Just How Thin is the Air?

Six weeks ago, I started using the MacBook Air—and with some trepidation. The computer's small size greatly appealed, but not its hardware specs. In terms of power and performance, the Air would be a step down from my MacBook Pro. I also questioned whether Air would demand too many everyday computing sacrifices, while not delivering enough performance.

The best analogy I can use for Air is air. In my 20s, I spent some time in Boulder, Colo. The city is 1,655 meters (5,430 feet) above sea level, or 1,464 meters (4,804 feet) higher than my home town of Caribou, Maine. The air was a whole lot thinner in Boulder compared to Caribou, and I felt the difference even on short walks. I had to adjust to the thinner air, which in part meant making some compromises to my lifestyle.

The time I spent in Boulder was life changing, and I can say the same about using MacBook Air. Air has changed my computing lifestyle—mostly for the better, but not completely. I have gained much from using MacBook Air, but gave up much, too.

Before continuing, some methodology or lack of it: My product reviews are highly experiential. I don't believe in benchmarks, so there will be none here. Benchmarks often don't reflect real world experience. They're about computing in the lab. This review will be candid, which is the reason why I don't expect to see it featured on Apple's Web site with the many glowing Air reviews. Overall, I'm quite positive about MacBook Air, but there are also shortcomings that demand close examination. Not everyone will comfortably breathe the thin Air.

All This Beauty
In mobile computing, size really does matter—and smaller is better. There I said it. But there's also too small, which describes how I view the displays on Origami-class portables or Sony TZ laptops. I can only describe Air's size as perfect. It's the combination of thinness and width.

At its thickest point, Air measures about 1.94 centimeters (.76 inches) and weighs about 1.36 kilograms (3 pounds). I've used smaller notebooks, but none thinner. It's the thinness that makes the Air so amazingly portable. The screen size, 33.7 centimeters (13.3 inches) measured diagonally, is just right and supported by a comfortable, full-size keyboard.

From a strictly ergonomics perspective, the Air is joyful to use. The keys have a solid but springy feel, the trackpad is enormous and the LED display is breathtakingly bright and crisp. Like MacBook Pro, Air adjusts the screen brightness to room ambience and appropriately lights up the keys in dimness or darkness.

Whenever I take out the Air to places with hotspots—Barnes & Noble, Starbucks or the local Internet cafe—invariably somebody will ask about the Mac notebook. The first question almost always is about flimsiness or ruggedness. It's tough for most people to believe a laptop so thin could be anything else but flimsy and susceptible to easy damage. Appearances are deceptive. A thing of beauty doesn't have to be fragile. Air is no ToughBook, but it's surprisingly rugged, and the construction is solid.

Cardboard Boxes
Breathing Air meant moving from MacBook Pro. Changing Macs is usually a whole lot easier than moving among Windows PCs. Apple's Migration Assistant is truly terrific. The process is little more complex than launching the application, rebooting the older Mac and connecting the computers via FireWire cable. It's an easy and fast process for moving data. Microsoft offers no similar utility in Windows, although there is a kludge mechanism in Vista that requires a third-party cable.

Uh-Oh. MacBook Air has no FireWire port. So, I knew the migration process would be, ah, interesting. True to Air's world-without-wires architecture, the default process is migration over WiFi. OK, I mused. I have a Time Capsule with "N" wireless. How long could the process take?

Set up was a snap, although my eyes bulged at the 3 hours and 41 minutes transfer time. No, wait—5 hours and 26 minutes. Ah, 10 hours and 13 minutes. The transfer time climbed and climbed, until it reached 19 hours and 59 minutes. Gulp. I let the Migration Assistant go for an hour. But with only 15 minutes taken off those 19 hours and 59 minutes, I stopped the process.

Next day, I read over Apple support documents, which gave the option of using Ethernet. MacBook Air has no Ethernet port, so I used Apple's USB-to-Ethernet adapter (lucky I had one of those; it's a $29 extra). Nearly two hours later, the Air had migrated all the applications, data and settings from the MacBook Pro. Even with the overnight delay, I couldn't have as quickly or as easily moved between Windows notebooks.

Believe in Me
MacBook Air remained boxed for three days before I started the aforementioned migration. I was quite happy with MacBook Pro and regarded Air as a major step down in performance (see above chart for short comparison). I had to go through a mental process of acceptance that ended with a question: What's good enough? That question was undercurrent for my entire MacBook Air review process. How much processing and graphics power and storage capacity are enough? Are three ports—USB, audio out and external video—good enough?

I'm a power user. I typically run no fewer than a dozen applications at once. I am an amateur photographer, and I do video editing, too. For running applications, microprocessing power and, more importantly, the 4200 rpm hard drive were major concerns. I also worried about photo-editing using the integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics, which I believe is 64MB discreet memory with the rest shared with system RAM for total of 144MB. Video editing would be an insurmountable problem without a FireWire port to connect my Canon HV20.

MacBook Air WebCam Test

From the start, performance was noticeably slower than the MacBook Pro. Unquestionably, the hard drive is the biggest problem. I realized how much when installing Office 2008 on Air and my daughter's MacBook. I purchased the MacBook on its release day in May 2006. While the MacBook has a 2GHz processor, it's not dual core like Air. About the same time as I got the Air for review, I replaced the MacBook's hard drive with a 250GB 7200 rpm model. Office 2008 installed about three times faster on my daughter's laptop with the new hard drive than on Air. I repeated the process, installing software directly from the hard drive rather than optical drive (Air uses an external one). Typically, installs took 2x to 3x less time on the original-issue MacBook than Air.

Slower isn't necessarily bad when applying the "good enough" question. As I write, these applications are open on the Dock: iChat, iTunes, Mail, Microsoft Messenger, NetNewsWire, Safari and twhirl. Word 2008 takes 24 seconds to launch, under these circumstances. Pages is much better, but still 9 seconds. Aperture 2.1 takes about 7 seconds. Is that good enough? Office 2008 takes too long, for certain. The others are acceptable for my purposes. (While continuing this post, I installed Office 2008 Service Pack 1, which reduced startup time by half.)

When too many applications are running together, Air misbehaves, like spurting text as I type or overall slow responsiveness. Worse: Cursor sluggishness using Apple's Mighty Mouse, behavior that also occurs when the computer gets hotter (the trackpad responds normally). Firefox 2.0 consumes so much memory that I can no longer regularly use the browser. This wasn't a problem on MacBook Pro.

So the thin Air is demanding. But like the time spent at Boulder's high altitude, I found myself adjusting to MacBook Air over a couple of weeks. Some expected problems were none: I found that I could comfortably edit photos using Adobe Lightroom 1.4, Aperture 2.1, iPhoto '08, Nikon Capture NX, PhaseOne Capture One 4.1 or Sigma Photo Pro 3.2. The external DVD proved only to be a minor annoyance—only frustration that it must be directly hooked up to Air rather using a hub.

Nokia N95 Video Test

The WebCam doesn't capture video as in nice detail or as easily as the MacBook Pro. In my test today, following the startup times three paragraphs back, the WebCam capture missed huge portions in iMovie and QuickTime. It was only after MacBook Air slept for 30 minutes that I could successfully capture video using QuickTime. The test is consistent with others done over the last couple of weeks. The results are hugely disappointing, as MacBook Pro WebCam capture was good enough for video podcasts.

Rather than compare the Air and MacBook Pro WebCams, I wanted to try something different: Comparison to the Nokia N95 cell phone. I ask Apple Watch readers to judge which video capture is better. I'm just thankful for no HD, as I've got a big cold sore on my lip.

Application-wise, is Air good enough? For me, the answer isn't clear. For most of what I do most days, the answer is yes. But Air flakes out when too many applications are running or the fan spins up fast because of heat. During both circumstances, the Air is just to thin to breathe. Work is a labor—not a joy. I wouldn't recommend Air to anyone doing intensive digital content editing, particularly video. So, who is Air for then? The answer partly explains why I so much like the computer.

We Walk
Air's major benefit is mobility, which it eloquently and completely delivers. Apple's thin MacBook is the first laptop that I regularly carry around. It's hard to leave Air behind. The MacBook Pro is about 1.4 kilograms (2.5 pounds) heavier than Air. The increased weight, thickness and heft of bag required to protect MacBook Pro means I have to think about packing up and taking on the baggage.

The Air is light, easy to pack and luggable in a much lighter bag. Right now I'm using the Ristretto Messenger by Tom Bihn; I'll separately blog about the laptop bag. Typical weight, including the Ristretto bag and my Sigma DP1 camera, is 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds)—a little heavier if I carry the power adapter. The combined weight of the bag and laptop is less than MacBook Pro. The Air is an often carry-along and without the power adapter. I find the battery to be good for three to four hours, depending on applications.

Last month, I brought Air with me on a Saturday outing, in anticipation of some possible Microsoft and Yahoo news. Sure enough, Microsoft withdrew its bid for Yahoo, with me hours from home. I set up with Air in a Starbucks and wrote three blog posts. I wouldn't have lugged around the MacBook Pro that day.

For performance, Air forces me to settle for something less than I had before. But it gives me something more by being something less. Despite its shortcomings, I find Air to be a joy to use. It's not one aspect, but a combination:

• Crisp display, which offers perfect image and color from any angle.
• Keyboard's tactile response, which makes typing hour after hour a tireless task.

• Multi-touch trackpad, which allows manipulation of some content using the fingers.
• Design. Air is beautiful and soothing to the eyes.
• Thinness and size, which are perfectly proportioned for anyone on the go.

MacBook Air isn't for everybody. For me, there's no way back to MacBook Pro. It's the Air that I breathe—thin though it may be. My testing will continue for a few more weeks. The Air is thin, but is there enough oxygen? I'll blog the answer in a few weeks.

Posted by Joe Wilcox on June 4, 2008 6:48 PM