If you have been looking to buy a laptop, especially an ultrabook like a Macbook Air, you might want to consider the updated Macbook Air. True, it’s a minor improvement over the 2013 version, as compared to the upcoming Macbook Air models, whereby Apple hired a watchmaker to help reduce the size of the Macbook Air even further.
Why get a Macbook Air : Speed Bump and Price Drop
But with a minor speed bump in terms of processor speed and processor from the 1.3GHz Core i5-4250U to the 1.4GHz Core i5-4260U as part of the Haswell refresh. While this comes in the middle of the traditional June major update, which might see a Retina Display 12 inch Macbook Air released as rumoured, perhaps problems with rumoured Intel Broadwell CPUs being integrated into the latest Macbook Air might cause this update to be significant.
However, with price drops of USD 100 in the United States, we would only see a minor drop of RM 100 over here in Malaysia. But upon currency conversion, we still get our Macbook Air laptops slightly cheaper here in Malaysia.
Why get a Macbook Air : Longer hours compared to Windows 8
However, we still recommend the current Macbook Air compared to it’s competitors. After all, the Macbook Air 11 inch comes with an industry leading 9 hours, while the 13 inch Macbook Air comes with, beat this, 12 hours. This is partly due to the Intel Haswell chip, but mainly due to the OSX Mavericks. When an OSX Mavericks 13 inch Macbook Air was tested along a similar spec Windows 8 installed and booted on a 13 inch Macbook Air, they found the number of hours dropped from 14 hours (optimum conditions) to only 8 hours!
And while it might not mean a lot to some of you, but for us road warriors, who have to multitask, while getting a host of work done, the amount of effort Apple has put in prolonging the battery life is commendable to say the least.
Why get a Macbook Air : Free OSX Upgrades vs expensive Windows 8
Add to that the fact that upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 can cost around USD 199.99 (based on www.microsoftstore.com) and upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8 a slightly lower price of USD 119.99, while upgrading to the OSX Mavericks cost…nothing. And if you extrapolate this for the next three to five years you would be keeping your laptop for, how many OS upgrades and how much would you have paid for these upgrades?
I believe for one that Windows 9 would be being released in 2015, and might even feature a subscription based license, just like how Adobe or even the Office 365 by Microsoft has been. The question would then be, how much would they charge if they moved to a subscription based license, or would you rather have a three to six hours more efficient OS for free?.
Oh by the way, Apple’s alternative for Office365 and Office 2013, comes in the form of Pages, Numbers and Keynote and are all FREE with any new Macbook laptops on OSX Mavericks as part of the free iWork bundle.
Conclusion
While the Macbook Air might not be everyone’s cup to tea, especially for gamers or those who needs a dedicated graphics card, the very fact that the speed bump, price drop, great and free OS with long battery life, plus that beautiful Macbook Air chassis, which feels so much sturdier compared to the plasticky versions of Windows laptops, makes getting a Macbook Air, or any Macbook for that matter, worth it. If you feel like waiting, you might want to wait for the WWDC (Apple Worldwide Developer Conference) event in June. But if you are in for a great laptop now, and have been asking yourself, “Why get a Macbook Air?”, you might just want to jump right in and be assured.