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One year after announcing the iPhone, Apple presents its
latest laptop: the MacBook Air, which they claim is the thinnest laptop in the
world. Is the MacBook Air really the dream laptop for all travelers or does it
conceal irreparable gaps?
Presentation
The MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen
display, the MacBook Air has similar dimensions than the MacBook, but its
maximum thickness does not exceed 0.76 inches. Just as its predecessor, it
presents a wide keyboard, an integrated webcam and the latest operating system
Mac OS X "Leopard". In its basic version, it comes with a processor Core 2
signed Duets Intel and rhythmical to 1.6 GHz, the MacBook Air is equipped of 2
Go of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11n, and a 80 GB hardrive.
Look, keyboard, touchpad
The MacBook Air is immediately enticing. Breaking with the
design of the MacBook and Pro MacBook, that present comparatively rectilinear
lines, Apple chose to conceive a chassis with very lightly rounded edges, which
contributes to reinforce its thinness impression. The general dimensions
establish themselves to 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep, same as the one
of the MacBook, it features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display that has
a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution.
The MacBook Air weighs a little less than 3 pounds. The
body of the shell of the MacBook Air adopts a gray anodized surface similar to
what one rediscovers on the Pro MacBook or on the rear face of the iPhone.
Rather rigid, this shell makes good impression in the measure where the MacBook
Air adorned clearly less fragile than one could have thought initially.
Nevertheless, this soft surface to the key marks enough easily, the true nomadic
will need a protection slip-cover.
As on the Pro MacBook, this keyboard takes advantage of a
back light, rather pleasant when one uses the machine in obscurity, of which the
intensity can be regulated regardless of the one of the screen. After several
days of use, and the necessary moments of adaptation, the keyboard of the
MacBook Air reveals itself very pleasant.
The screen
The MacBook Air has a webcam (640 x 480) of poor quality
and a microphone. It has a luminosity sensor that automatically adjusts the
intensity of the backlight LED when one is located in a dark area. In this
case, the intensity of the lighting of the keyboard diminishes. When you put
your finger on the sensor: this one detects instantly obscurity, and the screen
intensity diminishes. With a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the screen of the
MacBook Air offers a work surface less important than the one of certain models
11 inches, with which these the resolution climbs to 1366 x 768 pixels, but
Apple guarantees thus a certain visual comfort, with a definition that will suit
completely most users. Of brilliant type, the flagstone LCD is luminous, and
returns hot colors, rather faithful. By increasing the luminosity, use the
Macbook Air in the outside light.
The MacBook Air inaugurates a new generation of touchpad,
inspired by the iPhone, the first movable telephone of Apple. It is wider, a
traditional touchpad. With three fingers, you can use the navigator Safari...
but not with Firefox. Most of these small functionalities do not radically
transform the user experience, but are part of the charm of the Apple products.
Connections
The three connectors proposed by the MacBook Air are
located on left side, sheltered by a small trap door that, once opened, leaves
only little space to reach them. Concretely, if your connector is thick, or if
you use a wide USB key, you will not be able to connect them directly. In order
to remedy the problem, Apple suggests suing an extension. These are rather
inexpensive, but one is now obliged to multiply the cables, which somewhat
diminishes the ultra portable aspect of the machine.
WiFi but no DVD
The absence of DVD reader is voluntary (there is not enough
thickness anyway). Apple’s marketing states that at a time where wires are going
away, is it still necessary to have a DVD reader? Apple plays the network card,
with an application compatible with Mac as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista
that allows DAV and CD use wirelessly. The reader of your principal machine will
be able therefore you to serve to install applications, transfer contents
towards the MacBook Air and even resettle your operating system but it may take
5 to 10 times longer than using a DVD reader. If that is a major issue you will
have to buy an external $99 USB 2.0 based DVD reader.
Speed
Powered by a processor Core 2 rhythmical Duets to 1.6 GHz,
engraved in 65 nanometers, the MacBook Air is not a speed demon, and is slower
than the other Apple laptops. The choice of Apple is therefore supposed to
guarantee a level of acceptable performances for light and medium users.
If you are ready to spend more the MacBook Air comes with a
more powerful processor posting a frequency of 1.8 GHz but also and especially
of a hard disc to memory Flash of type SSD of 64 Go, similar to the one that
integrates in standard Lenovo in his Thinkpad X300. To take advantage of these
two improvements, it will be necessary nevertheless to pay out a supplement of
some $1,300, which will carry the final price of the MacBook Air to about
$3,098.
Performance
Certain applications extremely resource intensive work
clearly slowly on the MacBook Air, due to its 1.6 GHz processor. In other words
the manipulation of pictures of big size under Photoshop or video editing will
put your patience to a certain test.
On the other hand, the manipulation of photos or video
sequences by means of iMovie will work without difficulties, and without any
notable discomfort. The interface preserves the fluidity that you can expect of
Leopard in spite of the poor performances of its processor. The Web navigation,
office, music and video use do not suffer from any problem. As for games, let’s
keep it simple, just choose a different laptop.
Battery Life
Apple talks about an autonomy of about five hours with
activated WiFi. While selecting the eco mode proposed by Mac OS X and the screen
luminosity to 75% of his capacity, the MacBook Air was able to work during 3h15
before the low battery warning showed up.
Conclusion
One could think that with his MacBook Air, stretched Apple
to create a new segment on the laptop market. Its irreproachable design,
moderate weight and extreme thinness makes it a good candidate for the ultra
portable category. But the impossibility to change the battery or the extremely
limited connectivity will stop many professionals who generally like this type
of machines. The performance of the MacBook Air will suffice for light traveler
users i.e. bloggers, connected fanatics, journalists, and other sales
representatives. They will have no difficulty working with photos, compose bills
and items or prepare, then to assure a presentation, all profiting from it of
his excellent flagstone LCD screen.
 Apple has attempted to circumvent some of the handicaps of
the MacBook Air. The absence of DVD is compensated by the functionality of take
in charge of a reader network on a distant machine, PC or Mac. The idea is
interesting, even if in the facts, we cannot envision installing anything
sizeable that way. The touchpad is improved, integrating more functionalities
coming from the iPhone. Although these improvements do not revolutionize the
way one interacts with a computer, they are rather pleasant.
It will be necessary to add to the MacBook Air an external
DVD, as well as a USB hub and an adapter USB for the Ethernet to assure a real
comfort of usage, and to put it on an equal foot with other machines with
equivalent price and functionality. Therefore this diminishes what makes the
charm of the MacBook Air: its thinness. The other solution would be to adhere
to the idea that the MacBook Air is conceived only as an auxiliary machine, a
light portable and elegant one coming to complete your work station for the days
where you travel and only do light work.
This beautiful machine suffers from cruel limitations that
other computers, sometimes lighter or less costly, do not have. In spite of the
beautiful lines and user friendliness of the MacBook Air, it does not deliver
the ultra portable promise as expected. The previous MacBook performs better, is
more functional, and cheaper!
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