Easy Products Review

So – I bit the bullet and upgraded from a Rev A 1.6GHz 80GB HDD MBA – to a Rev B 1.86GHz 128GB SSD MBA. I wanted to post my observations on what it’s like to upgrade – I know many Rev A owners have – or are thinking about – upgrading to Rev B.

In this review, I refer to “Rev A” and “Rev B”. The Rev A is my older 1.6GHz 80GB HDD MBA. The Rev B is my new 1.86GHz 128GB SSD MBA

Caveat – Unlike some (but not all!) Rev A MBA owners, I love my Rev A MBA. I’ve had zero problems with it. It runs cool and I have not experienced any core shut downs. It would heat up when most laptops normally heat up and the fans would kick. It would cool down quickly when I moved on to something else. With video it never stuttered… Perhaps my Rev A has run so nicely because I don’t ask a lot of it. It is a second Mac to my Mac Pro – I use it primarily for email, word processing, iTunes movies and web surfing – on the couch and on the road. It has REALLY been a great laptop and I have nothing bad to say about it.

So why did I update? I wanted more space. I have my Rev A setup to duel boot (Vista) for business uses from time to time when I travel. That kills a chunk of space. Also – with the Rev A, I compromised – by not having my music, photos and other large files with me. Not a bad tradeoff. But the Rev B’s larger hard drive was enticing – additionally, the Rev A has been so great, I’m willing to make the investment to have the latest/greatest version of the Air because it is such a leap/improvement over the Rev A – both speed and graphics-wise. I won’t spend time on the A’s form factor – those of you that own one already get that – it’s great…

So here are my observations – they are based on the things I can see and observe – not “Xbench scores” – real world use – and hopefully it will give you an idea of the differences between Rev A and Rev B. As I type this, I have my Rev A right next to me – side by side with the Rev B.

My observations:

1) Packaging – The Rev B’s packaging was similar to the Rev A’s in terms of layout, but the Rev A packaging materials were FAR nicer. The Rev B’s packaging is more in-line with the other Apple notebooks – white briefcase with handle. I really liked the packaging of the Rev A – very solid and heavy duty in comparison – it set the original Air apart.

2) Sounds – The first thing I noticed when starting it up: The Rev B (SSD) is, due to form, noiseless. The Rev A’s subtle hum and hard drive noises are (obviously) completely gone. The click and general noises of the Rev A’s hard drive was never something I really noticed – until it was gone… The Rev B is eerily quiet! Upgraders from the Rev A HDD will notice the difference.

3) Trackpad button – The Rev A’s track pad button is comparatively mushy – it takes more travel to make a click. The Rev B’s is very tight – less play. The Rev A’s button never bothered me – interesting that the Rev B’s is tighter – a purposeful improvement?

4) Keyboard – This was a surprise – and I had to double check this. The Rev B keyboard has been improved in a similar way to the trackpad button – the keys are quieter and seem to be more tightly secured. It’s hard to explain, but the improvement has resulted in a typing experience that is quieter – less “rattley”. To see what I mean, run your fingers back/forth lightly over a Rev A keyboard and the keys have more play and make more noise due to the looser keys. The Rev B is tighter when you do this – less play and less noise.

5) Screen – Many complain that the Rev B’s screen has faint lines. I’ve seen them on the Apple store floor models, and they do exist. It was a concerned when buying my Rev B, but I have yet to read about someone who was denied a refund by Apple if they had lines on the MBA screen. Bottom line – Apple stands behind their products – I was not afraid to risk having to make a return.

I’ve looked really hard at my Rev B and, if I get my head in just the right place and the screen tilted just right, I can see some lines – but they’re REALLY hard to find and they are not as bad as what I’ve seen in the Apple store display Rev B airs. Looking at my Rev A, doing the same contortions, I can actually make out similar – albeit even fainter lines. My Rev B is a keeper – I really can’t see the lines during normal use. Side by side, the Rev A and Rev B screens look identical to me. Same brightness, color saturation, etc, etc. I have both setup using the same display profile – the default “Color LCD” profile. I’ve played the same movie and frozen clips on the same frame – the screens look absolutely identical.

6) Display output – the Rev B has the newer Mini DisplayPort display – which replaces the Rev A’s Micro DVI port. Unlike the Rev A, the Rev B does not include the VGA and DVI adapters. They’re yours to purchase separately for an extra $29 each. Typical of Apple to remove extras in the Rev B edition… I never used the Rev A adapters and chose not to buy them for the Rev B until I need them.

7) 4 Finger gestures – I REALLY like these. I was surprised at how well they work and how much I use them. Four fingers up – see the desktop. Four down – Expose (awesome). Four to the right or left – switch applications. Good stuff. I like it.

Graphics – The Nvidia Graphics chip is a huge leap over the earlier Intel chip. I’ve run several games on my Rev B that could not run on the Rev A Air and they are actually very playable! I like this – I play games from time to time when I travel – while I fly… This is a great improvement and I like the ability to use applications that require mid-level graphics abilities.

9) Performance – I saved the best for last. This is the area where I’m really pleasantly surprised. The Rev B’s performance is NOTICEABLY faster. Surprisingly so. In some respects it is faster than my Mac Pro (But not at the heavy lifting – not by a long shot!)

Here are some observations (note that applications start times are after a restart of OSX – I know that applications can be cached and load much more quickly the second time around).

Some of these differences may seem small, but they are huge – look at your watch and tick off 14 seconds… That’s what it takes in additional time for Word to load on my Rev A. You start to really appreciate the SSD drive…

Start from complete shut down – Rev A: 56 Seconds; Rev B: 28 Seconds
Restart – Rev A: 58 Seconds; Rev B: 31 Seconds
Shut Down – Rev A: 3 Seconds; Rev B: 2 Seconds
Start Safari and load page (boston.com) – Rev A: 18 Seconds; Rev B: 7 Seconds
Start Entourage – Rev A: 24 Seconds; Rev B: 8 Seconds
Start iTunes – Rev A: 9 Seconds; Rev B: 4 Seconds
Open MS Word – Rev A: 17 Seconds; Rev B: 3 Seconds

If you’re thinking about upgrading – it’s a nice improvement.

Well if you are looking at this fine piece of Photographic equipment odds are you have been to the Canon website and read the specs. I will touch on a few of the items I have noticed since I purchased mine and have been using it.

1st. The feel, just like the 1D M3, this beast is solid. Not too heavy, but solid in the hand. And here in Alaska, I do put the weather sealing to a test, and just like my trusty 1D M3, the 1Ds passes with flying colors.

2nd. Yes its 21.1 MP, but that should not be your main consideration to buy it. Yah 18×12 @ 300Dpi out of the Camera is nice, but nost people dont print over 16×20, and I have sold a lot of prints from my old 20D at that size or even upto 20×30, as long as you shoot it right in the first place. But this is also a drawback as well. Because of the large file size, esp in Raw, and most, if not all, buyers of this body will/should be shooting in raw, be aware that you will need larger CF cards for it. At least 8gig, I use 12Gig for mine, extreme 3’s and they work great! Also be aware if you use the internal high iso noise processing, it slows down the buffering a lot!!!

3rd. Full Frame, just like the earlier 1Ds models its a ful frame sensor. That means 2 things, not only does a 17mm or 14mm lens again be a true wide angle lens, but also with the larger sensor the pixels are more refined and this gives better color and less grain.

4th. The colors of the images in the files. WOW Again the 14bit processors are great!!! Esp for raw, where you can import it in as 16bit for the finer details. One draw back is if you use Photoshop, you will need CS3 to do the raw Conversions, unless you use the Canon program.

5th. You are approaching the image quality of a Dig MF camera, with the portability of a Dslr! Not to mention you can use all the Canon EF lenses, and this camera really should only be used with L series lenses when possible, except for the fisheye as its not made in an L series but the quality is very good anyways. As the Quality of the optics is what affects the quality of the image the most, other than settings in the camera, ie shutterspeed and AV, ISO, etc…

6th. Wonderful Accesories for the camera. I love my wft-e2a. I use it on my 1D M3 a lot and it works great on the 1ds as well. Its a great way to control your camera remotely or to send your files to a remote computer for processing and such while you are still shooting.

This Camera is great. I have used the new nikon d3, and its a much improved camera over the past models, but it does not compare to the top of the line Canon!!!! This camera will not let you down. The noise if shot right is not even noticed until iso 1600 and then you still got to look. ISO 3200 is still great (about the same noise/grain my buddy had on his d200 at iso 400!!!!!)! If you are a Pro and need a camera that can perform the best and give wonderful results, this is it. It kicks butt compared to anything else in the DSLR market!!!