Macbook Air first thoughts
My Macbook Air arrived yesterday and I have been installing software ever since. I have installed Bootcamp and Windows XP (glad I ordered the external Super Drive since it made it easy!) and all of the programs I will need on the machine. I broke the drive directly in half, which gave me about 37GB for each platform. I knew I had to pick and choose wisely.
The Macbook Air is very slim. I was surprised at its weight...seems heavier than a little over 3 pounds, but the fact it is so compact might have something to do with with that. I made my own Vera Bradley slipcase for it out of two placemets today, which you can see below.
Pros:
Thin
Compact and sturdy
The multitouch touchpad is awesome!
Comes with DVI and VGA dongles that have their own connection under the little door
Screen is brighter than bright!
External Superdrive works great for a single-USB non-powered device on both platforms
Second Life regular client (Windows) works just fine (not as well as the Macbook Pro, but just fine)
Peppy on program start up
Cons:
A tad top-heavy when it is open wide since the screen area probably weighs as much as the keyboard area.
The mono speaker comes out from under the keyboard only on one side. A tad tinny, IMHO.
All software installed like a charm and the list follows.
Apple side of the machine
Cyberduck
Fire
Handbrake
Paparrazi
Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac
iWork 08
Quicktime Pro
Flip4Mac
(18GB of HD left)
Windows side of the machine
Windows XP Pro
Office 2007 Pro Plus
Paint Shop Pro
Filezilla
Homesite
Second Life
Screen Print Platinum
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
Adobe Premiere Elements 4
Acrobat 8 Pro
Microsoft Photostory
MacDrive 6
ActiveSync
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008
Twhirl
Skype
Audacity
CA eTrust AV
Fraps
VLC
Stardock ObjectDock
(24GB of HD left)
I have not tried hooking up via the Ethernet dongle or to a LCD projector. I will do that later this weekend.
(Update 2/5/08: Good review here for the ones who really need to know how it performs!)
Labels: Kathy Schrock, Macbook Air
posted by Kathy Schrock at 3:11 PM
9 Comments:
Wow, awesome MacBook Air! Looking forward to further posts on usability.
Wooo! I want to see a side-on comparison with some of your other gadgets.
And it figures that you had to take a picture of the Air in front of a card catalog. Good juxtaposition of objects. :-)
Also, nice wallpaper, as usual.
Interestingly, of the three pounds, the screen half only weighs a single pound.
Well, to my way of thinking that's like contaminating a beautiful Mac! I get enough Windows at work (too much actually - I passed my Dell laptop on to my assistant and use my MacBook to help me make it through the day) and am always glad to get home to my iMac.
I can't come up with a single reason I would need to run Windows!
Great...I was hoping to find some user reviews of this thing. One particular interest of mine is how it deals with processor intensive tasks. I would be interested in trading up from my Powerbook, if it can handle the chores I put it to. Problem with my PB, is that everytime I convert video with Flip4Mac, or stream movies from Netflix, or any number of other video endeavors, it heats up tremendously. The little fan comes on and the thing cooks. I am wondering if the "air" will handle these chores without the heat. If you get a chance, post your experience..thanks
Antonio raises some good questions. Since I do all of my video conversion on the Windows side of the machine, I ran a video converter on a 154Mb file (from avi to wmv) and it took 24 seconds both on the Air and my desktop iMac. No fan or problem there.
The most processor-intensive program I use is Second Life, and the fan does come on after a bit, and, of course, the integrated video card is just okay.
The processor is slowish on this machine compared to a Macbook Pro or iMac, so, if I had to do heavy-duty video/audio editing and wanted an Apple laptop, I would choose a Macbook Pro. In addition, for those type of tasks, I like a bit larger screen for working with things.
However, the Air, even after prolonged use in Second Life, does not get hot (just warmish) and can be used comfortably on one's lap.
Thanks for the review! Can't wait to see a followup, after you've had a chance to use it for a week or two. So far it's sounding like a fantastic device for travel, or supplement to another computer. Would you buy it if it were your only machine?
Also, how's the keyboard feel? Some of the Mac portable keyboards have been wonky in the past...
Still in geek envy, but will have to be satisfied with the Fold Your Own MBA for now ;)
The keyboard on the Macbook Air is just like the one on the Macbook and the new thin desktop iMac keyboard. I like the flat keys and the backlit feature (like the Macbook Pro) is great!
Today I discovered that Apple does not seem to have Windows drivers for the Apple USB Ethernet adapter so I had to find an old Linksys USB-Ethernet adapter for the Windows side of the machine. I hope they release the drivers soon for the Apple version.
I also pulled out the old Griffin iMic last night since there is no mic-in jack for anthything other than a USB mic. That worked fine. I did not try line out on the RCA jacks on the Griffin, but I will in the near future.
Thanks for the info and continuing review. My biggest concern about the Air is the lack of optical drive--I'm so used to having that I don't know how I'd negotiate around it.
I personally just acquired a MacBook after years on Windows, and I'm quite happy so far, so I'm very interested in hearing more about the other Mac options.
Trina
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