There are three core differences (except the price) that make me say, yet again, “Air rocks big time.”

Reason 1: The Screen

Bigger. Brighter. Clearer. Better. That is, the Air’s screen. It may be only 13.3″ comparing to the 10″ of my netbook, but may I say you that this is a BIG difference. It’s like using a 24″ iMac or something like that. The feel after the transition between Air and netbook or vice versa is remarkable. It’s not a Retina display, I know, but it’s the feel that relaxes your eyes and your focus. More workspace. More happiness.

Reason 2: CPU and the such

2.13Ghz of pure Intel Core 2 Duo power. Versus the Intel Atom N270 1.60Ghz. I guess, Air wins here too. Mind the graphics too. The Air uses a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M whilst on the other hand, the Turbo-X notebook is making cool things with a Intel GMA 950 GPU. Nevertheless, the RAM plays a significant role too; 2Gb of RAM instead of 1Gb is also a good sign. Summing up, hardware on the Air rocks big time, for it’s size capabilities.

Reason 3: Software

I’m not gonna talk about iLife. We all know it’s a great software suite/package. I’m gonna talk about how smoothly every single program runs in Mac OS X. No crashes. No lags. No nothing. Even the OS is pretty much like a “rockstar” itself. Your work-flow is never stopping. Plus that you can find many great apps such as Coda, Tweetie, Things, Grapher and many, many more. Basically, it’s the UX (User Experience) that’s a solid “win” for everyone.

Concluding, I have to admit that once you go Mac you never come back. It’s a whole different realm of computers and technology. Of concept and ideas. Of design and user experience. Despite that Steve may becoming sometimes an ass, you can’t deny that Apple, nowadays, makes the best machines out there. Call it iMac, Macbook, iPhone, iPad, iWhatever; it’s a fact. And I highly recommend you becoming a switcher soon.

As you may know, I love portability, because – especially in winter, I travel a lot. That’s why I bought a netbook last year. It did the job great. It is small, lightweight, portable, the battery lasts pretty much long and is comfortable to travel with. When I am at home, I plug it to a 19″ Samsung monitor and I feel like I’m using a normal desktop PC or just a more powerful laptop. But why did I change my mind now, almost a year after using and evangelizing netbooks?

Did you notice the word I used in the first paragraph? Powerful. Indeed, netbooks are ultralight, small and all that great stuff, but they miss something very important and since I was using one of them for a year, as a desktop replacement – it did all my work, let me tell you that. They miss power.

Power in both CPU and GPU.

Last week, my dad got a Macbook Air as a gift. Such a geek I am, I took it and tested it someway. The results are pretty much obvious for me now.

Lightweight & Ultraportable

Let’s face it. Macbook Air is the lightest and slimmest computer out there. It’s thin like an envelope and can travel with you everywhere, due to these two characteristics. Air may be not that small, like a netbook but the weight and portability provide a huge advantage.

OS

Mac OS X definitely owns Windows 7. Not only the GUI is better but also the backend. I’ve been using Windows XP and Windows 7 in my netbook and now Mac OS X and I can clearly see the differences. Speed, design, architecture. Every Mac is fully featured with a ton of greatful tools, like Finder and Airport – the greatest Wifi app I’ve ever used.

Battery life

4 hours. 4 hours of being of the cable. With the lightest laptop ever made. Priceless. And when you need it, the magnetic power cable is priceless, too. Boy, do I love this.

Power

By power, I mean both CPU and GPU power. I used my netbook for movie editing (doh!) for a little project called Fight The Line and it was laggy and slow as hell – in XP and 7. I wasn’t able to watch 720p HD movies in Youtube or Vimeo. That was a giant loss. Instead, in the Macbook Air everything runs smoothly. I can edit (and watch of course) even 1080p true HD video straight from my Toshiba S10 videocamera. 

Conclusion

I’m totally convinced now that netbooks are not anymore worth buying. Macbook Air wins them all. I prefer to give some money more, but to take back in quality, hardware, community, software and total user experience. I need power. Netbooks can’t give any power. On the other hand, they give portability, slimness, lightweight – all things ideal for traveling. But the Mac gives power too among all these factors. For sure I prefer the Mac.

Do you have and use or planning to buy netbook? If not, why? Or do you still prefer the big, classy laptops?

Η αγορά είναι γεμάτη από laptops και netbooks αυτόν τον καιρό. Συσκευές μικρές, φορητές και εύκολα συνδέσημες στο internet. Όχι μόνο αυτό, αλλά πλέον κυκλοφορούν πολλά iPhones, Nokia N900, Android-based HTCs και Windows Smartphones. Συσκευές που μπορούν να συνδεθούν από παντού στο internet. Και έρχεται να προστεθεί ακόμη μια συσκευή, το iTablet / iSlate / iWhatever από την Apple στις επόμενες μέρες.

Θα είναι όμως ικανή να αλλάξει την αγορά η Apple όπως έκανε παλαιότερα με το iPhone και iPod, με ένα μηχάνημα το οποίο προσφέρει τα ίδια ακριβώς χαρακτηριστικά όπως και όλη η υπόλοιπη αγορά αυτή την στιγμή; Πιθανώς ναι, πιθανός και όχι.

Εγώ δεν βλέπω κάποιο λόγο όπου το iSomething μπορεί να ταράξει τα νερά. Ο Στέφανος όμως, βλέπει.

Δεν πιστεύω πως η αγορά είναι ώριμη-έτοιμη ακόμη για το νέο αυτό θαύμα της μαμάς Apple και του θείου Steve. Έναν φορητό υπολογιστή χωρίς κανένα περιφερειακό, παρά μόνον δυνατότητα σύνδεσης στο internet, κάποια usb, (ίσως) firewire και ο έλεγχος εξ’ ολοκλήρου να περνάει από τα δάχτυλα και την αφή μας.

Υπάρχουν ήδη πολλές και ίσως φθηνότερες λύσεις που καλύπτουν τις ίδιες ανάγκες διαθέσιμες για τον μέσο καταναλωτή. Του οποίου ίσως δεν του φανεί πρακτική η ιδέα touchscreen και laptop μαζί. Laptops και netbooks – τα οποία είναι και σχετικά φρέσκα – ακόμη πουλάν σαν τρελά.

Αλλά και πάλι, η Apple είναι ικανή – όπως μας το έχει αποδείξει επανηλημένα στο παρελθόν – να αλλάξει για άλλη μια φορά την ιστορία των υπολογιστών και της τεχνολογίας.

Υπομονή λοιπόν μέχρι την Τετάρτη 27 Ιανουαρίου για το keynote και το “One more thing” του Steve Jobs.

So why to a buy a netbook?

First of all, price. People with the current economic crisis, are afraid to spend much money, so the idea of getting a laptop with 300 euros/dollars is great. Secondly, portability. It’s great to have everywhere you go a small, lightweight computer that can do almost anything -just like a desktop or a laptop. On the other hand, a netbook will not replace your main laptop or desktop. It can serve as a second computer. As Paul mentioned,

The cycle of disconnecting/reconnecting and then readjusting windows on both displays has become such a burden I can hardly find the motivation to move to the couch much less take it out of my apartment.

The same applies to me, as my Gericom is always under my office. Now, I mostly use my netbook -even for Photoshopping. I take it everywhere with me and with a ~2 hours battery life it rocks! There is the the disadvantage of the too small screen, but I have compromised with it. It’s not a huge problem anyway.

Many people say that why to buy a netbook, better go buy an iPhone. It’s smaller, it is from everywhere connected to the internet and in general can do about the same things. But with a netbook you can do a hell of more things, because it runs a full OS and not a mobile one. Plus that it has a normal keyboard too.

What you should keep in mind

Search for netbooks that have a 10″ monitor. It’s a problem using a small monitor let alone a smaller than 10 inches. Be aware of the battery life, it should be around 2 hours and not below. People mention also the problem of the small keyboard. Personally, I didn’t had any. Be sure also what OS you want, because you can choose from Windows and Linux. Considering connectivity, I chose my own with a Windows Xp installation but I dual boot with Ubuntu. There are netbooks from 4Gb SSD HDD drive to 160Gb HDD drive (as mine is). SSD drives are far more fast but with low capacity, on the other hand most HDD drives in netbooks run at 5600rpm.

What do you prefer? A netbook or a laptop? Why? Are you into buying a netbook? Why or why not?