First MacBook Air Reviews Fly In
January 25th, 2008
While most have yet to see the MacBook Air in person, and those that have are yet to put it through its paces outside of the demonstration environment, a select few have been lucky enough to have had a chance to review the MacBook and see what its really made of. The big question is how much performance has been sacrificed in the process of cutting off the pounds.
One of the first out of the gate was The Wallstreet Journal’s Walt Mossberg who said that MacBook Air’s screen and keyboard were a pleasure to use and that the machine felt speedy, even with multiple programs running. Yep, that’s right guys, System 7 is upon us, the MacBook Air can officially multitask. Jokes aside, he does point out what many seem to forget: The MacBook Air may be perfect for many people who travel, but certainly not for all. Criticisms included the lack of a removable battery, common ports and the fact the screen is taller than the average sub-notebook may create potential problems for those trying to use it while flying if the seat in front of them is reclined. Additionally, he said that “in my standard battery test, where I disable all power-saving features, set the screen brightness at maximum, turn on the Wi-Fi and play an endless loop of music, the MacBook Air’s battery lasted 3 hours, 24 minutes. That means you could likely get 4.5 hours in a normal work pattern, almost the five hours Apple claims.”
A design triumph were the words of Newsweek’s Steven Levy who stated that “the gentle curves and the absence of protrusions make this an instant object of techno-lust, another notch in Apple’s belt of design triumphs. Most importantly, its diminutive dimensions pretty much evaporate the eternal quandary of whether or not to take your computer along with you.” While he praises the new multi-touch trackpad functionality, he also points that the port selection may be a negative for some users, as might the 80GB hard drive which isn’t huge if the MacBook Air is your only computer.
Finally, USA Today’s Edward Baig continues the skinny theme in his review. “The skinny - the word can’t be emphasized enough - $1,799 (and up) computer will make students and frequent business travelers gush. Encased in aluminum, Air has a comfortable-to-type-on full-size keyboard, widescreen 13.3-inch display and an iSight video camera. But with too few ports, a sealed battery that you can’t replace on your own and no built-in CD/DVD drive, Air is not the ideal laptop for everyone.” He found that he achieved around 3 hours and 40 minutes battery life as he surfed the web, used Remote Disc and wrote, though the more processor intensive task of video decompression meant that total was cut by one hour while watching a video rented off iTunes.
As a side note, though John Mayer didn’t perform at the end of this year’s Macworld keynote, he has apparently been spotted with a MacBook Air - possibly the first person outside of Apple without a press badge to get his hands on one. While we probably won’t get a review from John, we still eagerly await a review from Mac evangelist David Pogue, so check back soon and we’ll point you in the right direction. We’ll have to blame this one on post keynote madness, as Pogue himself was kind enough to let us know his New York Times review was published over a week ago. Describing the MacBook Air as a razor-thin slice of heaven, Pogue, as you would expect, is clearly a fan. While it is the slowest Mac currently shipping, he found that it was “faster than most ultraportables, and not underpowered by any means: During my day with one of Apple’s display models at the show, I didn’t experience a single hiccup editing video in iMovie, playing nine audio tracks simultaneously in GarageBand, or even conducting a wireless video chat with a friend in Paris.”
The general consensus is that the MacBook Air is extremely portable, but lacks the power and connectivity required for it to be your only computer if you are looking to do more demanding tasks such as video editing. While Gizmodo has removed their MacBook Air deconstruction photos (a quick heads up to all the other rebel reviewers out there, you’re actually not supposed to pull the review model apart), their XBench results can be viewed here. Engadget’s has also posted a series of benchmarks. Obviously with a slower processor and hard drive, the MacBook Air is always going to trail the more feature packed MacBooks, but the really interesting benchmarks will be those showing the impact the 1.8GHz CPU and SSD upgrades have on performance. Hopefully those benchmarks should start appearing in the next few weeks.
Our very own MacBook Air hands on photos taken right after the keynote can be found here.
There are currently 2 responses to this article.
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poguenyt says:
“we still eagerly await a review from Mac evangelist David Pogue”
Why are you waiting? My review appeared a whole week ago!
–Pogue
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Timothy says:
Wow, I can’t believe I let that one slip past me! Thanks for stopping by and giving us the heads up, the article will be updated appropriately.
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