Ok, for the two of you out there who are not Apple users - that's a joke, but seriously, if you're not an Apple user, and especially if you're in any type of visually-driven industry, give them a hard look - this is the new MacBook Air. So, let's start with the obvious. Reason No. 1 why I, and you, want one - look at it. That is reason enough for approximately 40% of future owners of this device. For the remaining 60%, lets take a closer look.
Reason No. 2: Instant on. Because the OS is embedded in the Flash based hard drive (see below) the system boots quickly. Closing the lid sends the computer into hibernate mode, as usual, and opening the unit powers it back up instantly. Much like the iPod/iPad. When not in use it goes dark and then when you need it, it's ready. There is no drive to heat up, and therefore, less moving parts and theoretically fewer drive failures and less lost data. Standby time is rated at 30 days in hibernate mode. Which is excellent considering my current Air is only good for a few days if it's not used at all. On the 11" this promotes 5ish hours of battery life and up to 7 hours on the 13" - both are excellent.
Reason No. 3: Flash based storage. This provides extremely fast and silent operation. Think of it as a built in thumb drive, but considerably faster since it's not communicating through a USB 2.0 interface. As of now, storage options are smaller than traditional laptops, but those looking at this device are likely not going to suffer from storage space as this will probably be a secondary unit or something for college or work in which case most information is saved to an external hard drive - or should be. The lower end 11.6" model sports a somewhat scant 64GB hard drive. Hilarious, given that my $4,000 Gateway (yes, after my Mac LC II, I went to the dark side, but have since repented and returned to the light) desktop that I purchased back in the late 90's had a whopping 10GB arena of storage, and now my iPhone has more than triple that. The only reason that 64GB would become problematic is if you do lots of high resolution digital picture taking and have an iTunes vault rivals that of the Library of Congress. So, if you are a media savvy college student, an engineer packing countless Auto CAD designs, an art director who likes to carry the entire portfolio, or filmmaker with the RAW footage of your next Sundance award-wining masterpiece, consider the MacBook Pro line - or at least the 13" with the larger storage options. For the user looking for the pint-sized 11.6" model, I doubt the 64GB flash storage will be a major deterrent, especially considering that you can double it for $200.
Reason No. 4: Screens and Sizes and everything else. For the first time ever, Apple is offering the Air in both a 13.3" and 11.6" model. This is a superb, and might I say, belated idea. So many users, even Apple lovers, have been looking for something that has Apple reliability, usability, functionality and performance in something along the netbook lines. With netbooks offering screens from 7-10" and units running around 2 lbs, it's easy to see why people on the move would be interested in such a device. Where the netbook line has been crippled, in my opinion, is in the following key areas: screen resolution and size, battery life, durability and feature set. The screens on some, but certainly not all of the models, are simply too small for practical use. Sure, a 7" screen is nice to carry around, but try typing a term paper on it or reading text on the web for long periods of time or even trying to organize and, dare I say, manipulate your digital images. It becomes rather obvious that this screen size sounds good, but for people that actually intend on using their laptop for productivity, it sucks! Then there is the resolution issue. Well, I'll keep it short. With the tolerable exception of a few Lenovos or some HPs and Dells, the resolution on most units leaves much to be desired, color is often poor and the lighting is dim. Next we have battery life. Some units have managed to pull off five hours or so, but usually that's with an extended life battery that is an add-on option. Some of these extended life batteries, especially offerings from Acer and Lenovo are also extended space and add as much as 2 inches to the back of the unit to gain that extra juice. Durability is usually terrible in the PC world overall. The good thing is that the plastic is so tightly restricted due to size that they seem to have better build quality at first glance than their bigger brothers. Companies started trying to disguise the fact that their gear is made out of loosely screwed-together plastic by decorating that plastic with pretty colors and various designs. The offerings from several netbook manufactures look like a Sherwin Williams exploded during the coloring process. This marketing tactic was really spearheaded by Dell. They offer more shell options than hardware configurations which is interesting for a company that is known for it's hardware mix-and-match availability. This is cool in one degree because it offers some variety in an overly crowded and boring market. On the other hand there's still a good chance that you'll run in to someone that has the same "personalized" laptop running the same outdated software. And that brings us to feature set. Lets sort out the first group of plagued netbooks right off the bat - the half-witted Linux-based OS as in the Acer Aspire One. This is a cool, easy to use interface. The problem is, it doesn't do anything. Nothing that you're used to doing on a computer can really be done on such a device. So, enter the Windows based models. Say what you want about Microsoft, I certainly will, but they are a lightyear ahead of the Linux units. They at least feel like a computer and you can install other normal software on them as long as your hardware supports it. So, you just need to figure out if you want Windows XP, XP Home, XP Business, 7 or one of the other 641 variations of the same inadequate OS and let 'er rip! Once you've spent $600-100o on your micro machine, then all you have to do is buy a competent photo manager/editor; a video production kit, if that's your thing; download iTunes because you know you have an iPod (Zune, really?) and then pick up Office - the most practical and, dare I say, quality product in the Microsoft lineup. Or you could go with an Air that has the highest resolution, instant-on super bright LED display on the planet. It also happens to be in the same weight category; is made of super durable aluminum; has a full, single-option OS that is so easy to use you'll be confused as to why you don't get a headache searching for your applications; has all of the best digital productivity software on the market INCLUDED (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, Garageband, iWeb and iDVD); has excellent battery life and is backed by the best customer service in the industry. The only serious thing missing is an Office software suite. I love iWork. It's faster and more practical than Microsoft Office and is about half the price. It includes Pages (Word), Numbers (Excel) and Keynote (Powerpoint) and pretty soon it looks like these will be available independently through Apple's upcoming Mac App store which is sure to revolutionize the way we all get and use our desktop applications.
Reason No. 5: New Additions. I have the older generation of the Air and I love it, but these new improvements really push the device over the top and make it a worthy upgrade. Some other new features that the newer generation(s) sport are the addition of a second USB port, which is a huge plus, and in the 13.3" you get an SD card slot which makes importing photos from most consumer cameras a snap and it provides an alternate storage option if you don't want to use the optional Super Drive, an external USB hard drive or a thumb drive. They've also moved all of the connections to the sides of the device instead of in the bay door on the old model which was kinda cool until you had to use them while trying to work with the laptop on a flat surface. The keyboard remains full size and is, in my opinion, the best portable typing surface on the market. When OSX Lion hits, everything is going to get even better.
I love the new Airs. Bang for buck, they still aren't quite same deal as the impressive entry level MacBook Pro 13", but if you're looking for thin, light and very capable, it's the best thing going. Personally, I'd love to upgrade to the new 13.3" with the 128GB drive and bump it to 4GB of RAM for $100. It's got excellent battery life for something with a 13" screen that is so thin, it's whisper quiet, has decent expansion for a thin-and-light, has the SD slot, instant-on and a superb display. It will run $1,400 for that configuration, but I can run all of my most important applications on it with ease and it's an excellent travel companion. It wont fit on an in-flight tray table quite like the 11.6", but I have and iPhone for that. Or better yet, use an iPad! The funny thing is, I don't really see the two devices (Air and iPad) competing. They both really do different things. At the end of the day, I'd side with any of the Airs because of their versatility over the iPad, but I wouldn't hate owning both.
As a professional photographer and journalist of sorts who is on the go quite often, this is the ideal partner - for me. I have screen real estate and power in my office. When I'm covering events, traveling and writing articles on the move I want light, fast and versatile. I can shoot, upload, sort, select, drop, export and deliver the images along with my articles from one spot without any issues. If I'm doing a longer trip, I'll throw an external drive in my bag for storage. I almost never do hardcore editing in the field and always transfer the files to my main system anyway. The Air running iWork and Lightroom is, in my book, the perfect travel device for shooters on the go because it really gives you everything you need and doesn't lack much of what we want. If it had a Firewire 800 port for faster CF card file uploading, then that would be cool, but I'm a practical guy. I also have the Super Drive which is convenient for loading software and burning discs when necessary. You can certainly get more power for your money in a portable package, but if you want something sexy or are just looking to go as fully capable and as light as possible the Air is simply the only option in my book.
Again, all of this is opinion. Take it as such and enjoy.
- R
