Macbook Air 2

First of all I am new to America and am sorry to say my English will not be perfect.

I have read the reviews that I found on Google but they all seem to be biased and incomplete. I am looking for more of the '1.86 with the Solid State Drive' so if you know of any well-written reviews please post.

I had a few questions concerning the notebook -

1. Would it fit my needs of school work, digital movie downloading and watching, music, video chat on skype, and website editing with a program such as dreamweaver? I have no desire to play video games on my notebook.

2. How slow is the wireless disk drive with another connected computer? Can you make a disk through it?

3. I was at the Apple Store and noticed that you cannot click on the touchpad to click like windows notebooks. Is there a way to do this as I do not like clicking the buttons below the touchpad because I am not used it.

That is all the questions I had. With the exception of these questions the notebook is perfect for me. Thank you.

 

1) As long as you don't plan on doing multimedia editing, watching HD movies or playing games, the MBA is fine.

2) I believe the MBA comes with an external Super Drive, which can burn CDs and DVDs.

3) No there isn't. The only workaround the new touchpad would be a USB mouse, but that would hamper the MBA's portability, wouldn't it?

 

It doesn't come with the unit. There's the option to purchase one for $99.

 

I believe the MBA to be a poor choice as there are too many concessions to achieve its size. There are better choices from companies like Lenovo or Sony, but if you like OSX, I believe the Macbook to much superior to the MBA.

As for 2) the Superdrive is an optional ADD-ON for an extra $99.

 

For your number 3:
To click on the touchpad you NEED to enable the "click" from the Mouse settings in the "osx control panel". So, one tap with one finger on the touchpad will be "click", just like Windows. One tap with TWO fingers will be Right Click. To scroll you will keep TWO fingers down and just scroll around (left, up, down, right). and so on .. just open the setting for the touchpad and you'll see all the "clicks" you can do in OSX. It's self explanatory plus they have small videos right in there to show you how to do the "clicks". By default the simple click is not enabled.

You DO NOT NEED an external mouse to do anything. Indeed it will help you move faster around since any ext mouse is easier to move on your desk, but will bring no extra features whatsoever. Actually will cut some features off ..

 

I would not say that.

MB has a run of the mill screen with a contrast rate of 1:150. The MBA comes with one of the best panels in the business. 1:500 Contrast rates, color accuracy and viewing angels are way beyond the MB.

I agree on Sony though. Sony Z is only 140 grams more but has a better battery, DVD drive, way more connections, 4GB and more powerful CPUs.
The Air has the better touchpad than the Sony though.

PS. any $40 USB DVD drive (AC powered) works fine with the Air. And tap to click also works fine on the Air, just not in Windows.

 

I completely disagree with this as well. I own both an Air and a Black MacBook and I much prefer using my Air (nevermind the fact that it goes everywhere with me).

The Air may not be for everyone, but it's far from a "poor choice".

 

1) The MBA is more than adequate for the things you describe but unless you really need that 1.5 pound weight saving and about 1/2" of thickness saving the new MB is a better choice (cheaper, more powerful, and much more expandable).

2) If you want to BURN media, get the external superdrive. In theory burning is possible over the air but the least glitch in your connection or either machine and you'll have a bad burn and have to do it again.

3) Clicking and right clicking is a configureable option on 1st gen MBA's that you have to turn on in system preferences. I expect at least the left click is turned on permanently by default in the 2nd gen MBA's as there is no button as a backup ;-)

 

http://mar247advice.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/special-edition-tech-talk-macbook-air-20-review/

There you go, it's the only review I am aware of.

Actually, with the new nvidia graphics chip you can watch hd movies flawlessly on the mba.

 

Thank you for all the responses everyone, have all been very helpful.

The price of the Macbook Air is not very important to me at this point, though i can tell it is slightly overpriced compared to the Sony Z as someone said. I would like to stay with mac but the Sony Z is very promising.

Movies are very important for this laptop so I would like the better screen instead of the normal macbook.

Thank you 00fez for the review. If anyone else has anything else to say please post here.


Also, it just occured that the Air will not have a built in microphone. Do any macbooks have this? It's not a huge deal, but it would make video chat much easier for me.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but where did you find detailed specs on the new MB screens?

I had hoped that the new LED backlit MB screens would be the same ones used in the MBA (if only to cut down on the number of different parts apple uses). The screen is an extremely important part of a notebook for me and the specs you mentioned would prevent me from even considering a new MB.

 

I read from the macworld the new MBA screen has contrast of 1:500 while the mb is 1:150.

 

Notebookjournal.de and Notebookcheck.net have measured the panels.

That's what I hoped too. I bought a MB but the screen did not satisfy me.

 

Take my opinion how you wish, some of what I have to say people might not agree about but I think they have just bought some marketing BS.

I work in a sys adminy sorta role. One of the jobs I do ocassionally is order in laptops and customise the laptop and its environment for my clients.

I have worked with

Lenovo X300
Sony Z
Sony TZ
Sony SZ
Macbook Pro early 2008 (its mine)
Toshiba R500
Dell XPS 1530
Dell XPS 1330
Various HP business laptops from 14" to 17" sizes.

And I can tell you that the new Macbook Air SSD version is well worth considering.

I have had a play with it in shops and it is definitely a LOT lighter than the Sony Z. It is most directly comparable to the X300, but its screen is wayyyy better than the X300. It is probably one of the best screens ever on a laptop. It easily beats the sony Z in clarity and accuracy.
The large trackpad is obviously a bonus, once you get used to the multitouch functions on a mac, using a PC trackpad seems like a stone age tool.

The CPU on the macbook air is pretty decent it is more power efficient and has more cache compared to the P8600, only processor frequency is lower.

The only thing which you should ever consider a minus with the Air is the connectivity options. It has absymal options. However you can do things to alleviate the problems. Like for instance the wired mac keyboard is perfect for it on your desk because it gives you two usb ports.
But ultimately it will depend on how many USB devices you depend on during your day to day work. I use 1, a logitech vx nano.

Me personally for any serious grunt work, I RDP into a vista ultimate virtual machine running on an ESXi server.

I'm really tempted to buy one. But it will have to wait until 2009 for me.

 

I agree with the screen and touchpad of the Air being better than the Z. The real life weight difference is only 140 grams though. That's a less than portable hard drive, optical drive or an AC adapter.

One could argue that the MBA needs all 3 of those accessories to come close to the Z. You can never upgrade the Air to 4GB or 500GB/7200rpm though.

 

Sure it does......two in fact. One on each side of the iSight camera at the top of the screen.

 

Wow, thanks for the info. I've only had my MBA for a few months and was lamenting it a bit in light of the new MB, but now I don't at all.

If all other things were equal in the MB and the only trade offs were size/weight vs power/expandability I'd probably be looking at a new MB next year. But with a screen like that, no thanks. Specs are not everything but when you work long days on a 13" screen, its got to be top tier, not bargain basement.

So sad.

 

Maybe Apple will offer a "premium" MB early next year with a P9500/P9600, 4GB RAM and a "cinema display" which is the same panel as the MBA for $1699 ($100 price reduction for the other configurations). Then again, they probably came to the conclusion that they would lose some MBP sales if they did that.

Just wishful thinking, I guess.

 

I've heard that argument a lot, that it might be cannibalizing MBA and MBP sales. It might be true I don't know.

It does not make sense to me though because now they're loosing sales to Sony and Dell. Any LED display on a 13" Sony (SZ/Z/SR) or Dell 1330 is superior to the MB screen.