macbookair

Bought the 11.6″ MBA about a few days ago and thought I’d share some of my initial impressions:

• The build feels solid. Form factor is amazing. Has a great feel to it.
• Screen doesn’t feel as small as I thought it would. 1366×768 is the same as the 13″ Macbook Pro, just in a smaller space meaning the dpi is higher which leads to a crisper picture.
• Overall performance is good. I was afraid going from a 2.8ghz Macbook Pro to a 1.6ghz Macbook Air would have been a little rougher but the Air keeps up with mostly everything I want to do.
• Graphic performance has been outstanding so far with the Nvidia GeForce 320M. The thing can run Starcraft 2 better than may old 15″ Macbook Pro. Perfect machine for Minecraft.
• Performance coding: GREAT. Xcode runs great, which makes this the perfect machine to carry to the coffee shop and bang some code out on. When I go to work, mini-display hooks up perfect to my 30″ monitor and I have a full screen to code with.
• Battery has been good but not great. I’ve been getting about 3.5 hours. From what I hear, I should be getting about an hour more, I am running some pretty heavy applications though.
• I thought I remembered hearing the keyboard was full-size but it is definitely not. Feels like 99% or 98%, just not quite full size. Maybe the “letter keys” are full size but the function keys definitely are not and the bottom keys (space, command, alt, etc) are a bit smaller. Takes a little getting used to but I have no problem with it.