Overview and operating experience of top-end MacBook Air 13 "2011:" monster "in a thin aluminum shell

Today we will speak about the MacBook Air 13. When Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air the second generation in October 2010, he said it was «Mac the future of laptops." We all, of course, dreaming of a serious update MacBook Pro line and the occurrence of great happiness for the users of such machines. If we are with scanty and outdated ULV-processor laptop Intel Core 2 Duo actually worked faster 13-inch MacBook Pro 2010 (I mean experience operation of devices in the personal use of the scheme), what, then, would be offered a new Pro-Model generation? Unfortunately, in 2011 MacBook Pro lineup received only a routine update: more powerful processor, slightly better graphics card, high-speed, but it is useless for most users, the Thunderbolt interface, that's all. Another eye-catching, but podnadoevshy-Unibody design, mechanical hard drive as standard, the usual TN-matrix in the LCD... sadness in general. However, this year there was still a small revolution among Apple laptops, and she once again raised the MacBook Air. Previously, thin and light notebook pleased with their weight and size, and very fast the SSD, the new model is just amazing performance. Joke, get in a very thin aluminum device "monster" level MacBook Pro 2010 top models a year. Here on this 13-inch "monster" with a 1.8-gigahertz Core i7 on board and will be discussed in this article.

Shipping direct from China

Somehow I had the pleasure to print Mac laptop from its shipping container in which the Apple device supplies to retail outlets and is likely to send when ordering through the Internet. The last time it was in June 2010, when the hand was brand new at that time 13-inch MacBook Pro. In similar form to me and got a 13-inch MacBook Air in the configuration of Custom.

The only difference is that the commercial box Air sealed in cellophane and on the MacBook Pro boxing in it wrapped. In all other respects similar, including the powerful damping corners. As can be seen on one of the photos below - is the official delivery. Warranty Apple has international and if you have problems, you can get warranty service even for "engraved American", but, sometimes, there are complexity, plus the official keyboard with normal sized Russian symbols and Enter button on the two series I like much more than the US option.

By the way, at the order of a custom device we have to wait about three weeks until the official reseller deliver it from China. On the other hand, sometimes a company's configuration brought to the warehouse, and the person can get a laptop immediately after the payment. But this does not happen at the beginning of sales, as in my case, so I had a few weeks to sit in temporary notebook, but the novelty of the cost.

Actually, the standard boxing notebook has not changed: high-quality and very stiff cardboard, nice printing, "apples" on the sides, soft lining of foam on the top cover. Someone is paying attention to the packaging, because it is, in fact, the fines are sent to the pantry almost the entire life of the device and retrieve back only when it is sold (and many do it throw). But it is in the attention to detail all of Apple. Thanks to this paranoid attention we have excellent and very easy to operate the device.

A bit of the lyrics on the packaging I blew recent case. Just recently set up a relative of her brand new Windows-laptop Lenovo, came to me in a virgin form directly from the store. Apparatus was placed in a conventional carton brown corrugated cardboard. Inside the thin lining made of soft synthetic material... everything. Lies in the similarity of foam laptop in a plastic bag, on top of it in a thin kulechke guide and drive driver, lying on the right (it is lying, since no special constraints are not there) power supply. You can certainly talk about the different prices of the device, but my situation was not the most low-end phone from Lenovo and packed, he was worse than almost three times cheaper card, recently acquired in the home Windows-based PCs. On comparison with packing MacBook I generally keep quiet.

But back to the topic of conversation. Set nearly standard: a laptop, a power supply (45-watt, LiteOn production), there is an adapter for European sockets, extension cable and a black box with a set of market and apples-labels. Conventional drive with an operating system and a set of software or flash drive, as is the case with the MacBook Air 2010 is not supplied. If necessary, reinstall the OS, you must be connected to the Internet and downloads about 3 GB of data from it. Here is that moment I was a little upset. I would like to be able to reinstall the operating system without dances with a tambourine and some restrictions. So it is possible to do, but have to pay $ 70 for the same drive with OS X Lion on board, but before that it was part of a standard notebook shipments.

The very same laptop is packed in firm plastic bag with a sticker on the back side. For it is easy to determine whether the laptop unpacked before. In my case - no sticker whole and unharmed.

almost deja vu

In contrast to the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air design in its second reincarnation has not had time to pall. The unit is the same subtle, classy, ​​strong and indistinguishable from the 2010 model year. However, it I moved from 11.6 dyyumovoy model, so that the operating experience of the difference is, plus a small design features are present too.

For example, in the 13-inch model has the SD-card reader with support for SDHC and SDXC cards. For me personally, it is an important component as to transfer pictures with SLR and often have to use an external USB-enhancement is not as convenient than working with an integrated card reader. By the way, support SDXC appeared only in the MacBook Air models this year.

It is impossible not to mention the port Thunderbolt, take the place of Mini DisplayPort, although apparently only changed icon.

The trackpad is a little more than the 11.6-inch Air models (about 10 mm above), a number of function keys is also larger. Of course, I used to narrow the buttons on his old "air", but still full-fledged use of more convenient. But the big difference in the use of the trackpad had not noticed - increased height does not matter.

Now, attention, one of the main features of the updated model Air (!) - backlit keyboard - Hurray! Do not quite understand why this feature was not in the previous model, because the increased light weight of the notebook only 20 grams, and "at matches »Apple usually does not save, and the addition of a number of high-power LEDs with optical fiber very much on the cost of production is not affected. Probably, it was originally planned, one of the key chips, pushing people to update the Air 2010.

Illumination is similar to that of the MacBook Pro and Air of the first generation, and if the 11.6-inch model, its presence was not particularly critically, in the dark, in principle, enough light from the display to highlight the keyboard, it is important for the 13-inch laptop function. Furthermore, even on the smallest Air illuminated work much more convenient than without it.

It appeared in the Air and the function such as the automatic adjustment of screen brightness depending on ambient light conditions. The sensor is almost imperceptible - he hid near the webcam. In contrast to the MacBook Pro does not support the latest HD. This is the usual VGA-module, as well as in the MacBook Air 2010. The reason for its use is simple - too thin display unit, HD-camera just does not fit.

Everything else as usual. On the side faces, a pair of USB ports on the left still have proprietary connector MagSafe, 3,5-mm audiodzhek microphone. In the bottom pane, under the trackpad has a notch, it was convenient to disclose the laptop. The hinge of the display unit also remained unchanged, although it is somewhat stiffer than 11.6 dyyumvooy Air model 2010. At the same time it adjusted so that the laptop can be opened with one hand.

Want!…

We turn to the most interesting part - the experience of the gadget use. I moved the code to 13-inch MacBook Pro 11.6-inch MacBook Air last year, it is in principle much discomfort is not felt. Quite the contrary - Applications run incredibly fast, the system restarts instantly compared to last my laptop. And the compact device and its low heat too pleased. However, a weaker processor places still felt. So, open the "heavy" web-site in the browser, like starting Engadget page, and a couple of seconds to wait until everything is loaded and prokeshiruetsya. Opening Numbers documents also is slower than on the MacBook Pro. large images processing took place just a little, but still slower - it felt.

In addition, more and more I began to use in the iMovie, and here is not the greatest performance-ULV Core 2 Duo 1.4 GHz felt particularly strongly. And not in the assembly of the final movie, they are in my small, maybe five minutes - can be a quarter of an hour and wait for coded. Bottlenecks felt when working with video: twitching and freezes when setting / cutting sound brooding using a large number of transitions, etc... At such moments, I sometimes regretted that I saved $ 150 and did not take the top-end configuration with a 1.6-gigahertz processor. Naturally, when it was announced the new Air-based ULV-processor architecture Sandy Bridge, the doubt is not necessary to upgrade arose, and to "the toad did not press," and did not have again in six months to do an upgrade, decided to take the top configuration with a 1.8-gigahertz processor Core i7.

Regarding the choice of 13.3-inch model, instead of the 11.6-inch, he was driven by the desire to get more on the display of the workspace. Still higher resolution - 1440x900 pixels, and the memory still fresh memories of my first Mac computer - 15 dyuymvom MacBook Pro produced in 2008, the first Apple device in-Unibody design. It would seem a small difference compared to 1280x800 dots in the 13-dyyumovyh displays, MacBook Pro, but some discomfort still felt. And it reminded me of a little experience with the 15-dyuymvym MacBook Pro during the writing of the 2011 model year review. In addition, after the bags over his shoulder once again opted for a backpack, so I started a lot of walking. A backpack that the 11.6-inch, that 13.3-inch laptop - no big difference. Like gadget autonomy and a little better, but this is a feature of which see below.

"Monster" in the work

The first thing I checked notebook on heating. There were fears that a top-ULV Core i7 processor will be like a furnace stoker. In vain doubt - no problems with it. In normal mode, when working with texts, the right pictures, surf the Internet, plus background work Adium, Skype, iTunes, Sparrow, the CPU temperature varies between 50-60 ° C. The notebook felt slightly warm, the fan rotates at 2000 rev / min and in this manner generally inaudible.

If raskochegarit device video processing, the CPU temperature rises to a maximum of 90 ° C - this is still fan accelerates to 6000 rev / min, then it decreases to 85-86 ° C and at such a level and remains until the end of coding. Cooling system noise is there, but it is not annoying - just a loud rustle of air, unpleasant howling whistles or not. At the same time feel the heat in the right-top of the laptop, the bottom becomes a good warm, but does not burn his knees.

Still, pretty decent heats the upper right of the notebook when the battery is charged, which is fully restored in just a couple of hours. If we talk about the autonomy of the 13-inch MacBook Air, the very large growth in comparison with the last unit I did not notice: 5,5 hours, well, a maximum of six hours in my standard operating mode when the display brightness by about 60-70%, we are working with documents, surfing the web, basic image processing. Apple claimed seven hours in this mode is not poulchit. I assume that the cause is more powerful and voracious processor compared to the standard for this model is 1.7-gigahertz Core i5.

in color rendering display liked even more than the benchmark for me in the MacBook Pro 15 ". A similar resolution at a reduced diagonal eye does not strain. Furthermore, with 13-Khoi bit more comfortable to work with than 11.6 dyyumovoy model. Despite the similar pixel density in the matrices, the older model, all UI elements and fonts slightly larger, plus larger workspace. Besides, in my subjective opinion, it is brighter, probably 30 percent.

The speakers are too loud. If enough back to back, and the sound level was always unscrewed by 90%, in the 13-ke reserve more than enough sound level and standard I put on 40-50% in the small volume of their Air. Well, they sound a little bass. Again, note good quality speaker system for such a thin device. With the majority of "perdelok" in Windows-laptops can not be compared. Excellent played high and medium frequencies, the bass would like more, but there are no miracles. The sound is crisp, acoustic features enough not only for the sound system events, but also to scanty Muzychko listen in the background.

Notebook performance is at the level of high-end MacBook Pro 2010, that is, it is more than enough, and in such a thin device such power just amazing. I was very sensitive person and still wonder how the device works smartly. For lovers of dry figures, below a screenshot Geekbench test. In 64-bit mode, you can add an additional 600 points. In general - it is about 30% less than that of the younger 15-inch MacBook Pro models 2011 and three times more than my last MacBook Air.

Everything works very quickly, the video is encoded in three times faster than before - computer happiness in his personal working environment has come! All owners of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, including depreciated against the backdrop of a beginner model in 2011, I can safely recommend new Air as a complete, but a light and thin replacement with improved display. The owners of the 15-inch "Proshek" models up to 2010 inclusive, too, without the negative effects may move to the reporting unit.

Taming the "Lion"

On OS X Lion, I moved only with the advent of the personal use of the new Air. 11.6-inch model put fashionable OS was hesitant due to the increased requirements for its "hardware". The move was habitually light and unobtrusive, except for a few pitfalls.

In particular, the first half hour of work on a new laptop after the restoration of personal data from the backup have become a real horror. I felt the hard way many glitches and oddities "Lion", which read in the branches of this discussion platform. The processor was loaded by some obscure process, the notebook warmed, OSes severely hampered until the twitch "Doc" and animation system.

Has got to understand, I found that the load on the system process is responsible for Spotlight and found a number of references to the database search engine compatibility issues on Snow Leopard to OS X Lion. The solution is simple - to manually start the process of a complete re-indexing Spotlight. To do this, just go to the Spotlight settings, select the tab "Privacy", click on the "+" at the bottom left of the window to add a section Macintosh HD, and then remove it from the list by clicking on the button «−». This activates the Spotlight complete re-indexing process, which will replace the old database from Snow Leopard.

In any case, I activated the standard UNIX-OS maintenance scripts - this is done by introducing through the "Terminal" command "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly"(Without the quotes). Plus still had restoration of rights of access through the "Disk Utility".

After such a prevention of problems with the strange behavior of laptop and emergent brake, I no longer noticed. However, some unpleasant moments still remain and are discussed below.

In the Mouth of the "Lion"

Apple operating system is extremely reliable and user-friendly in terms of preservation of user data, as in the case of OS X Lion, this user-friendliness even further enhanced. However, the platform has become more greedy for RAM, especially different some complete program. I think an attentive reader, who had a case of Lion, already guessed that we are talking about Safari. Really like this browser, its new chips, such as two-finger move between the villages of intellectual zoom by double-tapu two fingers, beautiful animation download manager, and so on. D. But he's still just ugly vyzhiraet RAM and not very stable. And a couple of times just firmly Safari "hung" machine, well, or so I thought.

The first time it happened, when it was open a bunch of tabs, one of them the cursor has become a familiar "rainbow" and that's sad end. The car came to a screeching halt, although the idea was to "freeze" is only one tab, or in extreme cases, only a web browser. I had roughly reboot the machine by gripping the power button for a few seconds.

That's not for nothing that Apple has introduced new features, such as the restoration of open windows after a restart and permanent preservation of documents in real time. dozens of programs has been opened several windows with TextEdit text, some tables in Numbers, yes also synchronized iPhone in iTunes, just poured tens of gigabytes of games, programs and other content. After perezaruzki restore all windows, preserved all the documents and sync iGadzhetov continued from the point where the broken - elegant, but hang the laptop is not pleased.

Air for the second time not fully awake, too, and fell into oblivion with a rotating cursor-rainbow. That is, I heard the sound of the system in Skype, Adium, but the screen did not gave me the usual pictures, he stayed black and I saw a mouse. Last active program before going to sleep was also Apple's Web browser. Again I had roughly restart the computer.

One more time the image just stopped and all hung. Although this bug I have been several times before with other Mac computers. In the past complained about the Parallels Desktop from running it Wndows XP and MS Office spell checker. But for a long time he refused to from this practice, and a couple of years as I live on a Mac without Windows. Now only blame the dampness "Lion." I really hope that Apple will soon bring its operating system and web browser to mind.

All these incidents have taken place during the month, although none of them has led to the loss of documents, and time especially I did not lose. After restarting the program and the windows open automatically, and with SSD computer restarts very quickly.

Breath of fresh air"

Despite some glitches and "children's" illnesses OS X Lion, his new clothes I am satisfied as "a herd of elephants." Well, that does not have analogues in the world of Windows-laptops and that's it. At least for myself, I do not see such. A tiny, quiet, cool laptop with great performance for its weight and size performance with class display excellent backlit keyboard, trackpad chic, very good battery life and an aluminum housing. He is able to easily act as a primary work machine without compromises.

You can recall the Sony VAIO Z 2011 spill. Yes, a very powerful machine in the maximum configuration for at least the maximum money (about $ 3700), with a little, I would say infamous touchpad, but gorgeous display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, with an extremely productive high-grade, not ULV processor Core i7, and a fairly small time battery life, plus a decent heating - solid compromise, like in my opinion, though in the hands of the machine is not kept and did not use it, possibly in something I'm wrong. On the other hand, in private scheme using the device there is one big disadvantage of alternatives - it is on Windows. Great operating system in its latest commercial reincarnation, which stands on a home entertainment center, but in the IT-browser OS X is much easier and more enjoyable, IMHO.

Yes, there are still on the horizon, such a thing as ultrabooks. In fact, tracing from the Air, especially in the performance of Samsung and ASUS. It is a pity that while the market they have not got, plus, again, there's Windows. However, people who for various reasons, need operating system from Microsoft, should pay attention to these gadgets. If the operating system is not critical to work with 1C bookkeeping or some uberspetsializirovannymi, existing only Windows programs do not need, do not be lazy to learn a new platform for yourself - it's not too hard, and move to a MacBook Air or any other Mac. Believe me, it's worth it!