During Apple's latest keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled the new MacBook Air. The first thing to say is that it has a pretty nice design. Secondly, we all have to admit that it is awesome to have such technologies in a so small device. After that, you may consider buying one, but you have to look a little deeper.
Before I go further, I need to expose some preliminary notes :
- I didn't tested it yet : it's been released yesterday ;
- The following points will be hardware related : it will have the same OS as the other Apple computers and it will be able to run almost the same applications ;
- I'll assume that, like me, you're someone who needs to work on the move ;
- The following considerations remain personal.
What is missing in the MacBook Air ?
Like I previously said, the MacBook Air is really small. You obviously can't have everything you need in it.
The optical drive
Well, it doesn't have one. That's a problem to me because some clients do send me digital content on CD instead of by email.
Another circumstance that could be difficult is when you need to (re)install software you only have on a CD/DVD. It can be the case for the Adobe suite for example, if you didn't purchase the downloadable edition.
You might think that you never need an optical drive, and I don't use mine often, but it can save your life.
If so, you'll have to buy the optional $79 Apple Super Drive.
Oh one more thing : remember this cool audio CD you don't have in mp3 ? Forget it, you won't be able to put it in your shiny new MacBook Air.
The Ethernet adapter
It doesn't have one, too. When I go to see my clients in their office, it's a waste of time to use WiFi all the time. They need to give you the wep key (when they know where it actually is, plus it's not always the only security used on corporate networks) and the WiFi has to work. Most of time I plug an Ethernet cable in my MacBook Pro and... that's all.
If you need one, you'll be able to buy Apple's one, the Apple Ethernet Adapter (10/100) for $29. Of course it will permanently use one of the two USB ports.
The FireWire port
This is the best interface to connect an external hard drive to a laptop. I personally think that it's just common sense to use an external HD when you work on a Mac. Just because backups are necessary and accomplished really easily, thanks to Time Machine. You can't understand the benefits of the FireWire if you only have a USB hard drive. If you ever tested a FireWire one, you know what speed is.
Don't forget that when a backup is in progress, it slightly has a (light) consequence on the whole system responsiveness and performance (most of time a backup involves a compression of the files before copying them). So the less time it takes, the less time you actually lose (performance related).
What is cool about the new MacBook Air ?
The superb design
Everybody noticed that : this computer is sexy and has a top-class aluminum design. More than that, it's light and thin. That makes it nice and super portable. The laptop looks professional and robust.
The nice hi-res screen
The 13" Air has a native 1440x900 resolution. It's the same as the 15" MacBook Pro and it's just enough to work comfortably. I won't say the same about the 11" version.