So I posted a review about the MacBook Air 13″ 2012 model with the Core i5 processor when I had it on my second day, and now I figured I would do a follow up a little more than a week of using the laptop, just to share more than my initial thoughts on the device. You can read my initial review and thoughts Here (clicking that will open a new window or tab). A week and a couple days have passed by since my last post, and now I’m going to expand my review on this amazing machine.
First off, I’ll start with the battery life. Considering my old notebook, an Acer Aspire 5532 running Windows 7, gave me about one and a half to two hours of battery before the battery went out, anything longer than 2 hours is a blessing to me. An average day for me would be surfing the web, having Linkinus open a lot for my IRC buddies, editing the occasional YouTube video or picture, and playing Minecraft a few days out of the week. On days I don’t play minecraft, I can make the battery last a whole day, from around 9AM until roughly 11:30PM-12AM with moderate use, which is fantastic. Currently as I type this, it’s about 10:30 at night, and I’m still sitting at 30%, which is about 2 hours left currently with my current brightness settings and apps open. The battery for me, gets a 10 out of 10. Absolutely phenomenal.
Next, I’ll talk about speed and performance. The speed of this thing is downright crazy. It boots up to my desktop in an average of 13 to 16 seconds, if we count launching the 3-4 apps I had open when I turned it off (A nifty feature of OS X I enjoy, auto-opening the windows you had open when you turn the machine back on) it would be then roughly 20-25 seconds. Blisteringly fast. My old laptop would take about a minute and a half to two minutes to boot to the desktop, then about another 45 seconds for all of my usual programs to open that I have set for start-up, not counting Firefox and several other programs. Yes, there are other computers out there that will perform better than this, but this one is up there and top notch. Performance wise, again, it stands out above a lot of other competitors. For someone doing light video and photo editing, casual browsing, and document work, this is the perfect computer in the MacBook line for you, either the 11″ or the 13″ will do wonderfully. For those wanting to do heavy photo and video editing, I would recommend not purchasing a MacBook Air, and looking into purchasing a MacBook Pro, as it has more power behind it and can handle hardcore editing a lot easier and more efficiently than the Air can.
Software time. My MacBook came loaded with Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the current release for OS X. It is a wonderful and intuitive operating system. I love how with a swipe of 3 fingers I can easily navigate through my open windows and multiple desktops. It comes preloaded with all of Apple’s usual software, iTunes, iMovie, Garageband, and a slew of other stuff. I have the system tweaked how I want it with some more custom programs, like TweetDeck for my twitter client, Firefox for my web browser, Pixelmator for my photo editing (best Photoshop alternative on OS X, only $15 at the time of this writing! Sorry, Windows users, there is no version for Windows), and a couple other programs. They all perform so fast. The only thing that slows down my laptop very, very slightly, is when I load up Minecraft. My fans will kick up once in a while, which is the only time I ever hear the fans on this thing, and my battery life from 100% goes from about 6:30 hours to 3ish, but that’s not a complaint since I play plugged in. Other than that, it performs amazingly.
Onwards to hardware and design. I still cannot get over how thin this laptop is. Or, ultrabook as I should say, since it falls into that category. At its thinnest point, it’s a mere 0.11 inches thick, the thinnest laptop out on the market currently. It has a solid build to it, and it’s all an aluminum unibody constructed laptop. I find myself easily carrying the Air around with one hand if I’m moving from one room to another in my house, because it doesn’t really weight that much. In comparison, it weights slightly heavier than the 1st generation iPad. The 13″ model boasts a 1440×900 resolution screen, which is higher than most 15″ laptops out there, with their average resolution being 1366×768. Everything is really crisp and clear, text shows nicely and pictures look stunning. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports, the charger port, a headphone port with a microphone right beside it, the Thunderbolt port, and an SD card reader. The 11″ does not have an SD reader, by the way, but has everything else mentioned. Of course, it does not have a CD/DVD drive. Does that effect me? Actually, no it hasn’t. I only used my external DVD drive once in the past week with this machine, and that was to watch an episode of Planet Earth with my girlfriend. Other than that, the lack of a CD drive really doesn’t bother me one bit.
Wrap up time. So this laptop has been an incredible purchase. I would recommend it to someone who wants a MacBook, but doesn’t quite want to spend the money on a MacBook Pro. In the long haul, after using a few of my friends MacBook Pros, and the old school White MacBooks that were discontinued in I think 2010 when the MacBook Air took over as the entry level MacBook, I don’t think I could see myself using any other MacBook as my daily computer and workstation other than the MacBook Air. It’s so portable, lightweight, easy to use right out of the box, and all in all, it is the best laptop that I have ever used. Out of 10 stars, I would give this a 9 out of 10. The only reason being is because for hardcore editing, it isn’t cut out for it, and also for some more graphics intense games, it stutters here and there. Other than that, it’s near perfect. Remember to share and rate this content if it helped you out!
