Hi,
i have just sold my white unibody macbook (which was on its last legs) in order to upgrade to a Macbook Air!
Can anyone advise me on these questions?
1. Does the new macbook air get very hot? I liked my unibody macbook because it didn't seem to get very hot on the base (maybe due to it being plastic and not metal?).
2. How much space is actually available when you turn on the 128gb macbook air for the first time (I am not considering the bigger hard drive option at the moment due to the much higher price)?
3. Will I notice a speed bump from my 2010 unibody macbook? Hardware wise are the i5's in the macbook airs better than the 2.4ghz c2d that was in my macbook? How do the graphics card compare?
4. Do people miss the DVD drive?
5. Whats the screen quality like on the new 13" macbook air's (I was very happy with the screen on the unibody macbook)
Any responses would be greatly received
Thanks
I'm using the 1.6GHz 11.6-inch Macbook Air 4GB / 128GB model.
1. It gets hot but not too hot. Idles between 45 celcius and 55 celcius (depending on if you're browsing or text editing, how vigorously you're browsing). Can climb up to the low 80's when watching an HD youtube video. Can climb up to the mid-high 80's when playing a game (celcius). That's the processor I'm speaking about in particular. Of course, the maximum safe temperature is 100 celcius, so it should all be fine. The case gets somewhat hot, but it's more just toasty warm to the touch... nothing unpleasant, unless in a hot day (in which case it might be running even hotter).
2. It has a fair bit of space. I think it's just over 100GB but I'd have to double-check, and I'm a Mac newbie so I don't want to spend 5 minutes figuring out how to view my hard drive space
3. You will possibly notice a speed bump. But this all depends on what you do with the Air.
4. I don't miss a DVD drive. The only time I wish I had one is when I have to install a game which I have lying around... which is only once or twice in the whole laptop's lifespan; in this case, I whip out the external disc drive we have in the house from maaaaany years ago (over 10 years ago).
5. I don't know how the screen quality is on the 13-inch, but on the 11-inch it's quite good.
Color quality: outstanding
Contrast: Very very good, though could be just a very smudge bit better, particularly with blacks. That said, it's still very very good: I'm just picky.
Uniformity across the screen: Everything is about uniform. The bottom and top aren't 100% uniform though (when it comes to viewing angles and corresponding black tones). But that's again... like a 1-2% difference if you were to measure it. It's hardly anything. You wouldn't notice it unless if you were super picky like me. Finally, the very bottom mm of the screen appears just ever-so-slightly darker than the rest of the screen... and again, you probably wouldn't notice that either even if I pointed it out. It's so very slight it takes very good eyes to see.
So aside from the pickiness about the screen, it's an awesome screen. The only screen that beats the 11-inch Macbook Air in terms of portable computers would be the Macbook Pro. Other than that... I've never see a better screen on a laptop. And that does say a lot I think. The 13 inch should be similar in quality, however I have heard that it's not *quite* as nice due to the size difference for some reason... but maybe that's just anecdotal or simply a rumour; either way, I hear the difference is minimal. My recommendation: check the stuff out in stores
The Apple store is best since its lighting is good, so you get to see the realistic quality of the screen as opposed to ideal settings in a Best Buy where they're dark and it makes everything look twice as good.
