Bohemia Bunny

More hot air over the Macbook Air

January 19th, 2008 by lynnylchan under Comments

I just can’t let this topic go, can I.

Pictures from ASUS and Apple Singapore respectively.

While I would compare the Macbook Air to a Sony VAIO, since I only intend to use one laptop at a time, others are comparing it to the ASUS Eee PC, which also fills the small-and-useful niche of mobile computing, not to mention that they can both be secondary laptops. (Although as a previous commenter said, what would I do with a S$5000 secondary laptop.) Don’t laugh at the idea of secondary laptops - there are quite a number of people out there who use multiple computers and are considering the Eee to be their travel buddy while their workhorse stays at home.

Anyway, Mr Tony Smith of Register Hardware already made a comparison table pitting the tiny Eee against its bigger aluminium counterpart here. So I’ll be using that as the basis for my own in-depth comparison, from the user point of view. To make it a fair comparison, let’s assume that the Eee is also going to be the primary machine, but for casual users (i.e. no image processing, sound engineering etc.).

Screen size: The Eee has 7 inches, the Macbook Air has 13.3.

Screen resolution: Eee - 800 x 480, Macbook Air - 1280 x 800.

LED backlighting: Both have it.

Graphics: Both use integrated graphics cards that use system RAM. Eee - Intel GMA 900, Macbook Air - Intel X3100.

Visuals verdict: Squish! Obviously people would prefer a full-size screen over a (relatively) tiny 7-inch screen with correspondingly lower resolution. Take heart, Eee fans, for an 8.9-inch version was announced recently. LED backlighting helps a lot, so both machines have this right. The Macbook Air’s video card is the latest integrated solution from Intel, and should be sufficient as long as you’re not going to play first-person shooters on it. Oh, wait, what am I talking about - it’s a Mac.

Processor: Eee - Intel Celeron M @ 630MHz, Macbook Air - Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.6GHz.

Frontside bus: Eee - 400MHz, Macbook Air - 800MHz.

Memory: Eee - 512MB DDR2 @ 667 MHz, Macbook Air - 2GB DDR2 @ 667 MHz.

Processing verdict: The Mac takes the lead, an obvious result given that it costs so much and has custom-made Intel chips for a brain. But the Eee is Windows XP-compatible, and frankly its memory matches that of my Acer, on which I’m typing this. Firefox, a notorious memory-muncher, should be able to run fine on the Eee.

Storage: Eee - 2, 4, or 8GB solid-state drive (SSD); Macbook Air - 80GB hard drive or 64GB SSD.

Optical drive: Neither have one.

Card readers: Eee - accepts MMC, SD, SDHC cards; Macbook Air - none.

Storage and Media verdict: The SSD option on the Macbook Air is a very costly one, while the Eee comes with SSD by default. The storage space on the Eee is very limited, but SD cards are plenty cheap nowadays. And perhaps in the future, if the price of SSDs drops, you can open up the back of your Eee and chuck a new drive in. No such luck with the Macbook Air - the back is sealed. Of course, you could just stick with the 80GB traditional spinning hard-drive option, if you’re a careful person. 80GB is kind of small, though.

Full-size keyboard: Only the Macbook Air has one.

Typist verdict: The Eee’s tiny form factor has a correspondingly small keyboard, best suited for children and those with small hands. You definitely don’t want to consider prolonged typing on the Eee. On the other hand, you could perfect the art of “power computing” and type with one hand while the other holds the Eee in front of you, in a dynamic pose so favoured by the likes of advertisement stylists. But if there’s any typing work to be done, you definitely want a full-size keyboard, so the Mac takes this round.

USB ports: Eee - 3, Macbook Air - 1.

Video ports: Eee - VGA, Macbook Air - mini DVI.

Ethernet: Only the Eee has an Ethernet RJ-45 port.

Analog modem: Only the Eee has one of these.

Headphone socket: Both have one.

Mic socket: Only the Eee has one.

Pluggability verdict: The wafer-thin dimensions of the Macbook Air come with a price that’s negligible to some and terribly costly to others. If you don’t plug in a lot of peripherals (mouse, printer, thumbdrive, external hard drive in my case), one USB port should tide you over. But I think it’s such a lonely number. Even 2 would have been a decent compromise. On the other hand, why would you want to plug a mouse into the Macbook Air when you have multi-touch gestures on the touchpad?

Some people can’t take the loss of the Ethernet port, while others use Wi-Fi almost exclusively. You’d have to know your own usage patterns to decide which is best for you. Ideally I’d lounge on the bed and chat with my friends over IM on the Eee, but if the wireless gives out (which it sometimes does) I appreciate having that extra option so I can continue chatting. The analog modem may seem like a throwback for some people, but there are some households that still use dial-up, and the Eee’s budget price range is perfectly placed to cater to those households. Anyway it might come in useful if you’re trekking in paradise and all you can get is a phone line. This comes from personal experience, yah.

The video ports may not mean much to some people, I use mine maybe twice a year when I have to give presentations. VGA is the common port, so Mac users usually get a converter. I’m not sure if the Macbook Air has an onboard mic, but those things are definitely second-choice to a proper microphone. The Eee touts Skype as one of the included applications, so the mic socket seems to make sense.

This factor is one that’s highly idiosyncratic - the number and type of ports you need differ according to your usage pattern. But the Eee has more expansion capability out-of-the-box, without additional converters.

Wi-Fi 802.11g: Both support it.

Wi-Fi 802.11n: Only the Macbook Air supports it.

Bluetooth: Only the Macbook Air supports it.

WiMax: None yet, future Eees will support it.

Webcam: Eee - VGA resolution webcam, Macbook Air - no information on resolution.

3G, GPRS, HSPDA etc.: None.

Invisible Connections verdict: This is where the Air lives up to its name. It supports the latest Wireless-N standard, and has Bluetooth while the Eee doesn’t. On the other hand, WiMax-enabled Eees were also announced. Neither of them have cellular capabilities, so you can’t put in your cellphone SIM card and hitch onto the network when Wi-Fi lets you down. But honestly, I find cellular Internet connection plans to be on the pricey side, so I can live without that connectivity option. The Mac has the edge here, mostly because of Wireless-N and Bluetooth.

Manufacturer-claimed battery life: Eee - 3.5 hours, Macbook Air - 5 hours.

If you believe the claims, the Macbook Air seems to win out here, because of the longer life. On the other hand, it’s stuck with the factory-installed battery. The iPod battery issue crops up again here, and it’s not a pretty sight. I like my devices modular - one part breaking can be repaired without affecting the others. So the question to ponder is, how much do you trust the manufacturer to put together a good product?

In conclusion, I personally have a definite bias towards the Eee, because it’s cheap and hackable. I wouldn’t make it my primary machine because I am a pretty heavy user, but I’d let my cousins use it. How badly can they break it, anyway.

The Macbook Air is positioned as a primary machine, but in my opinion, it’s just lacking too many features to be able to take that post. It’s too incomplete to cost that much. Price is always going to be a sticking point, and it’s where most of the compromise is going to happen. Buyers don’t mind that the Eee isn’t a powerhouse, because the price is low. When you have sticker shock on the scale of S$5000, you’d better have a product to match.

Actually, now the S$4000 VAIO looks like a bargain next to the Macbook Air!