Apple MacBook Air MD231ll/A 13-Inch Laptop

I am a 43 year old lifetime PC user, and am writing this review using my Mac Air. I still use my PC, mostly for gaming, and also for work, as we use all MS software for email, etc. This laptop is great for portability, as I travelled home from CO to WA state with this instead of my ASUS gaming laptop this year. Boy what a difference in bulk and weight. As for whether Macs are a must for general PC users, I would have to say no. But if you are on the fence, let me tell you what else I like about this little puppy compared to my PCs.Simplicity: Learning to use a Mac effectively is kind of like knowing Spanglish, but wanting to speak fluent Spanish. You will need to put some time and effort into it, but if you are familiar with the way computers work, it's not re-learning the system, more of a tweak to using it. And once you do learn, Macs are far more simple and functional, with less options for doing things and more intuitive commands.Efficiency: Just as the above reasons make a Mac easier to use, they also make things faster and more effective. The lack of options translates into less decisions about how to tackle commands, navigating, and use of programs. If you like being able to do one thing 10 different ways, and want to choose for yourself, then stick with a PC. If you trust the Apple designers, and believe Apple knows what they are doing (after using a Mac, I for one do) then the Mac beats the PC for pure efficiency of time and key clicks.Portability: Already covered up there at the top, but seriously, this thing is tiny. I haven't had an issue with the size yet (13" screen), but I do often find myself using the full screen mode when in browsing windows, and I haven't yet mastered navigating between them, so it's clunkier than on my PC, but I'm still learning my Spanish, so to speak. People with a netbook or one of the newer thin laptops or the Surface will not find any advantage in using the Mac, other than perhaps computing power, but I have no experience with other comps this size, so I will leave that to someone else.Esthetics: If you have a little extra jingle to throw around, and looks matter for your comp, apple is hard to beat. My Air looks cool, and I do feel cool using it, even if it's only in my spare bedroom pretending to be a budding novelist (only a matter of time, and more effort than I'm putting in now :) My sister recently acquired a Surface, and they are pretty slick as well, but I don't think they are quite the full functioning computer that a laptop is. I may be wrong about that, and if they are, then the Esthetics advantage Apple holds may be in danger, as the Surface looks pretty slick. Not quite as "artsy" but definitely cool from a high tech perspective.Bottom line: It's a good investment for non-graphics user if you want to simplify your computer world, or you want full functionality in a very portable package. From what I've read, if you use graphics intensive programs, then the Mac is far and away the better product, but again, I will let someone more knowledgable than I speak about that. Unless downloading pictures from my iPhone counts :0)

I want to like this laptop for what it is: an unbelievably smooth, lightweight, fast computer. Unfortunately I've had to exchange this device three times, each time seemingly better than the last but not without problems. Suffice it to say the first unit had dead pixels, the second wasn't properly sealed and the bottom would creak when used. The third and longest lasting of the group is fine except for two issues: it doesn't stay asleep (randomly knocking me off IM conversations on my desktop) and it constantly has issues with the audio wherein things that should make sound do not. The system makes noise, like when adjusting volume levels, but frequently Adium or Chrome or another application will just not play sounds. Couple this with AirPlay audio randomly failing and I'm not that pleased. Only a reboot seems to fix the issue. This appears to be documented as an issue with the OS, but doesn't affect everyone so it's hard to say.It's minor in of itself but when it happens nearly on a daily basis I'm a bit put off. So I'm going to try my 4th and final unit. If the issues persist I'll drop my review, if not then it's a 5 star winner.Pros:++Lightweight++Fantastic battery life+Fast, thanks to SSD+Backlit keyboard+Amazing trackpadCons:-Edges are a bit sharp, can be painful to hold in certain circumstances-Bottom is aluminum so it can and will slide on your lap--Build quality and buggy software that should have been fixed by nowOS is a draw for me, I like Windows better for some things (gaming, file management), MacOS for other things (photography, general browsing). If you're familiar with MacOS this is what you'd expect only better/worse with some regards (performance and battery life/build quality and bugs).

This is my first Apple computer and without a doubt the best computer I have ever owned! The keyboard feels amazing - I actually type faster and more accurately. The variable keyboard backlighting is also great. The trackpad actually does what I tell it too (imagine scrolling without fighting your computer!), the display is great, speakers are surprisingly good, wakes up almost as fast as an iOS device for quick note taking, and the App Store has great free or inexpensive utilities (like Better Snap Tool so you can easily do the half-screen split introduced in Windows 7, but better, of PDF Toolbox Star for splitting up and combining PDF documents without having to buy Adobe Acrobat Pro). Office 2011 works great and is more stable than Windows versions of Office. In the future I may switch to iWork, we'll so how that progresses. SolidWorks ran better on this using VMWare Fusion than on campus Windows machines. The battery life is just unreal and doesn't die unexpectedly - you always know exactly how much charge you have left. iMovie and GarageBand are excellent bonuses (I don't do photo editing so I can't speak for iPhoto). Having iMessage on here is fantastic and it does FaceTime amazingly. One of my absolute favorite things is getting frequent and meaningful OS updates and NEVER having my computer shut down on me because stupid Windows update doesn't shut down my computer in the middle of working on something. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get over that, I'm sure you'll never want to go back either. I also recommend getting an external hard drive for backup (about $70 for an awesome 1.5TB pocket hard drive with USB 3.0) and since the 128GB isn't that big anyway. You know you should be doing backups anyway, right? Files transfers are often instantaneous when using a USB 3.0 ready hard drive. Buy a MacBook Air!

Produto realmente novo! Atendimento da loja muito bom! Quando precisei de um suporte foram super prestativos.