Requirements - I5, 500 GB, Full HD, ultra thin form factor, light weight and uber cool:) budget 40k neg. Optional a touch screen as it seemed the in thing.
I am a regular home user. I had a Sony Vaio I3 machine which was stolen and hence decided I will buy a minimum of an I5 due to the performance issues I faced with my Sony Viao.
Exploration - I somehow predecided that Dell would be my choice due to the support and price they are popular for, still wanted to explore. The first one to decide to buy was an Asus which had met all my requirements of the config, size, weight and portability. On further digging Lenovo flex met all my needs at around 48k. Most of the current 2014 models are bulky and the ultra books are non existent. I did not find any sleek and thin laptops in the market, even if they were shamefully priced around a lakh.
When I bought the Vaio I had planned to use it for both home use, for installing SAP and may be some kind of R & D, in practicality nothing was done either due to the slowness of the system or my laziness.
With lack of options in the Windows world and my heart on Macbook air for ages, decided to explore the Apple range. While I always prefer the ultra complicated, most advanced, most expensive configuration when it comes to electronics, the sleek design of Air let me eliminate the PRO models instantly.
Finally I broke into the Apple world with my purchase of a 13inch Macbook Air two months back.
The Experience - Anybody with an eyesight and bare minimum common sense would agree that the Air is the most sexy looking laptop, ultra thin form factor, sleek design, feather light weight, space age looking aluminium body will definitely sweep anyone.
Display - In common language the whites are really white and the blacks are really black, this sets apart from the other competitors, the display is not retina but is satisfactory if you are not obsessed with ultra definition movies or photos. 1440*900 is still better than some of the 90k models I saw. The fonts are very clear, can’t compare again with retina.
Performance - I never knew macs boot up and shutdown such ultra fast. Good news for lazy ones is that you don’t really need to shutdown your mac, the sleep mode is pretty effective. I do shut it down in the conventional way:). For day to day use you will never feel its not powerful enough or wouldn’t even feel that you should have gone for a Pro model. The graphics are very smooth, you can find it out when browsing your pictures that the zoom in literally takes no time and is silky. I am not a gamer so I haven’t tried any high def games. Tried watching some movies in HD and pretty satisfied, its just that the defined config says its not full hd and you imagine it might be better, but I dint find the movies or my camera pictures less clearer than the full hd TV / playstation I have. Hours of use or abuse I don’t see any heat coming out, this is opposite in contrast to my Sony Vaio which literally used to burn my thighs, and was worst when it was being charged. Wifi range is good, it detects different wireless networks which I normally don’t see on my dell, not a good example but never felt that wifi was weak. The inbuilt camera is decent, though I have not facetimed yet.
Battery - Needless to say I think this is the longest running laptop with around 7-11 hours of normal use. I recently upgraded to Yosemite version of the Mac OS and seems like the battery is draining quicker now, but initially it easily gave me around 9 hours with normal use. The charge happens in less than an hour.
Storage - This is the most pathetic part of the Mac air - it has a meagre 128 / 256 option which is very expensive. When I unpacked the Mac free space was around 90Gb. I still had to consider this due to the price difference and spent additional 4k on an external hard disk which I hate to connect as it defeats the purpose of ultra portability. The data transfer though I don’t have exact test numbers, pretty decent. The SSD doesn’t generate any noise or vibrations.
Usability - I have used windows all my life starting from ver 3, but surprisingly this migration was pretty easy, I dint find it difficult at all infact now I don’t feel the need of the mouse, I am still yet to learn all the keyboard shortcuts. So prospective buyers don’t need to worry about the usability. The track pad has multi gesture, which I have noticed windows has copied recently, but these multi gesture moves eliminate the need of mouse.
Compatibility - For home users who are mostly into browsing, shouldn’t have an issue, The innovative lot who explore trying to install a variety of windows apps will find it an issue on the Mac. Most of the applications have a version for the Mac and hence shouldn’t be an issue. Almost all the devices should comfortably connect to the Mac, so feel free to connect those camera’s, phones, tabs etc.
Price - This is a mixed feeling for me, I strongly feel if it atleast had around 256 gb in the base model, undoubtedly this is the best looking, high performing sleek laptop in all of the ultrabooks available. If there are no issues for the next two years then definitely its value for money as with most of the win upgrades you would have noticed you need a faster system.
Overall - I would like to conclude that is the most beautifully built laptop I have ever seen, one can just stare at the body for hours, the performance is equally great and not just the looks or the brand value. If you don’t want a basic model and have a bit of money to spare then definitely there is no need to have a second thought to buy this.