[sumisu]

I find all this MBA bashing to be quite entertaining.

If specs are all you care about then why would you have a laptop... a desktop/tower is the best you are going to get if speed and storage is your real requirement. A laptop, any laptop, is a compromise from that "I need the fastest computer" target.

So we all have our reasons for wanting a laptop - primarily portability, no?

If portability is your number one or one of your top requirements then you will be willing to accept the tradeoff.

I'm sitting here in Tokyo right now surrounded by guys with little IBMs and Panasonic subnotebooks - these are their main/only machines and they are all quite happy with these small keyboard, underpowered laptops because they have to carry them back and forth on the train every day.

We'd all love the "perfect" laptop that has infinite storage, infinite battery life, the fastest CPU and ports for everything - but that ain't ever going to happen.

My only dilemma is should I be rationale and wait for MBAv2 or get the 1.8GHz and 80G HD now (with the hope of maybe upgrading the drive). Getting it now means I get to lighten my load sooner - and that is worth something also (at least to me).

I guess people (and the press in particular) need to have something to complain about.

BTW, I also own a cube (upgraded) and I bought it after it was discontinued because I always loved the design.

BTW#2, great balanced review. We'll all know more when people start to get their hands on the real thing and use them for a while.

js

[Petricola]

Very useful review. I'm agonizing. I use a 24" iMac as my main computer, need a laptop for travel and my 14" iBook just died, so I need to replace it now. I find the MacBook screen a little small and the MacBook Pro has more power than I need.
The part about Air that makes me hesitate is the reports of slow file transfer times. I used to do transfers between my iMac and iBook every time I left home and returned using Fire Wire Target Mode, with this never taking more than one hour and usually much less.
In yesterday's Macworld podcast I believe one of you talked about several hours for Air file transfers even using Ethernet. My home office network is wireless so, if I understand this right, for maximum transfer speed I would use an Ethernet cable between the Air and my iMac and turn on File Sharing, which hopefully would be hassle free.
But if this will still take several hours to transfer my Mail folders (3 GB) and my iPhoto library (12 GB) and other assorted files (3 GB), that would be a deal breaker. Could you provide some more info on this? Thanks.

[phoenixbwp]

Sorry Jason in advance if this is too much.

People! Stop whining about this machine! It is a sub-notebook that is thin and lighter than the regular notebooks Apple has right now. We don't know at this point what new items are in store for the MacBook & MBP. So just keep you money in your pocket.

I listened to the podcast and would agree with the editor that the speed factor for using Remote Disk will hurt. But, if you are like me PPC iBook, 10/100 Ethernet speed still kicks.

The MBA (MacBook Air) is meant for people who need a machine to keep tabs on projects. Not heavy work you find working with Pro Apps and iMovie. Get the other machines for that. And if you really want to do video, use Final Cut Express 4, and a camera that uses SD or hard drive. You can't run iMovie '08, but you can do a few more things in FCE4 just as well.

And the point of Firewire; it will be a dead issue by the end of the year, as more and more camcorders go toward Hard drive and SD Cards. Keep your MiniDV Camcorder next to your MB/MBP. I keep mine next to my G5 iMac.
And you haven't complained about not having an SD card reader on any Apple Notebooks?

And only one USB port, so, two ports is not enough for me; iPod, Mouse, External Hard Drive... Get a Hub, they cheap!

Next, the Cloud idea. Something in the Air... Well, if there is a file you forgot, use Back to My Mac, or dotMac. When it comes to software updates, you still use wireless on your other Macs? So can the MBA. Now, if you take care of your other Macs, then this baby should be a no brainer, when it comes to falls. You avoid situations with your MBP that would hurt it, do the same with the MBA.

Last, Common sense dictates, if you can't afford the price, don't buy it. If it doesn't do the job, don't use it. If it is not meant for you, don't complain about it, wait your turn. I said the same thing to people in my area about the iPhone. If it doesn't have the features your looking for, don't buy it. And as far as the hacking, good if you got bricked, dad told me "If you want to break it, then you better know how to fix it!".

Now, with the way the MBA was designed and built, we don't know what is in store for the other two notebooks. A smaller motherboard/CPU could allow you to have your ports on a MBP and lighten it by a 1.5lbs and give you another hour on battery life. But who knows, the year just started and Apple gave you one big ticket item to play with. If it is not for you, play with what you have.

[Snakeman]

Petricola said:

I find the MacBook screen a little small and the MacBook Pro has more power than I need.

Problem is that the MBA has the same screen size as the Macbook next Mac up is the 15" MBP.

I agree that the transfer speed is also an issue that concerns me. Still like the FW 800 transfer between my MBP when I do a complete backup onto my RAID system of my MBP (250Gb HDD).

Cheers Snakeman

[Snakeman]

phoenixbwp said:

Quote

People! Stop whining about this machine! It is a sub-notebook that is thin and lighter than the regular notebooks Apple has right now. We don't know at this point what new items are in store for the MacBook & MBP. So just keep you money in your pocket.

Hi Phoenix,

I am not whining per se just I am struggling to see what Apple is trying to achieve with the MBA. I agree with Jason that the MBA is a niche product (not a Mac for all) but if the 12" PB can't generate a lot of sales then I can't see the MBA selling a lot either because of the 'compromising' features of the MBA.

Even though the MBA is light and thin that is its only advantages (maybe SSD drive) over a MB or MBP and I can't see how this outweighs the loss of functionality from lack of ports, no optical drive etc etc. Yes as you have stated you can add them on with an external gizmo but that sort of defeats the purpose of the portable laptop (carry one small bag for the MBA and a 5 kilo bag of accessories to make it work properly). I know its a little flippant and its all tongue in cheek but I think that people in day to day use are going to find issues using the MBA.

For example, most countries don't have the widespread wireless access that the US has (I am in Australia and can vouch for that) so we still have a lot of ethernet connections via hardwire......need an adapter, More than one USB item, need a port replicator, 2Gb RAM very hard to run emulation of you are servicing mixed systems as Parallels and VM ware will struggle with slow CPU and low RAM (need bootcamp and then there are issues with can you run Windows well via an Air Disc install).

Oh and for the record I have an SD card reader installed in my Express 34 slot because of the MBP's lack of one ;-)

Cheers Snakeman

[Solo500]

I think a 12" model would also be great. The letterbox format on all the laptops is overkill for many users.

[Nagromme]

Dual 1.6 Ghz Core 2 CPUs is hardly slow, and 2GB RAM is not bad either. The mini HD is slow--which will be noticeable for some things--but this machine has more power than most of the Macs people are sitting in front of right now, doing real work on.

As for connectivity, the MacBook can connect to pretty much anything except a DV camcorder or a RAID. I've never done either.

For some power users, the Air lacks capability. For some power users, anything but a tower lacks capability!

Laptops give up some of the capability found in towers, for the sake of portability. Ultraportables give up more--but I like the compromises Apple has chosen better than I like the compromises made in some highly-regarded Windows ultraportables--with tiny screens and much slower processors (and often costing hundreds more than an Air, while being larger in volume).

That "lost capability" will not stop me from doing all the high-end tasks I want to do, from Lightwave 3D work to Photoshop.

All I'm REALLY giving up is hundreds of dollars. That IS worth it for portability to some people--which is why other companies have been selling ultraportables for years.

I'm glad Apple offers an ultraportable of their own at last. Not everyone wants an ultraportable--but those of us who do can be glad to have an option now.

Those who don't shouldn't be bothered because an option exists that they don't want. They can enjoy the many other Macs Apple has for them. Whichever one they choose, that doesn't mean the other Macs should not exist.

People certainly have been falling all over themselves to persuade us that nobody wants a MacBook Air. Or that portability isn't of any value--it's just "style." I wonder why they're so worked up? (You'd think they'd be freaking out that nobody wants a 17" MacBook Pro, or a 160 GB iPod, or any other product that isn't the absolute mainstream majority option. I guess they probably did, and now have moved on to being upset by the Air.)

(Regarding transfer speed. Was the WiFi test done at full N speeds? That should exceed 100baseT Ethernet unless something was interfering. WiFi G would not. Then again, it's no big deal: I'll do ONE big data transfer to my Air, and after that, mainly small transfers. And I'm NOT planning to get the optical drive or Ethernet. I haven't used either in over a year on my current laptop.)

[jeroenhmg]

Nagromme said:

Dual 1.6 Ghz Core 2 CPUs is hardly slow, and 2GB RAM is not bad either. The mini HD is slow--which will be noticeable for some things--but this machine has more power than most of the Macs people are sitting in front of right now, doing real work on.

Yep, 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM should be more than fast enough for most tasks.

Nagromme said:

That "lost capability" will not stop me from doing all the high-end tasks I want to do, from Lightwave 3D work to Photoshop.

Same here, however, I would still like to hear how Xcode performs on the MacBook Air before buying it... Jason Snell, any chance of an install and a couple of compile times and UI response comparison? ;-)

When the April (.au) salary sacrifice season begins again I will probably be ordering Air (Oh, oh! Couldn't resist).

Jeroen

[spinoza2]

Jason, the reason for my negative comment is simply that you don't understand the target audience for this machine, and this is quite common for American reviewers (as opposed to Asian markets, where ultralights are much more prevalent, and their purpose is understood). Because you don't understand the target audience, your review is dominated by the "compromises" and the "make due with less" comments ("no drive", "only three ports", can "only" have 2 gigs of RAM ("a strict limitation"), etc etc). If you understood the target audience, all of these supposed compromises would be relegated to a couple of minor comments at the end, mentioned in passing, and instead your review would be filled with how remarkable an ultralight the MacBook Air is. If you, and most every other laptop owner, have never taken out your battery, then why is a replaceable battery such a big deal? If most all laptop owners have never or rarely used a Firewire or Ethernet port, then why make such a big deal of it in a review? It's what I would call the (typically American) "SUV" mentality--"I may actually make use of a big, gas-guzzling SUV someday, therefore I have to make sure my car is huge to allow for this possibility." So what happens? Take a look at any California freeway: it's filled with gas-guzzling SUVs...and virtually all of them have only one driver. The actual functionality of that SUV is used, say, less than 5% of the time, but the owner has to deal with the negative consequences (big, poor gas mileage, polluting, poor maneuverability, etc.) the other 95% of the time. "Gosh, I may actually have to switch out my battery someday, therefore I'm willing to lug around the extra weight all the time, as well as to deal with the additional design-complexity, to accomodate for this." My point is, if you had focused on the target audience (and functionality) for this machine, your review would have been very different. It's as if you had reviewed a BMW coupe or Porsche with an SUV audience in mind.

[spacest]

what kind of noise does it make, when idle and under heavy load in a quiet room? any intel whine?

[rogerr]

Jason, Spacest's question about the "air" experience seems right on the mark to me, especially given your comment about the Air's lack of innovation. I think Apple is trying to reinvent the notebook as a completely untethered device. The extent to which the Air can really function that way will go a long way to deciding its success.

My feeling is that it just plain costs too much. I really thought that the Air would be a kind of iPhone - as - laptop: build in a 3G radio, sell it with a data plan, get ATT to subsidize the hardware so the cost is under $1000. How different our reaction to the Air would be if it were at a different price point!

[Mister Snitch]

It's obvious to me what this machine is, though I have seldom (if ever) heard it mentioned. This machine is the vessel into which Apple will place the most forward-looking new laptop-applicable technologies. Is it true, as some have been saying, that discs (Blu-Ray, DVD, CD, etc.) are becoming increasingly irrelevant (as the floppy was said to be, at the dawn of the iMac)? In that case, the cutting edge laptop eschews them for newer, network-based ("cloud") solutions. Will solid-state drives replace spinning hard drives in laptops? In that case, the future begins with the Air. Are LED screens fated to replace LCDs on new HDTV monitors (as we saw at CES this year)? Again, the Air gets this technology first. Is data mobility increasingly important? If so, make the machine as mobile as possible (i.e., cut down size/weight), and assume that most data is 'in the cloud' (and not necessarily needed on the device itself).
I do not think it matters very much to Apple whether this machine breaks any sales records. In fact, it may not even matter if it breaks even. It's a place in the product line that is designed specifically to evolve, just as the iPod evolved into the iPhone (and into other sorts of iPods). Here Apple is betting on the future, by analyzing current trends. As 'the future' becomes 'the now', the problems critics now cite will fade into irrelevance, making the Air increasingly less of a compromise for more and more users.

[SVR]

Macbook Air was released too early. Not ready yet for prime time.
This type of laptop best for business types who travel. If Sony can put out a laptop that is lighter weight, has a larger hard drive, and has a DVD player/burner, it is embarrassing that Apple cannot do this.
One of the reasons that Apple stock fell so much is that the market realizes that MacBook Air is not going to sell nearly as much as Apple wants.
SVR

[palane]

Regarding the need for more than one USB port:

If you ever have a desktop setup, one port will be occupied for external keyboard + mouse. In my case, it's a USB dongle. If I ever use my keychain drive, I'm using two ports.If you want to do this with an Air, spending extra for Bluetooth accessories is a must.

The Air makes too many compromises for me, but I can see it's utility. My wife was doing some interpreting at a law firm and carrying along her MacBook was a bit bulky. http://It's useful for dictionaries and checking terminology. An Air would have done just nicely. For a professional on the go who needs something slick and light, it's viable. I see the Air as a complementary machine, but not a desktop replacement.

BB