Better than expected - MacBook Air

I was skeptical about MacBook Air. Although it's appearance, size, and weight makes it a must have gadget, I was still doubt about its performance after reading a string of bad press.

Until recently, I have a chance to play around the lower end model, ie 1.86GHz with 120GB conventional hard drive. My doubt disappeared.

It is really a wonderful machine, I would say yet another well thought machine from Apple.

Unlike criticism that most reviewers written, MacBook Air is certainly the machine to carry around, with good keyboard, and large screen as compare to the netbooks in the market.

Yes, I admit that it is far too expensive when comparing with netbook, the point is: you use a tool to ensure that you are productive and not counter productive with all sorts of physical limitation. And the biggest limitation as far as netbook is concern is its compromised quality for cheap selling price, crammed keyboard, and screen that hardly fits your work.

I am doing a lot of typing, a lot of internetting, and a lot of emails. I believe most road warriors are using their on the move gadget as me.

MacBook Air doesn't squeeze your shoulder when typing, you can type as fast as you can with comfort found only on high end, heavy notebook or desktop.

MacBook Air allows you to view from a distance, unlike notebook that you will have to touch your nose to the screen to read.

Overall, the performance is satisfactory. Compare to full blown notebook like MacBook, I hardly notice any speed difference when I do my daily stuff.

The only noticeable lag is from the 1.8inch 4200rpm 120GB hard drive. I believe a SSD will definitely solve the issue, and consume less power.

Battery life? Some of you may ask. I got a full 5 hours + before I need to recharge. Our Samsung netbook N310 claimed 10 hours battery life but actually draw much faster, effectively around 4 hours for the same productivity work, not because Samsung battery does not last, but time spent to look back and forth, time spent to correct typo on miniature keyboard is something that one will want to avoid especially they have flow of thought to pen down.

And MacBook Air makes it a perfect companion for those who write a lot, without scarifying your eyesight and strain your arms and shoulders.

Some of you may argue that I am not comparing apple to apple as Netbook are far cheaper than the MacBook Air.

Let's be realistic. If you can afford, you would like to measure performance of your gadget based on productivity, not its price.

If you are price sensitive, then MacBook Air is not for you, but if you are goal oriented and productivity oriented, I would strongly recommend MacBook Air.

Contradict to people who had bad experience with Apple support, I never had the problem with all my Apple gears. Apple support is far superior than any other brand that I dealt with.

In short, if you have some cash to dispose, MacBook Air is the choice, else you may have to confine yourself with tiny netbook that productivity is in doubt.

Try working on netbook for a good 3 hours, you will know what I mean.

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