesday this week. When I picked it up at the store I had second thoughts.

I said to myself, well if it's a load of crap, then I can always sell it.

So what was it? Was it a load of crap? Is the performance that of a "netbook" something that has trouble running openoffice?

It's not. It's wonderful.
How can this be? Look at the specs! I seriously don't know, I'm not an Apple engineer, but this little thing is magical. If the iPad is "magical" then this is godlike.

This little thing is a screamer. In the things I do every day, surf, email, it's faster than my MBP! Remember that MBP started from shutdown after the load "spinner" in bios starts into OSX in about 5 sec, due to the SSD harddrive.

Fair enough, I don't do video editing, and according to the geekbench this falls far far below the MBP that I have. But using iPhoto, Safari, Mail and Photoshop at the same time, switching back and forth between them, loading flash heavy websites and the likes are lightning fast.

This sort of performance from something that looks like a slug on paper is amazing. I love this kind of engineering, goes to show that if the components and software are truly made for one another you can get something grand from something "small".

Only thing this little marvel lacks are the lit keys. A bummer. But the rest of the package is perfect. The lightness, and sturdiness of the case is out of this world, even if it's very light and looks fragile, it feels in real life more solid than a MBP, since it's so light you can't feel any flex in the case even when you pick it up with one hand in it's corner.

The screen is beautiful, very dense pixels and sad the new updated MBP 13" didn't get the same pixeldensity, it almost looks like a massive retina display.

Another amazing thing was that yesterday I had the Air with me on the go all day. I didn't use it, but from about 10 in the morning until 11 PM it was on the go in it's case, and in an environment about +10 degrees celsius. I just put the lid down when I left in the morning, so it was in standby. When I got back home I put the charger back in, and to my amazement it didn't need charging, the connectors little led never turned amber, and the battery still had a full charge! So the MBA seems very much related to the iPad in this case. My MBP 17", even if it kept it's charge extremely well it would have lost 10-20% of it's charge in the similar conditions.

Shortly, I love the Air. Too bad I didn't get the courage to buy it earlier. My days of 17" laptops are over. If you are thinking of a new Mac, you should definitely take this baby into your considerations.