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Considering getting a 13" Air

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NikFinn said:
I beg to differ. I've owned two MBPs (2009 2.26 and a 2011 2.3) and two MBAs (2008 1.86 and 2011 1.6) and I don't see a difference. I actually prefer the MBA because its higher resolution, and comes in matte.
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I have owned a 2.26 2009 and probobly 4 or 5 2.4ghz 2010s plus a 2010 and 2011 air. The first tng i thought when i opened the 2010 air was wow this screen looks like crap compared to the pro. You do get used to it though. As for the extra resolution i actually dont like it because it makes everything smaller and even though i am not an old man i still find it tougher to read. If they had a low res option on the 13" air i would buy it over the high res model. To each their own I guess
 
newdeal said:
I have owned a 2.26 2009 and probobly 4 or 5 2.4ghz 2010s plus a 2010 and 2011 air. The first tng i thought when i opened the 2010 air was wow this screen looks like crap compared to the pro. You do get used to it though. As for the extra resolution i actually dont like it because it makes everything smaller and even though i am not an old man i still find it tougher to read. If they had a low res option on the 13" air i would buy it over the high res model. To each their own I guess
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I think you can indeed get use to it but everytime you'll see a macbook pro it will remind you that your screen sucks :(
 
Mr.Awesome said:
I think you can indeed get use to it but everytime you'll see a macbook pro it will remind you that your screen sucks :(
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And every time you fold the lid on the pro and put it in your bag it will remind you that the pro is heavy!

And I really don't think its an accurate description to say that any of these machines' screens "suck". I just moved from a pro to an air and quite frankly the only thing I really noticed was the gloss vs. matte.... i like matte better, but got over it in about 5 minutes. Same with the TBD vs. my 30" Dell.
 
One advantage of the Air that I rarely see talked about is the way it feels on your lap. This would seem like an obvious advantage, but put into practice it makes a huge difference. I have a 13 and I often forget it's there.
 
LordJim said:
One advantage of the Air that I rarely see talked about is the way it feels on your lap. This would seem like an obvious advantage, but put into practice it makes a huge difference. I have a 13 and I often forget it's there.
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Forgetting it is there could be considered a bad thing. :p

I suppose it is difficult to truly appreciate the difference unless you actually have one to play with. All stores I have seen have the things locked down tight. But the thin form factor is certainly appealing all the same.
 
Mr.Awesome said:
I think you can indeed get use to it but everytime you'll see a macbook pro it will remind you that your screen sucks :(
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No it doesn't. I use both Pro and Air, sometimes concurrently, and I don't normally think, "wow, this screen is so much better or worse." Not at all. The screen on Air is perfectly fine. Not sure why you're focusing on it so much, really. And if the screen is really so important, go and get an MBP.
 
Jaro65 said:
No it doesn't. I use both Pro and Air, sometimes concurrently, and I don't normally think, "wow, this screen is so much better or worse." Not at all. The screen on Air is perfectly fine. Not sure why you're focusing on it so much, really. And if the screen is really so important, go and get an MBP.
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Absolutely agree on this.

There are some incredible calibration files available on this site for the Air, the difference is tiny to non-existant if these are installed.
 
I bought a 13" Air a couple of months ago and ultimately decided to return it. Mine had the Samsung display and Toshiba SSD. Personally, I didn't like the display quality - I liked that it wasn't as glossy as the Pro, however the panel was clearly not up to the quality level used in the pro. In particular, I found the contrast poor, which made reading text uncomfortable. But what ultimately drove me to return it was simply the resolution - 1440x900 on a 13" display makes things pretty small, and I found after several minutes of use that it was giving me eyestrain. It's not a bad display, but my eyes certainly didn't appreciate it. Of course I realize this is only what my eyes experienced and will vary from person to person.

I was also disappointed with the battery life, even once Spotlight had completed indexing the drive, and disappointed that the "instant on" feature was far from a reality, with the wake up time being much slower than a 15" Pro I used to use at work.

Otherwise? Beautiful computer - light, very fast, great keyboard, etc. in addition to all the other great aspects of Macbooks :)

I'd strongly recommend spending some time using the Airs at a store before committing to buying..I wish I had, as I could have saved myself a restocking fee.

Just my 2 cents, hope it helps!
 
lowercasej said:
I bought a 13" Air a couple of months ago and ultimately decided to return it. Mine had the Samsung display and Toshiba SSD. Personally, I didn't like the display quality - I liked that it wasn't as glossy as the Pro, however the panel was clearly not up to the quality level used in the pro. In particular, I found the contrast poor, which made reading text uncomfortable. But what ultimately drove me to return it was simply the resolution - 1440x900 on a 13" display makes things pretty small, and I found after several minutes of use that it was giving me eyestrain. It's not a bad display, but my eyes certainly didn't appreciate it. Of course I realize this is only what my eyes experienced and will vary from person to person.

I was also disappointed with the battery life, even once Spotlight had completed indexing the drive, and disappointed that the "instant on" feature was far from a reality, with the wake up time being much slower than a 15" Pro I used to use at work.

Otherwise? Beautiful computer - light, very fast, great keyboard, etc. in addition to all the other great aspects of Macbooks :)

I'd strongly recommend spending some time using the Airs at a store before committing to buying..I wish I had, as I could have saved myself a restocking fee.

Just my 2 cents, hope it helps!
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I like the air resolution better in fact. More space to work. But the contrast and black levels are indeed horribles in comparaison to the pro. Don't know if they are all the same thought.
 
I just bought a MBA 13" it's my first mac. I'm very pleased with it and have no regrets with my purchase. Only thing it doesn't do well is gaming, other than that its perfect for my needs.

:apple: Forever!
 
lowercasej said:
I bought a 13" Air a couple of months ago and ultimately decided to return it. Mine had the Samsung display and Toshiba SSD. Personally, I didn't like the display quality - I liked that it wasn't as glossy as the Pro, however the panel was clearly not up to the quality level used in the pro. In particular, I found the contrast poor, which made reading text uncomfortable. But what ultimately drove me to return it was simply the resolution - 1440x900 on a 13" display makes things pretty small, and I found after several minutes of use that it was giving me eyestrain. It's not a bad display, but my eyes certainly didn't appreciate it. Of course I realize this is only what my eyes experienced and will vary from person to person.
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Just ordered this, and was wondering why you could not make the text bigger. Never used a Mac before, but in my Dell Laptop, I can Ctrl - scroll to change size of text. Not possible in a Mac?
 
Mr.Awesome said:
I thought this review was pretty good and I think I'm gonna pass on the air for this generation at least : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KQDYo5iGc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLC4734CE4754349C9
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That's not a great comparison video in my opinion.

He's using Snow Leopard on one and Lion on the other.

He doesn't mention that comparative resolution of the screens.

He's yapping on about people thinking the Air is the "next coming, because it's Jobs" when the same Air design had already been out for a year with Snow Leopard on it.

It seems like this guy spends most of the time complaining about the software rather than the hardware and doesn't really reach any valid conclusions.

"It's not going to be a viable primary laptop unless all you do is browse the web and hit up Facebook"

That's total nonsense.
 
deepakvrao said:
Just ordered this, and was wondering why you could not make the text bigger. Never used a Mac before, but in my Dell Laptop, I can Ctrl - scroll to change size of text. Not possible in a Mac?
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Sure, you can increase the font size for webpages and zoom in when using document/text editors, but all user interface elements remain small. My eyes simply find the lower resolution on the 13" Pro (1280x800), while not providing as much screen real estate, much easier to work on, especially for extended periods of time.

If/when Apple releases a 15" Air, or just a thinner redesigned 15" Pro, I'd like to see it have 1440x900 resolution and not 1680x1050 (or at least have the option)...
 
NutsNGum said:
That's not a great comparison video in my opinion.

He's using Snow Leopard on one and Lion on the other.

He doesn't mention that comparative resolution of the screens.

He's yapping on about people thinking the Air is the "next coming, because it's Jobs" when the same Air design had already been out for a year with Snow Leopard on it.

It seems like this guy spends most of the time complaining about the software rather than the hardware and doesn't really reach any valid conclusions.

"It's not going to be a viable primary laptop unless all you do is browse the web and hit up Facebook"

That's total nonsense.
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I have to agree on that, the comparaison about OS was ********. Still you can see that the screen does suck. You can easily see that the colors are wrong and there's even some light spot on the bottom of the screen. That looks like a 1998 PC screen to me.
 
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