Sometimes I want to lick my new macbook air

[slackerinabox]

To see what cool tastes like. My 11.6", 4gb ram/128gb ssd macbook air is the first "appliance like" laptop I've ever had. Apps launch instantaneously. Resume is near instant and I never shut down. iTunes takes near 35 seconds to launch on my llano laptop, takes 1 second on my macbook air. It's keyboard is near perfect (I'd like more travel but this thing is super thin!) And backlighting that's consistent is amazing! And automatic! The trackpad is amazing and the physics and user experience flawless. Battery life is great. THE LCD IS FANTASTIC. Bright, sharp, with natural colors and great viewing angles. PERFECT. Lion has some cute, non essential but nice features...

I've used macs before and they were getting there, but the macbook air's instant on/launch user experience is unique in a world where flash hd full screen causes "mid range" laptops to stutter. I'm impressed! And 3 years of never having to worry about a hard drive failure or other repair issue. I just walk in and they fix it! What?! I would have paid $2,000 for this experience. Starting at $945 is a steal.

 

[Sunburn74]

Yeah any laptop with a SSD will give you instant on and extremely responsive apps. You could have paid $120 for an agility 3 and stuck that in your old laptop.

I'm not saying the Macbook air is a lousy machine. I think they are great. But give credit where credit is due.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Yeah, an SSD will invigorate pretty much any laptop still worth using after the fact. My C2D laptop with a low voltage chip still "performs" as fast as my friend's i7 when it comes to the schoolwork that both of us do.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

The ssd is the reason everything loads fast......

 

[slackerinabox]

The ssd is the reason everything loads fast......

SSD + great keyboard + great lcd + great trackpad + slick os +...

 

[Herald85]

I think they are great. But give credit where credit is due.

I'm totally not a Mac enthousiast but it isn't just the SSD. Resume from sleep is better in OSX then it is in Windows. The trackpad on the Air is better than 95% of trackpads on Windows laptops. iTunes is a lot more optimized under OSX than under Windows.

And the keyboard is subjective, I personally hate it.

So yeah, credit where credit is due, the Air is overall pretty good. It's not for everyone ofcourse, I would never buy it.

 

[jihe]

I never understand this instant-on craze. I had it in my old laptop 7 years ago running windows xp. Do people never suspend?

 

[Herald85]

I never understand this instant-on craze. I had it in my old laptop 7 years ago running windows xp. Do people never suspend?

Ofcourse we do. Resuming OSX is just faster than resuming Windows. Wireless is also almost instantly on. OSX is tailored for specific hardware so it's an unfair match but OSX still wins that unfair match

 

[VirtualLarry]

in a world where flash hd full screen causes "mid range" laptops to stutter. I'm impressed!

My $200 Walmart BF special laptop with AMD CPU and graphics chipset could play full-screen (1366x768) Flash videos just fine, once I updated the drivers and Flash Player to support HW acceleration.

You don't have to spend $1000 for that experience.

 

[slackerinabox]

My $200 Walmart BF special laptop with AMD CPU and graphics chipset could play full-screen (1366x768) Flash videos just fine, once I updated the drivers and Flash Player to support HW acceleration.

You don't have to spend $1000 for that experience.

Yeah, but the only thing you'll taste when licking your AMD cheapie is disappointment and failure CPU utilization on my AMD llano with all the updates when playing back flash HD or Netflix = 90%+ (to the point of needing to kill other running applications). Right now on my mac? 3%-6%. You can drive from A to B in a 1997 kia but I'd rather drive a ..ok, i'm not pretentious.. A modern hyundai sonata

 

[Sunburn74]

I'm totally not a Mac enthousiast but it isn't just the SSD. Resume from sleep is better in OSX then it is in Windows. The trackpad on the Air is better than 95% of trackpads on Windows laptops. iTunes is a lot more optimized under OSX than under Windows.

And the keyboard is subjective, I personally hate it.

So yeah, credit where credit is due, the Air is overall pretty good. It's not for everyone ofcourse, I would never buy it.

My HP envy 14 with an agility 3 SSD resumes from s3 sleep to full function in 2-3 seconds in win7. Its not the Mac OS. Its the SSD. Sometimes display drivers can screw with the time it takes for the screen to resume, but like I said my laptop resumes in 2-3 seconds with the latest intel/ati drivers.

I'm not going to dispute all the other stuff about the mac Air. I think they are great machines when running OSX. I think their value is much more dubious in the windows environment (where they lose about 2:15 hrs worth of battery life and give less useable SSD space).

 

[kevinsbane]

Yeah, but the only thing you'll taste when licking your AMD cheapie is disappointment and failure CPU utilization on my AMD llano with all the updates when playing back flash HD or Netflix = 90%+ (to the point of needing to kill other running applications). Right now on my mac? 3%-6%. You can drive from A to B in a 1997 kia but I'd rather drive a ..ok, i'm not pretentious.. A modern hyundai sonata

I'd have to say, macbooks are probably the only laptops I'd care to lick. Maybe some of the machined aluminum ultrabooks too I guess (a la zenbook). Aluminum is (probably) much more pleasant to lick than plastic or paint. Probably a lot more sanitary too.

 

[Meaker10]

Yeah, but the only thing you'll taste when licking your AMD cheapie is disappointment and failure CPU utilization on my AMD llano with all the updates when playing back flash HD or Netflix = 90%+ (to the point of needing to kill other running applications). Right now on my mac? 3%-6%. You can drive from A to B in a 1997 kia but I'd rather drive a ..ok, i'm not pretentious.. A modern hyundai sonata

With that analogy *huggles his bugatti veyron*

You can keep your el cheapo mac.