Windows on the Macbook Air

Quote from redmaxx : If you have multiple monitors, a Macbook anything is going to be a problem because they only have one display output. You can only get multiple displays on them by daisy-chaining Thunderbolt displays.

Just to clarify, this may be true for the MBA and standard MBP, but the retina MBP has two thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port so it will drive 3 external monitors out of the box (with adapters, but without daisy chaining).

Quote from SSharon : Just to clarify, this may be true for the MBA and standard MBP, but the retina MBP has two thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port so it will drive 3 external monitors out of the box (with adapters, but without daisy chaining).

It's also a 15.4" behemoth.

Quote from kakomu : It's also a 15.4" behemoth.

Also heavy as F*ck

Quote from SSharon : Just to clarify, this may be true for the MBA and standard MBP, but the retina MBP has two thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port so it will drive 3 external monitors out of the box (with adapters, but without daisy chaining).

Oh that's right, I forgot about the new MBPR.

Quote from kakomu : I wasn't sure if the HDD was user replaceable, or what form factor it used. Initial research also turned up the X230 as well. That being said, I find now that I need to get the thin (7mm) HDDs for an X230. I'm also impressed with the user replaceable memory.

Thankfully Lenovo has kept up IBM's awesome service and maintenance manuals, so all the Think branded laptops have full instructions on replacing just about everything on the laptop. Or at least, that was my recollection. I haven't looked for the manual for my W520 yet.

I am kind of disappointed in Lenovo's QC lately. A number of people at work have been reporting increasing issues with the W510 and W520.

Quote from kakomu : It's also a 15.4" behemoth.

Quote from brbubba : Also heavy as F*ck

In the context of this thread it is huge, but I only mentioned it to correct redmaxx. Even outside of this thread I don't think it is so heavy though. The MBPr is 4.5lbs and for comparison the Dell Inspiron 15R is over 6lbs and the XPS 15 is 5.79lbs. Granted those both have optical drives, but I don't know what PCs out there directly match up to the MBPr.

Quote from SSharon : In the context of this thread it is huge, but I only mentioned it to correct redmaxx. Even outside of this thread I don't think it is so heavy though. The MBPr is 4.5lbs and for comparison the Dell Inspiron 15R is over 6lbs and the XPS 15 is 5.79lbs. Granted those both have optical drives, but I don't know what PCs out there directly match up to the MBPr.

Also doesn't seem that heavy to me either, certainly not be so vulgar as he was. There are plenty of 7+ pound laptops, so the MBPR seems quite reasonable. For the OP's needs though, I can see it being dimensionally too large.

Quote from brbubba : Also heavy as F*ck

All. 4.5 pounds of it, you pathetic weakling! :-)

It's the price tag that's heavy as F*ck.

Quote from Rebound : All. 4.5 pounds of it, you pathetic weakling! :-) It's the price tag that's heavy as F*ck.

2.38 lbs vs 4.5 lbs is a rather large difference for me.

OP, finally got the macbook air 11" and so far so good. The power brick is smaller than any other power brick I've seen, both within the Apple line and any other PC laptop. As with all apple laptops you can swap out the extension cord to reduce bulk and weight. Battery life is better than I expected so far. Just surfing SD and doing basic tasks it looks like I can get 5 to 6 hours. If I start playing a movie it drops down to 4 hours. Speed is stellar on normal tasks, no complaints there. Haven't tried any crazy movie encodes and I have Diablo3 downloading to see how it runs just for kicks. Only minor complaint is the size of screen, you definitely want to hide the dock to get maximum window size for browser, etc. I'll run some disk benchmarks, since this is supposed to finally be running SATA3.

EDIT: Looks like the benches are less than stellar. About 400MB/s read and 200MB/s write for sequential tests. I need a better benchmarking tool for OS X.

D3 is playable, but far from ideal. So if you are looking to get your gaming itch on I guess this thing could suffice, but don't expect any miracles.

EDIT EDIT: Complaint numero 2, spending hours at a time on this thing at native resolution can be a bit taxing. The fonts are really small along with the sidebar dock icons. I solved the hiding dock issue, hate hidden docks, by putting it on the left side, but now the icons are minuscule. I might play around with making text larger, but for now it's still readable at 3 feet. Gotta say, the 13" is starting to look like the better choice for the larger screen size.

Quote from kakomu : Where do you put the power adapter when you travel? This [amazon.com] is my current Laptop sleeve and it works fine for the most part, but when I stuff the power brick into the front pocket, it really produces a large bump that can make it fit awkwardly in my messenger bag.

Why don't you use a backpack instead of a m-bag?