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I'm not sure comparing a $700 price difference would be much fairer. :-)
The Air gets 3.5 mice because it's a whole generation behind in terms of processor speed, lacks a whole bunch of features, and is really a terrible value when compared to other Mac laptops. It also gets 3.5 mice for being so pretty and light.
Although the new Air is better than the old one, the competition (in the form of the MacBook) has gotten tougher in the intervening time. And I don't think the Air has made enough strides to catch up to the progress the MacBook has made.

"That display, with its built-in DisplayPort connector, would seem to be an excellent addition to the Air, especially given that its self-powered USB hub has enough juice to allow Air users to permanently attach Apple’s power-hungry external USB SuperDrive ($99) to the monitor"
That would be a revelation if it was true. But I couldn't find anything on the Apple site that suggested it was possible.
And the theory about the Superdrive needing more power over USB was debunked awhile back by this fella who opened up his model:
http://tnkgrl.wordpr...rdrive-for-all/
"Some people have speculated that perhaps the MBA SuperDrive draws more than 500 mA and that the MacBook Air provides more than 500 mA via its USB port. This is not the problem. My attempt at connecting the SuperDrive to several PCs and Macs while injecting additional current using a special cable was unsuccessful…"

I would love one if it came with a base you could dock into (With DVD, more USB and Firewire). That way every thing is there when disaster strikes. Yes, I know it is sooo 1998 (or somewhere there abouts) when the the IBM Thinkpad did it. Not something as clunky as a Duo Dock (dating myself).
My Powerbook G4 12" keeps getting the job done. I will probably just go for a Macbook. I like thin and light, but at that price, it should be a bit more awesome.
Tom

Thanks for the review. I have two questions:
- battery life: we've seen the battery life decrease for the new MB and MBP. Can you confirm that this didn't happen for the MBA?
- SSD: can you confirm the interface is SATA and thus we could possibly install the X-25 from Intel? Ideally I would like the performance of the stock SSD compared to the X-25... I'm not ready to buy a MBA yet (my PB G4 still gets the job done. Thanks for still including it in your comparison charts by the way !) but in 6 months, I can see myself buying the lower end MBA model and slapping a X-25 into if performance gain is high. What do you think?

Jason Snell said:

I agree with the first sentence (especially now that the MacBook is less than an inch thick and only 4.5 lbs), but the second one sort of reminds me of how Windows Enthusiasts brag about Microsoft's progress with security in Vista compared to what Apple has accomplished in Leopard. Well of course Microsoft has done more work, Apple had a better foundation to start from. Likewise, the Air hasn't made as much progress as the MacBook because the Air was inherently better in many respects.

The Air was the first unibody Mac notebook and until the "late 2008" MacBooks/Pros debuted, it was undeniably one of the most rugged, rigid, and aesthetically pleasing computers ever built by Apple or anyone. It was the first Mac to feature MultiTouch gesture support and the first to offer an oversized trackpad to accommodate said gestures, in addition to general mousing around. Finally, it was the first Mac to feature a solid-state drive, which made up (some) for its less than zippy processor.

I'll be interested to see where the Air is this time next year. Its new NVIDIA 9400M "chipset-on-a-chip" will likely be put to good use running Snow Leopard, so perhaps just that will make it a more capable, competitive machine. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I see the Air replacing the MacBook in a couple years when people give up their internal disc drive security blankets and mobile processors get faster. :D

MrLizard said:

Absolutely true, confirmed -- indeed, offered! -- by Apple representatives. You heard it here first.

FrenchKheldar said:

We haven't done extensive battery testing on the MBA, but the battery life seems the same. It's the same battery and the energy consumption of the system went down, not up.

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It's a SATA connection, yes.

natmusak said:

It depends on if you're trying to assign credit to a product family that broke ground, or deciding what product to buy. In terms of credit, you're right, the MacBook Air broke ground. But breaking ground back in the day doesn't matter when you're buying a laptop today. Today, what matters is where things are right now.

If you take weight, size, and style out of the equation, the Air is a disaster. It only works on those terms -- it's light and tiny and looks cool because of it. The problem with that is, the MacBook now looks much more like an Air, has the nifty trackpad stuff, has the backlit keyboard as an option, and is half a pound lighter than it used to be... which to my mind really closes the gap with the Air.

Full credit to the Air for how groundbreaking it was back in the day, but what does it do that's unique today? It's still got its attributes, to be sure, but the audience for the Air is actually narrower today than it was back in January, because of the style and size improvements to the MacBook.

>Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I see the Air replacing the MacBook in a couple years when people give up their internal disc drive security blankets and mobile processors get faster. :D

Actually, I agree with you completely. The future of laptops will be systems that look like the Air. Because that's what laptops do -- they get smaller and lighter as time goes on! The constraint is going to be the size of the display. Which is why Apple is shrinking every other dimension. The progression of the MacBook year is proof that they're on a collision course.

January, 2008 = "back in the day"?

:)

I'm one of the --suckers-- early adopters who bought version 1.0. As a first gen MacBook Air owner, I was excited that the new MBAs don't have any physical differences from the first generation (other than the hidden display port). This keeps the illusion of newness in place for a least a little while longer. I had no plans to upgrade until I read your article, but now I'm tempted by the larger drive capacity and the better graphics subsystem.

Are the 4-finger gestures a hardware feature or a software feature? Any chance those will be provided to us via a software update?

It would also be interesting to know exactly how difficult and/or expensive a hard-drive upgrade would be. I've seen the take-apart videos and the HD removal looks a bit more complicated than that of the average laptop.

Thanks for the excellent article.

Jason Snell said:

That's a very good point.

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I agree on the weight and (for the most part) style; the new MacBook is very much an Air with more there. But on dimensions, the Air is comically thin and has no 90 degree angles that I'm aware of. The MacBook is more tapered, but it's still boxy (though a beautiful, rounded kind of boxy).

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Exactly, that is the problem and I'm still on the fence today. Perhaps if those recent carbon fiber rumors come true, it'll regain its weight advantage some at Macworld.

With that said, it has definitely improved in one area: price, namely the higher-end model (as you noted in your review). I still can't believe a 128GB SSD is $500 (or $300 w/ student discount pricing) after the Air debuted with a puny 64GB SSD for $1000!! I look forward to when the Air comes standard with that 128GB SSD.

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Ha, now it doesn't seem so crazy. :D I like the notion of the MacBook and Air merging. If FW400 is dead and FW800 is for "pros" only, at least give the Air an audio line-in port when it merges with the MacBook! I also don't know why they left out that fourth conductor on the revised Air's headphone jack, which would have enabled use of Apple's iPhone headset.

One more question. Does anyone know the exact brand model of the SSD in the Air? Can we assume it's the same SSD and the same interface for the 3 new laptops? Thanks !

Hi Jason, I really miss one very important fact in your excellent test and as well generally in the discussion "Unibody MacBooks versus new MBA": the 13.3 inch display of the MBA is so much better that the new mirrors we get served from Apple ! That glass does ruin the user experience. I compared the two face to face playing 8 quicktime movies in loop and doing a slideshow in iPhoto ... to me that quality difference is really frustrating and is my personal deal-breaker to the Unibody-Macs! What could be more vital concerning a computer you carry around - maybe in summertime in daylight - than what you see or do not see from that expensive box. The MBA's display had very little reflections in that very bright Apple Store and much better depth and colour to show off ... really excellent picture.

And even more, after playing around for an hour with the two AluBooks, I must to say, the overall haptic feel you get is so much better from the MacBook Air - it really feels more valuable !

And I'm not sure, if it's just the glass, that makes the trouble for me. Is it really the same display on the MacBooks after all ? Any specifications from Apple ?

And finally one more question: why is there no top 1,86 GHz model of the new MBA with 120 GB SATA drive ?

Thanx for the great test anyway !

Rotary said:

Check out the comparison photos here in this post from an appleinsider.com thread:
http://forums.applei...28&postcount=78

Here's a link to the original thread in its entirety (with those pictures on page 2):
http://forums.applei...ead.php?t=92464

I do question the validity of these photos though. I too played around with both the new MacBook and the Air and didn't find the disparity anywhere near that. In truth, I hadn't realized there was a major difference at all until I saw those photos. The new MacBook's display, from what I remember at the store, looked quite a bit better, but then, I didn't test out a movie either.

Hope that helps (although I don't believe these pics). :)