Review summaries for Apple Air from expert notebook reviewers.
Performance:
'Performance' Rating is based upon specific opinions expressed by expert reviewers as shown below.
Battery:
'Battery' Rating is based upon specific opinions expressed by expert reviewers as shown below.
Interface:
'Interface' Rating is based upon specific opinions expressed by expert reviewers as shown below.
Display:
'Display' Rating is based upon specific opinions expressed by expert reviewers as shown below.
Multimedia:
'Multimedia' Rating is based upon specific opinions expressed by expert reviewers as shown below.
the raised keyboard is comfortable to type on.
Apple MacBook Air:PCMAG
It gets even cooler on the palm rest area and keyboard, barely breaking the 80 degree mark--and that's while running an processor-intensive test.
*
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the raised keyboard is comfortable to type on."
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It gets even cooler on the palm rest area and keyboard, barely breaking the 80 degree mark--and that's while running an processor-intensive test."
the MacBook Air, is being hailed as the world's thinnest
Apple MacBook Air Review:NotebookReview
The backlit keyboard is a nice touch that proves quite useful when working in low light environments. The touchpad is nice and large and features a durable and responsive surface. The screen on the MacBook is very nice, with vibrant colors and intense backlight. There's little or no distortion or static and the sound on my earbuds was quite enjoyable.
*
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reasonable performance"
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integrated battery"
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not having a spare battery to swap in is a huge disadvantage"
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slow charging battery"
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The touchpad is nice and large and features a durable and responsive surface."
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The backlit keyboard is a nice touch that proves quite useful when working in low light environments."
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No flex is present when mashing down on the palmrest, and picking it up with both hands to try to flex the body is futile"
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Horizontal viewing range was perfect"
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The screen on the MacBook is very nice, with vibrant colors and intense backlight."
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quite simply the most stunning notebook"
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There's little or no distortion or static and the sound on my earbuds was quite enjoyable."
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relatively powerful CPU"
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80GB platter-based hard drive"
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decent performance"
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can't swap in a new battery"
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Poor battery life"
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Fantastic keyboard"
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gorgeous keyboard"
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no built-in ethernet or optical drive"
it still easily breaks new ground for small laptops
Apple MacBook Air Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz - 13.3" TFT:review.zdnet.com
The design is revolutionary, but Apple's MacBook Air will appeal to a smaller, more specialized audience than the standard MacBook, thanks to a stripped-down set of connections and features.
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SSD hard-drive option is ridiculously expensive and standard hard drive is small"
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battery is not user replaceable"
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battery is not user replaceable."
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The revamped trackpad is large, measuring nearly 5 inches diagonally, and it works with new multitouch gestures"
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The three-finger forward/back gesture was immediately useful, and we're already missing it when using other laptops"
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new trackpad gesture controls are very useful"
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remote optical drive makes living without a built-in drive much easier."
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You won't be able to stream DVD movies or music CDs via remote disc"
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without a built-in drive"
Graphics wise the MacBook Air is spectacular
Apple MacBook Air:About.com
The MacBook Air is a very divisive design. Either you will love it or you will hate it. Design wise it is a beatuiful system that is extremely small and light. The problem is that it lacks a number of standard laptop features that it is very hard to really recommend it to anyone as their sole system. It is really best used as a business travel system in conjunction with another primary PC.
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Graphics wise the MacBook Air is spectacular"
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Performance is good"
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fairly limited amount of space"
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Non-Swappable Battery"
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The 13.3-inch screen is very easy to read and use and features an LED back light"
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Graphics wise the MacBook Air is spectacular"
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Special external unit"
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Optical drive not included"
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performance is modest"
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The processor is still a dual-core model, but its low voltage and incredibly low power demands help the MacBook keep cool under pressure"
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The frugal 80GB hard disk is ample if you only intend to use OS X, but install Windows XP or Vista using Apple's straightforward Boot Camp software, and the two partitions soon begin to look worryingly cramped"
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The touch pad is intuitive"
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the Air's keyboard begins to feel rather fine - every key falls easily under the finger"
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Colours are rich and vibrant and the LED backlighting provides such high brightness that whites look impressively clean and tint-free"
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1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB on-chip shared L2 cache running at full processor speed"
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The Air is incredibly thin and an amazing feat of engineering"
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good performance"
touchpad gesture controls and the ability to wirelessly "borrow" another system's optical drive
Apple MacBook Air (Core 2 Duo processor 1.6GHz, 2GB, 13.3-inch TFT):Cnet.com
The revamped touchpad is large, measuring nearly 5 inches diagonally, and it works with new multitouch gestures.
*
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The revamped touchpad is large, measuring nearly 5 inches diagonally, and it works with new multitouch gestures."
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touchpad gesture controls and the ability to wirelessly "borrow" another system's optical drive"
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very fast performance"
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It's perfect for office and web work and with its 3D acceleration it can handle moderate gaming"
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Intel's integrated X3100 graphics are pretty good by integrated standards"
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The oversized trackpad that supports multi-touch and gestures"
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Backlit keyboard is handy as is the iSight camera for Skype and iChat"
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the keyboard is backlit"
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Lovely and bright LED display, innovative multi-touch trackpad is useful and easy to use"
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Intel's integrated X3100 graphics are pretty good by integrated standards"
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glossy display"
powerful
MacBook Air 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Review:TechRadar.com
Despite the lack of hardware features, the MacBook Air is a wonderful Mac that will turn heads wherever it goes
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powerful"
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Poor battery life"
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Intelligent, enlarged scrollpad"
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Incredible screen"
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No optical drive"
lightest, thinnest laptop Apple has ever constructed
Apple introduces MacBook Air:macworld
The 12-inch PowerBook was so small and light that carrying my laptop around with me became an afterthought.
*
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hard drive capacity is limited to 80GB"
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slow and small hard drive"
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no built-in CD/DVD drive"
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the Air's battery life was exceptional, the screen was large and bright enough to watch movies, and it was trivial to travel with."
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the battery is relatively easy to replace--so long as you've got a screwdriver and some patience."
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unswappable battery"
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generous wide-screen display"
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various gestures the trackpad supports"
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full-size keyboard"
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The LED backlighting is extremely bright, but what's more impressive is that it immediately turns on at its full brightness"
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bright LED-backlit 13.3-inch screen"
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no built-in CD/DVD drive and no FireWire ports"
the laptop is much more smooth and clean than we expected.
Video: Apple MacBook Air ultra-thin laptop:Infosyncworld.com
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The Air supplies 2GB of RAM standard"
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80GB 1.8" mechanical hard drive"
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1.6 or 1.8 GHz Core Duo CPU"
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DVD Player played the movie at full screen brightness all the way through once and started back through again for a total of exactly three hours"
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full sized keyboard"
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full sized keyboard and display"
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not equipped to play leading games"
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full backlit keyboard, a 13.3-inch backlit LCD with a 1,280 by 768 native resolution, an Intel GMA X3100 graphics subsystem that shares its RAM with main memory"
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The MacBook has two RAM expansion slots easily accessible through the battery bay on the bottom of the computer"
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The 2.4 GHz MacBook models ship with 2GB of memory standard, expandable up to 4GB across the line"
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1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI out, audio out, full size keyboard, and LED backlit display"
innovative touchpad
Apple MacBook Air review:Techworld.com
Buying advice: Apple has cut a lot of corners to meet its goal of the thinnest laptop. If you don't mind paying a high price (as usual bulked up further in the UK) and living without no CD drive and only one USB slot, then go right ahead.
