This review is from: Apple MacBook Air MC965LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION) (Personal Computers)
Updated March 11th, 2012 – skip to bottom to read updates.
I’ve owned the machine for 7 months now and have simplified the review for your convenience.
Things I like:
+ Light weight; 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg). You can easily hold it with one hand – the MBP 13″ is noticeably heavier at 4.5 lbs.
+ Solid build quality like the MBPs. Chassis is rock solid, no keyboard flex, screen housing is rigid with minor flex in the middle.
+ Better ergonomics than the MBPs; the palm rest edges don’t dig into your wrists like the edges on the MBPs do.
+ Same fluid multitouch trackpad and the backlit keyboard makes a return.
+ The screen is a pleasure to use with it’s high resolution (1440 x 900) and semi-gloss finish. There is no glass cover so there will be dramatically less reflections compared to the screen of the MBPs I personally chose the Air over the Pro because of reduced glare.
+ 18 second boot ups and 3 second shut downs. Resumes from sleep within 3 seconds.
+ The two USB 2.0 ports are on opposite sides of the laptop (less clutter than MBP)
+ Speakers are surprisingly loud; they can fill up a small room.
+ Runs extremely cool and it’s so quiet that you’ll wonder if the fan is running at all. I can definitely feel heat ~ 87 degrees F on the MPB 13′s underside after 6 hours of use where as the MBA 13′s underside stayed relatively cooler.
+ Runs Windows 7 just as cool and quietly. (I installed Windows 7 via flash drive)
+ Performance is almost identical to the MBP 13″ 2011 on everyday tasks because the Core i5 CPU can turbo boost to 2.7 GHz and the SSD allows for instant application launching.
+ Gaming: it has the same Intel HD Graphics 3000 as the MBP 13″ 2011. I was able to run Starcraft II smoothly at low settings on native resolution. Medium settings also ran nicely but you get less FPS during large battles. League of Legends ran smoothly at medium settings 30 FPS flat) on native resolution. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Things I don’t like:
- *IMPORTANT* Wifi drops – have been less frequent in the wake of more updates from Apple.
- The keyboard is shallower and has less travel than the MBP keyboards (you’ll get used to it within a few days)
- The screen has less color gamut than the MBP 13′s screen. This screen covers only 46% of sRGB color spectrum where as the MBP 13′s screen covers 77%. For image editing, I would use an external monitor.
- The vertical viewing angles aren’t so great. One minute tilt of the screen causes colors to shift dramatically (for example: a purple color can change from lavender to light blue as you tilt the screen backward or forward). Again, I would use an external monitor for tasks in which accurate colors are mission critical. For everyday use it’s not noticeable and is actually easier on the eyes than the glare-prone screens of the MBPs.
- Not all models come with the same SSD. There are 2 variations; a Samsung SSD and a Toshiba SSD. The Samsung SSD significantly outperforms the Toshiba SSD in benchmarks (check the AnandTech review) To check what SSD you have, click on the Apple logo -> About this Mac -> more info/system report -> then look on the left hand side and click on “Serial- ATA”. If your SSD’s serial number starts with “SM” it’s a Samsung and a “TS” means it’s a Toshiba.
- I personally get 5 hours of battery life max on a single charge while surfing with 10+ tabs open on safari; I got ~7 hours doing the same tasks on the MPB 13 2011. My activities included watching YouTube videos, viewing flash content on tech and news sites, reading/writing email, and using AIM.
- No FaceTime HD Camera (720p) as on the MPBs. The quality difference is, unfortunately, very noticeable.
- The integrated microphone is located on the side of the laptop instead of on top of the keyboard as on the MBP. During Skype calls, my buddies told me that my voice sounded muffled when using the Air. Using a headset with a mic, I was able to improve the sound quality.
- The base of the machine developed a creaking noise within the first week of use. I suspect this to be caused by uneven tension in the screws.
- after 5 months of, a white cluster of stuck pixels developed in the bottom left corner of the screen. The machine has been handled with care so it’s not accidental damage. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusion: Which one should you get? As a college student, I would recommend the Macbook Pro 13″. The Air…
I have been using my new 13″ Macbook Air, 256GB, Core i7 for just over a week and here are my impressions…
First, the good stuff…
- The industrial design is absolutely gorgeous and rock-solid. The laptop is thin, light and pleasure to look at.
- Screen is 13″ but the resolution is comparable to that of most 15″+ laptops. Perfectly usable for graphic/software development. While Macbook Air uses (supposedly) an inferior TN panel compared to Macbook Pro, I did not find a drastic difference between the two (I also own a 17″ Macbook Pro). The Air has slightly smaller viewing angles and perhaps not as good colour reproduction, but the differences are subtle. Also, there’s a lot less glare on Air’s “glossy” display compared to glossy Macbook Pro.
- Performance is great, in some cases it bests the Quad Core i7 17″ Macbook Pro, thanks to its SSD Drive. Startups/shutdowns are super fast and the applications open/close almost instantly. Having said that, do not expect to do any serious gaming on this little guy. The built-in Intel graphics chip has hard time handling even 5 year old games and is actually slower than nVidia chip on the previous generation Air.
- Expect to get about 4-5 hours of mixed use out of “7 hour” battery. That’s what I average while doing some Photoshop and web dev work, browsing, listening to music and viewing a few video clips.
Now, the negatives…
Well, it’s one negative really, but it is something I find extremely annoying. The laptop gets VERY hot when CPU usage approaches 50% and the fan kicks in full-blast at 6,000+ RPM.
I first noticed the excessive noise when I was transferring my data and applications from the time machine backup upon initial setup. The fan stayed on entire time, CPU temperature was approaching 90C while being only 30% utilized.
I continued to experience high heat/fan noise issues throughout the week. Sometimes it was during routine web browsing where some of the websites contained Flash elements. Starting Windows XP in Parallels would immediately set the fan in motion, again, sometimes hitting 6,000+ rpm. Playing Civilization IV, a fairly old game, had fan going full blast entire time with CPU again reaching 90C. Apple’s own “Cosmos” screensaver brings the CPU temperature up to 80-85C and the fan up to 4500-5000rpm. The most annoying thing — none of these tasks were taxing the CPU at more than 50%!
I did a fair bit of research on this issue. There are multiple discussions on Apple, MacRumours and other forums about excessive heat and fan noise. Also, many report increased heat on their older Apple laptops after upgrading to Lion, so perhaps (fingers crossed), there’s a patch on the way that will improve thermal management somewhat.
The thought about returning the Air for refund did cross my mind, but I decided to keep it in the end. I am not a gamer and doing my work (web/mobile development) is not very taxing on the CPU, however, I do not think it is unreasonable to expect relatively quiet operation on such premium laptop with only 50% CPU usage. I can only hope that Apple is listening and looking to remedy the problem.
***Update: March 28, 2012*** It has been several months since I purchased the Air, so I thought I’d write a quick update.
There were no software updates from Apple that would fix the overheating issue. Some claim in the comments that the thermal problems are limited to Macbook Air Core i7 version, however, I got to play with friend’s Core i5/120Gb Air and got the fan hitting 6,000+ rpm simply by opening two browser tabs with YouTube videos in them. The playback has become choppy pretty quickly as well. The fan was also audible on pages with a few Flash elements in it (like newspaper sites). It seemed slightly (very slightly) less prone to heat issue, but it’s definitely there.
I also played around with an 11″ Macbook Air Core i5 at the Apple Store and, interestingly enough, it handled Flash far better than (supposedly) more powerful 13″… I opened 5! 1080p YouTube videos and still wouldn’t hear the fan… Quite amazing actually. The difference seems to be the i5/i7 processors in the 13″ Air that can hit higher clock speeds but nearly frying the internals in the process.
If you find your Macbook Air fan going off like a jet engine every time you visit YouTube or any page with Flash content, here are a couple of browser plugins that I found helpful (they block movies until you specifically click on them):
- FlashBlock for Firefox
- ClickToFlash for Safari
There’s a model refresh coming sometime this summer, apparently, and I hope Apple will figure out the way to solve this problem. Of course, much depends on Intel chips that they’re going to use in new models.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
Comparison to the 2011 Macbook Pro 13″,
Updated March 11th, 2012 – skip to bottom to read updates.
I’ve owned the machine for 7 months now and have simplified the review for your convenience.
Things I like:
+ Light weight; 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg). You can easily hold it with one hand – the MBP 13″ is noticeably heavier at 4.5 lbs.
+ Solid build quality like the MBPs. Chassis is rock solid, no keyboard flex, screen housing is rigid with minor flex in the middle.
+ Better ergonomics than the MBPs; the palm rest edges don’t dig into your wrists like the edges on the MBPs do.
+ Same fluid multitouch trackpad and the backlit keyboard makes a return.
+ The screen is a pleasure to use with it’s high resolution (1440 x 900) and semi-gloss finish.
There is no glass cover so there will be dramatically less reflections compared to the screen of the MBPs
I personally chose the Air over the Pro because of reduced glare.
+ 18 second boot ups and 3 second shut downs. Resumes from sleep within 3 seconds.
+ The two USB 2.0 ports are on opposite sides of the laptop (less clutter than MBP)
+ Speakers are surprisingly loud; they can fill up a small room.
+ Runs extremely cool and it’s so quiet that you’ll wonder if the fan is running at all.
I can definitely feel heat ~ 87 degrees F on the MPB 13′s underside after 6 hours of use
where as the MBA 13′s underside stayed relatively cooler.
+ Runs Windows 7 just as cool and quietly. (I installed Windows 7 via flash drive)
+ Performance is almost identical to the MBP 13″ 2011 on everyday tasks because the Core i5
CPU can turbo boost to 2.7 GHz and the SSD allows for instant application launching.
+ Gaming: it has the same Intel HD Graphics 3000 as the MBP 13″ 2011. I was able to run
Starcraft II smoothly at low settings on native resolution. Medium settings also ran nicely but
you get less FPS during large battles. League of Legends ran smoothly at medium settings
30 FPS flat) on native resolution.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Things I don’t like:
- *IMPORTANT* Wifi drops – have been less frequent in the wake of more updates from Apple.
- The keyboard is shallower and has less travel than the MBP keyboards (you’ll get used to it
within a few days)
- The screen has less color gamut than the MBP 13′s screen. This screen covers only 46% of
sRGB color spectrum where as the MBP 13′s screen covers 77%. For image editing,
I would use an external monitor.
- The vertical viewing angles aren’t so great. One minute tilt of the screen causes colors to shift
dramatically (for example: a purple color can change from lavender to light blue as you tilt
the screen backward or forward). Again, I would use an external monitor for tasks in
which accurate colors are mission critical. For everyday use it’s not noticeable and is
actually easier on the eyes than the glare-prone screens of the MBPs.
- Not all models come with the same SSD. There are 2 variations; a Samsung SSD and a
Toshiba SSD. The Samsung SSD significantly outperforms the Toshiba SSD in
benchmarks (check the AnandTech review)
To check what SSD you have, click on the Apple logo -> About this Mac ->
more info/system report -> then look on the left hand side and click on “Serial- ATA”.
If your SSD’s serial number starts with “SM” it’s a Samsung and a “TS” means it’s a
Toshiba.
- I personally get 5 hours of battery life max on a single charge while surfing with 10+ tabs open on safari; I got
~7 hours doing the same tasks on the MPB 13 2011. My activities included watching
YouTube videos, viewing flash content on tech and news sites, reading/writing email,
and using AIM.
- No FaceTime HD Camera (720p) as on the MPBs. The quality difference is, unfortunately,
very noticeable.
- The integrated microphone is located on the side of the laptop instead of on top of the keyboard
as on the MBP. During Skype calls, my buddies told me that my voice sounded muffled
when using the Air. Using a headset with a mic, I was able to improve the sound quality.
- The base of the machine developed a creaking noise within the first week of use. I suspect this to be
caused by uneven tension in the screws.
- after 5 months of, a white cluster of stuck pixels developed in the bottom left corner of the screen.
The machine has been handled with care so it’s not accidental damage.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusion: Which one should you get?
As a college student, I would recommend the Macbook Pro 13″. The Air…
Read more
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|Great Looks, Speedy Laptop. Gets hot and loud under moderate CPU load.,
I have been using my new 13″ Macbook Air, 256GB, Core i7 for just over a week and here are my impressions…
First, the good stuff…
- The industrial design is absolutely gorgeous and rock-solid. The laptop is thin, light and pleasure to look at.
- Screen is 13″ but the resolution is comparable to that of most 15″+ laptops. Perfectly usable for graphic/software development. While Macbook Air uses (supposedly) an inferior TN panel compared to Macbook Pro, I did not find a drastic difference between the two (I also own a 17″ Macbook Pro). The Air has slightly smaller viewing angles and perhaps not as good colour reproduction, but the differences are subtle. Also, there’s a lot less glare on Air’s “glossy” display compared to glossy Macbook Pro.
- Performance is great, in some cases it bests the Quad Core i7 17″ Macbook Pro, thanks to its SSD Drive. Startups/shutdowns are super fast and the applications open/close almost instantly. Having said that, do not expect to do any serious gaming on this little guy. The built-in Intel graphics chip has hard time handling even 5 year old games and is actually slower than nVidia chip on the previous generation Air.
- Expect to get about 4-5 hours of mixed use out of “7 hour” battery. That’s what I average while doing some Photoshop and web dev work, browsing, listening to music and viewing a few video clips.
Now, the negatives…
Well, it’s one negative really, but it is something I find extremely annoying. The laptop gets VERY hot when CPU usage approaches 50% and the fan kicks in full-blast at 6,000+ RPM.
I first noticed the excessive noise when I was transferring my data and applications from the time machine backup upon initial setup. The fan stayed on entire time, CPU temperature was approaching 90C while being only 30% utilized.
I continued to experience high heat/fan noise issues throughout the week. Sometimes it was during routine web browsing where some of the websites contained Flash elements. Starting Windows XP in Parallels would immediately set the fan in motion, again, sometimes hitting 6,000+ rpm. Playing Civilization IV, a fairly old game, had fan going full blast entire time with CPU again reaching 90C. Apple’s own “Cosmos” screensaver brings the CPU temperature up to 80-85C and the fan up to 4500-5000rpm. The most annoying thing — none of these tasks were taxing the CPU at more than 50%!
I did a fair bit of research on this issue. There are multiple discussions on Apple, MacRumours and other forums about excessive heat and fan noise. Also, many report increased heat on their older Apple laptops after upgrading to Lion, so perhaps (fingers crossed), there’s a patch on the way that will improve thermal management somewhat.
The thought about returning the Air for refund did cross my mind, but I decided to keep it in the end. I am not a gamer and doing my work (web/mobile development) is not very taxing on the CPU, however, I do not think it is unreasonable to expect relatively quiet operation on such premium laptop with only 50% CPU usage. I can only hope that Apple is listening and looking to remedy the problem.
***Update: March 28, 2012***
It has been several months since I purchased the Air, so I thought I’d write a quick update.
There were no software updates from Apple that would fix the overheating issue. Some claim in the comments that the thermal problems are limited to Macbook Air Core i7 version, however, I got to play with friend’s Core i5/120Gb Air and got the fan hitting 6,000+ rpm simply by opening two browser tabs with YouTube videos in them. The playback has become choppy pretty quickly as well. The fan was also audible on pages with a few Flash elements in it (like newspaper sites). It seemed slightly (very slightly) less prone to heat issue, but it’s definitely there.
I also played around with an 11″ Macbook Air Core i5 at the Apple Store and, interestingly enough, it handled Flash far better than (supposedly) more powerful 13″… I opened 5! 1080p YouTube videos and still wouldn’t hear the fan… Quite amazing actually. The difference seems to be the i5/i7 processors in the 13″ Air that can hit higher clock speeds but nearly frying the internals in the process.
If you find your Macbook Air fan going off like a jet engine every time you visit YouTube or any page with Flash content, here are a couple of browser plugins that I found helpful (they block movies until you specifically click on them):
- FlashBlock for Firefox
- ClickToFlash for Safari
There’s a model refresh coming sometime this summer, apparently, and I hope Apple will figure out the way to solve this problem. Of course, much depends on Intel chips that they’re going to use in new models.
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|Best Macbook to date,
Customer Video Review Length:: 7:19 Mins
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