The iPad leaves us gasping for Air
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 27 May 2010
The eve of the iPad’s touchdown in the UK (and yes, you bet your ass we have one lined up for delivery tomorrow) is an opportune time to turn our attention to Apple’s other ultra-portable computer: the MacBook Air. How does our venerable travel companion of the last year or so compare to its headline-stealing sibling, the iPad?
We’re fully aware that conventional wisdom says you can’t compare these two devices. The Air is three times the price of the iPad. The iPad is about two thirds the size of the Air. The Air runs Mac OS, the iPad runs iPhone OS. The iPad is a media-focussed tablet, the Air is a fully-fledged computer. But you know what? What it comes down to is this: putting aside the cost (and if you’re reading TPG, we’re going to assume that, like us, all too often you do put aside the cost), if you were about to set off on a trip and you had the choice of either the Air or the iPad, you’d have to make a decision about which one came with you. Once you’ve wrapped your iPad in a case (we don’t see how else you could carry it around), the Air and the iPad are going to take up about the same amount of space and weigh about the same in your bag. So, which one do you slip in your hand luggage? Generally speaking, we reckon the iPad is the easy choice (even more elegant than the Air, longer-lasting battery, instant-on) but Cupertino’s truly stunning laptop still has huge appeal. Here’s why:
- Doing….eh, anything productive at all: Anyway you slice it, being productive means typing. The iPad’s on screen keyboard looks like it will be even better than the iPhone’s and we have no doubt we’ll feel very comfortable banging out tweets and short emails on it but you simply can’t beat the tactile feedback afforded by a physical keyboard. And the Air’s keyboard is amongst the best around. And by that we don’t mean the best notebook keyboards but the best keyboards period – better, in our view, than the keyboard on the regular MacBook or Apple’s Bluetooth wireless keyboards that we also use regularly. The Air’s keys just have that extra little bit of travel and resistance that are perfectly judged and make them a joy to type on.
- Multi-tasking: Yes, we know, iPhone OS is bringing multi-taking to the iPad. Eh, except it’s not really is it? What you’ll get is a very slick and elegant way of switching between applications you’re currently using and being returned to the exact place you left them. That’s great for the iPhone – its limited screen size makes anything more ambitious than that simply unrealistic. On the iPhone, you need to focus on one thing at a time. But on a proper mobile computing platform, the option of having, say, a Word document open in one window which you’re reading and taking notes on in a email in another window is a real benefit. Good luck doing that on an iPad.
- Storage: Our MacBook Air has 128GB of onboard storage – that’s flash-based storage just like the iPad: no moving parts, no noise, ultra-fast. The largest capacity iPad? 64GB. Simply put: the Air allows us to carry twice as many movies, photos and music than the iPad. A no-brainer.
- Video-conferencing: To everyone’s immense surprise, the iPad doesn’t have a built-in camera for video-conferencing. We suspect Jobs and Co. will address this in the next-generation model (it’s just such an obviously useful feature for a device like this) but, for now, the Air is the only one that allows you to use iChat and Skype for video conferencing while on the road.
- Output options: Yes, we know, two ports – one USB port and one A/V out – isn’t much. But guess what? It’s two ports more than the iPad gives you. You’ll be able to get adaptors for the iPad to do the same of course, but it’s nice to know you can plug any USB peripheral directly into the Air or just as easily plug an external monitor into it.
- Watching movies: The Air is sublime as a media player. The convenience of the hinge combined with the lightness of the device and the (comparatively) large screen makes it the perfect move watching companion. Prop it on your knee, in bed, on a desk and you’ll always find the right angle. We haven’t, eh, gone to bed with an iPad yet but we know from anecdotal accounts that having to hold it or prop it up for long periods make it less able as a movie-player than our Air.
- Web browsing, reading email, perusing photos: When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad he talked about how “magical” it was to hold the internet in your hands and how “you won’t believe how natural it feels to interact with it just by touch”. No doubt. But here’s the other side to that coin: once you’ve got over the initial “wow!” moment of being able to touch the web, fondle your photos and stroke your emails, you’re going to realise that there are some drawbacks too: the screen will smudge and – by definition – if you’re touching what you’re looking at, you’re also obscuring it. Contrast that with the superb multi-touch implementation on the Air and you have to ask which one is really the superior solution long term. You see the Air’s trackpad allows you to scroll, to flick and to manipulate your photos with gestures in much the same way as the iPad. We’d say it’s at least 80% as intuitive as touching the screen itself with the added benefit that you’re not smudging or obscuring what you’re looking at. And because the Air is so light, thin and small, it’s nearly as intimate as using an iPad.
We’ve singled out some specific features above with which the Air thrashes the iPad but there’s a more fundamental point here. With the iPad you get a very slick and intuitive media consumption device that, when needed, will also allow you to do ‘creation’ tasks in short bursts. With the Air, you get a fully equipped, no excuses necessary, Mac OS system, complete with all the software goodness and add-ons that that implies. To that you can add a phenomenal keyboard, (relatively) big screen and the flexibility provided by built-in cameras and ports. Oh, and you get all that wrapped in the sexiest laptop body that any computer maker has ever created: line the iPad next to the MacBook Air and the older, more conventional sibling doesn’t need to make any excuses about its looks.
Don’t get us wrong, we think the iPad absolutely has its place and we’re as excited as the rest of Geekville – probably more so – about its arrival tomorrow. All we’re saying is this: in all the furore over the iPad, it’s easy to forget that Apple already offers the best all-round ultra-portable computing device on the planet. That won’t change with the arrival of the iPad. It’s called the MacBook Air and it leaves us breathless.
The iPad leaves us gasping for Air
The eve of the iPad’s touchdown in the UK (and yes, you bet your ass we have one lined up for delivery tomorrow) is an opportune time to turn our attention to Apple’s other ultra-portable computer: the MacBook Air. How does our venerable travel companion of the last year or so compare to its headline-stealing [...]
9 Responses to “The iPad leaves us gasping for Air”
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To be fair, what we were trying to say in the post is that the iPad will NEVER be better than the Air. They’re very different devices. And if you want the most competent all-round, ultra-portable computing, then the Air is the way to go.
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[...] before our iPad arrived, we had a clear idea about its limitations and why, ultimately, the MacBook Air was the more complete solution for mobile computing. Considering the huge disparity in price and the more focussed, more limited purpose of the iPad, [...]
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Tim
28 June 2010
I SEARCHED TONS OF GOOGLE ARTICLES AND THIS ONE EXPLAINED IT ALL, JUST THE WAY I NEEDED TO HEAR IT! you RoCK!!!
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Very kind of you Tim – thanks.
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One year since Apple announced the iPad « The Prodigal Guide
28 January 2011
[...] problem that didn’t exist. Here at The Guide, the imminent arrival of the iPad prompted us to reflect on how great the MacBook Air is. After spending some time with it, we were smitten just like everyone else. That’s not to say [...]
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J
8 May 2011
I have a Macbook Pro 13 with a 2.4GHZ processor in it, that is one of my biggest problems with the Macbook Air, which has 1.6GHZ I think. Hopefully the next generation will have more power.
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Processor speed isn’t the whole story. For most common tasks (email, web browsing, writing), the Air feels faster than it looks on paper.
The solid state drive is so much faster than a disc-based drive with moving parts that most day-to-day tasks feel very snappy indeed.
Of course, if you’re doing more processor intensive stuff (e.g., editing video), there’s no getting around the fact that a faster processor is needed. In which case, the Air is not for you anyway. That’s why they make the Pro…
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J
20 May 2011
The Air is a very nice design, and even has more ppi than the Macbook Pro 13, however, the MBP upgraded with a SSD, and the stock 2.4GHZ (or higher) is a better option for performance. Plus, the MBP screen has a better color gamut, which by itself makes it a better option than the Air for those of us who need to edit photos.
James Robertson
27 May 2010
Good to see a review that offers an honest, critical view of the iPad… – like you I am desparate to get my hands on this kit, but it looks like the old adage of “never, ever buy version 1; wait for the version 2 bugfix – but in Apple’s case version 3 where the basics are sorted” is truer than ever.