neglectfulness mindoro: 13-inch MacBook Air unboxing and first impression

Thursday, June 20, 2013

13-inch MacBook Air unboxing and first impression

I caved. Throughout WWDC 2013 I swore I wouldn't buy one of Apple's new, Haswell-based MacBook Airs. I was firmly committed to waiting for a Haswell-based 13-inch MacBook Pro instead -- which is pretty much the only realistic Retina MacBook Air for the near-future -- and I wasn't going to be tempted. But who're we kidding? Roughly the moment I got back to Montreal I went over to my local Apple Store and asked for the highest end 13-inch MacBook Air they had in inventory. And it turned out that was pretty much the highest end 13-inch MacBook Air configurable.

We're talking 1.7GHz dual core i7 proc with Intel HD 5000 graphics 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The ports are the same as last year's -- 2x USB 3 and 1x Thunderbolt. Sadly, it's Thunderbolt 1 and not the new, fancy Thunderbolt 2, which kind of puts the damper on Retina Thunderbolt display support, and makes it standard size pixels all around. The only new addition is the second mic, which should hopefully help with sound input quality.

That's fine. The MacBook Air with it's claimed 12-hours of battery life isn't being aimed at the performance market. It's being aimed squarely at the heart of the persistence market. This is the MacBook for people who want to leave the house with nothing but a chuckling backward glance at their power supply, still plugged in next to their desk, as they leave the house for the day. This is for the airplane travelers and live bloggers, for coffee-shop hopping entrepreneurs and class-changing students.

It's not the MacBook for anyone even remotely needing a Pro. Hence the difference in names.

I've only had it for 24 hours, so aside from unboxing and setting up, I haven't had much of a chance to but the new 13-inch MacBook Air through its paces. I have remarked at how well the battery is doing so far, and how blazingly fast the SSD is. I'm also okay with the screen. The 11-inch has nowhere nearly enough pixels for Safari, Coda, Photoshop, or Final Cut Pro X -- the apps in which I live -- but 13 is fine. I feel about it much as I feel about the iPad mini. You can have screen density, lightness, or battery life, and you only get 2 out of the three. This is the compromise for people who want lightness and long battery life, and that'll be the perfect compromise for many, many people, at least for now.

I also picked up the new Airport Extreme Time Capsule, which is an 802.11ac router to go with Apple's first 802.11ac computer. I do expect that wireless technology to quickly propagate to other Macs, as well as the iPhone and iPad, so I'm eager to test it out. Look for that unboxing and first impressions post tomorrow.

Okay, that's it for now. Time to finish my set up and start my reviewing. Off to the coffee shop!