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The MacBook Air was released several months ago with a lot of fanfare but we thought we would check back in to see if the novelty has worn off.
When it was first introduced, the MacBook Air touted itself as being small enough to fit in a manila envelope yet was a fully functioning ultra portable laptop. Unlike other ultra portable laptops, the MacBooks Air actually lives up to that name. It has everything that you would need in a laptop to give you ultimate portability unlike many other ultra portables that leave you missing some key features.
This has got to be one of the coolest laptops ever invented! It's so thin that is' incredible, but at the same time you get a full size keyboard and a decent size screen, which is important to me. From a performance standpoint, Apple played their cards right. Rather than offer a slow, low voltage processor like most of the other ultra portables, the MacBook Air comes complete with a re-worked Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM. That will provide enough juice for most people, but not quite as fast as a regular desktop or MacBook Pro.
Storage space is reasonable with both a 1.8 inch hard drive and a SSD drive available. Given the nature of an ultra portable, I would always opt for a solid state drive so that you don't risk losing your data by a few bumps. This has happened to me before with another brand of laptop and losing all your hard drive contents is a big annoyance.
As for battery life; A light user might get around 3.5 hours out of it, which isn't too bad, although not as long as Apple had claimed it would be.
On the downside, there's only one USB port, which isn't ideal, but I can live with it and the price. I know Mac's cost more money than PC's, but in terms of comparing it to other Ultra Portable PC's, it's a big expensive. You can find some cheap MacBook Air laptops through online auctions or slightly used and they should run you about $1500 give or take a few $$.
Here's a short review of the MacBook Air.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptMxC9bbPDQ
Alright, by now you might be noticing that I love ultra-mobile laptops and it's true. I love the idea of being able to carry a laptop in the glovebox of my car or like my Asus EEE, can be carried in my wife's purse if we're going somewhere that I might need it. I suppose I could carry a "man's bag", and carry it myself!
Anyway, I spotted the Sylvania G Netbook while out at a store the other day. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Sylvania made lightbulbs?? How a company can go from making lightbulbs to computers is not known, but it appears that they pulled it off.
Much like the Asus EEE PC, the Sylvania G Netbook is a very small laptop that comes loaded with all the features that you would want to have to get you online. One thing about the Netbook vs. say the Asus 2gb Surf, which is what I have is that is comes with a little more power and options. For about $100 more than I paid for my Asus Surf, you get double the RAM (1GB) and a 30GB Hard Drive, vs. 2GB in the Surf. For me, storage capacity is not an issue because I carry a 2GB USB Disk and I just don't need storage space on a portable computer. I use my home computer as my "main" computer and store important files on it. The portable computer is more of a luxury for me and makes traveling easier.
I was glad to see that Sylvania did give it a little more power since sometimes I do find the Asus 2GB Surf struggling. The Sylvania Netbook comes with gOS, which is Linux which has been touched up by Google to add some great features. I am a big fan of Linux on a small computer in general because it works better on systems that are a little slower than mainstream laptops and offers much better value than Windows.
One disappointing thing about the Netbook is the screen size. Before I bought my Asus EEE, I didn't know much about it and just bought it. Unfortunately the screen width is only 800 , which means for many websites, I have to scroll sideways. This is only for some websites and not for all of them. It's not really a big deal, but I would prefer a computer that was 1024 wide. The Sylvania, at 7 inches wide is also 800.
From a value standpoint, for under $500 and with a 30GB Hard Drive and 1GB of RAM, I would say that the Sylvania G Netbook is a winner. Here's a review from CNET that you might enjoy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXerXjWQ-y4
This is a question that everyone in the market for a laptop computer should consider. The computer industry has changed dramatically over the past 10-15 years as personal computer became a staple for most households.
I can remember back to my first computer - An IBM 486SX - 25mhz! For a very short time this computer was awesome, as it should have been for $2500! Back in the mid-nineties, this was the norm. If you wanted a good computer, you had to pay a high price and paying more did buy you a better machine. For me, things went great until a few months later why my friend got a 486DX - 66. Wow...what a fast machine! :o) I was so jealous of his new computer, but was also disappointed that I could not do the same things with my compuer that he could.
Today, it's much different. Computing has moved from program based software to online based. The truth of the matter is that if you buy a computer that has the ability to surf the internet and use email (which all do), you likely don't need much more than that.
Of course, when you go to buy a new computer at a big box store, they will steer you toward a model with 3gb of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and a much faster processor than you will ever need. I know so many people that I advised to buy the least expensive model that the store sold only to find out that they opted for a machine with many options that they don't need. I always here this "The guy at the store said it would be too slow". Sure, if you're a graphic designer, it might have been a bit slow for you, but for the average user, any computer sold new today will do what you need.
For many of us, we rely on our computers to be able to work. No computer = no money. Unfortunately even a good computer can let you down once in a while.
For most of my website work that I do, I prefer to use a desktop computer with a nice big monitor, keyboard and mouse. Currently I just have a very cheap computer with an AMD Sempron 3600 processor and 1GB of RAM. It does what I need it to do, but for the past few weeks, it's been having some issues. When it boots up, not all the icons in the system tray load up and it won't respond to anything. I have to reset it multiple times before it will do anything for me. Annoying!
I'm thinking about buying a cheap laptop computer shortly though. Although I have my Asus EEE, which I love, it just won't do everything that I need it to do. I need something with a little more speed and storage capacity.
I'm leaning toward a Dell or an Acer, mainly because I don't want to spend a lot of money. I'm looking at spending maybe $600 for a fairly decent laptop. I'll let you know when I get it. I have to talk my wife into the idea first....and you know how that goes. :o)