Exide is a name that goes back and back. Competitive price. Reassuringly heavy. I’ll tell you more in 5 years time…
10 Jan, 2012
A powerhouse in your hand - speed and capacity, an ultra-portable delight.
My lucky find on eBay has the Intel i7 1.8Ghz processor. This is dual core but emulates a quad core when appropriate (Disk Utility shows 4 cores). Memory is 4GB.
What had been stopping me going for the Air was SSD size but with 256 GB on this model there is adequate space for most things.
Unfortunately the SSD is from Toshiba which is reputedly slower than the Samsung equivalent but I am very happy with the speed - it really zips along.
Screen resolution is usually adequate but small text especially numbers can be tricky to decipher - no doubt the next upgrades will have retina displays! There are ways in Lion to enlarge text so this has not been a concern.
It gets quite warm when doing processor-intensive work for long periods. There is a fan which kicks in. This is a rare occurance. The noise is not excessive but it could intrude if doing sound recordings of a sensitive nature.
Battery life must take a slight hit due to the processor and drive and I have been a little disappointed on that front. I find myself using the minimum workable screen brightness a lot of the time to extend this. I have not done proper testing but it seems around 3.5 - 4 hr.
Strength of casing anxieties have been dispelled - it is sturdy enough for the real world.
This has become my mobile office - the size and weight make it a joy to carry around.
The low weight allows a different approach to working - moving around more - more real 'lap' use - it is surprisingly liberating!
It is a thing of beauty which is a pleasure to use (if your budget allows!).