It has been about a week and one-half since I acquired by new 13″ MacBook Air but let me back-up a bit.  My 13″ MacBook met an ignominies end when I dumped a cup of coffee on the keyboard and track-pad.  Given that the MacBook was over 2 years old and the cost of repair was close to the replacement cost the decision was easy – acquire a new computer.

As is generally the case, there were options.  I could opt for the current 13″ MacBook Pro, other MacBook configurations or explore the MacBook Air offerings.  Given the way I use this computer, I quickly settled on either the 13″ MacBook Pro or the 13″ MacBook Air.  I must admit that the 11″ MacBook Air was tempting – lighter – but in the end the larger display won out.  So what were the pluses and minuses between the two 13″ options? The MacBook Air lacks an internal optical drive which I only use for loading new software and even that is becoming less of an issue as more and more of new software is downloaded rather than arriving on a CD. The $79.00 option for an external optical drive,provides all that I need.   Additionally, watching movies on a computer has never been one of my uses. There are fewer ports on the MacBook Air, but with 2 USB ports and the new Thunderbolt port, which offers two channels with speeds at 10 Gbps each, I decided the MacBook Air’s ports were sufficient. The new iteration of the MacBook Air added the back-lit keyboard that was the standard on the MacBook Pro.  At the end of the day two things sealed the deal for the MacBook Air – one the weight at just under 3 pounds, about 2 pounds less than the MacBook Pro, and second the Solid State Drive (SSD) instead of the traditional hard drive.  The SSD is so much faster it is hard to believe.  As is my want; I opted for the fastest processor, an i7 quad core, and a larger SSD, 256 Gig vs. the 128 Gig.

To date, I have no doubt that I made the right decision.  The MacBook Air comes up almost as fast as my iPad and as always the Apple keyboard is a delight.  As I noted in an earlier post with the MacBook Air, an iPad and iPhone my next desk computer will more than likely be a Mac.  This from someone that has been a PC person for almost 30 years.