Customer Reviews

Apple MacBook Air MB940LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop (1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 128 GB Solid State Drive)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

So - I bit the bullet and upgraded from a Rev A 1.6GHz 80GB HDD MBA - to a Rev B 1.86GHz 128GB SSD MBA. I wanted to post my observations on what it's like to upgrade - I know many Rev A owners have - or are thinking about - upgrading to Rev B.

In this review, I refer to "Rev A" and "Rev B". The Rev A is my older 1.6GHz 80GB HDD MBA. The Rev B is my new 1.86GHz 128GB SSD MBA

Caveat - Unlike some (but not all!) Rev A MBA owners, I love my Rev A MBA. I've had zero problems with it. It runs cool and I have not experienced any core shut downs. It would heat up when most laptops normally heat up and the fans would kick. It would cool down quickly when I moved on to something else. With video it never stuttered... Perhaps my Rev A has run so nicely because I don't ask a lot of it. It is a second Mac to my Mac Pro - I use it primarily for email, word processing, iTunes movies and web surfing - on the couch and on the road. It has REALLY been a great laptop and I have nothing bad to say about it.

So why did I update? I wanted more space. I have my Rev A setup to duel boot (Vista) for business uses from time to time when I travel. That kills a chunk of space. Also - with the Rev A, I compromised - by not having my music, photos and other large files with me. Not a bad tradeoff. But the Rev B's larger hard drive was enticing - additionally, the Rev A has been so great, I'm willing to make the investment to have the latest/greatest version of the Air because it is such a leap/improvement over the Rev A - both speed and graphics-wise. I won't spend time on the A's form factor - those of you that own one already get that - it's great...

So here are my observations - they are based on the things I can see and observe - not "Xbench scores" - real world use - and hopefully it will give you an idea of the differences between Rev A and Rev B. As I type this, I have my Rev A right next to me - side by side with the Rev B.

My observations:

1) Packaging - The Rev B's packaging was similar to the Rev A's in terms of layout, but the Rev A packaging materials were FAR nicer. The Rev B's packaging is more in-line with the other Apple notebooks - white briefcase with handle. I really liked the packaging of the Rev A - very solid and heavy duty in comparison - it set the original Air apart.

2) Sounds - The first thing I noticed when starting it up: The Rev B (SSD) is, due to form, noiseless. The Rev A's subtle hum and hard drive noises are (obviously) completely gone. The click and general noises of the Rev A's hard drive was never something I really noticed - until it was gone... The Rev B is eerily quiet! Upgraders from the Rev A HDD will notice the difference.

3) Trackpad button - The Rev A's track pad button is comparatively mushy - it takes more travel to make a click. The Rev B's is very tight - less play. The Rev A's button never bothered me - interesting that the Rev B's is tighter - a purposeful improvement?

4) Keyboard - This was a surprise - and I had to double check this. The Rev B keyboard has been improved in a similar way to the trackpad button - the keys are quieter and seem to be more tightly secured. It's hard to explain, but the improvement has resulted in a typing experience that is quieter - less "rattley". To see what I mean, run your fingers back/forth lightly over a Rev A keyboard and the keys have more play and make more noise due to the looser keys. The Rev B is tighter when you do this - less play and less noise.

5) Screen - Many complain that the Rev B's screen has faint lines. I've seen them on the Apple store floor models, and they do exist. It was a concerned when buying my Rev B, but I have yet to read about someone who was denied a refund by Apple if they had lines on the MBA screen. Bottom line - Apple stands behind their products - I was not afraid to risk having to make a return.

I've looked really hard at my Rev B and, if I get my head in just the right place and the screen tilted just right, I can see some lines - but they're REALLY hard to find and they are not as bad as what I've seen in the Apple store display Rev B airs. Looking at my Rev A, doing the same contortions, I can actually make out similar - albeit even fainter lines. My Rev B is a keeper - I really can't see the lines during normal use. Side by side, the Rev A and Rev B screens look identical to me. Same brightness, color saturation, etc, etc. I have both setup using the same display profile - the default "Color LCD" profile. I've played the same movie and frozen clips on the same frame - the screens look absolutely identical.

6) Display output - the Rev B has the newer Mini DisplayPort display - which replaces the Rev A's Micro DVI port. Unlike the Rev A, the Rev B does not include the VGA and DVI adapters. They're yours to purchase separately for an extra $29 each. Typical of Apple to remove extras in the Rev B edition... I never used the Rev A adapters and chose not to buy them for the Rev B until I need them.

7) 4 Finger gestures - I REALLY like these. I was surprised at how well they work and how much I use them. Four fingers up - see the desktop. Four down - Expose (awesome). Four to the right or left - switch applications. Good stuff. I like it.

8) Graphics - The Nvidia Graphics chip is a huge leap over the earlier Intel chip. I've run several games on my Rev B that could not run on the Rev A Air and they are actually very playable! I like this - I play games from time to time when I travel - while I fly... This is a great improvement and I like the ability to use applications that require mid-level graphics abilities.

9) Performance - I saved the best for last. This is the area where I'm really pleasantly surprised. The Rev B's performance is NOTICEABLY faster. Surprisingly so. In some respects it is faster than my Mac Pro (But not at the heavy lifting - not by a long shot!)

Here are some observations (note that applications start times are after a restart of OSX - I know that applications can be cached and load much more quickly the second time around).

Some of these differences may seem small, but they are huge - look at your watch and tick off 14 seconds... That's what it takes in additional time for Word to load on my Rev A. You start to really appreciate the SSD drive...


Start from complete shut down - Rev A: 56 Seconds; Rev B: 28 Seconds
Restart - Rev A: 58 Seconds; Rev B: 31 Seconds
Shut Down - Rev A: 3 Seconds; Rev B: 2 Seconds
Start Safari and load page (boston.com) - Rev A: 18 Seconds; Rev B: 7 Seconds
Start Entourage - Rev A: 24 Seconds; Rev B: 8 Seconds
Start iTunes - Rev A: 9 Seconds; Rev B: 4 Seconds
Open MS Word - Rev A: 17 Seconds; Rev B: 3 Seconds

If you're thinking about upgrading - it's a nice improvement.

***MacBook Air works with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King***

OK first of all, I put the above there because most people are concerned about MBA's power; also, lots of people (myself NOT included) play WoW, so I thought it'd be a good benchmark for the Air. Gamers, take note that the Air now has the NVIDIA 9400M graphics card, which plays WoW beautifully.

I was floored to find that my mom's new MacBook Air was, in fact, faster than my own ostensibly speedier iMac! It rarely lags behind my workflow - despite MBA's comparably slow processor and small amount of RAM, it actually handled my demands with distinction.

The SSD made a huge difference, IMO. I know this w/o using an HDD MBA because, like I said earlier, MBA is quicker at opening applications and navigating the OS than my "big daddy" iMac is. I have found myself longing to work instead on Mom's MacBook Air whenever I get a "spinning beach ball" wait sign on my iMac.

The weight of MBA is definitely a plus. The computer can be easily supported by one hand while the other navigates/types - try doing that with any other 13"+ laptop and you'll see the difference.

Battery life is exemplary. I can easily make the Air last six hours, albeit with intermittent breaks during which it Sleeps and I do something else, like check email on my white iPhone 3G or I talk to somebody. Waking the Air from sleep takes less than three seconds, if you didn't set it to require a password on wake. As Apple has advertised, yes, the screen is at full brightness after waking the computer.

Wi-Fi reception is awesome. Apple placed the antenna behind the screen so it's always in the best location to get a signal. The Air has 802.11n built in, plus Bluetooth.

The ports aren't really much of an issue. All I ever really do with the Air is the occasional thumb drive usage; software is installed via Remote Disk on my iMac. You can even wirelessly copy files to/from the Air and your PC or Mac.

Optical drive. Yes. The almighty Air boon. I'm glad Apple got rid of the drive! Just click the link below this paragraph to see just how much space inside the notebook that the optical drive wastes. If you disagree, I have the following to say to you: in today's day and age, where we have like 4GB thumb drives for less than $50, do you really need a 700MB CD or a 5GB DVD anymore? Buying/renting iTunes movies is either cheaper or comparably priced to DVD movies. Almost all new albums are released on iTunes. Most email clients allow attachments of up to 20MB (if yours doesn't do this for free, you seriously need to switch providers - GMail and MobileMe both support 20MB attachments, but I don't know about the other clients). The list that will condemn disks to the same fate as floppy drives goes on and on and on...
http://static1.ifixit.com/igi/qFsHP2uMXoMCagVy.large
The huge silver thing on the left is the optical drive. As you can see, it is a huge space waster. One could fit an entire other hard drive into that space.

The screen is the best I've ever seen. Simply stunning. It's bright, crisp, and the colors are vivid and accurate.

The keyboard is exemplary, but it collects fingerprints easily. A daily wipe-down fixes this.

The touchpad is excellent in comparison with the Windows laptops' ones I've used, however, MBA does NOT have the new glass trackpad, which I am in love with. (Seriously, you have to try the new trackpad. It's utter bliss...)

Voice recognition is fun! You can make the computer tell you jokes, tell you the time, tell you what day it is, control itself with only verbal commands, etc.

Overall, just get the MBA if you're getting a Mac laptop. The only exceptions are if you're too budget constrained (get a MacBook) or if you process video (MacBook Pro). In all other instances, MacBook Air!!!

Bought this as a light, shockproof Mac to run typical Mac software (Aperture, CS3, Office, Sente etc.) to supplement iMac. Willing to accept lesser performance for portable productivity. System is silent (fans are rarely on), SSD seems very fast compared with notebook-class HDD's (for example editing video on EyeTV). Screen very readable. Truly just the right balance of capabilities for this kind of application. Macbook Pro would have been faster but not so much as to make a meaningful difference. Effortless portability and now (in its 2nd generation) more than sufficient speed particularly with the SSD is the reason to get this. Highly recommended.

I've been traveling the past two years and it was only a few months ago when I decided to get a Macbook Air. With my older non-ultra portable laptop, my backpack was always heavy. In fact, it made up for 80% of my handcarry's weight. You have to consider that many laptop companies do not include the weight of the removable battery and the power adapter in their laptop's specs. I've heard of Macbook Air before but I had been hesitant to buy one because it didn't look that sturdy in the store compared to the Macbook Pro and I thought that its processing power was extremely lowered to unbearable levels.

When I bought the Macbook Air, I knew what I was getting. First, it's going to have less disk space and less processing power, just one USB drive and no CD/DVD drive. So I'm not going to complain about those things knowing that this is not supposed to replace my desktop computer. And it was supposed to be a computer I can bring along while traveling for writing e-mails and surfing the net. I occasionally play games and I don't do video editing or use CAD.

PROCESSING POWER
But to my surprise, it was more powerful and faster than I expected. It's faster than my iMac. When you click on the Dashboard icon on the dock, all your widgets will load instantly and not even take longer than 2 seconds. Opening multiple programs at the same time did not slow down the computer at all.

I used to play World of Warcraft before I bought this laptop and plan to be playing again next year. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to play WoW with a decent frame rate on this machine but I've been reading forums and they said WoW performs really well in MBA's with SSD drives.

KEYBOARD AND SCREEN
Another nice touch is the screen and keyboard size. Ultraportable used to mean small ultra light weight BUT ultra small screen and almost impossible to use keyboards. Macbook Air didn't sacrifice screen size and keyboard keys size. One thing I noticed was that the backspace button was renamed Delete and the real delete button was missing. But it really didn't become an issue with me later on. I'm one of those few people who like to crank up the brightness to its max level. I'm so happy with the level of brightness and crispness MBA has to offer. And the brightness is easy and fast to adjust, thanks to the keyboard shortcuts.

TRACKPAD
With the other laptops that I used before, I wouldn't survive a day without using a USB mouse. But MBA's trackpad is completely functional without straining the joints of my thumb. I don't do the new gestures at all. But being able to move the cursor when I want it to go without making my scalp sweat is such a blessing.

OPTICAL DRIVE
I bought the external DVD drive from Apple and it's funny how I've only used it to burn a couple of movies and install MS Office. I found myself not using the drive much because I don't: a) install applications from CDs/DVDs on a daily or even weekly basis, b) listen to CDs using my computer or c) burn data on DVD-Rs.

ONE USB PORT
My complaint about MBA is that it only has 1 USB drive. But take note that the port for the external monitor is separate from the USB drive. I thought that if I plugged my MBA to my monitor, I'd lose the valuable USB slot but I was wrong.

FORM FACTOR
Well what can I say? Great design! I was hesitant at first to take it out of my bag in a coffee shop when I realized that MBAs are more common than I thought. MBAs don't scream anymore, "Look at me wasting money!" like before. And people are used to seeing MBAs these days so you can take your laptop out and do your thing without grabbing attention.

When you get this laptop and give it a whirl for a few days, you will be surprised that it offers more functionality over form. If you want a powerful laptop that you can carry around without breaking your back and has a nice display and keyboard, this one's for you.

I was looking at the new Sony Vaio ultraportable which promises almost double specs at half the price of MBA plus support for Blu-Ray. But if you play around with the specs in their website and max it out to double the specs of MBA, it'll cost more than $4,000.

I have owned the MacBook Pro for almost two years and have been pushing the limits with hard drive space and usage. A friend owns the original MacBook Air and highly recommends it. When this new version came out with increased SSD capacity I thought it was time to try it out.

I must say it has been a joy. The screen, though smaller than the MacBook Pro, is much brighter and crispy. Easy to read. The speed is much better than my 'faster' Pro. And I had no trouble setting it up. I tried to migrate my data and apps from the Pro but it was taking way too long, so I reinstalled the apps and copied the data to a portable drive. All went well. Even setting up Boot Camp was easy, once I thought of it. It would have been nice to have that option when I set up the computer.

The only trouble I had was with the new Parallels 4.0. It won't launch XP. At this point I am not sure it is worth the trouble. I can't remember the last time I needed the XP side of the hard drive, and I have Boot Camp which works well.

A complaint is that if I use a USB hub and then try to use the CD/DVD drive it won't launch or be recognized. Only when I plug it in directly to the USB port does it start up. That has also been the case with some other USB things I plugged in. I hope those were isolated incidents. I don't want to be carrying around an AC power source to power up the USB hub.

All in all, I am enjoying the compact, light and easy to use Air. I highly recommend it. I couldn't be happier. And the Fifth Avenue Apple store in New York City has the most helpful sales clerks around.

Great job Apple.

I have owned many laptops, mostly Dell's and Thinkpads (from both IBM and Lenovo). This laptop is without a doubt the best one I have ever had. The solid state hard drive makes it so snappy that you start using your computer in a new way. Instead of opening one program at a time, you simply click them all and get immediate action.

As for the laptop itself it is exactly what I wanted; it is smart, light weight and OS X just works. No more Windows hell and you still have the full power of a UNIX operating system at your fingertips. Also I have found it surprisingly easy to live without a optical drive, as most software is accessible over the internet; I do however keep a Macbook Air SuperDrive at home for the rare occasion where I use CDs (usually when ripping music or installing operating systems).

So how fast is it ?. It is quick enough for me and that should be good enough for most people, since I use some hefty software. I usually fire of Oracle (running in Vista inside VMWare fusion), IntelliJ IDEA, Firefox and ITunes - all at once - and the computer still feels fast, responsive and it doesn't overheat.

In short a great little, fast and expensive wonder from Apple.

Update: I've had the machine for 13 months, after paying the 2 and a half grand premium price. After the disappointments mentioned below (including the hard drive model from Amazon that arrived DOA), I had yet another crisis: I dropped the sharp, slippery machine, putting a dent in the upper left-hand corner of the cover. I should have notified Apple right away, but it seemed to work fine, so I let it go. Soon the notorious hinge was beginning to come apart and disintegrate before my very eyes. Apple has accepted responsibility for the defective hinges and is replacing many without charge. But since the dent was obviously my fault, the liability was totally mine. I went to two Apple-certified repair places. The first was the pits, immediately condemning the machine and then not giving it back to me reassembled until I requested (and paid for) it. The 2nd place was more encouraging but still a negative--I was only out postage. Finally, I received a recommended repair place from the Apple site. It wasn't cheap, and they had to charge me extra for things like the missing screws that the first Apple repair place didn't replace despite charging me for reassembling the machine. But the 3rd, Apple-recommended place got the repair in at under a thousand, which is about 40% of what I paid for the machine from Amazon new. When I received the Air back after a couple of months, I knew I'd made the right decision. I had been using an iBook and a Macbook, but both seemed like clumsy behemoths compared to the Air. (I also tried an Acer Netbook but couldn't see getting anything done on it for serious editing.) So try to tell me this machine is a rip-off or merely a stylish fetish. So far, it's the most practical, useful machine I've discovered for those moments when you're doing serious computing away from your desk. The trick is not to drop it. Also, I'm on the lookout for an even lighter, faster, cheaper Mac Air with decent battery life, since the Air is the only computer that actually motivated me to write. Know its limitations and advantages, and understand what your requirements are, and it's easily a two-thousand dollar machine compared to anything I've seen remotely resembling it.]

{[After six months' use: I'm still in love with the machine, despite all of the naysayers (family and friends) who warned me about its "limitations." Only disappointmentS so far: 1. The battery life is no more than a couple of hours with the bright screen I prefer; 2. The audio port is too cramped to accommodate most audio mini cables (be sure to look for plugs that don't widen at the base); 3. Apple's dropping the price by nearly a third soon after purchase still hurts. (Don't even consider the non-solid state model at the current price difference.) Look for Apple to lighten this up even more, add speed and memory, extend battery life, and lower the price.]

Some of the "elitist" owners of this machine would have you believe that it's intended for some sort of exclusive club that's willing to sacrifice functionality for style. The fact of the matter is that the new solid state Air is where Apple is headed with all of it laptops. Especially given the mixed consumer reviews of the new Macbooks and Macbook Pros, you may wish to give this one a longer look--or at least wait for the price of solid state circuitry to come down to a more attractive level before springing for a Mac notebook.

I tried a Net Book but ultimately found it too cramped to accomplish the serious work all of the included programs (esp. MS Word) implied it was capable of. Then Amazon came through with a serious price break on the "other" Macbook Air, the one with a conventional hard drive. It was a nice objet d'art but arrived DOA (admittedly, mine was no doubt an exceptional instance). The solid state Air has twice the memory as last year's model and at a slightly reduced price (too slight to put it within range of most of us, unfortunately). But Amazon's enticer of free two-year financing finally proved too compelling.

This machine must be awfully good if it can win me over after two major disappointments: first, Amazon's sending me a (much) less expensive model that arrived DOA; 2nd, Amazon (or, rather, its Store Card Bank, which appears to be run by G.E.) refusing to extend me the no-interest credit offer (maybe they're looking for customers who will be likely to default on their payments, in which case "no-interest" is no longer not in the customer's interest). In any case, the display shows beautifully (no Shinola, and no requirement that you be in exact alignment with its brightest part to be able to read it). Moreover, even though the weight specs suggest it's no lighter than a small Net book, it "feels" lighter because of better distribution of that weight. And it's so thin, you could use the edges for cutting your Danish each morning.

If you want a mean and lean writing machine, look no further (unless it's out into the future for better prices). If you want an entertainment center, complement this one with a desktop model or iMac. My experience has been that once I start using the laptop to burn CDs and DVDs, watch movies, record and mix live music, etc., it soon becomes cluttered with programs and files and hangs up on me, going berserk with kernel panics. I haven't had this one long enough to proclaim it crash-proof, but the absence of a CD drive along with gratuitous firewire and numerous other unneeded ports is encouraging and strangely liberating.

[One small caveat: I'm not sure what the claims are re: battery life, but it's looking to be no better than that of previous machines--a couple of hours. Beats me how Apple can get a 32 gb Touch to go forever while the laptop Air remains comparatively fuel-hungry.]

[Six weeks later: it's going strong, and frankly the reported "slowness" is something I don't notice. It's plenty zippy--and I'm someone who easily becomes impatient. I've since had my broken 2007 MacBook repaired (the excuse to pick up this machine), and I can honestly say the Air has completely spoiled me. The MacBook feels like so much dead weight compared to the nifty machine I'm now using. In fact, I plan to sell the MacBook on Amazon and stay exclusively with Airs henceforward.]

OK, I'll be frank. I've wasted a lot of time and money trying to find the perfect laptop. I was like an oboe player, searching for the perfect reed. My company gave me a MacBook Pro. It was a functional machine, but just heavy enough that I wouldn't take it anyplace. It stayed on the desk. Lucky for me, the company eventually asked for the machine back! I saw a friend with a Motion Computing LS800. It's the size of a hard-bound book. I had to have one. It was not the solution. Lacking a fan, it ran hot, and it would simply shut down when it overheated. In addition, I purchased a Blue Tooth Keyboard and external optical drive to provide functionality. The LS800 works with a stylus. You can do a lot with a stylus, but writing even a brief email is torture.

Next came the Fujitsu Lifebook with the clever swivel screen. This was a big improvement. It has its own keyboard, but to fit the keyboard into such a tiny package, they bunched the keys close together. And the screen is small, and the type is small. But hey, it's very portable. Nevertheless, for serious work I wound up connecting it to a full-sized keyboard via the USB port and holding my face close to the screen.

Finally, through a friend who is an Apple employee I got a great deal on a refurbished Macbook Air. In the refurbishing, the Mac techs tweaked many of the problems that emerged in the first generation. This MBA 1.1 comes with 2 core, 1.8 ghz and 2 gig of memory. It shipped with a small (55 gig) solid state drive (SSD).

As many have noted, the MBA has limited connectivity. This is simply one of the sacrifices one makes for the enhanced portability.

That said, this machine satisfies my needs. The obscene thinness makes it effortless to transport. The SSD, though small, speeds everything up wonderfully. To compensate for the limited storage capacity on the SSD, I have had to be much more careful about disk maintenance. This is not a bad thing. I make much more use of my iDisk, which had been nearly unused. In addition, I bought the Kingston 32 gig thumb drive for storing my iTunes collection.

In the past, I've resented people that whip out laptops on any and every occasion. 90% of the time, a computer is unnecessary.

I'm tempted, however, to whip out the MBA just to show it off.

In sum, I've owned and tried out four laptops in the last couple of years. The MBA is the best all-round machine for the price. But be prepared to invest in such peripherals as an external optical drive and external hard disks, because in technology, as in life, there's no free lunch.

Works great. But watching videos on the internet and having other applications open really gets my Macbook Air 2nd generation hot.

So hot, it slows and performance is choppy. (kernel_task will use 100% of the processor). If your doing word processing, simple internet surfing I would recommend it.

If you'll watch streaming videos on the internet, I would not.

If you are wondering about performance, I can tell you that this computer does everything ! It handles Office, Photoshop, and all the other software necessary to run your life.
I find this laptop to be faster than my much heavier MacBook Pro (2.16mhz), that's thanks to the super quiet/fast Solid State Drive. Also, it never gets hot (My MB Pro gets hot as a grill after just a few minutes).
Overall, I find this laptop to be the perfect combination between perfomance and portability.