Everyone has heard how thin, sleek, stylish the MacBook Air is but you can’t truly appreciate the engineering marvel that it is unless you see it up close and personal. Today I have that pleasure. Thanks to the wonderful people over at Digital Hub, I have the pleasure of using the demo unit of the MacBook Air to do a short review (I have to return it tom).
Yes it’s thin. Unbelievably so. The pictures and videos don’t really do it justice. You’ll appreciate how thin it is when you actually get to hold one in your hand. It really does look like a big iPod Nano when it’s closed.Prior to seeing one in the flesh, I was really skeptical about the build quality. I had the impression that it was going to be flimsy, given how thin it is. It’s not flimsy. Not by a long shot. I’m impressed at how sturdy and well built it feels. It feels solid.
The screen is gorgeous. We have a first gen MacBook at the office and I’ve used it several times. In as much as the glossy screen provides vibrant colors, I find the glare too distracting. The screen of the MacBook Air doesn’t have as much glare though. It’s actually tolerable. I have a window behind my desk and I thought that the glare would be a big problem. It wasn’t. There was a bit of a glare but not too much to prevent me from working and viewing the screen properly.
I’ve been using the aluminum Apple wireless keyboard for a few months now and so I’m quite used to that type of keyboard which is also similar to the keyboard of the MacBook Air. Adjusting to it wasn’t a problem. One thing I noticed though, the material used for the keys of the MacBook Air isn’t quite as “plasticky” as the ones on the MacBook or the wireless keyboard. The ambient light of the keyboard is also bright and can still be clearly seen even if the room is lit. Another great thing is that it’s a full-sized keyboard and not a miniaturized version. That really makes typing better and easier.
One of the things I like best about the Macbook Air is the gestures or the multi-touch trackpad that for once in my life I’m actually preferring to use than a mouse but only on the Air. Taken from the iPhone, the multi-touch trackpad really makes navigating through pictures fun. You can zoom, pan and rotate images without taking your hands off the trackpad.
Audio is not a strong suit of the MacBook Air. In fact the built-in speaker is down right disappointing. With the volume turned up I could still barely hear the songs I was listening to. The only way I could get decent audio with it was to plug-in my earphones. Luckily the earphones I had fit in the audio port of the MacBook Air. However this isn’t really a major thing simply because users of the MacBook Air aren’t really going to buy it for the audio capabilities.
The miniaturized 1.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo and 2GB Ram that the MacBook Air demo unit I got packed enough power that makes it quite usable. Unlike other ultra-portables that sacrifice performance, the Air doesn’t. I was able to browse through the iPhoto library with ease, watch some video podcasts surf the net, etc. without much problems. It won’t beat my MacBook Pro that’s for sure but for everyday tasks such as email, chat, word processing it will do it with power to spare.
Who is it for? Honestly having played with the Air for a few hours, it’s enough to say that this is better for people who’ll be using this as a complement to their primary computer. People who have an iMac or a Mac Pro at home. Sync this baby to your home computer and you have a perfect traveling companion. You can still get away with this as your primary computer but only if you really do basic tasks such as word processing, email, chat, surfing. You can do a little bit of photo editing but nothing intensive. It’s definitely not for everyone. However, if you fall under it’s target market, you can’ t go wrong with the MacBook Air. It’s sleek, sexy and it runs OS X. That’s a great combination.
Pictures to follow.
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