The 2011 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch): Thoroughly Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 28, 2011 3:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Apple
- Mac
- Intel
- Sandy Bridge
- MacBook Air
- Laptops
It's Back: The Backlit Keyboard
You knew as soon as people started complaining about it last year that Apple would have to return to a fiber optic backlit keyboard in the next MacBook Air. The 2011 models go back to their 2008 roots and both have a backlit keyboard.
The backlight functions no differently than in the MacBook Pro and is very useful for those of us who do a lot of writing at night. I lived without the backlit keyboard on last year's MacBook Air, but I always missed it.
The ambient light sensor is built into the camera assembly in the Air's bezel. Shine a bright light into that area and the keyboard backlight will turn off and the display will brighten. Conversely, cover the camera hole and the backlight will turn on and the screen will dim. You can disable each feature independently if you'd like.
Other than the backlight, the Air keyboard hasn't changed in three years. That's not to say it needs to, it's still one of my favorite keyboards. You get the same size keyboard from the 11-inch MacBook Air all the way up to the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The only difference is in the height of the function keys which are made smaller on the 11 simply due to a lack of space. Nearly every other aspect, key size, travel and feel remain unchanged between Apple's five notebooks. Maintaining consistency throughout a product line is always something Apple has excelled at.
There is one small change to the new MacBook Air keyboards - the function keys. F5 and F6 now control the brightness of the backlight, obviously absent from the previous model. There's no longer an eject button as Apple is really not expecting you to use any optical media with these new notebooks. F3 and F4 now have new functions thanks to Lion. F3 brings up Mission Control and F4 fires up Launchpad, both with sweet new pictures of each on the keys themselves.
Obviously you can map similar functionality to any function key on older Macs but it looks like this is going to be the standard Mac keyboard layout going forward. The trackpad remains unchanged in size or function from the previous MacBook Air.
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mschira - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
well you are not thinking apple enough for this. saving 100$ is no reason accepting a mess on your table...besides who sais you need to toss the display when the gfx is outdated? what's keeping you from connecting the display via A dedicated GPU box once the internal GPU becomes to slow?
M.
darwinosx - Saturday, July 30, 2011 - link
In the display? So when the card is obsolete you get a new display? How about outside the laptop and the display but in between both.AJ Driver - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Thanks Anand :)The irony for me reading your review and others around the internet is the comparison in performance between these MBAs and other models (both new and old).
My personal laptop is a 5, going on 6, year old Macbook and for what I use it for it's more than good enough. It's pretty incredible the way technology is advancing, and if the current pc stays the course I wait as long as I can before taking the leap.
It's hard to deny the urge to upgrade though!
Marand - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Well I thought I was finally clear that I was going to buy a MacBook Pro 13 but now I am not so sure.I mainly use my laptop for software development. My previous one was MacBook pro 2007 model which served me well.
My issue with the pro line is that because of their weight, it just ends up becoming a desktop that I don't take with with me and always plugged into a large screen.
But having the ability to put 8 gigs of ram and update the hard drive on the new MBPro is a nice option to have.
I really hoped that apple was going to release MBAs with 8 gigs of ram at least and even if you can't upgrade the hard drive (although I heard you can with prev gen from OWC) you could always plug in bigger drives through thunderbolt if and when drives comes out.
The big selling factor for the MBA for me was the weight. I figured it would be super easy to take with me where and when I want without treating it like a desktop.
I know the MBAs are not targeted to developers. Ut I know plenty who were hoping for "more" from MBA
So now I have a tough choice because the MBpro 15 with quad core and the hi res anti glare screen is packed with power even if it's heavier and likely has more long term capability.
Oh well, can't have it all I guess...
A5 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
If the 15" MBP is too heavy for you, you may want to get a more supportive bag or something. I would've killed for a 5.6lb 15" laptop 8 years ago :PUritziel - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Remember, you're not supposed to carry it around attached to your ear lobe :)I carried a 17-inch DTR laptop that weighed about 10 lbs. around campus for a year, so 5.6 lbs. sounds light to me too. I consider battery life as the main metric of portability after weight hits that 5 lbs. mark.
crimson117 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
>The only exception is if you're just going to spend your time doing very basic tasks on the machine and plan on upgrading again in a year or two. If that's the case save your money and enjoy a 4GB version with Ivy Bridge next year.People who can afford a new MacBook Air every time a new one comes out aren't going to be worried about saving their money on a ram upgrade :)
steven75 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Apple hardware has incredible resale value, so it's actually easier to do than you think.Uritziel - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Don't forget that if you buy a laptop for $2000 today and sell it at that great Apple resale value of say $1000 (numbers are random) in a few years when you're ready to upgrade, the laptop did NOT cost $1000 in the end.Adding on the effort required to resell it, that rationale makes a lot less sense than some people claim.
Rasterman - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
I'm looking at upgrading right now so I looked up the resale value of mine. I bought a new MB for $1150 in 2008, used prices are $500-$800 right now, I expect to sell mine north of $700 since it is in brand new condition as I only used it as a dev machine when porting and it has seen very little use. So my expected resale value is 61% after 3 years which is pretty damn good IMO.