Apple MacBook Air (13.3-Inch, 2010 Version)

Apple Mac Book Air (13.3-Inch, 2010 Version)

An Honest and Independent Assessment

When you hear the word Apple, what would be the first thing that comes into your mind? For some, it’s just a plain fruit, but for those who love technology, the Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch comes into mind.

An Introduction

The Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch comes from the Mac Book Air family, which is a line of ultra thin portable laptops that was launched by Macintosh.

The Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch is the first one in line of Mac’s thin series of Mac Books. It was even promoted as the ‘World’s Thinnest Notebook’ and was later introduced on January 15, 2008 at the MacWorld Conference & Expo.

What to look for when buying a Laptop:

– Battery usage

– Display

– Drives

– Hard drive

– Lock

– Memory

– Modem

– Network card

– Processor

– Sound card

– Weight

– Video card

What to Expect With the Mac Book Air 13.3

The Display

First thing that will catch your attention is the wide 13.3 wide LED (Light Emitting Diode), backlit glossy display with a resolution display of up to 1440×990. It has a reasonably sharp and crisp display so games can be played with high resolution. You can also tweak your display settings according to your preference.

The Keyboard, Mouse and Track pad

It still has the typical Apple island keyboard; you definitely won’t have any problems with the keyboard. Another noticeable feature of this notebook is its track pad. It’s huge – which is indeed beneficial compared to most notebooks out there. Apple Mac book Air makes it comfortable for its users to perform the OS X gestures. It’s definitely responsive and very easy to use. It doesn’t come with a mouse but the best partner for your Mac Book Air 13.3 is Apple’s Magic mouse.

Processor

It has a processor with 6 MB of shared L2 cache; or you can opt for 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6 MB shared L2 cache. It also has a 1066 MHz front side bus and a 2 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM onboard (4 GB maximum).

RAM

The notebook has a DDR3 SDRAM. It already comes with 2 GB but we can opt for an upgrade. Simple photo and video editing will be absolutely no problem. Most 10-minute videos exporting at higher than a VGA resolution but not quite HD (960×540) will take about thirty minutes to export from iMovie which is not bad compared to other devices.

The Graphics

Mac Book Air uses an NVIDIA GeForce 320M having 255MB of DDR3 SDRAM. One thing about Mac Book Air, is that this device is not intended for high performance gaming or video editing system for professionals. This is something to consider when you want to buy one.

Battery Life

The battery life can last up to 30-days in standby mode and up to 7 hours when using it wirelessly surfing the web. It has a built-in 50-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery with 45W MagSafe of power adapter coupled with cable management system.

Video

Watching DVDs will be near impossible, well unless you can install another optical drive for this purpose. Watching videos however can be done online without problems; it’s fast and quite reliable.

Audio

The Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch doesn’t have noticeable speakers, but you’ll be surprised how the sound can come out so strong and loud despite the fact that the speakers are located behind the aluminum case. Headphones will produce good quality audio as well.

Connectivity

This Mac Book Air has all versions of 802.11 WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. However, what it doesn’t have is an Ethernet port which can be considered a great problem. So if you are planning on using it via Ethernet, you will need to find and buy yourself an external adapter which can cost at around $29.

Ports and Plugs

It has ports for SD cards, two (2) USB 2.0 ports, mini display ports, MagSafe and a headphone jack.

The Price

The price of a Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch can start as low as $1,124.99 and can be sold up to $1,799.99 depending on the upgrades.

What You Will be Getting That is Included in the Package:

– 13-inch Mac Book Air

– 45W MagSafe power adapter with AC wall plug as well as power cord

– Documentation in Printed and electronic format

– A drive for Software Reinstall purpose

The Warranty

The Mac Book Air 13.3-Inch has a warranty of 90 days, free phone support, limited 1-year of free parts and labor. Also available from Apple Care is a warranty of up to 3-years.

Complaints from Users:

Surely it’s one of the thinnest laptops ever made. It has a great over all look and some lovely specs but there are still some complaints from its users. The two main concerns are:

1. The headphone jack is recessed which is why not all headphones can be plugged into the Mac Book Air13.3. Apple suggests buying another jack extender and states that the jack is recessed in order to get the ‘swing down’ cover to protect it.

2. There is no wire connectivity to connect Ethernet port for wired connection to the internet.