One year after announcing the iPhone, Apple presents its latest laptop: the MacBook Air, which they claim is the thinnest laptop in the world. This is the MacBook Air really the dream for all travelers or does it conceal irreparable gaps?
Presentation
The MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, the MacBook Air has similar dimensions to the MacBook, but its maximum thickness does not exceed 0.76 inches. As itsPredecessors, he has a great keyboard, built-in webcam and the operating system since Mac OS X "Leopard." In the basic version, has signed with a Core 2 Duo from Intel and rhythmical to 1.6 GHz, the MacBook Air has 2 GB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11b / g, and a 80 GB hardrive.
Look, keyboard, touchpad
The MacBook Air is immediately enticing. Breaking with the design of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, which are relatively straightThe selected lines, Apple on a chassis with slightly rounded edges, with printing to strengthen its slim design. draw the overall size of 12.8 cm wide and 8.95 inches deep, the same as the MacBook is equipped with an LED 13.3-inch widescreen has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.
The MacBook Air weighs just under 3 pounds. The shell of the MacBook Air adopts a gray anodized surface similar to what isfound on the MacBook Pro or the back of the iPhone. Rather rigid, this impression is a good dish to the extent that, if the MacBook Air have adorned much less fragile than we thought. However, this soft surface to core brands rather easily, the nomads require real protection against sliding lid.
Like the MacBook Pro, the keyboard has a backlight, rather pleasant when the machine is in the dark, whose intensityadjusted independently from that on the screen. After several days of use and the necessary moments of adaptation, the keyboard of the MacBook Air is very nice.
The screen
The MacBook Air has a webcam (640 x 480) of poor quality and a microphone. It has a light sensor that automatically adjusts the intensity of the LED-backlit display, when you're in a dark room. In this case, reduce the intensity of illumination of the keyboard. If you setThe finger on the sensor: it detects instantly obscurity, and the intensity of the screen decreases. With a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the screen of the MacBook Air offers a work surface less important than some 11-inch models, with which this, increasing the resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, but Apple provides a certain comfort definition visual action completely most users. Brilliant is the type of stone LCD bright, warm colors and round,more faithful. Increasing the brightness, use the Macbook Air, ambient light.
The MacBook Air inaugurates a new generation of touchpad, the iPhone has inspired the first mobile phone from Apple. It is wider, a traditional touchpad. With three fingers, you can use the Safari browser … but not with Firefox. Most of these small features do not radically change the user experience, but part of the appeal of Apple products.
Connections
L 'Three lines of the MacBook Air features on the left side by a small door which, when open, covered space leaves little room for their achievement. In particular, if your line is thick or if you have a large USB stick, it will not be able to communicate directly here. To resolve this problem, Apple suggests a continued expansion. These are fairly cheap, but now is forced cable, slightly reduced the ultra portable aspect of the multiplicity ofMachine.
WiFi but no DVD
The absence of DVD is voluntary (there is often enough anyway). Apple marketing says that when her son is gone, you still need a DVD player? Apple plays the network card enables compatible with a wireless application for Mac and Windows XP and Windows Vista, the DAV and the use of the CD. The reader of your main machine can be used to install applications, transferSecure against the MacBook Air and even resettle your operating system, but it will take five to ten times longer than in May with a DVD player. And 'this is a big problem need to buy an external USB 2.0 drive $ 99 DVD based.
Speed
Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz rhythm, engraved in 65 nanometers, the MacBook Air is not a speed demon and is slower than other Apple laptops. The choice of Apple is therefore at a level of reliabilityacceptable performance for light and medium users.
If you're willing to spend more the MacBook Air with a more powerful processor posting a frequency of 1.8 GHz but also and especially from a hard drive with 64 GB SSD flash memory type, similar to the standard built-in Lenovo ThinkPad X300. To take advantage of these improvements may be required to pay a premium of about $ 1,300, which is to take the final price of the MacBook Airabout $ 3,098.
Performance
Certain applications extremely resource intensive work clearly slowly on the MacBook Air because of its 1.6-GHz processor, in other words, the manipulation of large images in Photoshop or video processing your patience is put to a sample particular.
On the other hand, the manipulation of photos or video footage using iMovie works smoothly and without serious inconvenience. The interface receives the liquidThey can expect of Leopard, despite the poor performance of their processors. Browsing, Web Desktop, music and video use do not suffer from the problem. As for the games, we'll make it simple, just select another handset.
Battery
Apple talks about an autonomy of about five hours with WiFi enabled. Choosing Eco Mode on Mac OS X and the screen brightness to 75% capacity, the MacBook Air was able, even 3:15, before theLow battery warning showed up.
Conclusion
You might think that its MacBook Air, stretched Apple to create a new market segment on the laptop. His impeccable design, low weight and extreme thinness, is a good candidate for the ultra-portable. But the evolution of the failure of the battery or very limited connectivity are many professionals who want to stop these types of machines. The performance of the MacBook Air will sufficetravelers to be light bloggers, connected fanatics, journalists and other employees in the sector. You'll never make a job with photos, compose bills and concepts and then to ensure the presentation, which has benefited from its excellent LCD panel.
Apple has tried to circumvent some of the drawbacks of the MacBook Air. The absence of DVD is matched by the capability to take responsibility for a network drive to a remote computer, PC or MAC. L 'The idea is interesting, although in reality we can not imagine having to install nothing substantial Sun The touchpad is improved, integrating more functionality than the iPhone. Although these improvements do not revolutionize the way people interact with a computer, are quite nice.
It will be necessary for the MacBook Air, an external DVD drive and a USB hub and a USB adapter to the Ethernet connection to a real comfort, and put it on the same levelother machines with the price and features. Therefore, the drop, which makes the charm of the MacBook Air: Thin. The alternative is the idea that the MacBook Air is designed as an aid to keep the machine is a portable light and elegant on your desktop for when you travel to be completed and Light.
This beautiful machine suffers from cruel limitations that other computers, sometimes lighter or less expensive, nothave. Despite its elegant lines and feel of the MacBook Air does not offer ultra portable promise as expected. The previous MacBook more efficient, more functional and less expensive!
