The Macbook Air vs the Macbook: Sizzle or Steak?

The Macbook Air is a great looking machine. I have been looking to replace my own laptop for a few months now. We got my wife an entry-level Macbook at Christmas time, and I think that is a totally terrific machine.

We've largely opted out of Windows machines, not because I have anything against Windows machines, as I think that they can provide an unsurpassed value, but just personally, I have used Macs since the mid-1980's, and I like them. (I am writing this on a Lenovo T61p laptop, and it is a fine piece of gear, and I also have a Sony Viao laptop which is pretty good). Macs just seem happier to me. Granted, I have had to put up with a lot issues to continue using Macs (which is why I have my two windows boxes), but generally speaking, I am not a big company guy, and I have mostly worked in marketing and sales. Those are places where Macs are generally OK.

So, I have been looking at PowerBooks. My last favorite computer was a 12" G4 Powerbook that was a GREAT, GREAT machine. I sold it on eBay last year, and I have regretted it ever since. So, I have finally decided to get a new Mac and get my computing life a little more together. (Instead of having a Windows machine, I will just run Windows on my Mac...I am very excited about this!) So, as I said, I have been looking at Powerbooks, but frankly a 15" machine (the base Powerbook) is more than I want to lug around everyday. So, I decided to look at the Macbook. The 13.3" screen is great for the way that I work, and the size of the machine is pretty good. So, yesterday, I decided that I would just take a peek at the Macbook and the Macbook Air together to which one fit my needs the best.

Well, the Macbook is a great machine. Solid feel, good size, good speed (I am not a power user, I surf the web, do some spreadsheets and do a lot of writing) make it a very compelling value. I was looking at a 2.2Ghz, 160 GB, 2 G RAM Powerbook that I thought was going to be nifty. Then I picked up the Air. Frankly, I lost my mind. I was amazed at how this and light it is. Now, if you were to ask me rationally which dimension would be best to shrink for a laptop, thickness would have been last on the list. I was wrong.

The Macbook Air almost disappears when it is closed. It is unbelievably thin and so light as to be nearly unimaginable. The external package is to die for. I have never been so entranced by a closed computer before. Now, as luck would have it, you use a computer when it is open, and when you open the Macbook Air, you get a full-sized computer. There are no keyboard or screen compromises. This is just astounding.

As far as performance goes, the Macbook Air seems a little underspec'ed. But in completely informal testing, I found the Macbook Air to be very comparable to a Macbook. Granted the Macbook has more horsepower, but I am not sure that I noticed any performance difference. As I am relatively immune to the major complaints against the Macbook Air, it has suddenly burst on the scene as a real possibility. I have used FireWire twice, so the lack a a FW port does not matter to me. To my knowledge, I have never filled up more than 1 USB port at a time, so, 1 USB port seems like the right number to me. Lack of ethernet is made up for by a $29 dongle. I only have two hesitations:

1. Lack of optical drive: The only reason I care about this is ripping my CD collection into iTunes and installing Windows onto the Macbook Air. The optical drive issue can be solved by buying the $99 external drive, and I have no issue with that really other than I am going to buy it, use it for 3 days and never touch it again. It seems like a waste of money. But I am happy to not have an optical drive built in as I rarely use it.
2. Hard Drive Space: I keep my e-mail and many documents in the Google cloud, so I don't care too much about that kind of storage, but I am concerned about iPhoto and iTunes storage. I think I will investigate how well the upcoming Time Capsule wifi/Backup drives work as remote libraries for iTunes and iPhoto. The other issue that I have is that I want to install Office 2008, Photoshop, Windows and Quickbooks for Windows (the Mac version of QBB just doesn't cut it) I suspect that I will have enough room on the 80g internal HDD, I just hope that I don't leave myself with too little storage. I am hoping that Time Capsule works as a backup and a networked drive all at once.

I wasn't really thinking about the Macbook Air as a possibility. It seemed too expensive and too underpowered. But I am pretty sure, now that it is my choice. The Macbook Air will make my computing even more pervasive because I will never think about not bringing my computer with me ever again. This is one hot piece of gadetry, and I think it will look great on me ;-)