Thoughts on the new MacBook Air
Monday, October 25, 2010 at 11:58AM 
Let's get this over with and I'll say it straight out...
I've just ordered a new MacBook Air.
Now I know that my initial reaction to the MBA was that it was a great machine and I'd tweeted I'd pass for now, but I've had a change of heart.
This post isn't really meant to justify my actions (honest, it isn't!) but I thought it might be useful to explain how I reached my decision.
I popped into an Apple store on Friday and saw the machine in the flesh. I'd previously owned one of the original MacBook Airs, so the form factor was no real surprise, even though the new machine is even thinner.
The 11" machine is cute but a bit too ultra portable for my needs, but the 13" seems to be perfect. I really enjoyed my original MacBook Air but had eventually become frustrated with some of the limitations of the original machine and upgraded to a 15" MacBook Pro (15" 2.66GHz) about 18 months ago.
I still wasn't convinced that the new MacBook Air was a good fit for me however, especially with the iPad fulfilling most of my mobile computing needs...
But by now, there were plenty of reviews of the MacBook Air on the web and three things really impressed me:
1 - The screen resolution of the 13" MacBook Air is the same as my existing 15" MacBook Pro. Seriously! One of the major reasons for swapping away from the original MBA to the MBP was the need for some additional screen real estate.
2 - The speed! The MacBook Air has a Core 2 Duo processor but only running at 1.4GHz for the 11" or 1.86Ghz for the 13" (with an optional 2.13GHz available as a BTO option).
A far cry from my 2.66 Core 2 Duo processor in my 18 month old MacBook Pro.
However, the Air doesn't have a standard hard drive but uses Solid State memory, attached directly to the motherboard. From all accounts, this boosts performance significantly. In general day to day usage, it would appear that the MBA is faster that current MacBook Pros with the i5 and i7 chips. Not in heavy number crunching of course but in speed of response, opening apps, browsing etc,.
I did upgrade my current MacBook Pro to a 256GB SSD so I have some experience of the difference in using a solid state drive. I have to say though that allow the 3rd party SSD exhibited stunning performance initially, it does exhibit some performance degradation over time, something the Apple supplied Flash storage should not.
3 - The graphics chip has been improved and on spec is now faster than my existing MacBook Pro.
Now as you know, I'm a video editor by trade and as such, my recent thought process had been to upgrade to a 17" MacBook Pro for off site video editing and use my iPad for all my mobile needs. I held off and held off upgrading to the 17" MacBook Pro for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on. On reflection, it was most likely the price (which is significant for the 17" MacBook Pro), and the realisation that I don't actually do much editing when I'm away from my home studio. If I needed a portable machine to be my primary machine, then the 17" MacBook Pro would probably be the one. As it is, I can't really justify the expense, for the limited time I need to be able to edit on the move.
The MacBook Air will probably suffice for editing the occasional YouTube clip and I may experiment more with using the Elgato Turbo H.264 HD USB stick for encoding with the MacBook Air, as hey, there's now two USB ports.
So the final spec I decided on was:
- 13" MacBook Air
- 2.13Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4 GB RAM
- 256GB Flash Storage
The only thing that the MacBook Air is lacking is the backlit keyboard, something I really like on the MacBook Pro.
One other thing I need to point out is that I also had an Apple Developer Discount available from my Apple Developer Select membership. This got me around 10% discount off the price of the notebook plus I can claim back the VAT as it's a business machine, making the additional options more affordable. If I didn't use the discount by November, I'd have lost the discount and I'm not in the market for another Mac Pro!
So, the new MacBook Air is ordered and should be here in a week or so expect to see a review and some YouTube footage once it arrives.
Just one thing if your a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member (or thinking of becoming one)...
It's been a while since I did a members prize draw so I've decided to acquire an 11" MacBook Air and give it away as during a members prize draw at the end of November.
If you're and existing member (as long as you're not on a complimentary membership) there's no action to take, just make sure your membership is current on the 30th November and you'll be enetered into the draw automatically. Any new members who sign up between now and the end of November will also be entered automatically. If you want to sign up as a member, you can do that here!
Apple in Apple, Apple Hardware
Reader Comments (25)
Congratulations, Don! I stood infront of a MacBook Air and fell in love. Unfortunately I have a tax bill to pay, otherwise I would have had to treat myself and my wife to the 11" version for couch-potatoe-surfing and other basic tasks.
I would never trade in my iMac, except for another iMac, as video editing is on my mind these days and my 2007 iMac is showing its age already, but for day to day activities that lovely form-factor has a lot going for it.
At the local retailer I looked at it they had put every single programme into the start-up items and I am telling you that little machine blowed through that task in absolutely no time. I was soooo wantig one at that point, but fortunately I remembered that tax bill.
Congratulations! I do have a question though: haven't you recently been having problems with the reliability of SSD? I may be wrong but I thought it was you.
Also, small transposition of characters in your post: search for "ned of November."
Keep up the great work. Have fun with your new laptop!
I am giving serious consideration to an 11 inch. I have been considering a iPad but I need a little more functionality. Planned as part of my motorcycling internet gear, the solid state drives, small size and robust design suggest a good motorcycling travel capability (combined with a suitable case). I have yet to see one, not yet on the shelves in Australia(next few days). Should handle my web site updates, blog entries, browsing quite well when combined with a 3G wireless hub or dongle. Thats my reasoning...now to just convince :-)
Tom,
The SSD in my MacBook Pro has been fine although it does get slower over time.
I did have reliability problems in my Mac Pro which meant it needed replacing.
Congrats Don - for the same reason you love the resolution of the 13 inch - I'm in love with the 11 inch machine. Coming from the original MacBook Air I don't feel like I'm loosing any screen space! I believe the 11 inch is 135 DPI.
So you'll be very happy with the maxed out 13" - personally the 11" fit the bill - for the work I do I don't need a bunch of vertical pixels and as long as I've got the width to work with I don't feel cramped.
Another thing that I'm not sure if you've noticed yet is that the new MPAs are built like a tank. I thought the originals were the first unibody Macs but they always felt a bit off - like I could break them if I wasn't careful. These new ones are solid - very iPad like.
Anyways congrats! - kinda wondering if you are selling your old MBP to make this a free upgrade?
I have an iMac at home as my development work-horse but need a new laptop to replace my 1st generation MacBook (yes, seriously) since I'm doing occasional traveling for a client. I was weighing up getting a 13" MacBook Pro for the size benefits (you can use it on a train's seat-back table for example) versus a 15" MacBook Pro (higher screen resolution, faster processors). The 13" MacBook Air arrived at just the right time for me since it is lighter than both and has a 13" screen with a 15" MacBook Pro's resolution. With 4GB of RAM it's certainly powerful enough for me to do occasional development on (I wouldn't have one as my sole development machine) and the fact that it is ultra-portable makes it much less of a hassle to take on trips.
Congrats!
And thank you for your thoughts!! Love em.
Best regards
Should be a nice machine, so I expect you'll enjoy it.
With regards to the performance degradation of the SSD in your MBP, it would be interesting to know if it's because OS X doesn't support the Trim functionality that is used to avoid SSDs fragmenting and slowing down over time. From the little reading I've done it's not clear whether there is something about how OS X works that avoids the need for Trim, but if the lack of Trim support is the reason for the MBP slowing down over time, it's seems reasonable to expect that the MBA will suffer the same issue eventually.
I'm hoping Apple clarifies (and improves if necessary) the state of SSDs and Trim when Lion comes out. The uncertainty is one of the reasons I've not bothered with and SSD.
Congrats Don, nice piece of heardware you ordered!
One thing that bugs me about the new MBA's though is the resolution.
More real estate is a boon of course, but doesn't the high res on smaller screens make everything too tiny?
Or what's your opinion on the matter? You do use optimal resolution on you screens I assume?
On the 11" the text doesn't feel too small and is very comfortable - quite different than the high resolution 17" MBPs
Did you write that blog before or after you had got the justification ready for Mrs Don. ;-)
Either way, going to see if I can use it on my mrs to convince her...but having recently bought a jaguar x-type I think I used about 3 years of new toy excuses!
Enjoy!
John
Curse you, Don! Taunting me with more goodies that I can't afford!
Mrs Don doesn't know yet... :)
Let me know how you break it to her so that I can tell Mrs Macsterguy the same thing....
Saw the Air at the Fort Worth, Texas Apple Store, looks like an impressive little note book to me!!
Price Difference MBA & MBP?
Congratulations Don! I am jealous. Don I am a little confused by your thought process in deciding to go with MBA as opposed to the upgrade to MBP 17". The main justification, it seemed to me anyway, was price difference. If that is the case, doesn't the MBA 13" equipped the way you purchased cost pretty close to the MBP 17". As bad as I want one, equipping it the way I need, in the end has me easily over $2000. What was puzzling was the fact that a similar equipped MBP 17" cost nearly the same? Just curious as an answer to that question will get me over the last objection I have from the " other half" to sending in my order. Thanks Don Your site has been a lifesaver to me many times can't thank you enough.
I saw them in the Apple Trafford Centre last Thursday. They let me play with an 11 inch one. If I didn't have the iPad and a Mac Book Pro 15inch I wouldn't hesitate in the 11inch one. It looks slightly longer than an iPad. Very nice. I have SSD's in both my MacBook Pro and also my Mac Pro and have had no problems at all.
I'll probably cave in over time and get the Air 11inch.
Don, just placed my order for the 13" Macbook Air. This will be my first Apple computer. I've been PC since 1984. Can you say, jumping in with both feet!
I have absolutely fallen in love with the industrial design! I've also been impressed with the way other Macbook users within our firm have utilized their machines. Yes, I'll still have my training wheels on (I plan on using Parallels to VM my current Windows 7 setup for a time) but with the intention of switching over as completely as I can to OS X.
Thanks for your insights. You mirrored many of my thoughts. Always nice to find someone that can validate my rationalizations. LOL
Re the price difference - the 17" base model MBP is about $600 USD more expensive than the fully tricked out MBA.
Well I'm happy for you, Don .. though this on the day I had to take my knackered first generation MacBook Air to the Apple Store (in Cambridge here) because the drive is history. A lot of online searches revealed that mine is certainly no exception. If only I had enough faith to go again. Afraid I just haven't for now though.
Interested to hear your thoughts in due course though.
Best,
Colin
Looking forward to a full review from Don.
I've been tracking older Mac Book Airs (MBAs) on eBay since realising I'm not getting any younger and the large amounts of paper (handouts etc), plus laptop plus other stuff I carry around every day as a lecturer was sometimes just too much weight. Actually this also happened in combination with the fact that I realised some time ago that my preferred laptop around the house was my (ageing) MacBook. Very reliable and no vents on the bottom so no worries about blocking vital air flow to the processor unlike the PC laptops I own. Overall a nice screen size, weight and simply very usable in everyday situations. But still a little heavy for lugging around with lots of other stuff.
So really keen to see what new MBA would be like and overall very impressed apart from choice of Core 2 Duo. Surely a Core i3 at the very least and really a Core i5 for what is a prestige machine. Despite having an older, slower, hotter chip than many current Windows laptops various reviews and "first looks" suggest that in practice it is actually okay. So intrigued to see what Don thinks once he's had it long enough to give a review. I certainly want one, yet I know it is far from cheap, but I might still convince myself that it is value for money - and just what I need. We'll see,
Regards to all from, Phil
An interesting new machine - thanks for telling us about it.
With regard to the performance loss with the SSD in your MBP, I was looking at Macsales OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro SSD which they claim: “Prevents write speed degradation commonly experienced by other brands' SSD.”
I was trying to find a way of smuggling in another TLA but... WFM
Hi Don, you wrote:
"I have to say though that allow the 3rd party SSD exhibited stunning performance initially, it does exhibit some performance degradation over time, something the Apple supplied Flash storage should not."
Not meaning to be obtuse, but on what basis do you make that assertion? As I understand it, SSD hard drives use the same chips Apple is integrating onto the logic board, it's just they're mounted in a standard hard drive casing so that they can be used in place of a mechanical drive. Surely OS X's lack of Trim function will affect these integrated Flash chips in the same way as those in a hard drive casing. Am I missing something here?
Re the SSD performance and lack of TRIM issue.
I have to believe that Apple have addressed the issue of the lack of TRIM in OSX within the firmware of the machines that make. They've been supplying machines with their own SSDs for sometime now and I've yet to see any reports of the performance degradation seen on Apple machines with 3rd party SSDs.
Nothing to back it up, but I can't see them shipping hardware with this type of issue.
So my expectation is that the Apple supplied SSDs and the Apple supplied Flash memory will not exhibit these sort of issues.
Hi all, I just got an 11" Air, and am still deciding if the resolution is too cramped. My thoughts on on my overview.
Its available at http://www.kevwright.com/home/2010/10/31/macbook-air-late-2010-overview.html
I have always love the Macbook Air and considered getting one due to it's light
weight and portability. However, I'm a heavy user so the short battery life is a problem
for me.
And for that, I will choose the macbook pro.
The latest MacBook Air is definitely my next purchase. Sleek design, nearly weightless, but with enough power for my work. Perfect!