Apple MacBook Air

Good for designing and other various uses!
The MacBook Air is successful from an aesthetics point of view, and everyone would be in agreement with this. It’s not a powerful machine but this isn’t its primary focus either. This lightweight portable with a complete aluminium shell is completely silent and can be taken everywhere with you thanks to its size and weight. With its Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of memory (4 GB maximum), it corresponds to most uses needs for advanced office user, various multimedia uses (management and viewing photo albums, listening to audio files, playing SD and HD videos, etc.), browsing the Internet and communications applications. For the more powerful 3D games running under Windows with Boot Camp (FPS and other), these remain playable, but you will pay a heavy price to do so (minimum details, very average playability), while point & click adventure games will pose absolutely no problems!

What we didn’t really appreciate
This technological treasure, resented as "the thinnest portable in the world" isn’t without its defaults. The connectivity options are poor and minimalist. There is no Ethernet port, no FireWire, no SD card reader on the 11" models and there is no removable battery (travelling with multiple batteries is therefore impossible). You will have to buy a CD/DVD drive if you think it is required (not necessarily a SuperDrive, as any USB drive will do). All connections will be made via the two USB 2.0 ports and the Display Port (plan on getting an adaptor of your choice – DVI output, DVI double connection, VGA or HDMI).

SSD Storage for all configurations
The 64 to 256 GB storage chip for all models is a bonus which definitively removes the mechanics from the system. This allows for complete silence inside the MacBook Air, while the reading performance is more than satisfactory (record start up times, very reactive system when launching applications). In the test of our configuration, the 128 GB of storage space was about the minimum possible with Boot Camp for Windows. If you are planning on "upgrading" in the future, this will be rather complicated as the 256 GB version is rather onerous and is only available on the 13" models. It’s also unfortunate that there are no lights present to indicate activity on the SSD, and more generally to confirm the various machine states (activity suspended with screen off, standby mode, etc.) while a few LED’s to indicate the Caps Lock key couldn’t have been over doing it…

Is it worth the price?
As is often the case, Apple’s prices can easily lead to controversy… If you are a fan of the manufacturer and you feel like treating yourself, then yes – go for it! The starting price for an 11" model is $999, while the starting price for the 13" model is $1,299. The price for a "top of a range" machine powered by a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of DDR3 memory retails for $1,799! At this price, if a machine weighing more than a kilo doesn’t bother you, then you should think about getting a MacBook or 13” MacBook Pro (better configuration and connectivity options, greater battery life, etc.).