For those considering the new MBA, a short review.
I've had my new MBA (1.86GHz, 128 GB SSD) for two days, and I'm delighted with it. I thought, therefore, that it might be useful to post my experience with the machine for anyone considering buying one.
The first thing I noticed was how incredibly fast the MBA is. I've got a first gen Intel MBP and a Santa Rosa MB, but the MBA simply destroys them in boot time/app loading time/web page load time, you name it. I'm sure the CPU accounts for some of this, but most of the credit has to go to the solid state disk. It's definitely worth the extra money for such a noticeable speed boost. Nothing lags and nothing drags; the whole system is impressively responsive.
It's also eerily silent. There's no disk whirring, of course, but also very little sound from the fan. I know overheating and all manner of CPU-throttling, video-stuttering nastiness affected the old MBA, but none of that has manifested itself on my machine. I spent a couple of hours testing it out with flash movies, YouTube videos, a DVD (via SuperDrive), and a bit of gaming (Spore runs fine, by the way), but nothing got hotter than 60 degrees C. I'd say Apple have definitely fixed the heating problems.
The result is a fast, quiet, stylish machine that gives many full-sized laptops a run for their money. The first generation MBA was labeled a "secondary laptop" by some reviewers, a machine intended for those who already had an MBP or Mac Pro at home, but who wanted something a bit more portable. Version 2 is, on the other hand, an excellent primary lapop for those users who don't have the need for high-end, discrete graphics.
Of course, everything has its downside, and the MBA is no exception. It could use another USB port (to save me having to carry a port replicator), the mini-DisplayPort video output required the purchase of yet another set of converter dongles (grumble grumble), and the trackpad button seems to require a bit too much force to operate (other threads have highlighted this issue so it may be a fault in some machines). When I first booted the MBA, the iSight camera didn't work, but a quick SMU reset fixed that. The glossy screen is fine for me, although I understand the point of view of those on the other side of the debate, so I can see how it could be a negative.
And that's pretty much it. I bought the MBA to be a "travel companion," very much secondary to my other Macs. After a couple of days, however, I have relegated my MacBook to secondary status, and made the MBA my main Mac. It's a delight to own and use. I highly recommend it.
The first thing I noticed was how incredibly fast the MBA is. I've got a first gen Intel MBP and a Santa Rosa MB, but the MBA simply destroys them in boot time/app loading time/web page load time, you name it. I'm sure the CPU accounts for some of this, but most of the credit has to go to the solid state disk. It's definitely worth the extra money for such a noticeable speed boost. Nothing lags and nothing drags; the whole system is impressively responsive.
It's also eerily silent. There's no disk whirring, of course, but also very little sound from the fan. I know overheating and all manner of CPU-throttling, video-stuttering nastiness affected the old MBA, but none of that has manifested itself on my machine. I spent a couple of hours testing it out with flash movies, YouTube videos, a DVD (via SuperDrive), and a bit of gaming (Spore runs fine, by the way), but nothing got hotter than 60 degrees C. I'd say Apple have definitely fixed the heating problems.
The result is a fast, quiet, stylish machine that gives many full-sized laptops a run for their money. The first generation MBA was labeled a "secondary laptop" by some reviewers, a machine intended for those who already had an MBP or Mac Pro at home, but who wanted something a bit more portable. Version 2 is, on the other hand, an excellent primary lapop for those users who don't have the need for high-end, discrete graphics.
Of course, everything has its downside, and the MBA is no exception. It could use another USB port (to save me having to carry a port replicator), the mini-DisplayPort video output required the purchase of yet another set of converter dongles (grumble grumble), and the trackpad button seems to require a bit too much force to operate (other threads have highlighted this issue so it may be a fault in some machines). When I first booted the MBA, the iSight camera didn't work, but a quick SMU reset fixed that. The glossy screen is fine for me, although I understand the point of view of those on the other side of the debate, so I can see how it could be a negative.
And that's pretty much it. I bought the MBA to be a "travel companion," very much secondary to my other Macs. After a couple of days, however, I have relegated my MacBook to secondary status, and made the MBA my main Mac. It's a delight to own and use. I highly recommend it.
MBA v2 SSD/MB 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM/MBP 2.0 GHz 15", 2GB RAM, 256MB ATi/iPhone 3G 16GB, Mac OS X (10.5.5)
