Michal Ždanský Last week Apple updated its MacBook Air line. The update itself was very modest and within the hardware, only one thing was improved - the processor, the clock of which was increased by 100 Mhz for all basic models. The second news was somewhat more positive, because Apple reduced the price of all models by $100, which was reflected in the Czech Republic by reducing prices by up to CZK 1.
Server & Hosting MacWorld tested the new MacBooks and compared them to the older models from last year that the update replaced. The test was conducted on two models with identical specifications, namely the basic 11-inch MacBook Air with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD and the 13-inch MacBook Air with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD. Both processor performance and disk speed were tested. As expected, increasing the clock rate brought little improvement, specifically 2-5 percent by operation, from Photoshop to Aperture to Handbrake.
The surprise, however, was the speed of the SSD disk, which is significantly slower compared to last year's model. Tests included copying, compressing and extracting a 6GB file. According to the table below, you can see that drives of the same capacity (lower capacity SSDs tend to be slower in general) showed a difference of tens of percent: 35 percent when copying and 53 percent when extracting a file. Blackmagic Speed Test also produced similarly worrying results, measuring 128/445 MB/s (write/read) for the 725GB drive on last year's model, while it was only 306/620 MB/s for the new model with the same capacity. There was a smaller difference with the 256GB disk, where last year's model showed values of 687/725 MB/s versus 520/676 MB/s of the updated version. Especially the 128 percent difference in write speed for the 30GB version is quite worrying.
Results are given in seconds, lower results are better. Best results are in bold.
The tests also revealed that the computers contained drives from a total of three manufacturers: Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk. It is the change of disk that could be behind the worse measurement results. So if you're planning to buy a new MacBook Air, we recommend getting the 2013 models on sale or waiting for a major update in the summer or fall.
hmm interesting To screw up PC performance like this is "disturbing" for Apple, for anyone else the article would be full of criticism and ridicule. Long live objectivity..
acquired or charged doesn't matter at all, and eating taunts or non-taunts doesn't matter either. What is important is how to work with Mac. It's now 5 months since I switched from Lenovo to Mac, and I still feel like working with Win was faster. How many times do I copy some files during standard work? I work with office - a replacement in the form of apps is useless, it cannot be compared to native win via parallels, and so far only outdated office is available for mac. The integration of Mac mail with the calendar is very sad compared to Outlook. Anyone who receives more than 5 invitations a week knows what I'm talking about.... this way i could write about other apps and ups and downs,…..i don't use graphics tools outside of iphoto so i can't compare graphics apps,……but using only standard tools is a very big downgrade in mac osx. Not to mention standard things like leaving the NB overnight connected to a monitor via HDMI, and in the morning the laptop just wakes up with a reboot….I could go on. So far my feelings about macbook pro are very mixed…. and I'm not even talking about development in cvh environments that are not ported to OSX and I have to use parallels, and when they are only via Java. I'm not even talking about VPNs. I expected more from apple. Maybe I'll figure it out
iWork is sufficient for the average user. But otherwise, beware of comparing free applications in OS X and the paid Office package.
IPhoto is not made for large graphic editing. It's more of a photo and album sorter. For graphics, try Aperture, for example.
After 1,5 years of suffering with the 13″ AIR, I have been working on win 2 / Dell 7 for 7440 months and I confirm everything you write. I think in time you will do the same as me….. MAC is in the office STUPID!!!
Well, you see, I have it the other way around. I ditched all Windows from the office and bought only iMacs and it's the best decision I've made in IT.
I bought a 13″ AIR 8GB RAM last year and my enthusiasm knows no bounds. I use NeoOffice, previously I used OpenOffice on windows and I have no problems.
To this day, on the other hand, it makes me sick at work that MS Word 2003 does not open a file from the latest MS Office. And earlier, when I was working on a laptop at night and went to look for a dictionary, I come and a sweet message appears on the monitor that it has updated and restarted without my permission, regardless of the written text. And that face of the last office, friends, it's a world in pictures and disgust and I'm not even able to save a file there because I can't find anything.
I also remember MS Outlook, which was able to generate a file with an archive of messages of unlimited size, even if you deleted and deleted messages... I preferred to get The Bat for my laptop.
At work, I work on windows until now and I enjoy the stuck win 7 and the daily messages about the wrongly set memory size. And a few days ago, they bought a new iron next to it so that they don't have XP there, and after reviving and installing win 7, not a single printer or scanner works. Just move on from it.
HP and Asus laptops I had before (HP had Vista and that's a treat, it would paralyze any IT cannon in the Pentagon) - something between a home baker and a vacuum cleaner compared to the AIR.
In short, exorcism and Windows are not allowed on my laptop and I am very satisfied.
Try to compare Mail with the built-in Windows Mail, not with the commercial Outlook. If you need something extra for e-mails, there is nothing preventing you from choosing another more suitable application even in OSX.
..yeah, I tried that, Now I use two applications to be sure: mail and postbox. I spent several days trying several emails. I was willing to pay on the order of $50 for a good mail/calendar application, but I couldn't find one. Maybe I'm vainly focusing on when the new Office for Mac comes out, and I might do what Mr. Skořep writes a little earlier than he does.
Well, he won't let me, and I have to contribute too. I switched from a dell xps 1330 (SSD drive) with win 7 to a 15″ MB Pro. The difference in speed is huge. I used Thunderbird for email and I am delighted with the Apple mail application. Speed, clarity, search… better in every way. Calendars without problems, I don't know what you see as a problem. I'm struggling a bit with Finder and file management.. it's just different, and I have quite a mess on my disk so far, but I'll give up. The office package is sufficient for my needs, even for my simple documents it is better and more intuitive (but I had to stop looking for things as they are in office and look at the options of iWork) Otherwise, it works as it should, and I like that about it. I open and go. Updates on windows quite often threw something at me and I killed the whole day just by looking for the right new driver, etc. I run native win applications in wine. Although it is not as convenient as in win, but I learned to use it and they are enough. The problems you describe with the Mac are subject to complaints :) I don't see anything like that. What's wrong with VPN? I would say that the VPN and the network in general is at a higher level in OSX than in Win.
I fully agree with both, the difference between any PC/laptop and a Mac is like heaven and earth. However, this does not change the fact that the newer generation of anything, especially from Apple, should be "better" in every way.
Writing, for example, "we have reduced the price of the main Mac Pro series by 600 USD" and then after disassembling it to find out that there is an undersized resource, less powerful graphics or a Celeron processor, people would probably not like it either, right? Of course, I'm exaggerating here, but it's a matter of principle.
I am the owner of an 11″ 2013 MBA and I was surprised WHY they even put a slower SSD in the 11tek? The HW is completely identical, so it can be seen that they probably just wanted to save money (if it is possible in this direction). An IPS display, which every Chinese phone today has for a few crowns?
Otherwise, Rob's laptop probably needs a complaint, I have HDMI connected more or less all the time - I only use the internal LCD in bed, otherwise it's closed and goes through the external display. The problems never appeared either.
However I agree with openVPN, yes Apple has a great but proprietary solution. If I want to log in via openVPN* to one of my/company's servers based on Linux, I have to use 3rd party applications - not that it bothers me, but it's unnecessary in my opinion.
*- why the hell is it called openVPN when Apple does it their way? That is, let them do it that way, but let them also provide the option to connect to open-source servers.
Well, the MacBook Air display is quite a pain. The Air even has a worse display than the previous mid-2010 MacBook Pro. Just a stupid TN panel with poor color fidelity.
Jono, it's a shame, I don't think this is an investigation in the "right place"
But Outlook and Office for Mac is not Apple's fault, but rather Microsoft's. If Office 2014 comes out this year the same as Office 2013 for Windows, maybe a lot will change for you.
Well, I can't help but ask, because somehow I can't decipher your thought processes. You work with Office and, according to your description, Windows suited you. These alone are already 2 arguments why to stay with them. So why did you get a Mac? You write that you expected more. So you didn't find out anything in advance and you expected that there would be almost identical programs on the Mac, that there would be a free version of Outlook that would run without problems in the closed MS infrastructure (Exchange) and would work for you, or what led you to the Mac ? Forgive the slight irony, but I really don't get it. And I would also like to know what killer feature the new Office has that you lack on the Mac, because when I'm on Win, I'm still using the 2003 version, and unlike many other people I've met, I can use those programs . As for the Mac itself, I've had it for several years and the reason I switched was not because it's "cool" or because someone led me to it (which is what I'm getting at unfortunately with you), but because I was grossly dissatisfied with Win , which I consider to be a full bag of problems, and after about 15 years of solving their unfinished business, I said to myself that I don't need it anymore. I don't know the problems you describe with HDMI, I don't even know any problem with VPN, because the network tools are implemented in OS X about a galaxy better than the chaos on Win. On the other hand, it would not be enough for me to list the three things that caused me to turn gray every day, especially with Win. I open the Macbook and do it in a second, Win often wasn't even capable of this basic requirement. You just couldn't rely on them, and when you're in a hurry, for example, their typical mannerisms like "I'm waiting and I don't know what to do" are killing. Of course, OS X is not perfect, and I can find a whole range of objections, but it is, in any case, different, for me personally it is much more predictable, controllable and readable with a sophisticated system of keyboard shortcuts, where it is not in different programs in the style of each dog is different, as is the custom win. The UNIX base and powerful tools like applescript or automator allow me to do practically anything, especially to simplify my work. In Win, there is no zigzag, and you can go sliding. Of course, the knowledge of everything did not come immediately, the basis was to get rid of the usual idea of a switcher that OS X is Windows with a different skin, it really is not.
The test is mainly not completely objective, there were screenshots from the test somewhere and the older one had a lot of space on the disk, while the new one was quite full.
As I watched the videos, the size of the SSD is also decisive. Write speed is weaker anyway
It almost seems like a lottery, depending on what manufacturer the drive is from, does the performance vary quite a bit? Size matters, but how much?
It's not such a horror. Especially when you realize that even the slowest SSD will still be about 10x faster than a hard disk. But on the other hand - it could be even faster, right... In addition, SSDs can still be replaced in Airy, and for example OWC makes relatively decent replacements in terms of the speed/size/price ratio.