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Ordinary laptops no longer apply to the general public. Apple has made that clear by eliminating the Macbook line & promoting the Macbook Air to take its place. Narrow & light is what's in. To Apple, the future of mobile computing for the everyday consumer is portability, functionality, & style. That means no moving parts, no hassle, & the power to soldier through any everyday task. This review is broken down into four main sections: Design, Display, Battery, and Daily Use. The Macbook Air tested is the 13.3″ 1.8GHz model with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

Apple Macbook Design

The shape and build of the Macbook Air hasn’t changed from last year’s model, which was already stunningly thin and light. The new 13” model is 3 pounds, and at its thinnest point .7” thick. The Air is not frail and is exceptionally balanced and very comfortable to hold one-handed open or otherwise. Like all other non-iPhone and iPod Apple products, the Air has some sharp edges to be wary of. It’s unclear why Apple removed the backlight from the keyboard in last year’s Air lineup, and its return is most welcome. Typing on the keyboard is a charm, and using the backlight is extremely helpful in low-light environments. The F5 and F6 function keys now control backlight brightness levels, which can be visible in broad daylight. The trackpad’s edges do not illuminate, which is fine considering how big the trackpad is. There is also an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the brightness level of the backlight.

For the past few years the Macbook Air has received flack for the shortage of ports, & the new model is no exception. The only change over last year's model is the additional Thunderbolt port. At this point, I feel the USB ports ought to have been upgraded to three.0, which is roughly 9x faster & also obtainable today on lots of machines. In lieu, Apple opted for Thunderbolt. This is disappointing because high-speed knowledge transfer is not obtainable for the Air except through Thunderbolt, which only works with a few devices like Apple's Cinema Displays. disregarding USB three.0 in exchange for an fundamentally non-existent knowledge transfer platform is ludicrous.

Audio quality is superb, especially considering that the speakers are nowhere to be seen. It’s only at 100% volume that some sounds – and even then rarely – become muttled and inaudible. Watching a film like Inception, with deep bass and a wide array of audio tones, is a surprisingly enjoyable experience. The sound is remarkable, and in conjunction with an amazing display (see below), watching movies and TV on the Air is heavenly.

As a laptop, the Macbook Air looks and feels as fresh as ever. The design is makes it incredibly versatile: from travel to serious productivity, on the couch or at a desk, or even walking around, the Air is comfortable in most any situation. Passing on USB 3.0, or perhaps exchanging the current USB 2.0 for USB/eSata ports is the step that would have pushed the Air to near-perfection. I expect the reason for this is Thunderbolt, which we will be seeing much more of in the coming months.

Apple Macbook Display

Color contrast is spot on, excellent compared to high end standalone displays. White levels are also very high, and the screen brightness is high enough to be visible outdoors, even in daylight. Black levels are very good, though the five darkest levels of black are completely invisible on a pure black background. Most users won’t notice this difference in black levels. The screen is sharp, though at certain frequencies the display flickers and makes a whirring sound, which in my experience is uncommon. I’m surprised Cupertino has such a problem at all. Most users won’t ever run into this problem, but it’s alarming nonetheless. The display has slight ghosting, as is expected with non-gaming displays. Response time is a bit slow, and once again not a significant issue. For users who rely on solid displays on the road – for photography, video, color accuracy, or just to work outside by the pool, the Air does not disappoint. There isn’t a better mobile display.

I haven’t completed the full battery tests, but based on the time I have had so far with the 13” Air I can safely say that each charge will get at least six and a half hours per charge with light internet browsing and productivity. Standby time is also strong, losing only 1-2% per 8 hours. Recharge time is also extremely fast, charging from 0-70% in an hour and ten minutes.

With the Macbook Air I installed Windows 7 Ultimate (for benchmarking purposes, see below) and used both operating systems to test the laptop. What’s interesting about the Air isn’t how well it runs OS X Lion, but how well it runs Windows 7. After some initial difficulty with installing Apple hardware drivers for Win7 – without an Ethernet port or DVD-drive, installation must be done using a USB drive, and the Apple device drivers must be installed on a separate drive – I was very surprised by how well Win7 performed on the Air. Applications run smoothly, operations are quick, and unlike new computers from PC manufacturers, there is no bloatware. All of the great functions of Apple’s hardware, from the function keys to the trackpad, work excellently in Windows 7. As you’ll see in some of the benchmarks below, some things even run better in Windows than they do in OS X. Boot time isn’t great. OS X Lion has an average boot time of 32 seconds, and a very fast shutdown of 3.3 seconds. Windows 7 Ultimate is even worse, a snail-slow boot time of 54 seconds, and a shutdown of 7.6 seconds. However, like the prior Macbook Air and all recent Macbooks, the Air has an instant standby which reactivates immediately. Windows 7 will automatically go into standby mode as well, though power drain is significantly higher when in Windows than in OS X.

The webcam – a 640×426 video camera – provides good quality video for video chat. It also takes suitable images for PC use. The microphone on the left side is high sensitive and accurate, but it’s poorly placed and far too easy to accidentally cover. 3.5mm headsets, such as the one included with iPhones, can also be used for both stereo sound and a microphone, though the included is perfect for video conferencing.

Wi-Fi connectivity is very strong, capable of reaching through several walls and over 50 feet using a strong connection. The a/b/g/n card has download speeds of up to 2.5Mbps, and upload speeds of up to 1.4Mbps. Considering the Air has no ethernet port, fast down and up streams are required, and the Air does not disappoint. Watching videos, streaming content, and even playing the occasional game on the Air is a treat. The combination of a great display, excellent audio and the I’ll do what I want where I want attitude make consuming any media fun.

One personal problem I’ve faced for years with Apple computers is the caps lock. And after installing Win7, I confirmed my suspicions. I type in an odd way, not by using the shift key to capitalize, instead quickly triggering the caps lock twice, sandwiching the desired capital letter between two keypresses. Typing like this feels more natural to me than holding down a shift key until I’m done capitalizing letters. Every Apple machine I’ve used in the past has been too slow in this way, too slow to register the caps lock press until two or three keystrokes later. Windows doesn’t have that problem, nor has any specific keyboard or computer except Apple. And after using Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on this Macbook Air, I determined that the hardware is not at fault. OS X is. The new Macbook Air is the fastest keyboard yet, but it still is not fast enough. At every turn I’ve become more and more impressed with the Macbook Air. It does everything a laptop should do, and all quickly and efficiently. OS X is fast, and more importantly so is Windows. Fast download and upload speeds, a solid webcam and a strong microphone are just toppings on a delicious cake. Microphone placement could be better and OS X needs to speed up caps lock. Besides these two things, I’ve never used a better laptop in my life.