While the MacBook Air isn’t technically considered an Ultrabook, what it does is it offers the exact characteristic of being the ultimate prototype, or the blueprint for the new wave of these portable laptop counterparts which are currently hitting the market.
The first Apple Macbook Air was released a few years ago, and being an Apple, it offered a couple of groundbreaking, never seen before advances which surpassed what’s been available before.
What the Macbook Air was able to do was combine the heavy horsepower of a full fledged laptop, and fit it inside a streamlined compact sized case, making it feel and look much like a smaller netbook.
Once it hit the market for purchase, it didn’t originally fly off the shelves like the usual new Apple introductions does, such as the iPad. However, Apple did make some alterations and improvements to the their original Macbook Air, fine tuning its functionality.
Some of the features of the Macbook Air includes a lower price point than the much bigger Macbook Pro, while Apple added a number of tweaks to its original release.
As a result of these improvements, the Macbook Air is now the clear leader when it comes to these ultra-thin, portable laptop computing hybrids.
The Features Of The Macbook Air
What Apple did first with the Macbook Air was they replaced the white plastic housing which was available on the original entry level Macbook, and replaced it with a sleek shiny cover.
The newer upgraded version of the Macbook Air are also now equipped with a few additional features, such as the entry-level Intel Core i5 processor, which has an upgrade option to the Intel Core i7.
Other features include Apple’s exclusive Thunderbolt I/O port for connecting to external displays, higher speed flash storage, and screen displays of 11.6 up to 13.3 inches.
So when you compare the Macbook Air to the other Ultrabooks currently available on the market, this particular model is technically similar and behaves like them. The entry level model, for instance, is available with a 11.6 inch screen, which is similar to a netbook.
The entry price for the Macbook Air is around $1,000. With this particular model, you get 2GB of memory, and 64GB of SSD storage. The housing design is extremely sleek, and is accessible as any other Apple computer in their lineup.
The Macbook Air Compared To The Macbook Pro
When comparing the entry level Macbook Air to the much bigger and full sized Macbook Pro, the main difference is the size, weight, and the technical specifications and performance, such as graphics quality.
The full sized Macbook Pro laptop is also equipped with more heavy-duty hardware, such as: a disc drive, traditional (HDD) hard drive, and a standalone graphics card.
The Macbook Air compensates by being a lot more lightweight as well as being quicker, and designed for those who are looking for something with a smaller footprint and easier portable access.
Macbook Air Battery Life
When it comes to its battery life, the Macbook Air offers a respectable 6 hours of battery life on one charge, which is a significant improvement from its previous model. Although that’s not exactly eye-popping when compared to other portable devices, but it’s acceptable.
Potential Drawbacks To The Macbook Air
The great debate has always been and will continue to be the merits of owning any product which is offered by Apple. The debate whether it’s the best option when compared to the more conventional Windows driven product. These differences will not be investigated, however.
Instead, the focus will be on the Apple product itself, such as the product you get for its price point. Apple products, by tradition, will always cost a bit more when compared to comparable featured products.
If you’ve owned a Mac product in the past, you know this is the case. When purchasing a fully equipped Macbook Air, which has a 13.3 inch screen and 256 GB of SSD storage, the listed market cost is approximately $1,600.
Features such as the exclusive Apple Thunderbolt are excellent to have, but until it becomes an actual standardized format in all devices, and not just exclusive to Apple, it will remain a novelty which requires an adapter to use with the majority of 3rd party monitors.
There’s also the familiar Windows compatibility issue. If your wanting to run any of the conventional “heavy-duty” software suites, you’ll need to either purchase a specific version for the Mac, or install Windows OS on your Apple machine, such as Bootcamp.
The Final Analysis Of The Apple Macbook Air
If you’re an Apple aficionado and have or currently own a Mac product, and like it, then the Macbook Air should prove as an excellent laptop/netbook hybrid.
It offers the familiar and reliable Apple performance that your accustomed to when it comes to the OS X software, but in a much smaller footprint and a lighter more portable package.
What you won’t be able to do is advanced functions such as editing videos or heavy duty game playing. Also, on the entry level models of the Macbook Air, you’ll be restricted when it comes to storage space as well.
But when it comes to performance, overall appeal and appearance, this lightweight Apple “Ultrabook” model is an excellent choice.