Apple MacBook Air 11-inch 2010 user reviews

Claudia.Jargoz 20 June 2011

Good: The size and weight

Bad: MacBook Air does not have an illuminated keyboard.

Comment: I bought this beautiful MacBook Air becuase my research show that the mac's keyboard has light, however I find out that this ones does not have light. I travel and I would like to edit my doc while I travel, I don't want to disturb people in the airplane or train by switching the light on.

Ian Heathcock 8 June 2011

Good: Size, weight, looks, SSD, Screen, Keyboard, Immediate on, battery life

Bad: Speed of processor

Comment: A great machine. Loads applications as fast as my iMAC thanks to SSD - screen is so clear.
It fits neatly inside my A4 folio case together with a pad and pen - no more briefcase or laptop bag.
As long as you only have 2 or 3 applications open at once you'll have no problem with this laptop.
The instant on as you open the lid increases productivity as you're not waiting 3 or 4 mins for windows to boot.

paul149 15 May 2011

Good: Fabulously portable; impeccable business tool

Bad: no Kensington lock, no 3G, no illuminated keys

Comment: This is a business tool, period. As a consultant working globally, I need light light light weight and bulletproof reliability. The Air runs Office 2011 flawlessly, the SSD eliminates HD shock damage, the full size keyboard is a joy to use. Beautiful screen, too, despite the size, and easy to increase with a pad gesture. Ports aren't an issue, I pack Ethernet/DVi/VGA adapters for hotels and strange projectors - use the Apple adapters if you want predictable outcomes. Battery life is amazing for the size. What's wrong - it cries out for 3G, I really miss the illuminated keyboard fitted to the MacBook Pros, and it is so cute the lack of a Kensington lock makes it a real worry to leave around. As a result I carry it everywhere - yes, everywhere. Ah well. It all comes together at the airport scanner when the salarymen with their backbreaking Dell and HP bricks sigh with longing as they see the silver darling come off the belt. (And yes, a black version might be more discreet).

Richie Brian 13 March 2011

Good: So thin!

Bad: Silver bezel

Comment: Amazing machine, so very thin! Silver bezel is annoying though.

swanson 8 November 2010

Good: soooooo quick, light, has brilliant screen, boots up, shuts down so fast

Bad: storage

Comment: I've had this for a couple of weeks now and so far it is so much better than my £800 desktop computer everything on it is about 4 times as quick and my desktop is less than a year old. This is the perfect laptop for doing so many everyday thing e.g. FM 2011, internet, watching videos, editing photos and so much more, i really could rave on about this all day and i think have to my friends. But imo what makes this laptop even more exciting this that the mac app store and lion are out next year and i think with the app store this laptop will be fantastic. I would recommend a few accessory to go with this though, firstly a Wireless modem e.g. a 3 mifi so you can get internet anywhere, secondly a portable external hard drive to store you film and in my case photos (ive got millions), lastly a external dvd drive just so you can upload games and software. With these thing it really is the only computer you need and to anyone who calls it a netbook i would really suggest they use it for a day or so because this is nothing like any netbook there has ever been so please dont call it one because this is most defiantly a notebook and a brilliant one at that.

Fraser Rattray 25 October 2010

Good: size, Price

Bad: limited storage

Comment: its taken apple nearly 5 years to replace the 12inch powerbook and i think that this is a great replacement for it and its only the same price as a standard white macbook

olivierm 24 October 2010

Good: Amazing piece of hardware

Bad: Price is a problem

Comment: Really liked it when I saw it at the store but would never spend that much on a laptop. Almost makes the iPad look cheap. Also would not buy it and then in a few month buy the 'Lion' upgrade. The upgrade should be included. I didn't see that mentionned on the Apple store.

Show off piece for who cares about ... showing off

JayX 23 October 2010

Good: Display, Portability, Build.

Bad: To be picky, the bezel is a bit thick.

Comment: So, I guess this is where users like Loadit give a product a rating without even touching it, because they've made their mind up based on someone elses beliefs and their own biases.

Well, I have used both the 11.6 and 13.3 models, so feel a bit more qualified to give an opinion. First of all, it needs to be absolutely emphasised that this is an ultra portable laptop and not a 'netbook', which shares nothing in common with those machines except it's size and weight. The 1.4ghz processor of the 11.6 did cause me some concern originally, but was put at rest when the 320M that's coupled with it is going to take the brunt of anything particularly complex that's put it's way. I wasn't expecting iMovie to be even slightly usable, but I loaded it up and scrubbed through the example movie and played it back without any issues at all. You wouldn't want to use it to edit a feature on, but for tinkering on small projects on the move it would suffice.

OSX is, in my opinion from using both, a more efficient OS for day to day tasks than W7 and the stock RAM isn't a concern. I often have 30+ applications running side by side with up to 100 Safari tabs, so I expect ridiculous things from my hardware! I wouldn't treat the Air like that, because it's not designed for crazy people like me to use as a workstation. If a single core Atom driven netbook with onboard graphics and a single GB of RAM can please people, then there's nothing to worry about specwise here.

I've only got 2 USB ports on my MBP and I've never thought it was too few. It would be nice if somehow the headphone could double up as a Mic if needed, but you can get small USB driven soundcards if you want it as a podcasting box anyway, connectivity isn't a major concern.

Build quality is fantastic, naturally, and the keyboard/trackpad are great to use which I can't say often about machines of this form factor. Interestingly, the screen aspect ratio differs between the 11.6 and 13 models, the 11.6 has a wider aspect to it which I wasn't expecting. The display is beautiful, a silly resolution for such a small screen! MacBook users might be quite jealous. Heck, even I am given the higher PPI ratio than I have right now.

I don't travel enough to hate the size and weight of my 15" laptop, so I'm not in the market for this but if I needed a slim machine that had some grunt, this would be it. Given that the entry level 11.6 comes in at the same price as the stock 13 MacBook, it's going to shift some serious units.

Loadit 22 October 2010

Good: Looks nice

Bad: Too expensive and not practical

Comment: Apple laptops are not worth the vast extra cost.

Gareth Lewis 22 October 2010

Comment: I am a fan of Mac OS X, and seeing this ultra-portable version makes me want one... until I look at the price. 64GB of storage is way too little for me, so I'd have to go for the 128GB one. However, £1,000 is way too much, and paying extra for a faster processor and an extra 2GB of RAM pushes the price up even further.

If I compare this to my Acer Ferrari One, I get more RAM, similar speed processor, the same screen resolution, more USB ports, same battery life. OK, so I haven't got a SSD hard drive, but I've got a pretty decent 250GB to play with. Most of all, I only paid £400 for it! It would have to be pretty special to fork out 1.5x as much.