Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple MacBook Air 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/2GB/80GB

I got the MacBook Air as I needed a small laptop to take travelling. I have always used Mac and have always been very impressed by performance so knew this laptop would perform very well.

I can't get over how easy it is to carry round. I'm a small girl and can carry it round open on the palm of one hand and not feel the weight of it. So if I want to go to another room to get something and continue reading whats on the screen, I can do so and still have a free hand to open doors and carry other things! Another plus is I don't have to get some ugly laptop case. I have one of the neoprene cases that protects it when I shuv it in my handbag, fantastic until small handbags come into fashion again! When I go travelling it will be easy to carry in bags and not take up excess baggage weight so another bonus there.

Some people have commented about the lack of optical drive.I purchased the external superdrive which is simple to use and just as tiny so easily portable. If you don't want this you can link it through the wireless to a computer which does have an optical drive which is really simple. I did it with ease and I am rubbish at computers so i'm sure anyone can do it. I find I rarely have the need for an optical drive these days. I download most things and everything else can be transferred from my external harddrive or ipod.

Apples design has been a bit of a lifesaver too. This is the first time i have experienced the magsafe system and am amazed by it. It has saved my laptop from nasty falls many a time! Then there's the pretty major issue with viruses. I know from my previous experience that macs don't get viruses but still put them in stealth mode anyway incase someone trys to hack into it. I was recently targeted by internet fraudsters trying to obtain my bank details. Normally a painful process but one call to the specialist team at my bank and as soon as they heard the word Mac they told me not to worry. The systems these people tried to use didn't work because they do not work on Macs!

Some people have commented on price. I will never complain about the price of apple computers because it's money well spent. I bought my first Mac nearly 4 years ago and it still works to the same standard. It has never had any gliches or faults and is still worth a lot of money. I have always had exceptional service from apple in the stores. No matter where you buy the computer from you can take it in there and they will advise you on anything you want, whether it be adding something to your computer or a lesson on using a program.

When I put the experience I have had with mac against the experience I have had with windows pcs at home (my family have several windows pcs mainly from dell all of which have gone wrong several times and have recieved very poor service once leading to my mum nearly being electrocuted) and at work (daily calls to the IT dept for ongoing systems errors, the most recent of which on a computer which was rebuilt a month ago), I would chose mac everytime.

If you want a laptop which is easy to carry around and light on your lap, that performs to a high standard, this is the one for you.

ok so lets have a review from someone that actually has one
spec :
1.8 Ghz 80 gig hard drive 2 gigs of ram with external dvd writer
Out of the box up in running 5 minuets Very fast
Reformatted and custom installed saved 4.5 gigs space
All applications installed in 40 minuets (lots of applications)
Super thin
1 usb ( never used more than one anyway on a portable )
Great keyboard.
Very light and strong.
Wireless very fast.
Screen seen from any angle better than my macbook no shadows.
VERY COOL MACHINE.

As for not having a dvd player on board I cant remember the last time I used my dvd player on my macbook other than to install a system.
All my movies are avi or ipod touch format so no problem converting them on my imac and porting them wirelessly to mac book.

All the comments about the downside of the macbook air seem to be from PC users (looking very green )or people still stuck in their own little time warp with old kit and cant move on (remember mac NO floppy No modem the end of the world was predicted) Never happened moved on to MacBook air and this will change again soon LOLOL

As for price if you cant afford it buy a cheap PC (you will always pay the price for the cutting edge product)
So Get one if you can and be amazed.

This is the future.

Yes, as another reviewer pointed out the lack of optical drive means that either you need to have another computer or buy the optional external SuperDrive for it and yes, it is expensive, however this is the thinest laptop ever made and still features a good enough configuration to be a very decent workhorse.

The amount of R&D that must have gone into this thing from Apple, Intel and partners is amazing and the fact that we can buy something this thin and light is incredible. To make things even better, they have the option of the SSD drive that not only boosts performance but also saves battery power.

I will not buy one of these because it still is not fast enough for what I do (the MacBook Pro still is the best performing laptop available from Apple) but maybe a future development of this product will be suitable for me.

And remember, lots of people said that the iPod was too expensive and would not catch on when it first came out too... ;)

I recently bought this delicious new machine in order to take it with me on a round the world trip. The reviews were great, as was the weight, and the lack of optical drive I could overlook. Like many of the reviewers above, I thought this looked like the first truly 21st century computer, the future, and the ideal computer for a backpacker, taking just 1.5kg of his 20kg limit for every flight he took.

However..

when travelling in developing countries you are still well and truly in the past. I started travelling through Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, and a truly "wireless" computer is not quite what you need. Internet cafes only do dial up or ethernet connections. Even when you find one with wireless, which you will in capital cities, the speeds are so slow, it's hard to login to your hotmail account, let alone get movies from itunes.

I was therefore left with the 20 or so films I had put on to my portable usb hard drive, and I had finished these within a few weeks of starting my travels. The ultra-light macbook air started to feel much heavier. And my decision not to take my old macbook with a load of dvds much much stupider.

You may feel like the coolest 21st century wanderer around, but if you are going outside the fibre-optic, wireless haven of the developed world, think twice or three times before investing your hard earned spending money on a macbook air.

I did recently touch down in Singapore, and of course, here the Air is in its element!

Already many people have attacked the macbook air for not including one thing or another or being too slow, but i think you are all missing the point! ITS AN ULTRA PORTABLE! The competition are just no where near this thing! The best sony offering is thicker, sports a smaller screen, a mini keyboard and has a less processing power. These computers are very fast and so long as there are no reported teething problems to start with, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one! So don't try to compare it to a macbook or a macbook pro, there not aimed at the same people! Negative reviews regarding this should be ignored straight away! Expect to see similar technology coming to a windows laptop in about a years time!