MacBook Air – The African Nerd Review

With iPhone development in full swing here at Efiko Software, I need a Mac to test things, thus making the perfect excuse to get the MacBook Air. Man, this thing is gorgeous, like unreal gorgeous, like holy smokes, what is this in my hand? I had hopes that running Vmware fusion or boot camp, this would now be my default Windows computer, replacing my Dell XPS 1330.  All this was initially dashed with the maximum 80 gig hard drive on the MacBook Air.  Man, that is just straight whack. What the heck am I supposed to do with an 80 gig hard drive when my music library is already going on 20 gigs and el jobso wants us to digitally rent gigs and gigs of DVD movies since there is no DVD drive on the MacBook Air.
In fact, I suspect the MacBook Air can support at least 120 gigs, but in the name of unnecessary hype, Apple will wait some months before they release this just to generate new buzz as they did with the iPhone. A special thanks to the genius marketing of Phil Schiller. Total foolishness if you ask me. I mean, how retarded is it that the iPod has double the hard drive space than the MacBook Air or Toshiba ultra portable laptops have 120 gb hard drives. 

But like any Apple product these days, it is just too tempting to resist, so streamlining my data I was able to fit everything into a 50 gig partition using boot camp. In fact I had to reinstall mac os x to it’s barebones( removing iLife, idvd and garageband templates, etc ) to gain more space.
A funny thing also happened this week that made me really appreciate just how amazing this laptop is. My Dell had a paper clip stuck in the dvd drive requiring a Dell specialist had to come by and essentially disassemble the whole thing to replace the dvd drive. Having a look at the internal parts of the laptop gives one a greater appreciation of what it takes to build these things. Speaking of DVD drives, Apple’s decision not to include one is absolutely brilliant. I have had the Dell XPS 1330 for about 6 months and I think I used the DVD  drive once or twice and looking at my Dell XPS 1330 dvd drive you appreciate just how much space one saves not having this. The only issue now is that the MacBook Air gets hot really quick. You could fry an egg on this thing as am typing. While this laptop is borderline unreal, I would not recommend anyone buy it yet. It is still a 1.0 device and am sure there are many more kinks and glitches that need to be worked out. Once Apple fixes these and increases the hard drive, you need to head straight to the nearest Apple store near you and get one.

Comments

[Pablo]

So you said you planned to go with iPhone development, how's the SDK with the MacBook Air slow? ok?

[HS]

Tunji

I bought Iphone ring tone maker!! awesome software, please keep up the good work!!!!!

[davethefunker]

Whatta!!shame on you!!what's that sVista on a Macbook Air..it's like it's infected with a big huge os virus.. there are no words to describe how deeply i'm disappointed by a thing like that.. I won't buy your program because of that.. no mac os x and an iphone?? it's an horrible paradox.. hope Turing can't see that..or he can turn zombie to come to your house and eat your brain!!! XD

[davethefunker]

Whatta!!shame on you!!what's that sVista on a Macbook Air..it's like it's infected with a big huge os virus.. there are no words to describe how deeply i'm disappointed by a thing like that.. I won't buy your program because of that.. no mac os x and an iphone?? it's an horrible paradox.. hope Turing can't see that..or he can turn zombie to come to your house and eat your brain!!! XD

[Used Refurbished Laptops]

I must say its really light and well constructed. I'll give it a run for a few days before I write a thorough review. However there are a few initial points that I thought that I should point out.

1- I'm not very happy with the screen. I dont know if this is standard for XGA 14.1 screens, but I thought the CONTRAST would be much better. There are no BLACKS what so ever, just dark greys. I've been working on a "Samsung Syncmaster LCD 151P Porsche" for the past 2.5 years, and there is a MAJOR difference in clarity and contrast. Although its OK..I just dont think this is a good screen for a TOP OF the Line TECRA laptop. Too bad.

2- When on AC, and on FULL POWER mode, the fan gets VERY VERY noisy. Its laughable, more like the FX 5800 fiasco if anyone remembers. And it gets BURNING hot, you simply CANT put it on your lap. It will LITERALLY BURN you in 10-15 minutes. You will also lose your manhood...cuz there are vents on the front too...

3- Contrary to what other guys here felt concerning the touchpad buttons, I dont find them that annoying, though they are not GOOD by any means, just a little different. Any EL CHEAPO HP has better buttons.

4- I ordered a Geforce 6600 128MB, however I cant find any relevant information about it on the lappy. It always says: Geforce 6200 64MB/Geforce 6600 128MB EVERYWHERE!! In Dxdiag, in Device Manager, in Display Properties, in 3DMark system properties, but they ALL say the video memory is 128MB. What really is freaking me out that I got in 3Dmark 2001SE ONLY ~5000 points...what the f!@#..........I havent tried 3Dmark2003 or 2005. Where do u think the trouble is? AA and AF are off, I'm on AC and in full power??!! Could it be divers? How can I download latest drivers. Toshiba has NONE, and Nvidia says to get all ther Geforce GO drivers from Toshiba!?

I'll post some pics, and a thorough review will follow.

P.S. I paid around $1700 for my config, which is quiet reasonable, but there are guys who are going up with their specs all the way to ~2300, there's even someone who just reviewed the M3 who paid ~$3500. Thats a LOT of money to pay to get THIS WASHED OUT SCREEN, NOISY FAN and POOR TOUCHPAD BUTTONS
IMO The TECRA line should be a little MORE REFINED!!

[Used Refurbished Laptops]

We've already had some experience with big, wide desktop monitors. One of them, the Sony GDM-FW900, is a CRT with a 24-inch diagonal display (22 inches viewable), but it's no longer manufactured (you can sometimes find refurbished units for about $1,200). LCDs have begun appear in widescreen format in the past couple of years, and these typically cost several thousand dollars. One of them, the Samsung 240T, weighs in at around $2,000. The best price we've seen for another, Sony's 23-inch SDM-232, was a bit over $1,600. And apple's 23-inch Cinema HD can be found for under $1,600 if you look hard enough.
Now Dell has decided to drop the price bomb. The UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch widescreen LCD will cost a measly (by comparison) $1,199. It's the classic Dell approach: Not pioneering a new market or category, but entering it later and at high volume, usually with a significantly lower price.

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[Cheap Computers]

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[cheap computers]

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