It's beautiful, it's stunning, it's thin, it's like a supermodel.
That is probably the best way to describe the MacBook Air to anyone
asking. But should you be buying the thinnest MacBook on the
planet? We've been living with the new model to find out.
Cast from aluminium, the MacBook Air is 'cake cutting' thin with a
design that tapers from 17mm at the back to just 3mm at the front,
although you've got to also take into account the feet and general
sitting on the desk form factor. If you're wondering how that
stacks up against a MacBook Pro - that 17mm is roughly the same
height as the side of the bigger more powerful laptop, while the
thin end when on a desk is the height of a CD jewel case.
With such a thin design the laptop isn't that heavy, and that means
a total weight of just over 1.32kg for the 13.3-inch model we've
got on test. Against the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro it's almost half the
weight (2.56kg), and not surprisingly in the hand it really does
feel it. The reason for that massive weight saving is that you've
lost not only a large chunk of metal, but a couple of bits of tech
as well. There is no optical drive and no regular hard drive
either, with the MacBook Air only coming with flash storage options
- 128GB or 256GB.
You'll also lose port options as well. There is no Ethernet and no
FireWire. You get two USB sockets (one on either side so you can
use a mobile broadband dongle or USB drive without taking both
ports out at the same time), a Mini DisplayPort socket, SD card
reader and a headphone/mic-in socket.
Not only is the design thin, but it's also minimalist. There is no
external battery indicator for example, the mic has shifted to the
side rather than on the top as in the MacBook Pro range, and the
power button is now a physical key within the keyboard rather than
a separate one within the casing.
The new laptop might be thin, however the keyboard is still the
full size keyboard with 78 (US) or 79 (ISO) keys, including 12
function keys and 4 arrow keys (inverted 'T' arrangement). It's
Apple's standard keyboard found in all its MacBook and MacBook Pro
keyboards, with no more keys than usual. If you're wondering,
therefore, where the extra Power key has managed to be slipped in,
it's because the eject button has moved one to the left - it's now
to be found on the F12 key.
Another loss is Apple's backlit keyboard. If you're used it and you
like it, you'll be disappointed that it's not here. Beneath the
keyboard, which is both comfortable and easy to use, is a large
multitouch clickable trackpad. As with other trackpads in the
MacBook and MacBook Pro range it supports inertial scrolling,
pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap,
double-tap and drag capabilities.
Up to the screen and it is crisp, thanks to a maximum 1440 x 900
resolution, and bright thanks to LED backlighting. Above that is a
standard Apple webcam - now branded FaceTime Camera. Seemingly
hidden beneath the exterior next to the camera is a green LED
status that lights up when it's on so you know someone is
watching.
Inside there are a range of specs to contend with, however the off
the shelf top of the range configuration before customisation sees
you getting a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, 256GB
of flash storage, and an Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics card. Like
the 13-inch MacBook Pro there is no switchable graphics
option.
If you are happy to order your new MacBook Air rather than just
walk into a shop and pick one up then you can expand those options
with a faster processor - 2.18GHz, and more memory - 4GB. You can't
make changes after you've bought the Air, so make sure you get it
right when you buy. For the purpose of this review we've been
testing the 1.86GHz version with 2GB of RAM.
Turn it on and it's just like a regular Mac of course, and that
means all the joys of and annoyances of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. This
review relates to the MacBook Air hardware. If you want to see more
about Snow Leopard, please read our Snow Leopard review.
So what about the MacBook Air's performance? After hearing the
announcementfrom Apple and before we got our hands on the device
one of our main concerns was Apple's choice of older, less
powerful, processors in the MacBook Air. The processors are the
Intel Core 2 Duo not the new Core i models remember. Apple says the
choice has been made because the older chips are better at power
management, and in reality those fears where unfounded. Mostly we
suspect down to the sheer speed of the flash storage.
It's amazing how much of a difference this really makes. To test
the new MacBook Air, we transferred an entire desktop, files, and
applications from a MacBook Pro almost filling the 256GB of storage
space up in the process.
We've then been using it to do regular Pocket-lint work, editing
images, writing this review, watching videos, playing games and
editing video. As part of the transfer we had to rebuild our
Microsoft Entourage database (60,000 emails and counting). This
task was around four times quicker than on our 2.53GHz 4GB late
2009 MacBook Pro.
Video editing with iMovie 11 has also been noticeably faster, while
loading applications, even though we are almost at capacity for the
storage, was also quicker too. As promised by Apple this is a quick
and zippy machine, certainly capable of coping with daily tasks
like video editing and photo editing as well as watching video and
playing games. While we wouldn't recommend it for someone who does
video editing on a daily basis, it's good enough for most
people.
But it's not just the ability to load applications faster that the
SSD helps you with, but battery life as well. Apple promises around
7 hours of use on a single charge and up to 30 days on
stand-by.
We have to admit we haven't yet been able to test the 30 days
claim, but the 7 hours is about right. Of course it depends on what
you do, whether you've got Wi-Fi turned on, but without a
mechanical hard drive running in the background you get a longer
battery for work, play, or whatever it is you do.
Verdict
On the surface the MacBook Air looks like an expensive option
compared to Apple's MacBook Pro that you get off the shelf. In
fact, at a quick glance the difference is over ￡500, but to be
fair, the off the shelf MacBook Pro doesn't come with the flash
storage; an optional upgrade that adds ￡640 to the price tag.
Factor that in and the MacBook Pro's pricing starts to become more
realistic considering the lack of optical drive and ports like the
Ethernet and FireWire. So what you are actually getting is a fair
deal, an expensive one agreed, but it's that move to SSD that is
the expensive element here, not necessarily Apple just ripping you
off.
When we reviewed the first MacBook Air in February 2008 we slammed
it. Why? Because it was overly expensive and it was too ahead of
its time when it came to losing the Ethernet socket; all of that,
combined with an average battery life, meant we felt it was a model
that was never destined to leave the house.
