Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 2011 user reviews

James Knight 17 February 2013

Good: Feels very strong, excellent screen, fast, lightweight, ideal for almost all computer activities

Bad: No 16:9, screen size could be a bit bigger, speakers are tinny

Comment: I bought the Macbook Air in October. I initially started out with the iPad 3 in March last year and soon became frustrated with the restrictive nature of iOS, the unit's fragility and not-very-scratch resistant screen. I also found typing on the iPad to be fiddly, cumbersome and annoying. I got rid of the iPad and instead wanted something which had all the portability of an iPad - but with a proper computer experience.

The Macbook Air 13" is perfect. At 999 quid, it's not cheap - but comparing it to an iPad - it does so much more and the user experience is infinitely better than iOS.

It beats its nearest rival, Asus's UX21, hands down. The Air is better built, better designed and OS X is a much nicer operating system than Windows. The back-lit keyboard on the Air really is a necessity for all laptops these days.

The Air is very versatile. It handles processor-intensive tasks very well indeed. Editing very large RAW-format images in Lightroom is a breeze (OK, it's not as quick as a beefy desktop machine) but it does the job with no overt sluggishness.

It also starts up in just a few seconds. Unlike my old Windows 7 laptop which took almost 2 minutes.

I believe the Macbook Air 13" is also far better than its equivalent sized Macbook Pro. Mainly because the screen resolution is much higher on the Air and makes for a far better viewing experience.

The webcam is excellent and battery life is good. A fully-charged Air will last me throughout the day without needing to connect to the mains.

An excellent laptop and ideal for those of us on the move or even those who hate having a big, heavy and noisy computer on their laps.

If I had to change anything on the Air, it would be to give it a bigger HDD, better speakers (they're quite 'tinny') and make the screen 16:9 rather than its current 16:10 (1440x900).

All-in-all, a Macbook Air is the perfect companion to a bigger desktop machine or as a standalone device if you only need a computer for normal day-to-day activities such as internet, Angry Birds, photo editing, downloading music etc, streaming TV shows and movies etc.

Highly recommended and I'm sure my Macbook Air will last me years to come.