Walt Mossberg Reviews the New MacBook Air

[iSee]

Mossberg is just repeating Apple's hype that the new MBA is somehow inspired by the iPad. There is no fundamental difference between this new MBA and the original one that predated the iPad.

This is significant because it proves that Apple creates hype. A lot of their marketing is hyperbole.

Significant differences between the new Air and old:
- significant;y smaller
- significantly better battery life
- significantly faster (especially if you were using the HDD version, and also because of the GPU)
- significantly cheaper
- significantly more USB ports
- significantly longer "sleep" time (sound like its actually like a fast hibernate)
- significantly more RAM

 

[Rafterman]

New MacBook Air ad was even shown during early innings of the World Series Game 1 last night. A lot of people saw that.

I don't know. MLB's World Series ratings the last few years haven't been so hot.

 

[iRATs]

No backlit keyboard

Walt missed that one...

 

[utcoug]

64GB is plenty of space if Air isn't primary computer.

Does anyone know how much SSD space is left after the OSX and preinstalled software?

The basic install of Mac OSX 10.6, is a little over 8GB, without removing languages, unneeded binary, etc.

 

[ctdonath]

Still not sure how this compares to an iPad.

Take everything the naysayers whined about the iPad: lack of USB, no camera, no serious video out, no keyboard, insufficient RAM, insufficient storage, crippled OS X "walled garden", insufficient CPU, too small, etc.

Lacking only the actual touch screen, the new MBA is everything naysayers said they wanted in an iPad.

 

[tod]

Significant differences between the new Air and old:
- significant;y smaller
- significantly better battery life
- significantly faster (especially if you were using the HDD version, and also because of the GPU)
- significantly cheaper
- significantly more USB ports
- significantly longer "sleep" time (sound like its actually like a fast hibernate)
- significantly more RAM

Right, the new MacBook Air's USB ports were inspired by all those USB ports on the iPad.

Just because some of those things are true about the new MBA doesn't mean they were inspired by the iPad. The original MBA was small, had a sealed-in battery, etc. etc. They significantly lowered the price over time. Does that qualify saying that it's "inspired by the iPad"?

It's just marketing hype.

 

[SeanMcg]

Concerning the 2GB of RAM:

I upgraded my 2-3 year old MBP (2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM) from the stock hard drive to a Crucial 256GB SSD. Best upgrade I've ever done for performance (although the case is somewhat the worse for wear). Given that the SSD gives you a huge performance increase for things previously slowed down by a spinning platter, what does that mean for the page file?

I would think that the faster the SSD gets, the closer the paging file gets to being extra RAM, depending on how it is used, mitigating what would otherwise be considered a deficiency.

 

[utcoug]

Concerning the 2GB of RAM:

I upgraded my 2-3 year old MBP (2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM) from the stock hard drive to a Crucial 256GB SSD. Best upgrade I've ever done for performance (although the case is somewhat the worse for wear). Given that the SSD gives you a huge performance increase for things previously slowed down by a spinning platter, what does that mean for the page file?

I would think that the faster the SSD gets, the closer the paging file gets to being extra RAM, depending on how it is used, mitigating what would otherwise be considered a deficiency.

There is one downside to SSD as I upgraded my MBP recently with a speedy new SSD boot drive from OWC. The battery life has suffered, by not much, but some. I would willingly trade a little battery life for the major performance bump though. Great upgrade and highly recommended.

 

[chrmjenkins]

You can push that 2GB very very quickly with even light photo editing in Photoshop. If it's extremely light use....2GB is probably fine. But if you plan on keeping that thing for more than a year or so, you'd be an absolute fool not to grab the RAM upgrade.

I can't imagine the disparity between the 2GB and 4GB models a year or two from now since it's only available BTO. The resale value differences will probably be quite noticeable.

Photo editing is not Apple's intended audience for the air. They expect those people to have MBPs, iMacs or MPs.

If I give you a horse, the first words out of your mouth shouldn't be "why won't it run on leaded?"

 

[foiden]

Neither is iLife much use on the default 11" config. Garageband really bogs down on the thing once you gone beyond 2 tracks. iMovie probably suffers as well. So yeah, you'll have to keep it to the *light* applications unless you upgrade the spec.

 

[triceretops]

It is so bizarre and arbitrary for the TSA to decide the MBA 11" doesn't need to come out like every other lappie out there.

Well, TSA is just bizarre and arbitrary.

 

[3N16MA]

I have a hard time taking Mossberg's reviews seriously when it comes to Apple products.

 

[redkamel]

This wins my 'everyone is exactly the same as me' award. (I have also started calling this my 'libertarian' award.)

I have exactly 0 interest in the benchmarks, and I am a software developer who often runs XCode, VMWare, and two browsers at the same time. Every computer sold in the last two years gets the exact same benchmark score for me: 'fast enough'. (As long as it has at least 4 gigs of RAM.)

I have a lot of interest in: how reliable a machine is, how tough it is, how easy it is to carry around, whether its keyboard is any good, how well its wireless networking does, how good the viewing angle on its LCD is, how long its battery life is, how easy it is to yank out and use while standing up, ... aaaand so on.

So yeah. Believe it or not, the vast majority of people aren't like you, and don't give the faintest hint of a snot about benchmarks. But it's reassuring to people like us that people like you are out there, making sure that all the benchmarks are... y'know... benchmarkier. Than they were before.

-fred

Stay thirsty my friend.

 

[cburton]

My 11.6 128 GB showed 109 GB free upon first boot. After checking it out, I shut it down, rebooted with the USB stick, wiped the drive, and customized the installation. After it was finished, I had 112 GB free (no iLife apps).

And this reminds me....if I delete the safe sleep image, I'll free up 4 more gigs....

Did you install with no language support and printer drivers? 64GB doesn't sound like a lot but it'll be handy to know when I go to buy my next machine.

EDIT: I see utcoug answered ny question later in the thread. Thanks!

Chris

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

the airs are great in my opinion, i personally prefer a regular laptop but whatever floats your boat!

but just think in like 20-30 years all laptops might be this thin and much better, but also by then apple would of already moved on to holograms with touch interface. LOL

 

[wilycoder]

this netbook looks more and more enticing to me. When I go on short trips (a few days) then the iPad is great. But when I go to my parents/family for X-mas then a real notbook is simply more functional. dragging the MBP and removing it five times on airports is a major hassle. but this MBA would solve all this.

apple hit it big with the 11" MBA IMHO.

and not having to remove it on the airport is a huge advantage. and seriously, $1400 for a maxed out MBA is still an ok pricepoint.

so you are gonna spend $1400 because of......the TSA?

that sounds retarded.

 

[kntgsp]

Photo editing is not Apple's intended audience for the air. They expect those people to have MBPs, iMacs or MPs.

If I give you a horse, the first words out of your mouth shouldn't be "why won't it run on leaded?"

Good thing you aren't giving them a horse then. Trying to compare it as horse vs. automobile is disingenuous at best. It's not a netbook, it is running full fledged Penryn parts and the same GPU as the 13" MBP. The benchmarks indicate as much, seeing as how the 13" Air beats out the late '09 MBP in some areas and matches the faster clocked Late '09 MBP in Photoshop retouch tests. It's not even a matter of "The RAM would be wasted since it can't do the work anyway". It CAN do the work. That's the bloody point, now more than ever with the hardware bump. Giving it the extra RAM is clearly appealing to a large enough audience or they wouldn't have done it. People like lighter laptops that are easier to carry around. And if it can do heavier workloads with just a small RAM bump, there's no reason not to do it, and Apple obviously agrees.

Hence the phrase "light" photo editing. And it's one example. 2GB can be quickly filled by modern applications. And you'll be laughed at if you think 2GB is enough for that thing to hold any resale value against the BTO models two years from now.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Good thing you aren't giving them a horse then. Trying to compare it as horse vs. automobile is disingenuous at best. It's not a netbook, it is running full fledged Penryn parts and the same GPU as the 13" MBP. The benchmarks indicate as much, seeing as how the 13" Air beats out the late '09 MBP in some areas and matches the faster clocked Late '09 MBP in Photoshop retouch tests.

Hence the phrase "light" photo editing. And it's one example. 2GB can be quickly filled by modern applications. And you'll be laughed at if you think 2GB is enough for that thing to hold any resale value against the BTO models two years from now.

It was purposely exaggerated to emphasize the different markets Apple is targeting. By giving it 2 GB standard, Apple is showing that they don't consider it a workhorse at stock. Most things people commonly do (internet, movies, text editing) will all be executed beautifully with 2 GB. So, if that's what a lot of people want to do, and they can get away with it at 2 GB, why would they throw in more for free and give more at the same price point or raise the price point?

As for not holding resale value, there's a euphoric distortion bubble that surrounds all Apple products. It will sell just fine. The only way it wouldn't is if Lion turns out to be a huge resource hog.

 

[Carniphage]

IThe only way it wouldn't is if Lion turns out to be a huge resource hog.

I am hoping that some of the mobile technology that leaks back into Lion from iOS is much smaller memory footprint for applications.

C.

 

[AidenShaw]

It takes longer for me to type my password than it takes to wake any of my computers.

That's one reason why I'm happy that the majority of my laptops have fingerprint readers - and an OS that supports them.

 

[Eidorian]

That's one reason why I'm happy that the majority of my laptops have fingerprint readers - and an OS that supports them.

Biometrics are fun but only when they come standard. I don't feel a need to pay for the addition.

 

[kntgsp]

It was purposely exaggerated to emphasize the different markets Apple is targeting. By giving it 2 GB standard, Apple is showing that they don't consider it a workhorse at stock.

Baloney. It's priced aggressively for the components and construction. It is priced to sell, as evidenced with the ever dropping Air prices since its introduction. And with the disparity in performance between the 13" Air and 13" MBP getting smaller and smaller, and with the price very similar, it is easily an overlapping market. You can get the same relative performance in a smaller, lighter package. Many, many people find that attractive.

So the 13" MBP is a "workhorse" because it has 2GB more RAM? Is that what you're seriously claiming? It barely outperforms the Air as is, not to mention the plethora of Late '09 MBP models that are equal or slower than the new Air. What they market it as is irrelevant if the consumer does not agree. Why offer the 4GB as an option at all? Oh that's right, lots of users told Apple they wanted more RAM for specific reasons. One of those being things like Photoshop, which run fine, but simply need a little extra RAM to run efficiently without swapping.

Realistically, the 13" MB"Pro" shouldn't really be considered a "Pro" model of anything. The only reason it's still running a C2D is because of the pissing match between Intel and Nvidia, and because Steve Jobs is too stubborn to change the layout to accommodate Core-i CPUs along with their NVidia graphics.

Most things people commonly do (internet, movies, text editing) will all be executed beautifully with 2 GB. So, if that's what a lot of people want to do, and they can get away with it at 2 GB, why would they throw in more for free and give more at the same price point or raise the price point?

You look at it as if that is the only reason. Let me spell it out for you: C-O-S-T. You're looking at a device with essentially the same capability as the MBP, only $100 higher. Yet it has very high binned CPUs, Solid State storage, and a higher resolution screen. If they dropped in another 2GB free as standard they would be eating into the profit margin of the Air much more than the margins on the 13" MBP.

As for not holding resale value, there's a euphoric distortion bubble that surrounds all Apple products. It will sell just fine. The only way it wouldn't is if Lion turns out to be a huge resource hog.

Which has limits particularly with things that are BTO. And with that relative uncertainty hanging in the air, it's another reason not to go the 2GB route. Let alone the resource usage of any future popular programs down the line.

 

[sososowhat]

A couple of things. First Walt really needs to take Apple to task for the paltry SSD alotment. 64GB in the base machine is almost criminal. Worst the increases in prices for uprated SSDs is highway robbery. .

A) Offering a small disk for those who don't put 1000s of songs or photos is just fine. Nothing criminal here. It's one configuration & I appreciate having the option. Buy more if you need it.

B) $200 for an additional 64GB is about $3/Gig, not too bad. $300 for 128GB more is $2.50/GB. Those are as close to the same as prices at OWC as I've ever seen Apple able do before.

 

[frankly]

It is so bizarre and arbitrary for the TSA to decide the MBA 11" doesn't need to come out like every other lappie out there.

It isn't arbitrary at all. There are no moving components in it. It is much easier for them to see on their x-ray to determine if it is what it is supposed to be.

A positive review of an Apple product from Walt Mossberg?!??!

Stop the presses!!!!!

Is there any photos in the review that shows a pic of Steve Jobs as Walt's wallpaper?

Name the product he gave a good review of that was a bad product. Until then, stop wasting our time with your childish complaints.

Out of curiosity, has anyone who isn't a reporter noticed that much of a difference in wake time between the new MBAs and other laptops? I've tried closing and opening MBAs in a store and they seem to wake in about the same time as any other seeping laptop -- 'long enough that it's not instant, short enough that I don't think about it'. My pre-unibody MBP wakes in what feels like a couple of seconds, it's hardly long enough for me to care.

This isn't referring to the put it to sleep and immediately wake it up. This is referring to after it has been to sleep for more than an hour or so. The MBP line saves the contents of RAM to your hard disk in order to save battery power while asleep. The MBA saves this to its flash RAM which allows it to wake up much faster than the MBP reading it from a spinning hard drive. In fact, I would bet that the Air is awake and ready to use before the MBP hard drive even spins up.

And this reminds me....if I delete the safe sleep image, I'll free up 4 more gigs....

And doing that will prevent you from enjoying the instant wake AND the 30 day standby battery life.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Baloney. It's priced aggressively for the components and construction. It is priced to sell, as evidenced with the ever dropping Air prices since its introduction. And with the disparity in performance between the 13" Air and 13" MBP getting smaller and smaller, and with the price very similar, it is easily an overlapping market. You can get the same relative performance in a smaller, lighter package. Many, many people find that attractive.

I don't see how any of that contradicts what I've stated. Moreover, I don't see how that's surprising seeing as how Apple stated that the Air is their vision of the notebook for the next ten years.

So the 13" MBP is a "workhorse" because it has 2GB more RAM? Is that what you're seriously claiming? It barely outperforms the Air as is, not to mention the plethora of Late '09 MBP models that are equal or slower than the new Air. What they market it as is irrelevant if the consumer does not agree. Why offer the 4GB as an option at all? Oh that's right, lots of users told Apple they wanted more RAM for specific reasons. One of those being things like Photoshop, which run fine, but simply need a little extra RAM to run efficiently without swapping.

No, it's a workhorse because it has 4 GB RAM, a firewire port, an ethernet jack, double the promised battery life, a GPU that isn't underclocked and is specifically marketed for gaming, user upgradeable hard drive and ram etc. etc. Apple makes that distinction regardless of how artificial or thin it is in actuality. Thus, it's unrealistic to expect them to spec it similar to the MBP when it doesn't consider the audiences the same.

Realistically, the 13" MB"Pro" shouldn't really be considered a "Pro" model of anything. The only reason it's still running a C2D is because of the pissing match between Intel and Nvidia, and because Steve Jobs is too stubborn to change the layout to accommodate Core-i CPUs along with their NVidia graphics.

Nothing new. Many people have been saying this ever since the 13" has been called a Pro. There's more to it than the licensing dispute. Apple could easily fit Arrandale plus the 320M in the 13" (see Vaio Z). The reason they don't is cost and space for battery.

You look at it as if that is the only reason. Let me spell it out for you: C-O-S-T. You're looking at a device with essentially the same capability as the MBP, only $100 higher. Yet it has very high binned CPUs, Solid State storage, and a higher resolution screen. If they dropped in another 2GB free as standard they would be eating into the profit margin of the Air much more than the margins on the 13" MBP.

You're re-stating my point with a different emphasis. Like I said, they don't include 4 GB because they don't see it as necessary for their market and it eats into margin.

Which has limits particularly with things that are BTO. And with that relative uncertainty hanging in the air, it's another reason not to go the 2GB route. Let alone the resource usage of any future popular programs down the line.

It depends how long you plan to keep it and expect to use it on top of what you want to do with it. Apple likes to do forced obsolescence with a lot of their older machines.