I was using a MacBook Air before it was cool. They’re thin and light but you’ve probably only just started hearing about them. Yeah, they’re pretty cool but not something you’d be interested in.
It’s easy to sound like an ass when I talk about the MacBook Air and it’s easy to sound so passé when I utter the thought that the the MacBook Air hasn’t changed much in 4 years (2008-2011). It’s why I often find myself getting a little bent out of shape when someone comes to me like the MBA is this really cool new thing when I’ve been using them for years. I’m sure guys like Jason Snell feel the same way. Jason, the EIC at Macworld Magazine had a Revision A MBA when it first came out and chronicled the switch from a MacBook Pro and moving to a 64GB drive in the Air which was the max at the time. He talked about going from 2Ghz+ to 1.6Ghz. Yeah, it was a hard move but, those of us who switched LOVED our Airs. When the MacBook Pro gets the Air treatment I’ll feel even more bitter.
So, my analysis of the 2011 MacBook Air is that it’s not much different than the underpowered Air I had many years ago. It’s a hell of a lot faster than that model and the battery lasts a hell of a lot longer. Let’s dive in but first, a note about my past because, the past helps my subjective tone make a bit more sense. After a Revision B MacBook Air that was clocked at 1.8 Ghz (Core2Duo), I sold it and bought a 2.13Ghz model that had a 128GB SSD. It was a fantastic computer and I used it every day. This was back when there was only the 13-inch screen size. I sold that a year ago and moved to New Hampshire. Two months later, Apple released a redesigned Air in two sizes. They added a USB port, an SD Slot, better speakers and a more solid construction but the size, weight and overall appearances were mostly unchanged. They did take away the backlit keyboard but it wasn’t a huge loss for most of us. The 2010 MacBook Air was the first redesign since the release in 2008 but was still powered by an outdated Core2Duo processor but the price was right and Apple sold millions of them. I claimed the 11-inch model “the best writing machine in the world” and stated that “Apple enters the netbook market”. They were true statements but this was Apple’s revision A of the new design. Revision B has blown us all away.
Apple changed the Mini DisplayPort to ThunderBolt which is HUGE. DisplayPort on the Air can power a 30” LCD display like the Dell I have at my office. ThunderBolt can do the same thing but it can also carry Firewire, USB, Audio, Digital Video, Ethernet and more. ThunderBolt is one port and it does EVERYTHING. All of the ports you see on the side of the MacBook Pro I have and they’re all in one port. Apple also departed the Core2 realm of Intel’s chips and entered the Core i5/i7 realm. Apple was waiting for Intel’s ULV (ultra low voltage) chips and they have arrived and are being used in the Airs. Apple also made the Airs more affordable. A maxed out Air is $1700 with all of the bells and whistles like a 256GB SSD. That alone used to cost $1000 as an upgrade to the MacBook Pro in 2009 and now, you can get it by default when you get a 13” air.
The ram capacity and frequency is unchanged and the video card has been changed to the Intel 3000 integrated card but I believe that was the best Apple could do given the Core i5/i7 move. They were strong armed into using that by Intel. Intel has a lock on chipsets where, if you want to use this type of chip, they’ll require you use their special video card or bus. The video card previously in the air was much better (a Radeon card). No worries, not many Air owners are playing FPS games. Call of Duty 4 actually runs pretty well but the Mac Gaming industry is dead anyway.
11 Versus 13:
I worked at Apple when we used to sell a 12 and 14 inch iBook. I worked there when the PowerBook flavors were 12, 15 and 17. Things are far simpler now. A 12 inch PowerBook only had a 1.5Ghz chip and only 64 megabytes of video ram and the HDD was small. The 15” was great but the 17” has a much faster CPU for video editing but you have this huge screen to deal with. The iBook 12 & 14 were actually both 1024×768 but some people preferred the 14” because it was easier to read with having a lower pixel density. So, you want an Air. Let’s help you pick.
The 11” and 13” Air have absolutely identical specs except one of them is $150 more for a larger display that includes an SD slot and 2 hours more battery life. The 11” Display has the same pixels as the 13” MacBook Had and the 13” display has the same amount of pixels as the standard 15” MacBook Pro. Both are high density and both are glossy but not as glossy as the MacBook Pro. So, it comes down to two things really:
Screen Size
Weight
At this size, you aren’t able to make the airplane argument. Both work well on airplanes. Both fit in any bag and both have decent battery life (5 and 7 hours). You really should go into an Apple Store and visit the websites you care about, open Photoshop (if you use it), Microsoft Word, Mail and send a few emails. Go to gmail and browse around. Give it the full count of what you do every day and spend 15 minutes on each size. You’ll know which one you need. However, I must stress that you can’t discard the 11 inch just because it feels too small. Give it a fair chance.
The 11-Inch MacBook Air WAS the perfect writing machine. However, I’m a man who has a 27” iMac, a 14” Dell i7 notebook, a 30” Dell LCD, 10” iPad, 4” iPhone and an 11” Air. If I needed a larger screen, I just go to the other room. As my work load increased and, as I traveled more, the 11” MacBook Air’s size became obsolete. At some point in my photo and video editing, Powerpointing, Excel Spreadsheeting and my writing, I just got tired of the small screen. It was a great writing machine but it just fell short on every other task. The screen was too small for everything but writing. I miss carrying the 11-inch around, I miss throwing it in my bag and showing it off. I miss all of the quality time we had but I don’t miss the small screen. I think that, if you plan on working on the go and doing real productivity that goes beyond web browsing and writing, you’ll feel very depressed on the 11 inch. It’s a revolutionary machine and I applaud Apple for fitting a Core i7 chip in that small package but I don’t think you’ll do the kind of work that calls for that speed.
The ONLY case where I see an 11-inch in your life is if you need a Netflix, Word, Web browsing machine on the go and, when you get home, you plug it right into a 20-30” LCD display. If you plan on working on a HUGE screen at work and love the portability of an 11” computer, go for it. If you want to work on PowerPoints on the couch, you’re going to feel deprived.
The 13” MacBook Air gives you the pixels of a 15” display in a small package. I’ve been using it all week from noon to midnight. I go into the office in the morning and do catchup and meetings via my 27 & 30 inch screens at the office then, I go to a cafe with just my 13” MacBook Air and it has functioned exceptionally well as a desktop replacement. In the past, I’d grab my Dell laptop when working from a cafe because, sometimes the 14.1” screen came in use during PowerPoint or Word operations. With the 13” Air, I no longer feel like I’m compromising a small screen and decreased performance in exchange for portability.
The 13” MacBook Air Still Falls Short:
I Love This Machine. I really do but there’s still something missing. It’s not the lack of an optical drive or that the FaceTime camera isn’t HD. It’s not the trackpad’s almost too large size or the keys that are much larger than those on the 11” Air that is kind of driving me crazy. The MacBook Air is STILL not a desktop replacement. It’s faster than nearly every computer out there in part because the SSD is so freaking fast. It’s just not a desktop replacement. The Thunderbolt port is mostly useless since adapters and peripherals are hard to come by. If you do want to plug your Air into a few hard drives, corded printers and an Ethernet jack, you’ll have to buy Apple’s $999 27” display that has those ports when you plug the monitor in via Thunderbolt.
The battery life is disappointing. I am not getting very much more use time on it over the 11 inch. I don’t know if it’s the Core i7 or the larger screen. Apple claims 2 hours of more life but I see only 15 minutes more of life. Doing normal tasks at full brightness an I would get 2.75 hours on the 11 inch and I get 3 to 3.5 hours on the 13 inch. That’s far from 2 hours but I’m mostly plugged in. I’d love to get 7 hours of battery life but Apple just won’t let that happen I guess.
The MBA with an i7 does get pretty hot actually. My palms are constantly sweating when writing and I have to take breaks from this review just to let things cool down a bit. The 13” feels awkward after using the 11”. I went from a 17” to a 13” and it was so amazing but, since owning an 11” air, despite feeling less productive as constrained by a tiny screen, I feel more productive on the 13” air but picking it up and putting it into my bag just feels awkward. Like it’s too big. I think I’ll get used to that over time but, the 11” air is truly a tiny blessing from Cupertino and something that I really fell in love with. Too bad I don’t feel the same way about the 13” model.
It’s pretty clear that the 11 inch is a novelty machine and great at certain tasks just like a netbook. The 13 inch seems larger compared to the 11 but it’s a far more effective machine at getting things done for the $150 more. The i7 seems to have been a mistake because now I have a CTO machine (which you can’t return to Apple as it was specially configured) and it runs much hotter with possibly less battery life. I’d vote that most people should stick with the Core i5 model and save their money. The huge difference between the Core i5 and i7 is hyperthreading. Both models have two physical cores but the i7 has 2 additional virtual cores. However, with the MacBook Air, both the i5 and i7 both have 4 cores (2 physical and 2 virtual) so, all you’re getting with the i7 is a faster clock speed in each of those cores. There are, of course, other differences but, for this exercise, that’s the reality, Faster Clock Speed and not much else.
I’m not going to return the 13” MacBook Air but I have to understand that it’s still not perfect. The thin body leaves little room for a battery and additional I/O. However, I would never go back to a MacBook Pro in its current body style, it’s just too fat and with too many features I would never use. The 11” MacBook Air is too small but both the 11 & 13 are identical inside.
I love the backlit keyboard and I love the F keys on the keyboard have been updated for Lion even though I just use the trackpad anyway. There are times though that I want a smaller computer with great battery life and many more pixels.
In Conclusion:
I use PCs every day. I use Windows and Unix often. I try all of the latest gadgets and Apple still gets it. The MacBook Air is a phenomenal computer that is pushing all other hardware manufacturers to..um stare at it and buy ones for themselves. No one has attempted to compete with this thing in a meaningful way and I’ve been using the MBA for years. I love the form factor, weight and power in it. It makes you wonder how they were able to pull off a feat like this.
No piece of hardware is perfect. No form factor or screen size is perfect and there are always downsides and things that don’t quite sync up for my preference but, the MBA 13 is close. Nearly everyone could do what they need to do on this machine and the rest could get it all done on an 11” MBA or iPad 2. There is still a small percentage of people that need a 15 & 17” MacBook Pro but that group is shrinking not because Pros are going away but because more casual users are buying Macs and they see a $999 computer with 4 processor cores, 4 gigabytes of ram and a super fast SSD and buy it without thinking. Apple has evolved this home run machine over the past 4 years and it’s nearly perfect.
I’m an MBA owner for life.