MacBook Air, Pro: Fulltime Replacement for Desktop and Windows Laptops? [Video]

MacBook Air is less than a month old, and compared to the MacBook Pro, it is lighter and thinner which has made it the new everyday laptop for a standard consumer. The Pro, which arrived in February, is still in need of modifications as it has largely remained the same as that of Apple’s first Intel laptop nearly five years ago. But the power and the performance of both the devices could easily number the days for desktop and Windows laptops.

The MacBook Air has been designed for thinness. The device is lighter than other models in its class, with a glossy LED backlit display and a full-size keyboard. A large trackpad has been provided that responds to iPad-related multi-touch gestures such as pinching, swiping, and rotating. The trackpad also supports handwriting recognition and Chinese characters thanks to the Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

The latest Intel core processors, Intel i5 and i7, makes the Air, both 11- and 13-inch, up to 2.5x faster than its predecessors. MacBook Air also features the Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor, which includes an on-chip engine for video encoding and decoding, which means that the user will now experience smoother and responsive video playback and FaceTime calls.

The new Thunderbolt I/O has been introduced which makes data transfer lightning-fast. The MacBook Air peripherals is capable of transferring data up to 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0. There is also the option of using the Thunderbolt port to connect the new Apple Thunderbolt Display that can transform the MacBook Air into a desktop workstation.

The MacBooks provide a lot more than what a user gets in his normal everyday desktop and now with the addition of the Mac OS X Lion, the devices are expected to be one of the best in its class and light years ahead of what Windows have made until this point. Other manufacturing companies like Dell and Sony have previously tried to test their hands on a device like the Air. Dell has tried to compete with its previous Adamo XPS series while Sony has introduced its very own X505 series. Both were thinner compared to other in the same class at that time weighing just below two pounds, but still the devices didn’t sell. Critics said that maybe the devices were priced exorbitantly. Others, however, have blamed their battery life.

Dell later stopped the manufacturing of the Adamo series. This is where Apple has capitalized over the years and by 2010 it became the consumer’s primary choice when anyone mentioned laptop.

Apple’s MacBook Pro that arrived in 2006, in comparison, was largely a carryover from the PowerBook G4, but now used the Intel Core CPUs instead of PowerPC G4 chips. The 13-inch MacBook Pro now features a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 processor or the fastest dual-core processor available which is the 2.7GHz Intel Core i7. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor has now been included across the MacBook Pro lineup that encodes video quickly, making HD video calls with FaceTime possible and efficient decoding for DVDs and iTunes movies. Like the Air, MacBook Pro also delivers impressive battery life.

The battery life is further helped by the efficient processor architecture with an integrated video encoder which gives the user up to 7 hours of wireless web surfing on a single charge.

Apple has entirely made use of the fact that other manufactures have opted for a ‘MacBook killer’ and has created and dumped a lot of ideas along the years, like the Adamo series, while Apple has redefined its line of laptops making it more productive and fast concentrating on previous mistakes.

MacBook Air Vs. Pro [Video]