A lemon
Capacious laptop
Apple MacBook Air MC234LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop
 List Price: Price: Too low to display |
Product Details
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Product Description
MacBook Air continues to redefine what’s attainable. Just 0.16 inch at its thinnest point, 0.76 inch at its thickest inappropriate, and a mere 3.0 pounds, it’s still ultrathin and ultraportable. And now, pushing the performance limits of ultraportable notebooks, it features a faster 2.13GHz Intel Substance 2 Duo processor, a 1066MHz frontside bus, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and 6MB of L2 cache, so you can be as productive on the road as in the branch. Offering ample storage, MacBook Air comes with either a 128GB solid-state ram that uses less power and provides enhanced durability. Its advanced NVIDIA processor brings you stunning, high-speed graphics, delivering a graphics performance boost up to 6x that of the initial model. Unlike other ultraportables, MacBook Air doesn’t compromise on features users mind a look after most about: the display and the keyboard. It includes a bright, 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen presentation, a full-size backlit keyboard, a spacious Multi-Touch trackpad, and a built-in iSight camera. Engineered for the wireless life, MacBook Air also comes with 802.11n Wi-Fi,4 Bluetooth 2.1, and Remote Disc to deliver unexcelled wireless versatility.Amazon.com has certified this fallout is Frustration Free. A Frustration-Free Package is easy-to-open and comes without zealous plastic "clamshell" casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It's expected to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging during shipping. Products with Frustration-Manumitted Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without the need for an additional shipping box. Learn more about Frustration-Rescue Packaging.
With the MacBook Air, Apple has created the world's thinnest laptop--measuring an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest significance (and 0.76 inches thick overall). Apple brings its vaunted multi-touch technology, found on the iPhone, to its laptops with the MacBook Air, enabling you to pinch, swipe, or gyrate to zoom in on text, advance through a photo album, or adjust an image via the oversized trackpad. And the MacBook Air embodies Apple's permanent environmental progress with its aluminum enclosure, a material highly desired by recyclers, a mercury-liberate LCD display with arsenic-free glass, and brominated flame retardant-unhampered material for the majority of circuit boards as well as PVC-free internal cables.
Regardless of the its slender shell, the MacBook Air doesn't skimp on the specifications. It includes a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen splendour, full-size and backlit keyboard, and a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing. This MacBook Air (copy MC234LL/A) is loaded with a 128 GB solid-state drive, which has no moving parts for enhanced self-assurance. It's powered by a custom-built 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, which provides an optimized, multithreaded architecture for improved multitasking acting. And it features the integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, which delivers excellent 3D game play with up to five times faster graphics performance than the previous period. Other features include 2 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity via 802.11a/b/g/n standards, Mini DisplayPort video achievement (for DVI and VGA connections), and up to a 5-hour battery life.
 Amazingly thin at just 0.16 inches at its thinnest and 0.76 inches at its thickest implication, the MacBook Air weighs just 3 pounds. |
It comes pre-loaded with Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system--an operating system specially-designed for the advanced technology inside--and it also comes with the iLife '09 entourage of applications, including iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, and iTunes.
 With the trackpad's Multi-Handle technology, you can pinch, swipe, or rotate to adjust an image, zoom in on printed matter, or advance through a photo album. |
 The MacBook Air includes a vibrant 13.3-inch LED-backlit pageantry and a full-sized keyboard (see larger image). |
The thinness of MacBook Air is impressive, but even more imposing is that fact that there's a full-size notebook encased in the 0.16 to 0.76 inch of oily, sturdy anodized aluminum. This svelte, 3-pound laptop has a vibrant, vivacity efficient 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, and its wide trackpad offers multi-touch gesture support for pinch, twirl and swipe--making it more intuitive than ever to browse and rotate photos or zoom into web pages in Safari. It also features a full-measurements keyboard that's backlit, making it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or discussion halls. It includes a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the optimism of the keys as well as the display brightness for optimal visibility.
One of Apple's most celebrated innovations is the MagSafe power adapter connector, which offers a captivating connection instead of a physical one. So, if you happen to trip over a power cord, you won't send the MacBook Air flying off a food or desk--the cord simply disconnects, without damage to either the cord or the system.
Intel Pit 2 Duo Processor
Custom-built to fit within the compact dimensions of the laptop, the MacBook Air is powered by a 1.86 GHz Intel Essence 2 Duo processor with a super-fast 1066 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and an enormous 6 MB of Smart Cache, an L2 vault that can be shared between the cores as needed. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores observations; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will send better overall performance.)
The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3 vector motor handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating information manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. And its two consummation cores are designed to share resources and conserve power, helping it to get higher levels of performance since it uses fewer watts. And with 4MB of shared L2 store, the MacBook Air is a multi-tasking monster. With such substantial L2 cache, data and instructions can be kept complete to the two processor cores, greatly increasing performance and allowing the entire system to occupation more efficiently. And, because the processor cores share the L2 cache, either can use the entire amount if the other happens to be non-operative.
Video Processing & Output
Whether you're working on a Keynote presentation or watching a silver screen before you catch a flight, every document, video, and photo on your MacBook Air will look sharp on the shining 13.3-inch widescreen display. With the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, the MacBook Air changes the deception and just about everything you do with it. The 9400M provides up to an amazing 4x performance boost over the original MacBook Air. Photos come in iPhoto quickly, transitions in Keynote are seamless, games play more smoothly, and big and video playback is better than ever before. The 9400M graphics processor shares 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM with conduit memory.
The MacBook Air now includes a next generation Mini DisplayPort, which delivers a pure digital timer that can drive up to a 30-inch widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra-firm at just 10 percent the size of a full DVI connector, and is compatible with Apple's 24-inch Show Display. Adapters are also available for using VGA, DVI/HDMI and Dual-Link DVI displays
Disastrous Drive and Memory
For storage, this MacBook Air comes with a 128 GB solid-state antagonistic drive. Faster and more reliable, solid memory provides a rapid boot-up and quicker right of entry to applications while improving battery life. It's also more reliable than a hard disk propel because there are no moving parts. Since data is written to stationary memory instead of a spinning flinty disk, you have less risk of hardware problems with the hard disk when you're on the move. The 2 GB of PC3-8500 DDR3 RAM (two SO-DIMMs of 1024 MB) has an persistence-leading 1066 MHz speed, and it maximizes the capacity for this laptop.
Optical Herd
Because of the amazingly thin design of the MacBook Air, an optical (DVD/CD) drive was not included. To install software from a disc, you can wirelessly use or "draw" optical drives on remote PCs or Macs using the Remote Disk advertise. This allows you full access to an optical drive without having to haul one around. If you want to have an visual drive for burning CDs and DVDs, you can purchase the optional MacBook Air SuperDrive (sold singly). This multi-format CD/DVD read/write drive is powered by the MacBook Air's USB port, eliminating the call for to carry a separate power adapter.
Networking
The MacBook Air doesn't include wired Ethernet networking, and in place of relies solely on Wi-Fi to connect to your home network as well as wireless hotspots. The built-in 802.11n wireless networking provides up to five times the playing and twice the range of 802.11g, but it's also backward-compatible with 802.11a/b/g routers, enabling you to spread with the a wide variety of Wi-Fi resources. It works seamlessly with the optional AirPort Harsh base station as well as Apple's Time Capsule Wi-Fi base station/hard effort--both of which include 802.11n capabilities. If you don't have access to a wireless network, you can use an optional USB Ethernet Adapter (sold one by one)
Use the built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless technology to bolt to your PDA or cell phone, synchronize addresses, or download pictures from your cell phone. You can also use a wireless headset for iChat audio chats and VoIP calls as well as with dispatch share files with a colleague.
Video Conferencing with Built-in iSight
Cleverly placed in the display bezel is an iSight camera, which enables easy video conferencing as well as allows you to seize pictures of yourself and create video podcasts. Using the iChat AV application, video conferencing is integrated into your iChat friend list, so initiating a video conference is a breeze. iChat also lets you clutch audio chats with up to 10 people and provides high-quality audio solidity and full-duplex sound so conversation can flow naturally. For video podcasting, you can put a short clip using the iSight camera, then use iWeb to create a video blog entr or post your GarageBand-recorded podcast.
Other Features
- Mini DisplayPort on the same wave length with DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI connectors (all optional)
- Analog audio output/headphone out (minijack)
- Built-in mono tub-thumper and omnidirectional microphone
- Integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer mobile provides up to 5 hours of battery life
- Built-in full-size keyboard with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys, including 12 role keys, 4 arrow keys (inverted "T" arrangement), and embedded numeric keypad
- Supported resolutions: 1280 by 800 (aborigine), 1152 by 720, 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, 800 by 500, 720 by 480, and 640 by 480 pixels at 16:10 angle ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 prospect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio
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Apple has worked hard to eliminate many of the toxins that are a common part of computer manufacturing. Apple engineers removed the mass of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from circuit boards, internal cables, connectors, insulators, adhesives, and more in the MacBook Air.
Because Apple makes both the components and the software for the MacBook, they're designed to work together to produce a smarter product that uses less energy. For instance, to reduce energy consumption, the hard drive spins down on impulse when inactive. MacBook Air also decides which processor--CPU or GPU--is best suited to efficiently perform a reproach. The processor even throttles down to save power between keystrokes as you type. The LED-backlit exhibit in MacBook Air is another feature that plays an important part in conserving energy, consuming 30 percent less power than established LCD displays. And the display is designed to dim when you enter a darkened room.
The MacBook Air meets the stringent low power requirements set by the EPA, giving it Dynamism STAR certification. MacBook also meets the latest efficiency requirements of ENERGY Prominent Version 5.0 Specification for Computers before its July 2009 effective lover.
The MacBook Air has also earned the highest rating of EPEAT Gold. The Electronic Product Environmental Test Tool, or EPEAT, evaluates the environmental impact of a product based on how recyclable it is, how much drive it uses, and how it's designed and manufactured.
Pre-Loaded with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife '09
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Installed software
- Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard (includes Tempo Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Deliver Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools)
- iLife '09 (includes iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, iDVD)
What's in the Box
MacBook Air, 45W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC breastwork plug, power cord, Apple USB Ethernet Adapter, cleaning/polishing the priesthood, install/restore DVDs, printed documentation
Customer Reviews
A lemonWe purchased a Macbook Air two years ago and unfortunately it was a lemon integrity out of the box. Almost immediately there were problems with pixels on the screen going out in large vertical bands, over-heating, sluggish presentation. We purchased it for our son to use during extended travel in China, reasoning that the light weight would be a asset in these circumstances. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't have any service in China so he was unable to get the problems stubborn.
When he returned from China we took the Air into Apple for repairs. That was the beginning of a long cycle of multiple repairs and the trial of dealing with Apple service. I've never encountered so many frustrations with a computer company. Perhaps if you've ever had any serious problems with an Apple product you might certain what I'm talking about.
It seems that other reviewers have been pleased with their Air, so it is entirely possible that our experience was the exception rather than the run. However, a lemon should be caught by Apple's quality control process BEFORE it goes out the door, before it gets into an down on one's luck customer's hands -- and that didn't happen in this case.
Some things a capability buyer should be aware of... The Air is basically a stripped down computer, with things such as a CD/DVD drive not included, in arrangement to reduce the weight. But you still need these components. By the time I had purchased the additional items, including the precious CD/DVD drive, the total package not only came close to $3000, but weighed significantly more than my peewee, light weight Sony which is a fully loaded computer, including DVD drive and spread-out life battery.
Finally, from our experiences with trying to get the Air repaired, we learned that many of the internal components, including the solid drive, are non-standard and not easily replaced when they go bad. When my Sony died after 5 years, I was masterful to remove the hard drive, a miniaturized Toshiba, and transfer it to an external turn out that in the event of, enabling me to continue using my data with another computer. Not so with the Air. When the Air died recently, although still under the extended agreement, Apple was unable to offer any assistance in removing the hard drive. Their service dept. said that the Air agonizing drive is non-standard and that Apple doesn't service it at all and that it can't be removed. We gave up on Apple and took the Air to a adjoining PC lab that was able to remove the hard drive and transfer the data to a new device which can be hardened externally.
To be fair, we've had other Apple products that have performed well and that we've been mostly happy with. Now, however, the frustration level, not to acknowledge time and expense, in dealing with the Macbook Air and Apple service has turned us off to Apple forever. We'll be sticking to PCs from now on. Our Air, which still has more than a year of bond on it, has totally died and we've dumped it for an Asus. Check them out, they get excellent reviews (rated highest for reliability), have implausible battery life (10-14 hours), have an amazing warranty, and they make some very lightweight models (the UL series).
Capacious laptop
May not be the fastest Macbook out there, but it's like the clappers of hell enough for normal use. I have no problem running VirtualBox with several different OS's, including Windows and Linux.
It's upon and beautiful, I love this laptop and fully recommend it.
The hedgehog of Macbooks
If you are intimate with Isaiah Berlin's essay, "The hedgehog and the fax," my review is self explanatory. No longer form of the art, the Macbook Air is still superb at doing what it does. Compared with the new MacBook Pro 13 you give up battery life, expeditiousness, and storage. What do you gain? A computer you can, and will, take with you everywhere. (I am writing this review as I watch the BBC news.) A computer that is so so thin and so light that you will be charmed each time you pick it up. As another reviewer noted, if you are a writer, this is your machine. It is a writer's pad you will take everywhere with an illuminated keyboard and a superior screen. Does it make sense to buy a Macook Air? It has not been veritably updated for two years-- lifetimes in the tech world. It is expensive and it is Apple's slowest computer. If you can be thrilled with another Macbook, by all means buy one. If you suspect you will not be happy with anything but the lightest, most portable MacBook, well, you won't be disappointed. In fact, if you're anything like me, you'll be thrilled.
Most outstanding Mac Yet
I've had a macbook for years. This macbook air, is the most outstanding purchase yet. I've got the high end unit with the SSD hard drive. This electronic hard outing makes the unit extremely fast. Startups/Shutdowns, application inauguration/closing is just amazingly fast.
If you travel, and want a quick boot up at the visual display unit to check something. This is the machine. Very fast.
The size, screen, lighting is all just first-rate. The keyboard lights up in the dark, and is smart enough to save energy and not light up in sparkling light.
The screen brightness is so bright in the dark I turned it all the way down to get it right.
Justifiable a dream machine that will be a workhorse for years.
Very solicitous computer, some small problems
Blanket, a good computer. Light weight and faster.
The fan seems to make some weird noise when it objective starts. The USB port that flips over seems to be less durable than desired. Except that, good computer.
