Aluminum Unibody Construction
Using the same technology Apple pioneered in its MacBook Pro line of portable Macs, the 2010 MacBook Air has a lightweight aluminum unibody construction.
Instead of building the MacBook Air’s case out of individual parts, Apple had the entire case milled from a single billet of aluminum. The result is an extremely rugged case that can stand up to abuse and punishment that would cause conventional designs to flex with fatigue and show bumps and bruises.
Flash-Based Storage
The 2010 MacBook Air eliminates all mechanical storage devices. You won’t find an optical disk or a standard spinning hard drive. Instead, the mass storage of choice is flash memory, the same type of storage used in the iPad and iPhones.
Flash memory has been around for computers for a few years now, most commonly in the SSD (Solid State Drive) form factor that’s a drop-in replacement for a hard drive. Apple chose to use naked flash memory, that is, flash RAM and a controller on a single memory module. This combination produces a much smaller form factor, which is ideal for the diminutive MacBook Air.
Battery Life
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs provide up to 30 days of standby time, so they can sleep for an extended time. The result is almost instant-on. Just flip the display open and your MacBook Air springs to life; there’s no bootup to slow you down when you’re ready to get to work.
The batteries can power the 11-inch MacBook Air for up to 5 continuous hours, and the 13-inch model for up to 7 hours.
USB-Based Reinstall
The MacBook Air has no internal optical drive. In the previous generation, this made reinstalling the OS or any of the supplied Apple applications a complex task. The 2010 MacBook Air gets around that whole issue with a USB flash drive that has OS X and Apple software applications preinstalled. If you ever need to reinstall the OS or any of the supplied applications, just plug the USB flash drive into your MacBook Air and you’re ready to go.
Expandability or the Lack Thereof
The MacBook Air is easy to tote around, but the tradeoff is that it’s not user upgradable. The build-to-order options are the only upgrades available, and they’re only available when you place your order. You can upgrade the processor, add up to 4 GB of RAM, and increase the size of the flash drive, but that’s about it.
The lack of user installable upgrades means you have to decide at purchase time how long you plan to keep the MacBook Air, and how you plan to use it. My advice is to increase the RAM to 4 GB no matter what, and base everything else on your specific needs.
Installing Software
Aside from the software Apple provides on the included USB flash drive, you’re going to need a way to install software on the MacBook Air. Sure, lots of software today is purchased and downloaded over the Internet, but in all likelihood you have install CDs or DVDs that you’ll need to use.
The MacBook Air includes a DVD/CD sharing application that lets you partner with another Mac or Windows computer and use its CD or DVD drive as if it were connected directly to the MacBook Air. The other option is to purchase an external USB-based optical drive.
Wireless Connectivity
The MacBook Air lacks a wired Ethernet port. Since the Air includes built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, this shouldn’t be a problem for most users. It can even be argued that a wired Ethernet port has no place on a computer whose name includes the word “air,” and is designed expressly for portable use. If you need to connect your MacBook Air to a wired network, you can do so with a USB/Ethernet dongle, which is available from Apple as well as many third-party manufacturers.
MacBook Air Best Usage
The MacBook Air is targeted at mobile professionals who want a lightweight Mac they can carry around easily. The Air probably isn’t a good choice to be your main computer, due to the small size of the flash storage, but it will excel at letting you use Mac applications and the data you haul around on business trips.
You may notice I said Mac applications. The ability to run Mac applications gives the MacBook Air a big advantage over competing small form factor devices that can only run iOS or Android equivalents, or the versions of Linux used on many netbooks.
