I have mentioned before that I’ll be posting more about my experiences with my MacBook Air. Too bad I got tied up with work and a lot has happened since that last post.
So how was my usage for the past 4 months and a half? One word: Fantastic! The MacBook Air’s combination of hardware and software supremacy made it very ideal for the way I work. Here are my reasons:
1. Multiple Desktops
In my previous post, you can see all the clutter that I have on my screen – multiple web browsers and other opened apps. I found out a couple of days after that I can add more desktops, meaning I can segregate utilities and apps in different windows. I’ve been wanting to have different desktops for different tasks or occassions, quite similar to HTC Scenes on HTC’s Android line-up. With all the jobs I’m taking, having several desktops let me arrange them per task. On Desktop 1, I have a couple of Chrome browsers with several webtools opened, as well as Excel spreadsheets and Notepad. Desktop 2 has Firefox open for my other webtools that work specifically for that browser, while Desktop 3 has some of my other notepad files opened for another project. I’ve assigned personal stuff on Desktop 4 with the Safari browser as my choice and Desktop 5 with multimedia stuff like iTunes. That said, I’m able to organize well with all the jobs I juggle around.
2. Trackpad
The MacBook Air’s trackpad is the widest trackpad I’ve ever used compared to my other laptops over the past several years. However, size is not really the point here but the multi-touch gestures. I got used to the gestures quite easily and man, I swore I will never use a mouse anymore! Scrolling pages is never been this easy and fun. I can also scroll from one desktop to another by swiping my fingers on its trackpad. Since it has multi-touch, I’m able to easily drag links to the other tabs of the web browser, as well as copy and paste texts in a jiffy. I would like to think that my productivity level of using the MacBook Air’s trackpad is similar to the usual Windows laptop with a mouse.
3. Backlit Keyboard
I like working in the dark. My previous laptops made it a bit (yes, a bit. i can type at least 70 WPM blindfolded!) harder for me to work if I don’t have any lights on. I can also turn off the brightness if I don’t need it.
4. Lightweight
I work at least 15 hours a day and I thought getting an 11″ MacBook Air for that kind of usage is a bad idea. So I decided to shell out more moolah to get the 13″. I’ve used quite a number of 14″ laptops before and they were indeed heavy (my office-issued Lenovo was the heaviest), lugging them around from one place to another was sometimes a pain in my shoulder. I don’t even like the idea of putting them on my lap. The 13″ Air is a different story and I wouldn’t have to stress enough how light it is to bring especially during my travels. What I would like to stress though is this – it’s the only full-sized machine I enjoy working on my lap even for the whole day!
5. Battery-Life
5 to 5.5 hours unplugged, WiFi on with all the browsers and utilities turned on as mentioned above. My previous laptops average 3 hours tops. Need I say more?
There are other stuff not mentioned in this post that made my use of the MacBook Air really pleasant. But these 5 points I’ve made sums up why I declared purchasing Apple’s ultrabook is the wisest investment I’ve ever made among all my mobile devices.
