MacBook Air Review: 11″ Model

I owned the original 1st gen MacBook Air (refurbished). It overheated and I had to have the logicboard replaced. Even after the replacement, the fan would constantly run and after a while, it slowed to a screeching halt. My Mac was basically unusable for anything more than simple web browsing. As a result, I was a little put off with the MacBook Air line.

After testing the 11″ MacBook Air at the Apple Store (telling the employees I didn’t need help and was just “playing”), I decided to get an early Christmas present. I opted for the smaller model because it’s really portable, similar in size to an iPad. I’ve always been a fan of ultraportable laptops.

Performance

It’s fast. Considering that it’s relatively underpowered compared to similarly price laptops and the MacBook Pro line, I’m surprised of how usable it really can be. I worked on an iMovie, moved a lot of files as I migrated systems, and worked on a few documents with no problems. I don’t plan on doing any intensive photo editing or movie editing. This is my basic document production and writing tool.

Battery Life

After unplugging it for the first time, the estimate showed 8 hours of available battery. It quickly averaged out to four and three hours after I started some processes. Overall, I’ve been using it all night without plugging in. No problem at all.

Portability

It’s really small. I don’t even have a spot in my current bag to hold it. It’s that small. It’s thin, but feels very solid. The one piece aluminum construction is amazing.

Negatives

There’s very few negatives with this, but here’s a random list of things I’ve noticed so far:

• The 11″ screen is really wide but short. The high resolution makes everything smaller. Fortunately, I have really good eyes.
• The function keys are a third the size of regular keys. Fortunately, I don’t use them much.
• There’s no backlight on the keys. Fortunately, I can touch type.
• The magsafe power plug can block the left USB port if plugged in one direction. The other way is no problem.
• There’s no video out cables included. You’ll have to buy your own.
• I won’t be able to take this out in public without being ambushed.
• Very little disk space because of flash storage (either 64 GB or 128 GB). Either store your files on the cloud or clean house.

Interesting to note

• Apple ships the MacBook Air with a USB drive including OS X and iLife. No more DVD/CD install disks. Yay!
• Flash isn’t installed. Apple says that Flash is bad for battery life.
• You won’t get the full benefit of the MacBook Air until OS X Lion is released next year.

Conclusions

Overall, I completely recommend the MacBook Air for all but superusers. It’s good enough for normal tasks, runs fast, small and portable, and has good battery life.