“I was initially quite impressed with Apple’s newest MacBook Air after just a few days of use — and now, after having used this ultra-svelte 13-in. laptop for the better part of a month, this little machine has managed to consistently wow me with its extended battery life and better-than-expected performance,” Michael deAgonia reports for Computerworld. “In many ways, the MacBook Air sits in the sweet spot between portability and power, with more than a dash of style thrown in for good measure.”
“Waking is virtually instantaneous, the obvious result of an operating system and hardware designed to work well together,” deAgonia reports. “There wasn’t a single time during my three weeks with this Air that OS X wasn’t awake from sleep and ready for input by the time the screen was set in place.”
deAgonia reports, “This computer ran all of my apps without hesitation (in other words, there were no instances of the Spinning Beach Ball), including a virtual copy of Windows XP in Parallels running multiple apps. The processor is actually clocked at 500MHz lower than the original 2008 Air, yet, it performed admirably under stressful conditions, never hesitating or choking during use while delivering excellent battery life. Mind. Blown.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
PC Magazine reviews Apple’s new 11-inch MacBook Air: Excellent; highly recommended – July 17, 2013
With new 13-inch MacBook Air, Apple just made the perfect notebook even better – July 1, 2013
Wired reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: ‘The best gets better; buy it now’ – June 27, 2013
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: Big boosts to storage, GPU, and battery performance – June 27, 2013
AnandTech reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: Really quite awesome – June 24, 2013
TIME Magazine reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: Pushes battery life to new, productivity-changing heights – June 19, 2013
ZDNet reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: The new standard for laptops, a stunning achievement – June 14, 2013
PC Magazine reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: Astonishing, astounding; Editors’ Choice – June 14, 2013
Engadget reviews Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air: Stunning 12+ hour battery life – June 13, 2013
Hands-on with Apple’s new MacBook Air: True all-day battery life – June 13, 2013
Why the MacBook Air didn’t get a Retina display – June 12, 2013
Apple brings all day battery life to MacBook Air – June 10, 2013
It just works. 😉
Aw c’mon a $700 plastic junktastic Costco PC portable has GOTTA be the better deal…
“The better deal…”; only on walking out the door of Costco.
…“This computer ran all of my apps without hesitation (in other words, there were no instances of the Spinning Beach Ball),…
I’ve noticed a lot of apps lately (Apple’s and others) just don’t turn the beach ball on as much as they should. They are busy doing something, and you can’t use them, but the ball isn’t there. It’s kinda misleading.
Are you from Baghdad Bob?
Even the 11″ is amazing. I’ve had mine for two weeks now and just this weekend I took it on the road. It was fully charged when I left on Friday and after normal use in airports and at my destination it was still showing over four hours remaining when I plugged it into the charger Sunday morning. I’m impressed.
Nice review though why in the world would the guy base some of it on how the Air runs a virtual copy of ancient Windows XP?
Because that’s a portion of what he used it for. Makes perfect sense to me.