“Never before has a keynote product announcement from Apple prompted such contrasts of praise and vitriol: with road-warriors on one side singing praises for a pared down chassis with still usable keyboard and display, while critics bay for blood over absent ports and sealed batteries. Is the MacBook Air going to please everybody? No, not at all; but then again, it really didn’t set out to,” Vincent Nguyen reports for SlashGear.
LED-backlighting “really is the next-generation of screen technology due to its thinner design tolerance, meager power demands, and image vibrancy boost, and the Air could easily be this new screen technology’s poster-child. Another ambient light sensor balances backlight against your environment, and the screen’s size – although forcing a relatively broad footprint for an ultraportable – offers useful extra real estate over the competition,” Nguyen reports.
Nguyen reports, “Right now, the MacBook Air meets my needs. I don’t need more storage, I don’t need a massively powerful CPU and yes, I can live with the slower hard-drive. What I need is a lean, mean and yet powerful enough machine for writing, timely processing of videos and images – but as a journalist on the road, I need it to be feather-light.”
“Perhaps that’s what makes the Air particularly special: it ticks my boxes, yes; but it might not tick yours. I admire Apple for building a laptop with such purity of purpose, rather than attempting to cater to everyone’s needs, and in the process satisfying no one,” Nguyen reports.
Nguyen reports, “If you’re looking for a replacement for your desktop, or a machine that’ll readily chew through heavy-duty video or music processing, then you should look elsewhere. But if you measure your days in miles traveled, in conferences visited and in the weight of your hand luggage, I’ll see you at the Apple Store.”
Full review here.
Nguyen unboxing Apple MacBook Air and SuperDrive:
Direct link via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGH_wS1JOQU
MacDailyNews Take: Whoa, Vince, lay off the espresso!
“it ticks my boxes”
T.M.I.
Finally someone who understands the Air is NOT meant to be your primary computer. All the extra ports, big-ass hard drive, etc., etc. need to be on your primary computer, not the Air.
The reviewers who bitch about the Air not having everything a computer should have are like critics who review a refrigerator and complain that they can’t cook their dinner in it.
geez…buddy needs to calm down a bit. He was shakin’ for chriss sakes! I will never understand how all these tech people who unbox stuff can’t find someone to shoot it for them and do it under decent light. Nice computer from what I could see.
Now that is what tech reviews is all about. First understand who the product was targeted for. How hard is that to understand? Apparently too much. Its no wonder there are instructions on how to open a Vista box. These people just cannot think beyond their comfort zone or out of the box.
He really needs to decrease his aderrol dosage …. Really !
All this criticism of the MBA reminds me of the flack Apple took in the tech media about the iPod when it came out. Everyone predicted it wouldn’t sell, it didn’t have features, blah, blah, blah. But we all know how that turned out.
If history is an indicator, then Apple will take a lion’s share of the ultraportable market in about a quarter or two.
JD and the rest of complainers:
Be gracious that someone actually took the time and efforts to shoot the unboxing video quickly, for you. have an attitude of gratitude. focus on good things, and only good things. if it bothers you, don’t spend a second on it. move on. life is too good to waste any negative energy on.
best
jim
Well there are always going to be people who won’t be satisfied until they get a machine with a 42 inch screen that fits in their shirt pocket and 16 processors that run 20 hours on a watch battery.
There’s all this bitching about the specs, but I honestly don’t understand it.
1) I bought a Macbook a year ago. Guess what? 80 gig hd (and I’ve still got 20-some gigs left because I don’t keep every single media file I barely use on it).
2) Not enough ports? It’s got bluetooth built in for a wireless mouse (when I need one), and the only time I need to use the USB is if I’m hooking up a card reader. In a year, I’ve NEVER need more than one USB port at once. And as far as firewire goes, I do prefer it for my 4G iPod, but I can live with USB 2.0.
3) Optical drive? I rarely use the thing, but I imagine when need it my iMac for work will help me pull it off.
4) Ethernet? I’m wireless 100 percent of the time, baby. And it’s getting hard to find a hotel/coffee shop/restaurant that doesn’t offer wi-fi (unless you like to stay at dive hotels or drink your coffee in a convenience store parking lot).
4) And, with all that said, it’s still not meant to be your ‘every day’ computer. But you know what, I say for many of us it could be.
A Sensible review! I’m stunned…
Vincent Nguyen is completely wrong. The Apple iPod Air is another threat to the Windows status quo, and thus must be banned outright, its owners arrested, and all samples of the product confiscated and destroyed.
All computers must run DOS. Use of Windows is questionable, and acceptable perhaps if only running Windows 3.1. All computers must be beige. Proper laptops (I prefer to use the term “portable PCs”) must weigh at least 10 lbs. RAM must be limited to 64K, in accordance with a statement by Mr. Bill Gates, who has said all that must be known about computing . (Blessed be his holy name.) All portable PCs must be able to use 5 1/4″ floppy disks, and external navigation devices (which some people call a “mouse”) should be avoided at all costs. Acceptable programs include PC Paintbrush and XY Write.
I am insulted and infuriated by attempts by inferior companies like Apple to innovate. It must be known that all innovation violates the DOS/Windows standard and should not be condoned. Further, users should be restricted from creating anything. After all, this is why we have IT departments, who are wise and know everything.
By following the standards set forth above, your life will be perfect and simple. This will allow you more time for activities like removing viruses and adware, and unplugging your computing devices from the Information Superhighway, which should be avoided at all costs. It pollutes your mind and exposes you to impure thoughts like those promoted by evil companies like Apple. You must view innovation and creativity as a threat to the established order. And the threat starts with dangerous products like the Apple Macintosh Air.
He tried to open the notebook from the wrong end at first… heh
LOL – ever realize how Apple products are so cool, that just unboxing them makes a great video. What about Dell unboxing ?
I suppose you could use 1 unboxing video forever, since all their dull products look the same anyway.
I don’t think that was a Mini-to-Serial adapter. Looks like a Mini-DVI to VGA to me.
I’m sure the fellow was simply giddy with the joy of opening a new toy, the lucky devil.
I noticed some of the comments on the YouTube link appeared to be posted by Steve Ballmer. Of course, it could have been some of his clones that plague us on MDN. Filthy little vermin.
I’ve noticed that most of the critics have been male. And yet when I was in the Apple Store last night, they had one MBA, and it was hard to get a good look at because there was a line of women who were waiting to play with it.
Hmmmm. Maybe Steve’s been listening to his wife.
Don’t worry, hopefully the writer’s strike will be over soon and you will have some good material again. Nice attempt though.
It’s probably been so long since the guy’s seen a VGA connector he just didn’t recognize it. I’m honestly surprised Apple includes this adapter for free considering the “legacy-free” nature of the MBA.
I just want one for a fashion statement. I want to pick up chicks at Starbucks.
TotalMac,
Forget the darn laptop. Play with the women!
It’s interesting and telling that Apple produces the MacBook Air – a light and thin computer – something people want. As always, at the other end of the spectrum, Microsoft produces the Surface – a big ass table.
Peace.
Jooop,
I didn’t see a VGA adapter included with the Air on Apple’s site, but I may have missed it. I know you can buy one separately though.
You’d think they would only have a DVI adapter with the Air, but there are still a lot of monitors with VGA inputs only.
DVI to VGA adapters are pretty cheap and to easy to find. The DVI connector, in addition to putting out a digital signal, also puts out an analog signal that can be used by VGA connectors. That’s how I connect my G5 with DVI-only video card to one of those super-old CRT monitors with VGA-only input.
To LorD1776
According to this Apple page:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Conceptual/HWTech_Video/Articles/Video_implementation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40003994-DontLinkElementID_35
Search for the MacBook Air section and you will find:
“Note: The MacBook Air ships with a micro-DVI to DVI adapter and a micro-DVI to VGA adapter. Available separately is a micro-DVI to video adapter, which provides composite and S-video support.”
I said this already on MDN the day of (or the day after) the MacBook Air announcement, but we old Mac heads are going to have to get used to this new Apple that can specifically target niche markets to dominate. Not every product they roll out from here forward will always be intended for the great unwashed.
When I first saw the MBA, I didn’t jump for joy and yell “That’s for me! Thank you, Apple!” either, but I really wanted to see who the people were who would. Turns out to be the heavy duty road warriors, students, women, the fashion conscious, people fairly new to Apple (the post-iPod/iPhone crowd), people dissatisfied with the compromises inherent in the current crop of subnotebooks…hmmm, doesn’t look so much like a small niche market any more, does it?
Some Mac fans need to learn that just because YOU don’t like it or don’t want it doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other folks who it’s the perfect answer for. As for me, I’m loving my new (09/07) 20″ iMac and I’m holding out for the 15″ version of the MacBook Air.
Life is good getting better all the time.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
1. It is targeted at the traveler
2. It was built to work in tandem with your home or office computer.
3. Nobody said you can’t have a MacBook Pro or MacBook anymore.
Here is the logic folks:
MacBook Air is to MacBook Pro
what
iPod Shuffle is to iPod Classic
Get it?