MacBook Air: Want
Spouse brought home a work MacBook Air (13 inch, 2 GB RAM) over the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was a treat to fiddle with, its best features the lightness and size, but as with so many Apple products, the in-person details prove truly seductive.
- The aluminum body feels surprisingly solid and durable, particularly when opening and closing the case.
- Speed seems totally adequate; the SSD makes up for the slower processor.
- Dead silent, also due to the SSD — the aged MacBook often clicks on wake from sleep, or the fans start raging.
- Case never warmed up, and definitely stayed a lot cooler in comparison with the aged MacBook.
- Instant-on is very close to iPad / iPhone level of instant on-itude.
- The thin black frame around the monitor echoes the solid black hinge.
- The monitor brightness changes with short fade-ins as opposed to discrete steps.
Our aged white plastic MacBook from several years ago now resembles a hulking plastic slab, its failings now hopelessly magnified — case cracks, worn trackpad, its weight, thickness, heat, fans, and crappy battery life.
The MacBook Air isn’t a need by any stretch of the imagination — but I definitely want it. I have to devise reasons why I shouldn’t buy one, whereas with many other products, I’m hard pressed to think of reason one.
Right now the only reasons holding me back is the choice between 13 or 11 inches, wanting 4GB (therefore necessitating an online order and not running to the nearest Apple Store), and some self-imposed discipline to buy a few gifts for others before splurging on an expensive one for myself.
But I’ve got the fever, and the only cure seems to be a blast of fresh Air. Note: not this.