Okay, this shouldn't surprise many people: I ordered a MacBook Air (a/k/a "the world's thinnest notebook computer"). I had been planning on upgrading my notebook computer for a few months before Steve Jobs announced the new computer at Macworld 2008. Up til then, I hadn't thought about what my 'dream features' would be. The MacBook Air was interesting, but at first I was a bit skeptical. Or maybe I became skeptical reading reviews that complained about the lack of removable battery and lack of built-in DVD player. I didn't care about those issues but, still, I was afraid I'd be disappointed.
Well, it arrived last Thursday and so far I'm thrilled. The lack of an internal disc player is not an issue because of the innovative Remote Disc feature. I have a desktop mac so I can use that to wirelessly install software onto the laptop (I never used my disc player on my old laptop for anything else). If I want to put data on the computer I use a flash drive connected to the USB port. I also don't care about not being able to swap out my battery because I never did that either on my old computer.
But here is what I do care about. The MacBook Air is incredibly light! My old laptop weighed 5 lbs versus the new computer, which weighs only 3 lbs. I didn't appreciate how much of a difference that was until I started carting the new computer around. It feels like nothing. The best analogy I can offer is that it's like carrying around 2 letter-sized stationary pads. The dimensions are slightly larger than that, but not much. Obviously, it weighs more than two stationary pads, but --for some reason-- it doesn't feel like it.
If you want to order an external CD-DVD player you can, but I'm not going to do that. I want to see if I enjoy the computer without any of the add-on options. So far I am. I'm actually quite surprised by this computer. Most of the complaints I heard about the MacBook Air suggested that it's a niche product that won't sell very well. Now that I have one, I have to disagree. When people get a chance to interact with it first hand they'll understand how revolutionary this product is.
It's the thinnest notebook ever, and yet it has a full sized keyboard. And the keyboard is backlit so that when you work in dark places the keys light up. It's got an 80 GB drive, which is plenty of basic storage (I keep my client data on an 80 GB external drive attached to my desktop so I really don't need much on my laptop). And 2 GBs of RAM is a healthy dose. I know that there are lots of people who want a laptop that functions as a desktop replacement. The MacBook Air ain't it. It wasn't designed for people like that.
I feel like it was designed for people like me. And I'm quite pleased with it!
I've said it time and time again: It's the perfect SECONDARY machine.
It handles everything I do on-the-go and on-the-sofa, and leaves everything else to my "main machine".
Posted by: Gerald | February 11, 2008 at 11:32 AM
law partner and i got our airbooks last wed
have ssd drive
nice machine
Posted by: john Morton | February 11, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Thanks for the review! I'm not in the market, but you addressed some questions I've had and wanted to have the answers to handy as a Mac advocate.
Posted by: Meg Kribble | February 11, 2008 at 12:51 PM
I am interested in getting one. Without firewire port how did you do migration from existing machine? If you did it.
Posted by: Kevin | February 11, 2008 at 02:47 PM
Hey Kevin: I didn't do the migration, but supposedly you can do it wirelessly. I read one guy who said he had problems doing it so I never even bothered. I was offered the option during set up several times but I declined. Not so much because I didn't think it would work, but because of the following. I use my MacPro desktop for iTunes and iPhoto data management. I don't want to replicate that data on my laptop. I know how to migrate it if I want to.
My key data is on an external USB hard drive. That is, all my client files and forms and personal files. Mostly in PDF format. I leave that hard drive connected to my desktop Mac. But obviously I can take it quickly if I need to and use it on the road. So, for me, migration really isn't necessary. But, for a lot of my data (address book, iCal, preferences, Safari bookmarks etc.) I simply sync across all my Macs using the .Mac account that I have.
Posted by: Ernie | February 11, 2008 at 03:17 PM
You said, "I know that there are lots of people who want a laptop that functions as a desktop replacement. The MacBook Air ain't it."
Why not? I think it would replace my one and only present Mac, the PowerBook Pismo 400 MHz with no problem. Sure, I have a 100 GB disk, CD drive, but never use the drive, and only have about 45 GB of data on the hard drive. Pismo does all I need, except run Bento, iWorks, etc., and the MBA will run those...
Stop saying it ain't nary desktop replacement. This Pismo, and my PowerBook 180, (yes 180!!) replaced the last desktop I used, the LC III...
Posted by: GuyGene | February 16, 2008 at 02:56 AM