2010 Macbook Air 13 first impressions, please

I'm a little surprised to find no thread dealing with the new Macbook Air. As I am only interested in the 13, I've created the thread for it, but comments on the 11 are welcomed too.

My main questions:

Is 2 GB enough RAM when the storage is all super-fast SSD, so page files should be almost as fast as RAM?

If you install Windows 7 and run TRIM, will it keep the SS storage working efficiently as it does in a Windows computer or an MBP

Is the screen as beautiful as some have said? Better than the MBP 15 with the same resolution?

Is the instant on, ultra fast operation a continuous benefit, or just a gee-whiz in the beginning?

Would you recommend this computer?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...-macbook-air-11-6-inch-review-discussion.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/apple-mac-os-x/527097-new-macbook-air-11-6-13-3-2010-models.html

There's lots more, but you may have to look for it(!!!). Using the arrows located on the right of the webpage that allow you to change pages, you'll find a multitude.

 

> Is 2 GB enough RAM when the storage is all super-fast SSD, so page files should be almost as fast as RAM?

More than enough for me. All applications load practically instantly, multitasking is seamless.

> Is the screen as beautiful as some have said? Better than the MBP 15 with the same resolution?

The screen is INCREDIBLE. Colors are bright, vivid, contrast is excellent - AND the high screen resolution is extremely nice.

> Is the instant on, ultra fast operation a continuous benefit, or just a gee-whiz in the beginning?

All Apple laptops now are almost instant on (even my old MBP 13")... the MBA is just even more instant (no need to wait for things to "warm up"). I am particularly impressed at it's ability to reconnect to a wireless network instantly as well.

> Would you recommend this computer?

YES. Best laptop I've had yet.

Note that I use my laptops for portable: web browsing, media play, programming work, word processing work, and light image editing, etc.

 

It depends on what you use the MBA for. The SSD makes the laptop give faster real-world performance, but the reality is that it wouldn't do well in multitasking or running any demanding applications. This weakness becomes even more apparent when you consider that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard and is therefore not upgradeable.

I don't have the MBA, but I've never had a high opinion of the model, and the new MBA doesn't change that.

The MBA is great as an ultraportable, but that doesn't give it much credit since nobody needs a laptop that thin. The SSD makes the loading of programs and booting up quite speedy, but in terms of application performance you are still limited by the low frequency CPU and RAM. Even compared to other ultraportables, the upgrade options for this model are virtually nil.

If you want the MBA summed up in one sentence, it is basically the anorexic cousin of the MBP. Even for those who like skinny girls, the MBA is unattractive.

 

It's not necessarily the thinness a lot of people like, but the weight without compromising size (13" is my favorite laptop size). Weight is the #1 most important feature in any portable computer, otherwise it's not portable.

By design, the upgrade options of the Air ARE nil, because it was not designed to be upgraded ever. Some people are 100% okay with that (like me) because they don't upgrade laptops.

Believe it or not: For work, my new MBA is roughly 50-100% faster than my 2009 Macbook Pro. When I rebuild my software projects on my Air, it runs often 2x FASTER than my Macbook Pro did. Effectively, nothing I've done on my MBA has been slower than my MBP. Why? Because I'm not a movie producer who has to compile movies all the time on their laptops. I work. I write things. I use my email. I watch movies. And on my Air, all this is actually faster and more responsive than my no-ssd massive desktop rig (hard to believe, I know).

For heavy lifting, I use a desktop. Even the best gaming laptop is going to be next to useless when it comes to re-processing massive databases, etc. For 'play' (movies, web browsing, etc.) the air is more than enough except for video games -- which is what my full ATX high-performance gaming desktop rig is for (any laptop would be a compromise for gaming).

If your work involves writing code, documents, etc., the Air is pretty much ideal.

If on the other hand your work involves CPU/GPU intensive work like art, 3D modeling, movie editing, FORGET portable laptops. They'll always be a compromise.

Maybe I'm silly to think this though... but I have trouble believing that 90% of notebook users are employed in the movie production/editing business or require massive computations - which is the only type of work where another laptop will outperform the Air.

In any case, please show me any other <~3.0 pound ultraportable with equal or better processing power, weight, screen resolution, keyboard, cool operation, battery life, and touchpad... and I'll be surprised (and will probably buy it).

 

the 13" air is very nice when you travel a lot...I use my pc at home and when on the move, i use my mac. I would consider the air only when they've put a backlit keyboard on it.

 

The Macbook Air may be marginally faster than your typical cheapo 5400RMP hard drive but the SSD in the Air was chosen for its form factor and power usage. In sequential reads HDDs will out preform it, it only appears faster in synthetic benchmarks with random data accesses of blocks as low as 4kB, then they conclude SSD's are so much faster. In real world preformance cheapo SSDs will only be slightly faster reading data, and slower to write data than a 5400RPM laptop HDD.

Its only when you get high end SSDs with read times >200MB/s do you notice a difference. The SSD in the macbook air is only like 50MB/s. I just installed a OCZ revodrive (pci-e SSD) with 540MB/s read in my desktop. I didn't notice any change over my WD 7200RPM caviar black in general/office use. Booting up was a little faster, and loading large files/data was much faster. But then again I'm using a high end SSD that's probably 5x faster than my HD. Point is the speed benefits of SSDs in general are vastly exaggerated for casual users.

 

I think you're a little confused on SSDs, and you may own a first generation Air with an inferior SSD but...

1) Random read writes are most important to general usage improvements

2) Current Macbook Air's SSD is one of the fastest - Apple's 2010 MacBook Air (11 & 13 inch) Thoroughly Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

3) Any SSD is a vast improvement for most casual users. Even the most outdated slowest out there.

 

As CitizenPanda said... you're probably thinking of something else. My MacBook Air gets almost exactly 200MB/sec sequential read.

Umm, I never mentioned synthetic benchmarks (until you brought it up).

All I said was that while doing real work on my laptops, my MacBook Air is ~2x faster than my MacBook Pro. I think that's all that needs to be said here, really.

 

I used to carry a 2.8 pound 10.1" netbook around. Best thing about the MBA is I get 13.3" at 2.9 pounds. I really do not care for the thinness part. It could be ticker an I still would not mind. Basically, it is as light as the Vaio Z (actually a bit lighter but it has no optical drive) at a much lower cost. That is what I like about it.

The SSD's launch apps really fast making it feel faster than it's Core2 Duo 1.86GHz.

 

You seem to be ignoring Apple's marketing and the response from reviewers, as well as the media. The MBA was never bragged about because its the lightest; everyone knows that it isn't. It was touted as the thinnest. That's because the weight of the MBA is by no means a first, whereas the thin-and-cool factor is.

OK, so it may not matter to people who don't upgrade their laptops. Can you tell me what to do if the SSD/RAM fails? That's right, you must replace the motherboard. Its not just about upgrade potential, its also about the ability to repair the machine.

I thought I made myself clear when I made the distinction that the MBA has speed but no capability. For the tasks that fall within its performance envelop the MBA will fly, but the moment you ask the MBA to do anything stressful, you will notice the lack of capability. When you're paying the kind of price you're paying for an MBA, this crippling limitation makes you ask why you didn't buy a more capable (and equally light) ultraportable.

I agree, even gaming laptops are compromised and lack robust cooling systems.

OK, I'll give you the Lenovo X201 as an example. Here's the breakdown:
- Beats the MBA in CPU power, cooling, battery life (even on smallest battery), keyboard, storage, optical drive, PRICE.

- Has an equivalent touchpad (I have owned an IBM T42 in the past and use a uMBP now)

- Loses to the MBA in terms of: lower resolution screen (1280x800 on 12") though 1440x900 is an option. Weighs between 2.5-3.5 pounds (depending on battery configuration) compared to 2.3 pounds of MBA.

Looking at this comparison, the X201 can be configured with an 1440x900 resolution LCD and a smaller battery, while STILL beating the MBA handily in terms of battery life and meeting its screen resolution. In all other areas, it beats the MBA handily, especially in the performance area that you mentioned so many times.

Configuration page: Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad X Series - X201

 

I've owned about dozen differnet laptops in the past 2 or 3 years and all I have to say is.....you don't seem to get it.

The Lenovo could be $300 and I'd still pay $1800 for the MBA again. If the Lenovo was FREE, I'd still pay $1800 for the MBA.

Do you want to know why?

It's a little something called an LCD.

Put it this way - nothing comes close to this LCD on a laptop, except maybe the $2500 Sony Vaio. Now THAT is also finely engineered piece of art.

Most everything else is just steaming piles of garbage.
I can actually say this because I've actually owned them all. Every single brand, from 17" monsters to Alienwares to cheap netbooks.

AND, I don't even like OS X.

 

A quality LCD, no matter how much of a rarity it is, can only compensate for a machines other shortcomings to a certain extent. Unless that screen is absolutely mission critical to the tasks it's utilized for... it's just a nicer quality screen. Everyone sets their pricepoint differently, but for 1800 I expect a nice screen and capable hardware, not either/or. The X201 gets a pass because while it comes with a craptacular screen (as does my own lenovo) it has more than capable hardware for the form factor and doesn't ask you for 2 g's either.


The screens ARE beautiful on them though. Saw em at Fry's n Microcenter in Houston. I don't understand why one laptop manufacturer can't COMBINE the two... hardware + good screen... and not charge us our first born son for it. Sigh.

 

Never understood why Lenovo's have such crappy screens. Otherwise, they're terrific. My ideal laptop would be a t410s with the matte screen of a macbook pro.

 

You're saying that I don't get it when only a small minority would agree with you... look who's talking.

 

not worth what you would pay !

 

Suddenly, one day, you realize that you use your LCD for everything and that laptop "performance" is huge inside joke. One that you won't understand until you've owned a beastly desktop as well.

It would probably take a $5k laptop to come to about 1/2 the performance of a 4.2ghz Quad Core i7 Desktop that doesn't even break $1k.

Then you realize your graphics are STILL 4x slower even at the highest end graphics solutions.

If I had to buy another mobile lappy, I would also consider the Vaio Z for $2500 or so. POS Lenovos need not apply for a cent of my money.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that 25 extra horsepower does not make up for early rust and engine sludge.

You'll understand it once you've experienced them all.

It's a bit like owning a F22 Raptor and then laughing at people squabbling over the difference between the Mustangs and Camaros. I'll take a nice solid Mercedes or Lexus, even if they aren't as fast. Fast doesn't mean much when I'm "on the road", if I want fast, I'll fly in the F22.

 

I've sold my X200 modified with AFFS mod to buy myself a new macbook air. The new MBA is absolutely awesome, much more usable for a portable computer than the X200. Super fast overall and much much higher build quality. I was never impressed that much with smaller Thinkpads. My ideal size for a thinkpad as I have discovered after using just about every model is 15". The main reason I ended up getting rid of x200 is the availability of a decent graphics chip on MBA (something that only super expensive sony z-series offers in the PC world).

Right now I have the MBA for portability and a Thinkpad W510 for workstation type work. The W510 is absolutely awesome as it lets me use two hard drives for all the work that requires space and quad core processor works great for power-intensive tasks.

I am extremely happy with both machines, MBA offers something "extra", while X200 always felt like a slower castrated version of W510.

 

Bog: Like a lot of people posting on this thread, I too have owned laptops of all sizes / types, and what matters is the MBA works. It works well.

Look at quotes like these:

Also I don't really see the logic in comparing the X200 here. It's a 12" (not 13.3 like the MBA) so in a different size/weight class (and has a terrible screen, but nevermind that).

I still don't understand your point here.

The MBA is extremely capable for everything I use a laptop for - and this is true for most people. Don't try to tell me this is incorrect... because I'm sorry but it's true.

If you're suggesting that I play video games or heavy movie editing etc. on my laptop... well that's pointless, as I already said. I have a desktop for that.

CitizenPanda explains it well I think:

Except in this case the the luxury analogy is more sleek and lightweight than the sporty analogy, which isn't as much the case with cars.

 

Nobody mentioned graphics power. I don't buy laptops for graphics power. Gaming laptops are useless to me. But I can see their niche, if someone doesn't have a main desktop. It seems like a waste of money to me. I have a beastly desktop for true power. My laptop is for portable work. And although the LCD is used everyday, I'm not going to shat a brick if the contrast and brightness on my quicken spreadsheet aren't perfect or the text on my word documents aren't TRULY black. Like I said, unless color accuracy is mission critical, in the end it's just a nice screen that you're paying a hell of a lot of money for, to the point where you feel you're getting shortchanged. 1800 dollars for a kind of on-par slim and light with a nice screen?? I couldn't use an mbA. Although my spreadsheets would look beautiful, they would take ages to open, considering the size of the SAP databases I work with. Some of us need more than a pretty screen when we're on the go. It's confusing because the MBA doesn't have the hardware to handle any tasks that required a mission critical screen (and that's not a knock, it's just a fact - it wasn't designed as a workstation laptop so no one should expect it to do those things), sooo why does it have that screen then? To make pictures and email look pretty. Which isn't worth 1800 to me. Put that thing on a MBP and I'm on it.

 

lol? Do you have any idea what you're even talking about?

2.13ghz Core 2 duo vs 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo MBP... no difference in your powerful Excel usage (lol).

2.13ghz Core 2 duo vs 2.66ghz Core i5 (still a dual core)... no huge difference in Excel either.

I think you need a 5ghz hex-core i7 Extreme 980 for your MS Excel!!!

MBPs are nice but not nearly as portable or light. Sounds like they aren't adequate for your mission critical Excel spreadsheet usage though.

 

Another 100 dollars to the mba. wonderful.

P.S. The word excel wasn't in my post once. But apparently your the facking C.P.A. of the Universe... since obviously you have declared the extent of business world accounting to be MS Excel on Office for Mac... So do you know w t f you're talking about? I said SPREADSHEETS and as enlightening as it may be to you... there are OTHER programs that use that format! SHOCKING! Try running Sap One with even 2 other heavy accounting programs on an MBA. It barely processes info fast enough on MY old laptop. And I actually used to reach 4GB ram limitations with all that data being active. Guess I'm stuck with 4GB on the MBA as well. It will gag an MBA. Oh wait it's missing half the business features I need so it would never get approved by the IT department. And aside from like.. quicken home or something there is no mid-large caliber business accounting software for mac's because they have no place in the accounting world. And if you just get a mba to run win 7, then you're negating the OSX advantage and paying even more so solely for a nice screen. And why the hell are you comparing it to a 2.4Ghz C2D? Because that's what I have? My laptop was made sometime ago. For a fair comparison, compare it to an i7-620M which is what you could get on a specced out X201 which would STILL be cheaper than a base or specced out MBA. Anyways, god forbid some of us actually USE our machines for work. You know since you obviously know what all of our demands are on our machines and clearly have proclaimed the MBA to be able to meet all work patterns. As s hat.

PPS - my posts weren't intended as a knock on the macbook air, nor were they directed at you anyways. I was just saying that although it's a beautiful screen, it's $$! And I wouldn't buy it unless it was mission critical. But to each their own. But it seems like you have a piece of fruit stuck up your ___, freaking condescending technological jehova's witness. What's good for you isn't good for everyone, and your opinions are just that, not facts.

 

Actually, you very clearly indicated that MBP would handle whatever the complicated spreadsheeting you are doing.

When a 13" MBP is about the same speed (12% difference).

That is all.

PS. That Lenovo is a huge POS. I would recommend you read up on SONY and what they did with the Z series.

 

The MBA with it's SSD would open spreadsheets SO much faster than your current laptop.

Also the MBA cost me $1,300. Not $1,800.

If a spreadsheet app needs more than 4 GB, I'd say it's probably pretty poorly designed - but there's not much you can do about that.

Honestly anything more qualifies as "heavy lifting", which means you're really not gonna be happy performance wise unless you use a desktop. Or you could get a 5 pound laptop with 15% more performance. Or a 7 pound laptop with 25% more performance. Is that weight REALLY worth it?

If it is, then you are one of a very small number of people in that niche.

As far as people saying the MBA is only good for the screen, that's absurd. People ignore keyboard/mouse/weight so much, probably because specs usually focus on CPU RAM etc. (the #1 focus for portable computers should be - portability). Lenovo laptops have a really good keyboard, and the track-stick thing is pretty good, but nothing beats Apple's large multi-touch track-pads in terms of quick, efficient, productivity.

And there's quite a lot of things this amazing screen can be used for. Ever hear of the Internet? I hear they have this new-fangled thing called "videos" you an watch on there. And "pictures" too!

I had an X300 and the screen was so mediocre I honestly ended up watching all my videos on my desktop.

P.S. My MBA can play Call of Duty 4 smoothly.