Apple's 2010 MacBook Air (11 & 13 inch) Thoroughly Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 26, 2010 10:08 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
- Apple
- MacBook Air
- Laptops
Can You Be Productive With the 11-inch?
The new Airs are slow, they are great for writing and browsing the web (sort of like fast iPads) but they are noticeably slower than the Pro lineup everywhere else. To get a good feel for what could be done with these machines I put them through my normal review publication workflow. In particular, I focused on my Photoshop experience on both of these systems.
I edited 43 photos for this article, and of course I split the editing time across both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air.
Each photo was a 12MP RAW, imported into Photoshop, cropped, color/contrast balanced, and saved twice as a compressed JPG (once at 1900 pixels wide and once again at 600 pixels wide). I brought 10 photos into Photoshop at a time, trying to be mindful of the memory constraints each of these systems presented.
I started on the 11-inch.
The import process was noticeably slower than what I was used to. It took seconds for each photo to appear in Photoshop once I’d told it to process the RAW files. Over the course of 10 photos imported at once, that amounted to a reasonable amount of down time.
The SSD kept things moving however. Performance was consistent between editing one photo to the next.
The slow CPU impacted everything. Basic tasks like opening and saving the images took longer than I was used to. Even bringing up Spotlight to launch Chrome felt slower than I’d like.
The screen size and resolution never made me feel cramped, although it was difficult to see detail in the high res photos without zooming in.
While it’s possible to do work like photo editing on the 11-inch MacBook Air, it’s not very pleasant. If you’ve got no other computer around you can do it, but if you’ve got access to anything faster you’ll be a lot more productive.
I realized this when I switched to the 13-inch machine. The 33% higher clocked CPU makes a big difference. Everything pops up quicker, the editing process takes a lot less time and the screen is just a good enough size/resolution where you don’t have to do a ton of zooming to prepare web presentable photos.
I edited half the photos on the 11-inch and the other half on the 13-inch. The half I did on the 13-inch took about half the time as the group I did on the 11. If you need a machine for content creation/editing, the 11-inch won’t cut it.
As a pure writing device however, the 11-inch is great. The SSD ensures that performance is consistent and applications launch quickly. If all you do is write, browse the web, write emails and talk on IM - the 11 gets the job done. Ask more of it for long periods of time and I think you’ll be disappointed.
The 13 isn’t a productivity workhorse, but it’s possible to get heavier work done on it if you need to.
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cabjf - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
The fact that the iPad will easily sync with your main computer does give it one advantage over the Air. If Apple produced some type of easy to use syncing software so that you could use the Air as a portable version of your main computer's contents, it would be the perfect road companion to an iMac, Mac Pro, or even a 17-inch Macbook Pro. Perhaps that is the way they are moving in bringing an App Store and other iOS features to Mac OS X. Maybe that's part of the intended use for that huge data center they are building (and already considering expanding).wintermute000 - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
" If Apple produced some type of easy to use syncing software so that you could use the Air as a portable version of your main computer's contents, it would be the perfect road companion to an iMac, Mac Pro, or even a 17-inch Macbook Pro."Easily done with a bit of work
- know where the files are and don't do things like let itunes sort folders
- rsync or any decent gui backup/sync software
storage is an issue but for work purposes 64Gb is enough to handle it
for streaming media use streaming media solutions.
psonice - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
Apple sell 'mobile me' which pretty much does this. It gives you an 'iDisk' in the cloud, accessible from any of your machines (think it supports windows too?), plus there's an iphone app to access it. It also syncs your bookmarks, preferences, dock icons (don't think it syncs the actual apps though) and keychain (for passwords). There's push email + web hosting (main thing I use it for) and other bits too.It's $60/year, and it's possible to get pretty much everything for free elsewhere. But like a log of apple stuff, it works well, it's nicely integrated, and if you have the money it's not worth arsing around with the others.
Tmoz - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
You could use Dropbox to do this: http://db.tt/eiXQTsi (Disclosure: Referral link)It syncs your files to Amazon S3 and then to any computers you have the software installed on (Mac/Windows/Linux are supported)
dendysutrisna - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
Yes I understand, since this article was made when Apple's MacBook Air which has been reinforced Intel Core i5 has not come out. MacBook Air the latest generation, which has been paired with Mac OS X Lion, there is a AirDrop feature, where you can share with computer around you which in one network, even with the computer windows though. Try to look http://www.bestdealscomputers.net/netbooks/apple-m... I've made a little review about the newest MacBook Air, you might want to find out more.quiksilvr - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Seriously, their pricing scheme makes absolutely no sense. I have attempted to see what COULD be the decent price point, but a few points have to be made:1) The Macbook 13 (the white one) simply needs to die.
2) They are now hitting 4 different screen sizes, and IMO they should stick to three and make things easier (as should other PC makers)
1) 12" screen (not 11.6", 12") for the netbook market
2) 14" screen for the general market
3) 16" screen for the heavy multimedia and desktop replacement market
3) Get rid of the "Pro" terminology. Simply have it Macbook 12, 14, 16 and Air versions of these models (Macbook Air 12, etc.)
4) STOP forcing customers to get the "upgraded" version just so that we can upgrade the CPU. This is annoying and very Dell like and customers don't like it.
martyrant - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Apple has needed a price overhaul since the company's inception.Glad you are only now realizing.
darwinosx - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - link
You are just too dumb to understand that similar quality, service, and a modern OS from other companies is as much or more than Apple products. Except they don't have a modern OS.quiksilvr - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Okay, here is my attempt (and I know this will never happen because it makes too much sense)Macbook Air 12: $799
Macbook 12: $599
Macbook Air 14: $999
Macbook 14: $799
Macbook Air 16: $1199
Macbook 16: $999
And as shocking as this may seem to Mac users, this is still a major premium over PCs.
Macbook Air Baseline:
-Core i3 LV (or ULV) with Core i5/i7 LV/ULV option (add thickness if necessary)
-Integrated Intel HD chip and dedicated nVidia card with Optimus
-SSD (I would say start it at 90GB and work your way up)
-USB 3.0 all the way
-mini Displayport with choice of adaptor included (DVI, VGA, HDMI, Displayport, etc.)
-Wireless, Bluetooth, yada yada
-4 GB RAM
-No Optical
-And one thing I just noticed, put an actual microphone PORT and put a stereo microphone next to the webcam
-Expresscard Slot option
Macbook Baseline:
-Core i3 with Core i5/i7 option (add thickness if necessary)
-Integrated Intel HD chip and dedicated nVidia card with Optimus
-HDD with SSD option (start HDD with 250GB)
-USB 3.0
-mini Displayport with choice of adaptor included (DVI, VGA, HDMI, Displayport, etc.)
-Wireless, Bluetooth, yada yada
-4 GB RAM
-DVD Burner with Blu Ray Player/Blu Ray Burner option
-Expresscard Slot option
5) And for the love of god, stop making these screens epic glossy. This is a message to ALL PC makers! Make it half and half or give a realistically priced matte option (FREE)
solipsism - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Nothing you wrote makes sense.How much is the ULV CPU from Intel?
How much is the LV CPu from Intel?
How much is that Nvidia 320M?
How much does it cost to mill an aluminum case?
How much are 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading BRDs?
Can you find any for sale?
Which Core-i3 LV and ULV chips will they use?
Which USB3.0 controller will they use, how much will cost, where will go in the Airs?
Where will this ExpressCard slot go?
Why scrape the 11, 13 and 15” Mac notebooks for 12, 14 and 16” displays?
Why didn’t you fail to address the size, weight, or quality of anything? You just took a price that you compared to other vendors, bumped it slightly and then added a whole mess of features without considering engineering, costs, or anything else. You might as well add include TARDIS technology to fit all that in there and/or use a TARDIS to go into the future to a time when all that is actually possible, but instead you just sound like a TARD in your self proclaimed “makes too much sense” post.