Review of the new MacBook Air 11,6 "and the experience of its use

Overview MacBook Air's start with the fact that in recent months, Apple is increasingly popularized its mobile platform iOS and the corresponding device, but so active that consumers have started to worry about the long-standing lull in Mac. Well, during the event Back to the MacHeld October 20 this year, Steve Jobs has reassured the public by announcing a lot of interesting products and assuring that now the Mac theme will again be at the hearing. After all, it is time to use the best iOS mobile platform developments in ancestor - in Mac OS X.

But today we will talk not about this, today we will focus on the future of Apple notebooks. It was so pathetic... or something, and nothing else. That "future" laptops Steve Jobs He named new models MacBook Air. Yes, now there are some gadgets and details really stand out, not only for its extraordinary dimensions. In my hands hit the youngest and the most compact design among Apple laptops - the 11.6-inch MacBook Air with 64 GB of flash memory, 1.4-gigahertz processor and 2GB of RAM. About it and talk, as well as us think - MacBook Pro 13 "whether the unit can be replaced for the IT-browser and freelancer (that Air is suitable for development, and we knew before - RoR creator David Hansson Heynemeyer

I told).

Off excess cardboard

Small Air comes in a small and stylish cardboard box on its design somewhat reminiscent of that of the box iPhone 4 and dimensions similar to the MacBook Pro 13 ".

On the reverse side of the box located sticker from the device configuration on the left and right edges - silver apples as boxing from iPad, the top and bottom - the name of the gadget. Strong cardboard, printing traditionally qualitative, open the box as well as in the iPhone / iPad - gradually leaving at cover, perfect fit.

In almost all the usual other Apple notebooks: the top is itself a laptop, beneath a small box with "waste paper", labels and software, power supply and extension cord, in this case with the US fork. This is one of the first devices belonging to a country, it came directly from the United States, been in the hands of engraving keyboard specialists and became quite localized.

Inside a small black box was waiting for me, I'm sorry for the tautology, a surprise: a flash drive with Mac OS X 10.6.4 and iLife '11, instead of a pair of a DVD-ROM drive. Expected, since this point was widely covered by the press, but still pretty darn nice. Do not look for a PC on the wireless network to use its optical drive, or purchase / borrow external, if you need to reinstall the OS. storage capacity of 8 GB, and it is write-protected.

Power Adapter 45 Watt proved compact 65-watt power supply from personal MacBook Pro 13 "and manufactured by Delta, which inspires confidence. It also creates good computer power supplies for many famous brands. Way adapter "Proshka" produced by Samsung. I should add that in the old models Air power unit similar to that of new items. American Fork was easily removed and replaced by the European standard. Wire, by the way, is thinner and softer than the 65-watt power supply, reminds iGadzhetov cord to connect to USB.

What it's small!

Away cardboard off the protective cellophane, other traditional soft gasket between the keyboard and display - that's a beauty. And what a smell, incomparable aroma of a brand new Apple technology. I remember, as well, in primeval times, when there was no optical CD-drives, smelled brand-new 3.5-inch floppy disks 3M.

The laptop is small, thin, and strong metal. The feeling of monolithic design immediately catches the eye as soon as you take the device in your hands - looks stronger than older models of Air. Externally, it is closer to the MacBook Pro models, which is not surprising - the same corporate-Unibody design, strict forms, sharp edges.

Hinge display unit in a new device, or rather in borrowed Pro models. Its design has shown itself well in practice, and problems with breaks loops as in the previous generation Air should not be. It opened laptop easily, just one hand. By folding module with peripheral connectors Apple refused, hurray! Not very comfortable it was too difficult to open if the laptop is on the table. Moreover, the USB-ports are now two - rah-rah! And they are located on opposite sides. That is, problems with simultaneous connection of USB-dimensional devices in the MacBook / MacBook Pro in the new Air is not, and again, "Hurray!". On the left side are proprietary connector MagSafe, USB port, 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone. On the right - even a USB-port and output Mini DiaplayPort. The 13.3-inch model, there still is an SD card slot. It is a pity that the engineers they donate to the 11.6-inch Air.

Everything is relative

Dimensions laptop constitute 299,5h192h3 ~ 17mm Weight - approximately 1.06 kg (may vary slightly depending on the configuration). That is, it weighs about half as much than the MacBook Pro 13 ", and as for the size, or rather, the volume, the smaller the unit, probably three times. What can I say - an elephant and a pug.

Apple engineers and designers did their best. It is difficult to find analogues in the world of ultra-portable Windows-laptops that are similar in terms of total weight and size characteristics and stuffing. You can recall the Sony Vaio TT, but it is not so compact, it is not a monolith, and for stuffing weaker (integrated Intel graphics adapter against the NVIDIA GeForce 320M in the Air). In fact, the new "Air" in size only by one-third greater than iPad, here is a full-fledged laptop with the appropriate operating system.

Miniature device looks and on-state and an important role in this is the widescreen aspect ratio of 16: 9. On display will talk later, and now again we compare Air with 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The reduced dimensions of the laptop is almost no effect on the keyboard, but the trackpad was a bit lower (about a centimeter), and the width is identical to that in the MacBook Pro. Keyboard US, respectively, slightly different size buttons and the layout is only slightly from the official Russian.

The keyboard and trackpad in the official 13.3-inch MacBook Pro

The keyboard and trackpad in the US with 11.6-inch MacBook Air

The trackpad at 13.3 and 11.6-inch laptops, respectively.

The key travel is in the Air seemed somewhat smaller than the MacBook Pro, it does not affect the ease of use is. The reduced height of the trackpad, too, is not annoying and does not cause negative emotions - experience of working with it is similar to that in the Pro. Note that missing the usual circular power button in the upper right corner. The new MacBook Air is moved to the keyboard unit. Functionality is the key became a little longer - it is annoying at first, but quickly get used to.

Keys in MacBook Air 11,6 recessed slightly more than MacBook Pro 13,3

Keys in MacBook Pro 13,3 pleasing illumination

Generally, in the opener of a lot of things have changed in comparison with the other Apple laptops. Of minor note the differences slightly enlarged feet in height in the lower panel, but they are all the same slippery.

Gone backlit keyboard - it is not happy, even though I tried to work in the dark. When my half-blind method print is enough light from the display to a more or less comfortable typing. Pal heroic death light sensor. Now, the screen brightness will have to adjust the handles, no great loss. Disappeared IR - Apple Remote remain idle. This fact is depressing. Air power enough to play HD-video - it could well be sometimes used as a consumer media player. it will not be as comfortable without the remote control.

Corporate LED sleep light, too, in the opener absent. Rejection of it is quite understandable. Air is used in flash memory instead of a mechanical hard drive, respectively, to determine when the Laptop HDD precisely to sleep and stopped working (laptop dramatically better not to move until he passed out HDD) is not necessary. And in principle, the device goes to sleep almost instantly, as and wakes. Plus the use of fast flash memory is not possible to use a simple sleep mode and hibernation in certain analogue iPad and other portable devices, as almost all the filling is de-energized. In such a condition Air can work up to 30 days without charge. MacBook Pro - three to four times less.

Display glossy again, but something is wrong here

On the display I want to talk separately. He has not covered the glass in the MacBook Pro, but never dull, like in the old generation Air, and glossy. However, the gloss there is not such a "vigorous" as my 13-inch "Proshka" in which the reflection of a loved one, you can even see on a white background. If you look at the screen at a certain angle, you can see a purple tide - most likely it is an anti-glare filter. Such uses Sony in some of their expensive laptops. The result, as they say, on the face. Work with this display is much easier than with the MacBook Pro screen. Feelings about the same as you would with a matte display - if it is active and there is some image, no reflections, you will not see. And the matte silver frame also does not reflect anything, in contrast to the black in older laptops Apple.

Matrix is ​​not IPS, but I was hoping. Very high quality TN + Film, comparable with the arrays in the MacBook Pro and even a little bit better. It seemed to me, the color display in the MacBook Air richer. Perhaps due to the absence of glass, color filter, a little change of the gamma adjustment or increased pixel density. Still, the resolution of 1366x768 pixels in it, that is even slightly higher than my laptop (1280x800 pixels). The angle of the display unit is similar to that in Disclosure MacBook Pro and it is comfortable. It is enough to work with the device at the table, and on his knees.

Sim sim... Turn!

Enough to look at, feel and try on the tooth - it's time to turn on the laptop. I expect a very fast system startup, but forgot that this is the first start and he was hurrying.

But after the final adjustment of the next system reboot occurred within 5-10 seconds, which is much faster than in my "Proshka". Very pleased with the display. I feared that the reduced size with such a high resolution for it would adversely affect the readability of the text and have greatly strain the eyes, but it was exactly the opposite. Even very small text is easy to read, it is clear, and a few smaller menu items are quite annoying. The thrill of working with this display are about the same as with Retina for iPhone 4 - very pleasant. Moreover, it is even clearer than in the new 13.3-inch MasBook Air (recall that there is also a higher resolution - 1440x900, both Pro 15-ke) - has been able to compare both devices.

What can I say about the feelings of the work with the device - Quick Flash-memory taxis! Programs run noticeably faster and stuffed slovoryami Dictionary.app party app just flies, giving the translation results in the context of just instantly. On the MacBook Pro with a 2.4-gigahertz processor, HDD but with a spindle speed of 5400 revolutions per minute, sometimes, you have to wait 3-4 seconds. I feared that there will be problems with the speed of copying small files, but it does not have - it works very quickly. And most importantly - the laptop can shake whatever you like, run with an open device in the apartment or office, throw on the couch, close, and immediately throw in your bag and do any other things are not desirable when using a laptop with a mechanical hard drive. Shaking the chips are not afraid of, unlike the rotating plate at high speed, above which flits the read / write head.

MacBook Air Test passed, so to speak, in the most that neither is on the field. Installed applications with which I am working, and I made some news, as well as a short article. The general feel of the device speed does not differ from the operating experience of the native MacBook Pro. The device works quickly, the application, as I mentioned above, run even faster than on a large laptop, the presence of a weaker 1.4-gigahertz low-voltage processor is not felt. But this is only my personal tasks: working in Pages, Numbers, simple image processing in Pixelmator, parallel use Safari and Firefox (needed for some adminok sites), plus background hang Adium, Mail and several others programs.

I note a fun fact - Flash-plugin included really no and Safari is not trying to download it themselves. Moreover, corporate browser in no way indicates that we need a Flash-player from the Adobe site, but only the lack of content needed to play software. Advanced user, to whom I count myself, will readily appreciate what was going on, and installs the necessary software by hand. And what to do to some inexperienced person, and the words of some of these terrible as «Flash-plugin" does not know? Here it is - an insidious sabotage Apple. By the way, it is made not because of some kind of fictional media hostility Jobs to Adobe. In his open letter, he has long been dotted all over the "e", noting that the rather weak at the technical side of Flash. One possible reason - to force the user to install the latest Flash-player version of the corrected errors and correct the underlying vulnerability (because the laptop can and half a year to lie in a warehouse until the fall to the buyer). It automatically in the Mac is not updated - another dig at Adobe. The second, more realistic, in my opinion, the reason to save battery power. Tests showed foreign colleagues, in the presence of the Flash plug-active surfing the web in Safari eats battery in four hours, and without it - for six hours. But nothing prevents the use of any "rezalka» Flash-content, whether it's Click-to-Flash or Plugin Customs.

In my standard operating mode and using the same "rezalka Flash», the device worked without external power for about three hours and, judging by the reading system was prepared to function as much same. Similar results I have in the MacBook Pro.

As for the heat and the noise, it does not. This point is very pleased, especially considering the "hot" character MacBook Air last generation. Laptop all time was slightly warm at all locations and areas of high heat, such as in MacBook Pro (upper left corner) was not detected. Processor Temperature fluctuated between 40-50 ° C.

"To take or not to take?" - that is the question!

The above-described apparatus has been taken in use for some time with two insidious purposes. One of them - to write this review. The second - the right choice. My ticket to the world of Mac OS X was the 15-inch laptop MacBook Pro - the first model is still in-Unibody case. I took it, wanting to get as much power (bribed the presence of the GeForce 9600) pokachestvennee display. 13-inch aluminum machine then simply called the MacBook and many it irritated their shameful display. After some time, a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, devoid of shortcomings predecessor, and I'm not looking, changed his 15-ku on less powerful machine, Has long been understood that the "terrible moscha" I do not need to work, and there are games for desktop Windows-based PCs. Plus I needed a more compact device as a laptop carry you often and not in his own car, which is still there, and over the hump.

Now there is a new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which according to my personal feelings and personal problems as well replaces the 13.3-inch device. He lost his childhood diseases in the form of overheating and breaks loops, got glass trackpad and a powerful graphics card, similar to that of the Pro-model. Thus half the weight of the laptop my current working tool and considerably smaller without fear shaking has less glare and very clear display. That is, I will be able to replace a large backpack on a compact bag over his shoulder and have a MacBook Air with him almost always. And for me as a freelancer is not sitting at home, it is fraught with increase in labor efficiency and thus earnings.

Available and the iPad, which, in principle, can partially replace the laptop in some problems (see. detailed review), But here the key word is "partially". Yes, I can type on a tablet of some text and even article nachernovuyu that have often done, but no more. I can not, using a tablet, qualitatively make and publish news, to prepare the full article, process for printed material and picture t. D. the iPad - a support tool, perfect entertainment gadget and E-Reader. MacBook Air 11,6 "- is a complete unit for actually personal office in a small bag. These devices operatively intersect and weakly complement each other.

As a result, the decision was taken and modified 11.6-inch MacBook Air with a 128-gigabyte Flash-drive and 4 GB of RAM is ordered. Accordingly, to be continued. Stay in touch.

MacBook Air 11,6 "for review given store "America"