I recently purchased a 13" 1.8GHz i7 MacBook Air 2011 and though I should let others know my thoughts as there were not many posts giving specific info on the product.
Overall, I am very pleased with the performance of this device it is lightning fast and a very nice machine despite the expensive price tag. I have tried out "Handbrake 0.9.5" on the device for encoding DVDs and from ISO files from an external hard drive to H.264 format (AppleTV2 preset). For encode times from both peripherals generally follow the rule-that for the duration of the film the macbook air will do this in half that time or a little faster, which is slower than I hoped however, I knew I may have been expecting to much from this device. That said, it is a vast improvement than my old Toshiba laptop which would take around 4 hours if not longer to do the same task.
I was also surprised at the fact when encoding the DVDs to the H.264 format the computer will run all other tasks as they would when an encode was not occurring making the MacBook Air such a great super slim device.
From other posts/threads/reviews I have read, everyone noted the fan as CPU intensive programs started was "very loud" that is correct you do hear it but it is not a deafening noise nor does it bother me to the degree that if I was doing word processing I would have to wait until this stopped to continue my work.
Also typing on this machine is so much more comfortable than doing it on a MacBook Pro as it seems to be at a sweet spot angle for typing due to the tapered design.
Overall, this a great machine; fast, super slim, beautifully designed and all this in performance in this ultralight aluminium package.
Also, Apple does a 14 day return policy so if you don't like what you got/ the performance is less than you need just swap it for a MacBook Pro or iMac, preferably the iMac as the screen is just aweusome!! XD
If anyone has any questions I will happily answer them.
In addition my MacBook Air contains the Samsung SSD for people who may ask.
Overall, I am very pleased with the performance of this device it is lightning fast and a very nice machine despite the expensive price tag. I have tried out "Handbrake 0.9.5" on the device for encoding DVDs and from ISO files from an external hard drive to H.264 format (AppleTV2 preset). For encode times from both peripherals generally follow the rule-that for the duration of the film the macbook air will do this in half that time or a little faster, which is slower than I hoped however, I knew I may have been expecting to much from this device. That said, it is a vast improvement than my old Toshiba laptop which would take around 4 hours if not longer to do the same task.
I was also surprised at the fact when encoding the DVDs to the H.264 format the computer will run all other tasks as they would when an encode was not occurring making the MacBook Air such a great super slim device.
From other posts/threads/reviews I have read, everyone noted the fan as CPU intensive programs started was "very loud" that is correct you do hear it but it is not a deafening noise nor does it bother me to the degree that if I was doing word processing I would have to wait until this stopped to continue my work.
Also typing on this machine is so much more comfortable than doing it on a MacBook Pro as it seems to be at a sweet spot angle for typing due to the tapered design.
Overall, this a great machine; fast, super slim, beautifully designed and all this in performance in this ultralight aluminium package.
Also, Apple does a 14 day return policy so if you don't like what you got/ the performance is less than you need just swap it for a MacBook Pro or iMac, preferably the iMac as the screen is just aweusome!! XD
If anyone has any questions I will happily answer them.
In addition my MacBook Air contains the Samsung SSD for people who may ask.