iPad vs. MacBook Air - Hands on with the MacBook Air 13

The new Macbook Air arrived yesterday and I've had several hours of "hands on" time. Here are my observations and comparison to the iPad. ...

Ipad vs Air

Feel, fit, finish: It is a very solid machine. the aluminum unibody is like a rock. It's brushed aluminum finish looks and feels great. It's 2.9 pounds vs 1.9 of the iPad is very reasonable, particularly compared to a 5.5 pound full size laptop. Keyboard feels great, but I really miss the back lighting on the keyboard. Buy a little USB light to use in the dark. Typing on the MBA vs the Ipad is much more sure and solid. Touchpad is very large and has more gesture capabilities than I have time to figure out. 


Screen: Nice clear and bright, actually it can be too bright if turned up all the way. The new 1440x900 resolution is great. Gives you the same real estate of a 15" macbook pro and the fonts are not too small for senior viewers. 

Side view 

Speed and storage: Amazing! My MBA has 128 GB of Flash storage and I upgraded the Ram to 4GB ($100). This is a very fast machine. I haven't noticed any lag time at all no spinning beach balls. From a complete shut down it takes 15 seconds to fully boot. From hibernation it's instant on. lift the lid and you are working. Vs. the iPad, it's equal ground. 


Ports: 2 USB ports is better than the old 1 port on the prior MB Air. I'd still recommend a little pocket port hub. I have a Belkin 4 port so now USB ports aren't a problem. I bought a USB ethernet adapter and that works great to get on the office network. The Wifi is easy and fast also. The display port is the same as my unibody Macbook Pro so I can use the same adapter at home or the office without an additional purchase. 


Battery: Steve Jobs promised 7 hours of surfing time. I'm going to guess about 5 in normal use. Still pretty good. 


Air vs. iPad? : For business or general use the MBA is the clear winner. Still little and light but with no cons. iPad wins for reading books, web surfing, and apps that are touch screen oriented. THE MBA runs all Mac programs including office and will run Windows with Parallels or VMWare. And don't forget printing. At this point it is quite challenging to print anything from an iPad. When Apple ads "apps" to the Mac (within 90 days) the skinny MBA could really dent the iPad decision. 

Not much difference 

For Windows users: One note I'll add. If you are a Mac user and use Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Windows, you may have to wrestle with wasting 30 or 40 GB of your Flash "hard drive" with your Windows. I loaded my Windows 7 image on the internal drive as well as a 4500 RPM pocket drive and a 7200 RPM external drive. Amazingly the best boot up time was 2:15 on the internal drive, the 4500 external was about 3:30 and the 7200 was 3:00. So bottom line, Windows is a dog! Put it on an external drive and don't waste the space on your air. Probably the best bet if you travel is a notebook USB portable 7200 rpm drive. 


As an additional note, I've been running Windows 7 and the fan has been on all day... Hmmm.