| smbu2000 said: Sorry for replying so late. The MBA is a really nice machine. I'm not sure whether you are looking at the 11" or the 13" model. The screen resolution on both is pretty good as well, the 11" MBA has a slightly higher resolution screen than the 13" MBP (1366x768 vs 1280x800) and the the 13" MBA has the same screen resolution as the 15" MBP (1440x900, the older one not the new Retina MBP), so there is plenty of usable space. 11" has a 16:9 aspect ratio and the 13" has a 16:10 aspect ratio. In addition to improving the cpu (base model performs better than the upgraded 2011 model) and gpu, they added USB3 slots (Intel finally included native USB3 support with Ivy Bridge), a better integrated camera (was 480P, now it's 720P HD). They actually lowered the price a bit as well for this years model. (down $100 USD I believe, not sure about other countries) The MBA is very light (11": 2.38lbs/1.08kg or 13": 2.96lbs/1.35kg) and very easy to carry around. I can throw mine in my backpack and not really worry about it. The keyboard is nice (it lights up) and is great for doing work on it. (Much easier than typing on an iPad, heh.) If you haven't used a laptop with an SSD in it, it makes things so much quicker compared to a standard hdd. The trade-off is storage space of course, but I just have an external usb hdd for when I need extra space (or to transfer stuff from my desktop PC.) Using the MBA with a SSD is what made me buy a SSD for my desktop! The MBA is a great machine to work on. The only way I could ever see myself getting rid of my MBA, was if I was getting the new Retina MBP. ;-p |
And that's pretty much the same review I've heard from anyone I know who bought a MBA. Even my non-Apple friends have thrown around phrases like "best laptop I've ever seen" and "holy shit, this thing is awesome". It's one of the finest computers ever built, if not the finest. Truly a remarkable machine and I'm glad that Apple has extended the form factor to 15" screens. 13" is just too small for me so I never sprung for the MBA in favor of staying with the MBP line. That will change with my next update in a year or so (I'm running a Sandy Bridge i7 machine, no legitimate reason for me to upgrade at this point) as I'm sure I will get the new 15" MBP thin.
Or check out my new webcomic: http://selfcentent.com/
