So yeah, I bought an Air yesterday. Blame five beers at the BarCamp, then two more at Cafe Agogo afterwards, just to round things out. Also blame Liteware’s rather enticing cash-only deal. Also blame the grand experiment I’ve been carrying out over the past 3.5 years, i.e., the search for total work mobility. (Yeah, I’m big on blaming everything except myself.) I’ve been using laptops exclusively since 2005, and the Air represents my fifth attempt at finding The Perfect Mobile Machine.
The whole idea started back in 2005 when I bought the TC1100, HP’s second-generation TabletPC clunker that tried (and mostly failed) to fuse a pen-based form-factor with the Windows operating system. Bad idea all around, and the thing moved like a dog most of the time. About the only thing good about it was that it weighed less than 4 pounds, and was only about 11 inches across. Great for throwing into some random bag at a moment’s notice. However, the act of actually bringing it out and working with it was a total annoyance. It took over 10 seconds to wake up from sleep, and was sluggish for the succeeding 30 seconds. (This would not be such a big deal if the whole TabletPC concept weren’t all about having something to take quick notes with.) It bears mentioning though, that the TabletPC is the only machine I’ve ever used that I could work comfortably with for more than 5 minutes while in a standing position.
After about a year of suffering through that, I decided that I had had enough of Microsoft in general and splurged for a second-gen Macbook Pro. At the time (this was late 2006), 2gb of RAM seemed like a ridiculous excess. Without throwing too many fanboy superlatives around—Mac OS is the single best computing experience out there right now, no contest. The amount of care and detail that has gone into polishing every aspect of the interface is just unparalleled. It also helps that the length of time it takes to resume from sleep is roughly equivalent to how long it takes you to open the lid fully.
That said, the Macbook Pro is more of a desktop replacement than a real mobile machine. It weighs a little over 5.5 pounds, and traveling around with the charger and a full complement of cabling and accessories was not fun. It’s built like a tank, and although extremely svelte for its class, is still pretty darned bulky. Also (and this was a well-documented flaw), it got uncomfortably warm on your lap, which made it a lot less flexible in the “work-anywhere” department.
So after about a year of that, I started reading about ASUS’ new ultra-mobile/ultra-affordable solution and decided I’d like to give that a shot. People who know me personally have heard me rant eloquently many a time about my problems with the EeePC. Don’t get me wrong: it has extremely reasonable specs for the amount of money I paid (less than PhP17,000, spread out over 6 months—that’s cheaper than my phone!). However, I feel that it missed the mark on too many areas, not the least of which is the fact that it can’t sleep for shit. And by that I mean, if you leave it in sleep mode for several hours, you’ll most likely come back to a dead EeePC. Maybe there’s a software fix somewhere out there for this issue, but I never found one and mostly lost interest after awhile. (And in case you think that’s standard behaviour, it isn’t. It’d take a couple of days to run down your average Macbook’s battery in sleep mode.)
Typing was a pain in the ass as well, and the fact that it was so modest in the processor department meant that running multiple applications was like dragging icons through molasses. I like the fact that it came pre-installed with practically a lot of good software, and I certainly liked the weight and size of it. Less than 3 pounds and 8 inches across. This is still the only machine I can carry around in my (ahem) man-purse.
6 months passed after the EeePC purchase, and it was about time to upgrade the old Macbook Pro. The line had been revamped twice since I bought my first, and the current series had faster processors, better video chipsets and twice the storage. syndeo::media managed to purchase a bunch of machines at a discounted price, so I actually saved a little bit of money this time around. (The money I did save just ended up going to directly to RAM; I had my rig bumped up to 4gb as soon as I got it.)
Granted, the MBP was still really a desktop replacement, and had a total traveling weight of about 10 pounds (including peripherals and whatnot). It’s good exercise I suppose.
So finally we arrive at the Air, which I’ve spent a total of about 48 hours with as of this writing. : about three pounds and thin enough to slip into a manila envelope. (When I bought it, they actually gave me a faux manila-envelope to carry it around in, which I happily did for several hours until I realized that I was acting like a total twat, and that if I weren’t me, I’d hate me.) The keyboard is full-size, the battery lasts over 4 hours if you know how to conserve it, and although it’s the slowest Mac in the family it’s optimized enough for the sort of thing I need to do that you don’t notice it all that much. I’ve had quite a bit of experience with various entries in the Apple line over the years, and the fit and finish on this thing up close is still hard to believe.
It’s too early to tell if I’ve finally found the perfect mobile machine here. I do know that my hunt over the past few years has allowed me to discover some unexpected uses for the other machines I’ve tried. The TabletPC mostly hangs around near my bed these days; its size and form factor make it the perfect ebook reader. The EeePC fits in my glove compartment, so I ended up with an “emergency” computer in the car. I got around the inherent power issues the EeePC has by keeping a Belkin Power Inverter in the vehicle at all times. And of course the MBP is where all the heavy-duty work gets done. The Air is going to be an interesting beast, as it can comfortably do half of my daily tasks – project management, client communication and some light engineering work. I don’t think it’d be up to the other half though, which involves working with Creative Studio and other heavy duty applications.
It turns out that at the heart of the whole concept of work mobility is the singular question: how much can you shed in terms of features and functionality, and still be able to do your work properly? The Air makes a ton of sacrifices in the functionality department (no DVD-ROM drive, no Ethernet, etc), but some people are willing to live without those things for a smaller, lighter overall package. Personally, the only time I ever use a DVD-ROM drive these days is when I’m reinstalling Mac OS X, which has happened to me exactly once (when I sold my old unit and needed to reset the whole system). And I can’t remember the last time I needed to use an Ethernet jack to get online. For some people, those things would be show-stoppers, so your own mileage will almost certainly vary.
I’ve set up the MobileMe service so that the MBP and the Air can synchronize Documents and other PIM data automatically. All of our work is stored in remote online repositories already, so I don’t have to worry about syncing code. My plan over the next few weeks is to leave the MBP at home (which is where most of the real work gets done these days), and bring the Air around when I meet the rest of syndeo team or go to various appointments. It means I can get away with carrying a much lighter backpack with me. Also, the fact that it’s insufferably good-looking is a pleasant bonus.