Apple’s approach to enter the sub-notebook market, the Macbook Air, is a great competitor to existing products. I am lucky enough to have one to play with this weekend, and even to use one to write my first HWG blog post.
Let’s start with the obvious. As expected from Apple, the Macbook Air has a great, appealing design. It’s extremely portable and lightweight, and definitely very thin. It’s something I could put into my bag full of books, not notice the extra weight and have plenty of space left for those extra exciting maths books. (Yes, we are right. Math does have an ‘s’.)
As everyone who comes within a 10 meter radius of myself knows, I am a very big fan of OS X and Apple software. I think that Leopard works very well on the Macbook Air in terms of functionality, and Leopard’s default appearance looks great combined with the Macbook Air’s design. The notebook looks stylish, has a crisp, brightly lit screen, has a great keyboard and large trackpad, long battery life, and is a pleasure to use. However, I would not buy one.
I feel that the Macbook Air is for two specific markets. The first would be customers who want a Mac that works well for home or “basic” use, and perhaps travel a lot. The other market is for those who would buy a notebook regardless of its spec, as long as it “is fast and looks nice”. For the first, the Macbook Air is fine (though a little expensive, especially here in England). These people would perhaps not miss the Superdrive, not need more than one USB port, and love the portability. However, problems arise with the other set of people. It’s very easy to say “I won’t miss my Superdrive,” but what happens when it comes to watching a DVD? Remote Disc won’t help here as it doesn’t support movies. Problems like these can be solved, such as by purchasing the USB-powered Superdrive, but this may defeat the point of ultra-portability. And when it comes to a USB > ethernet adaptor for places without Wi-Fi, Mini DVI > DVI/VGA cables for usage of the Mini DVI port, USB hubs to allow for more USB ports (or to use the USB port, AND have ethernet connected), and many other devices to use such basic features of a general laptop, I believe that I’d rather have most features built in.
A feature of the Air that I don’t like, is the multi-touch trackpad. Sure, this is a “great timesaver”, but how often would this realistically be used? When I want to rotate a photo, I find it much faster to click a “rotate right or left” button than to twist my hand into an awkward position on the trackpad. And besides, other than this, the “pinch”, and the three-fingered scroll, every other “multi-touch” gesture is already built into Macbooks and Macbook Pro. This conveniently little-known fact can be activated on all Macbook and Macbook Pros in the Trackpad section in the Keyboard & Mouse System Preference Pane. Enabling Clicking, Dragging and “Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click” allows 7 of the 10 “new” multi-touch features. I am worried, a gimmick like this “new” feature will attract people into buying this attractive looking notebook, where the three new gestures will almost never be used.
Lastly, I have suspicions that the Macbook Air may accidentally promote piracy. I can easily picture a scenario where one wants to watch a movie on a DVD they already own, and as they cannot play it directly on the machine, or with Remote Disk, he would have to download it. Naturally, one would feel he shouldn’t repurchase or pay to rent the movie, as he already owns a copy.
On the whole, the Macbook Air is a great machine, and I completely recommend it to those who have seriously considered the lack of Superdrive, ethernet, and other ports. The battery life is great, the display is much brighter than my merom Macbook Pro, and the machine works great.
Comments: (16)
Post Tags: review apple notebooks macbook wifi