Loving The MacBook Air
The Technology Geek Blog’s Thomas Fitzgerald says he had long wanted a small and light laptop, with a vicarious partiality for Sony’s sub-notebooks, but put off by the need to switch to windows just to get the speed. He says he’d had originally thought his iPad would suffice but it proved not really good enough for what he does with computers, ie: blogging and light image editing. Consequently, Fitzgerald says he was delighted when Steve Jobs unveiled the second-generation MacBook Air last October, and has been organizing the economics of getting one ever since — finally realizing that objective.
As with many (including me) pondering a MacBook Air purchase, FItzgerald says he weighed the pros can cons of orderiing extra RAM and processing power. He knew he wanted the 11.6″ screen model but figured that since he’d be doing mostly writing on this machine he could perhaps eschew the RAM upgrade and thereby not have to wait for a build-to-order to be delivered I wouldn’t have to wait for it to be delivered. In the end he settled on a standard model from his local Apple reseller, a decision he says he doesn’t regret, but in this commentator’s estimation he still might down the road if he keeps the MacBook Air long enough, since IMHO 2 GB of RAM is marginally satisfactory for running Snow Leopard and LiMacBook Pro could be even more demanding.
Nevertheless, Fitzgerald says his base 11.6″ MacBook Air doesn’t feel underpowered, although he concedes that it may not be the ideal machine for running Photoshop or other processor intensive Apps. However, he says that for non processor intensive tasks, it’s possibly the most responsive computer that he’s ever used, and by no small margin, thanks to the speedy SSD, which also confers the benefit of quiet running, making no sound whatsoever. Y
He says his only complaint is that the high-resolution display, while gorgeous with its image rendering, makes everything very small, and he finds his eyes get tired after using if for a few hours, more so than on his 15″ Macbook Pro, and you really do have to squint sometimes.
OTOH, he says battery life is great and the machine is solid as a rock when it comes to build quality — small and light, but paradoxically “built like a tank.” FItzgerald says he gets what Steve Jobs meant saying the new MacBook Airs are going to be the future of computing.
This is an excellent report, but unfortunately doesn’t help with my dither about whether to buy an iPad 2, a MacBook Air. The trouble is, I want both.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://bit.ly/lehMNd