MacBook Air: User Review

This review will focus on the experience of using a Macbook Air as a main computer in everyday life. There are many excellent technical reviews on the Macbook Air by the likes of AnandTech, Arstechica, Daring Fireball and Macworld and you’ll find the technical specifications on Apple’s website.

I’ve owned a 1.6 GHz MacBook Air with the 80GB hard drive and running the latest version of Apple’s operating system since March 2008 and would like to share how life is with a Macbook Air.

First contact with the MacBook Air is visual. The anodized aluminum case resembles a precision-tooled metal slab. The MacBook Air has slightly curved, pure and aesthetic lines. It is a product I can imagine being part of the Museum of Modern Art collection. Zen in the form of a silver notebook.

The absence of visible ports has sometimes made it difficult for me to quickly distinguish the front and back of the MacBook Air, even though the notebook is thicker at the back than the front.

MacBook Air on top of a ThinkPad T41

But you need hold the MacBook Air to appreciate the engineering feat Apple’s employees have achieved. It is solid and the case and display do not flex. The build quality is excellent. It feels smooth and sensual (and if you do not ground the MacBook Air when you are powering it: electrical). When the notebook is open, the bottom edges can feel sharp when you rest your wrist on them at an angle.

“Wow, that’s thin!” is the reaction I’ve heard many people have when first seeing the MacBook Air. It is remarkably so. Thinness can be defined in terms of portability. While the MacBook Air has a normal-sized 13″ footprint, it fits into my in-tray in the office. It is similar in size to a paper notebook, a manuscript, or a fashion magazine.

While it is larger than the former 12″ PowerBook from Apple, it has only half the PowerBook’s volume and is light-weight. At 1.36 kg, I can comfortably hold it with one hand without risking wrist strain. I have been using the MacBook Air since 10 weeks as my main laptop. That is what it is: a normal notebook that does what I want it to.

12″ PowerBook (left) compared to the MacBook Air

The form factor and design of the MacBook Air only come into perspective when physically compared to other notebooks, which now almost all look clunky and feel heavy to me in comparison. Even the similarly sized 13″ Macbook seems huge to me. In my opinion, the MacBook Air is definitely more portable than the 12″ PowerBook.

Display

The glossy 13.3 inch LED backlit display of the MacBook Air is dazzlingly, nay blindingly bright, which allows it to be read in sunlight. The reflecting screen is not an issue for me, unless I have dimmed the display and have a bright source of light directly behind me. The display has a native resolution of 1,200 x 800 pixels at 114 dpi and offers excellent viewing angles.

Yet the display does not open past 125 degrees (probably due to the fact the MacBook Air would otherwise have a propensity to tip over) and has a rather wide bezel, which I believe contributes to the lack of flex in the screen.

An ambient light sensor at the top of the screen automatically adjusts the brightness of the display and the illuminated keyboard according to the available light. Integrated in the display are also an iSight webcam and a microphone. When closed, the lid is held in place magnetically.

Keyboard

The MacBook Air provides an excellent tactile and full-sized backlit keyboard. I was at first appalled by the choice of black as the color for the keys, but I have gotten used to it. At least it hides smudges from dirty fingers. I have never missed the absence of an illuminated keyboard in my previous notebooks. Now I don’t know how I could ever have lived without it. Typing in complete darkness is no longer synonymous with typing blind.

Speaker

There is one mono speaker to the right side of the keyboard. I haven’t been able to locate it yet. Audiophiles will scoff, but I have actually watched movies while the audio was coming through the internal speaker. I admit this was in a quiet hotel room, but it didn’t bother me as I was engrossed in the movie action.

My set-up for watching movies while on vacation (when I can just stuff additional hardware in a suitcase) is attaching an external battery powered speaker system from Logitech to the stereo headphone mini-jack of the MacBook Air and playing the movie off a small external hard drive attached by and powered through USB.

Multi-touch Trackpad

The trackpad is large, but not obtrusive. The single mouse key under the trackpad is very narrow, however I rarely use it. The reason is the multi-touch actions. The trackpad can be configured to react to the positioning of fingers and to taps

People who criticize the absence of a secondary mouse button have not experienced the effortless right-click functionality of the multi-touch trackpad: a single tap with two fingers will bring up the context menu; it is right-click done right.

Two finger scrolling vertically on the trackpad enables me to scroll through Microsoft Word documents and websites. PDF documents and photos can be zoomed by a pinching motion. Rotating photos is a natural turning motion with two fingers. Three finger action allows me to move back and forth through folders in the Finder or help navigate websites in Safari.

Multi-touch allows seamless interaction with the operating system. The gestures have become so ingrained, that I am frustrated when other laptops don’t respond to the finger ballet.

80GB Hard Drive

People migrating their data from another notebook will usually have to slim down their storage requirements to fit the restrained hard drive space on the MacBook Air. They will need to adopt an approach similar to the one bag philosophy: which is about traveling light with only one carry-on bag, regardless of the duration of your stay.

Buying a MacBook Air forces you to ask yourself: “What do I really need to take with me when mobile?” I found that I don’t require an integrated DVD player when on the move; a few ripped movies in a space saving format such as H.264, XVID or DIVX remain on my HD in case I’m stuck in a hotel.

I don’t need to carry five years worth of family photos with me; the last twelve months are sufficient. I carry my music on an iPod, so there is no need to duplicate these tunes on the MacBook Air. I don’t speak Chinese or Japanese; a program named “Monolingual” has helped me slim down the basic Mac OS 10.5 install by a few GB by deleting unused languages. Pre-installed applications not used on the road, such as Garageband, were trashed. I do not feel constrained in storage space and still have 18GB of space free on my hard drive.

If you can’t live with 74.5 GB of formatted storage space, then this version of the MacBook Air is not for you. Just as you shouldn’t acquire a silver Austin Martin Vantage convertible, when all you want is to be able to stuff a couch from Ikea in the trunk.

I stash large files, movie, photo and music libraries on an external hard drive which is connected to an Apple Extreme wireless router. In this manner I can stream data to my MacBook Air and remain untethered. An Airport Express router connected to a stereo enables me to stream music stored on the upstairs iMac thorough the MacBook Air to the living room stereo

No Optical Drive.

I’ve found that the quickest way to exchange large amounts of data with another computer is to use a portable external hard drive as a go-between. For smaller files, I use a USB stick or I just share data over wifi if time is not an imperative. On the road, Apple’s .Mac service “Back to my Mac” allows easy network access to the files I left on my iMac at home.

The non-existent integrated DVD/CD drive would be nice to have if Apple could manage to add it without sacrificing the weight advantage, storage space, battery life or the design of the MacBook Air. I manage very well without one.

Installing programs can either be done through attaching the optional USB-powered external Superdrive (DVD/CD burner) or by “Remote Disk” i.e. what Apple calls sharing another computer’s optical drive over a network. After loading the special Remote Disk software onto my iMac, I was able to use the iMac’s optical drive to install the iWork software suite onto my MacBook Air wirelessly. The 460MB install was surprisingly fast, considering I am on a 802.11g network at home.

Performance

Almost every review will rightfully tell you that MacBook Air has less processor power than any other recently produced Mac. The basic MacBook Air sports a 1.6GHz intel Core 2 duo processor with a 4MB cache, a non-upgradeable 2GB RAM of internal memory, an Intel GMA X3100 graphics subsystem which uses up to 144MB of the internal RAM and a relatively slow 4200 rpm hard drive. But does it matter?

In practice, the MacBook Air easily trumps the former high-end Apple notebook, a 1.67 GHz 15-inch PowerBook G4. It holds its own very well compared to the first Apple notebook generation with Intel CPUs. I play high definition video on the MacBook Air without a hiccup and work with multiple applications open simultaneously without experiencing slowdowns. Editing videos with Final Cut Express is fluid. Presentations with Apple’s Keynote software, whereby the speaker’s notes are displayed on the MacBook Air and the presentation is projected onto a screen, are smooth.

Fan Noise

In a very quite room you may hear activity from the hard drive. In normal use the fans turn at about 2500 RPM and can barely be heard. The MacBook Air is very quite. After 30 minutes of use, the bottom of the case is warm, but not hot. I can keep the notebook on my lap. All this changes, when streaming videos from YouTube: the fans audibly rev up to 6500 RPM and the heat from the bottom of the case becomes uncomfortable. Just ensure air can freely flow through the vents situated under the MacBook Air.

MacBook Air Battery

On the road, battery life is good, but the battery is not user replaceable (unless you have a screw driver, technical skills and patience). I’m waiting for battery technology to allow 12 hours of full-load functioning, but in the mean time an average 4 hours and 30 minutes with wifi off is good in comparison to other notebooks.

On a recent train ride, I managed to watch one complete Star Wars movie, 32 minutes of another and I still had 42 minutes of indicated battery life available. Battery charging times are longer than their depletion time. The MacBook Air will charge them to about 80% capacity fairly quickly (2-3 hours), but reaching 100% charge status can often take up to 5 or 6 hours. The charger is tiny in comparison to its brethren from other Apple notebooks and will take up little additional space in a carrying bag.

MacBook Air Ports and Plugs

Is connectivity restrained on the MacBook Air? It depends on your usage and needs. At the bottom right side of the MacBook Air you can pull down a recessed trap door which remains flush with the case when closed. The latch reveals a headphone mini-jack, one USB 2.0 port, and a micro-DVI port that can be fitted with adaptors for DVI, VGA, composite and S-video output.

I can recall exactly one time when I wanted to connect two devices to the sole USB port. One of them was an external mouse, so I used the trackpad instead. Otherwise one USB is enough for my needs. The USB port can be fitted with an optional USB to Ethernet adapter. I recommend this solution for times when Internet access is only available through cables (if you pack an Airport Express station, you can create you own wifi network).

The Ethernet connection is also helpful when you require faster transfer speeds between two computers than the integrated wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n or Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR will allow. Small USB hubs can be used to extend the number of ports and some larger USB peripherals may require a USB extension cable to fit into the USB port of the MacBook Air. I have not encountered any such issues.

The MacBook Air communicates visually in various ways. At the front, in that almost infinitely thin sliver of casing, Apple has included a discrete and slow pulsing white LED sleep light and an infrared port for use with the optional Apple remote. The Magsafe power connector attaches magnetically to the MacBook Air and indicates the charging status of the battery: an orange light while charging changes to green when completed. A pinpoint green light indicates when the display integrated iSight webcam is on.

Security

The MacBook Air lacks one security feature, which many notebooks and also other Apple notebooks have: a slot for a Kensington lock to tether the notebook to another object such as a table. Therefore the Macbook Air should be with you, if you fear the possibility of someone walking away with it, while it is unattended.

I’ve made it difficult for people to access my data by enabling a strong password to protect access to my user account, encrypting my user data with FileVault, choosing a secure screensaver and by installing Apple’s Open Firmware, which will require the user to enter a password in order to install Mac OS on the hard drive. I also use third party software from Orbicule to increase my chances of recovering my laptop, or at least to make the MacBook Air hard to use for a thief.

Although the hard drive is equipped with Sudden Motion Sensor technology that will park the drive head when the computer is dropped, I use Time Machine, which is an automated backup application included with Mac OS 10.5, to ensure I have a regular backup of all my data and user preferences. It has also helped retrieve data I had erroneously deleted.

To the detriment of anti-virus detection software sellers, I admit that I do not run any such programs. The lack of any known viruses in the wild for Mac OS X and the inherent security of the Mac UNIX-based operating system have made me negligent in this respect. I do not know any Mac users who have this software installed.

Software

A new MacBook Air comes packed with a wealth of applications and functionality, which make it easy to find data and work with it. It is delivered with a charged battery and pre-loaded with the Mac operating system version 10.5 Leopard and the latest iLife suite of integrated media applications for music, photos, movies and websites (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb).

Mac OS 10.5 helps expand the MacBook Air’s screen estate. I have created 9 different desktops with the application “Spaces,” in order to group applications which belong together in my workflow. For example I may have Safari and Twhirl open on one desktop, while a second one contains my Address Book and calendars in iCal. A key combination allows me to rapidly switch to another desktop. Other key shortcuts enable fast switching between open applications or between windows of the same application. Expose gives quick access to the desktop or shows all open applications or windows at once.

The third party applications I use most often are Scrivener, with which I’m writing this review; 1Password for securely storing my passwords, credit card details and serial numbers; the VLC application or the Perian plug-in for Quicktime allow playing of almost movie format. Spamsieve improves junk mail filtering for Mail, FormulatePro completes PDF forms, Chronosync syncs files on both of my Macs, The Unarchiver opens about every possible file format, iGTD helps getting things done and Apple’s iWork productivity suite provides professionally designed templates for writing, tables, layout and presentation.

Conclusion

Is the MacBook Air for you? If you are in the market for an all-round light-weight notebook then the Macbook Air is one of the most portable and visually appealing notebooks on the market. Otherwise you may want to consider the MacBook, which is significantly cheaper and provides high performance computing, better connectivity and ample storage. The MacBook Pro will interest people who either require a larger screen, an ExpressCard slot, more RAM or a dedicated graphics card.

Thanks to Notebooks.com reader Ralph (aka SwissFondue), who lives near Zurich, Switzerland, for this user review and photos!