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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

2011 MacBook Airs

The 1.8GHz dual-core i7 will smoke a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo pretty easily, even beat out the 3.06GHz C2D in a few benchmarks. Also consider the RAM performance is nearly double what was in the '10 MBPs and the SSDs are quicker than the last generation Air models. I played with one of the new ones yesterday, it's pretty snappy. I'm really liking the 11" 1.8GHz w/256GB storage. So tempting... Probably will do it once more Thunderbolt options are actually available. I wish they would offer the 13" model with 8GB RAM.... Given the new pricing on the Airs, I'm betting the next Macbook Pro revision will bring an overhaul with no optical drive and the option for internal SSD + HDD or dual HDDs. I kinda hope so.

I was out of town last week and spent a good bit of time at airports and on a few flights. My 15" MBP was OK, but smaller would've been great. I mostly worked on writing code the whole time and an MBAir would have been awesome. If Apple would've released these 10 days earlier, I would have bought one for sure.
 
While that may seem impressive, you have to account for the Core 2 Duo being based on an architecture from 2006, or two generations ago. It should come as no surprise. It proves the 2010 MBP's weakness much more than the 2011 MBA's strengths. Anyway, the new MBA is a great machine, and much better value for money than Samsung Series 9. Though, to be fair, Series 9 is on the verge of being refreshed, alongwith a whole host of "ultrabooks" releasing very soon with identical specs to the MBA.

As for quick portable edit solution - the Thinkpad X220 is hands-down the best option today. 12.5" IPS matte screen, battery life upto 24 hours (with slice), featuring upto a 2.7 GHz Core i7 dual core, upto 8GB RAM. Not to mention, it is built like a tank, yet ultra portable, and Lenovo notebooks continue to be exceptionally reliable.

The matte IPS screen is alone worth the price - it's an absolute necessity for location shoots. All in all, the perfect portable solution to take on a location shoot.

Of course the ultimate solution is the new Sony Vaio Z, but it comes with the ultimate price tag too.
 
The late 2010 Macbook Air has an Nvidia card in it, the intel HD 3000 is much worse and for example Avid won't run at this time, not just because of Lion but because of the Intel graphics. It's a major setback in my opinion, it's the main reason I'm holding back on updating my late 2010 air.
 
I wouldn't say the nVidia GPU was "better", it was pretty crap-tastic to tell the truth. But yeah, kinda sucks when your software won't run on the new model. Just like the new MBP going with ATI GPUs when the old models had nVidia, then people losing CUDA support. In most situations it's been negligible with the upgraded CPUs, but still a pain.

As for PC solutions, there are some virtues to many of them. The X220 is pretty nice, a bit bulkier than it needs to be for what it is. Love the screen, though. Wish they would give us a multi-touch trackpad and leave that TrackPoint pencil-eraser thing back in 1989 where it belongs. It has the shitty Intel 3000 graphics too. Just like 99% of every other super-compact and/or affordable SandyBridge platform these days. And nVidia hasn't offered up any compelling ultra-mobile GPUs anyway. ATI has 6500M... Not sure it offers anything over the Intel 3000, though. Samsung Series 9? Zzzzz.... Always have had good specs on paper, but never the performance to match. The Vaio Z is pretty sexy, but it makes paying the Apple Tax look like a bargain. Never had good luck with Vaio notebooks myself though. Not reliable or built tough at all. My Dell quad-core i7 2.8GHz notebook is pretty nice. So bulky, cheap and flimsy, though. Dell's build quality has gone into the shitter the last few years. But wow, it's so cheap for what it is, they're practically disposable. I love the RAM and HDD flexibility, GPU choice, etc.. Decent screen... I'm always scared that I'm going to break it, though. lol. My 15" 2011 MBP with the same CPU and 8GB RAM scores noticeably better benchmarks when running Win7 64bit. I guess I can forgive Dell somewhat. It's hard to win benchmarks when you've gone this cheap and Apple actually does a pretty good job of tuning their hardware designs.

I guess I'm hatin' on most PC notebook construction lately. Current water-jet systems and other newer manufacturing techniques are installed with a very broad base these days. Most of those systems are similar in cost to operate, more friendly to the environment and create superior metal and resin products compared to the continued use of injection-molded acryllics, ABS and PVC and PE plastic types. Not to mention the guys still using the soft plastics are adding extra bulk with steel or mag-alloy internal frames underneath the plastic. Some PC vendors are starting to explore other materials and manufacture processes, but the flimsy plasticky bulk is an encapsulation of everything that's wrong with systems like my Dell, HP and Asus notebooks. Note to HP and ASUS -- carbon fiber is not the way to go. Or more specifically, you're doing it wrong.
 
Yes, the 320 Nvidia card in the previous Air wasn't good at all, but at least some software worked. Avid isn't working with Intel HD 3000 so I don't know, maybe wait for Avid to support it?
 
What about the ThinkPad W520, looking at the specs this thing must be a beast !
Its $300 cheaper than the MBP 15.4 and it has a nice nvidia card. It has esata and an expresscard and for a 130 bucks more you get 16Gb ram.
With FCPX and everything else going on it makes me think about going back to PC, at least while mobile.
 
I'd be curious to see if Redcine X can play red/epic footage on this and at what resolution!
 
Ivan Kovax said:
I'd be curious to see if Redcine X can play red/epic footage on this and at what resolution!
Click to expand...

I have the new Macbook Air i7 and it can play Epic footage back at realtime at 1/16th res on the latest Redcine-X.
 
Justin O'Neill said:
I have the new Macbook Air i7 and it can play Epic footage back at realtime at 1/16th res on the latest Redcine-X.
Click to expand...

Thankyou! I was worried that the intel 3000 video wouldn't be able to do Redcine.

At 1/8 how many FPS can it do?

Can you open an r3d at full Rez (not playback... Just to do a 100% check...)?
 
It's kinda funny to think that the EPIC has 10.6x the resolution in a MacBookAIR 13" display...13.1x the 11" Display. Also, as large and as high resolution as the new 27" screen is, the EPIC still has 3.75x the resolution.

Nice...

What isn't so nice? (for the camera manufacturers who are living life in 1080p) The 27" is 1.7x the pixel count of "HD".

It makes you wonder "How much longer will be calling 1080p "High Definition"?
 
The late 2010 Macbook Air has an Nvidia card in it, the intel HD 3000 is much worse and for example Avid won't run at this time, not just because of Lion but because of the Intel graphics. It's a major setback in my opinion, it's the main reason I'm holding back on updating my late 2010 air.
Click to expand...

Avid has always been a step behind any hardware change PC or MAC.

My question is has any one run Adobe After Effects CS5.5 on a Mac with the Intel HD 3000?

Especially for the Warp Stabilizer feature in AE_5.5
Warp Stabilizer
Smooth a bumpy camera move, or lock a shot automatically. Warp Stabilizer removes jitter and compensates for motion-related irregularities.
Click to expand...

Warp Stabilizer Video Link here
 
Ivan Kovax said:
Thankyou! I was worried that the intel 3000 video wouldn't be able to do Redcine.

At 1/8 how many FPS can it do?

Can you open an r3d at full Rez (not playback... Just to do a 100% check...)?
Click to expand...

Played around with a couple more Epic clips today. It can actually playback 1/4 res easily if you let it buffer...it only has 4gb of memory so it can't buffer a ton unfortunately. At 1/8 res buffer stays juuuust ahead of playback. That is pretty amazing, you can work with 1/8 res Epic R3Ds in realtime on a Macbook Air...Crazy.

Handles full res peeks like a breeze.
 
Justin O'Neill said:
Played around with a couple more Epic clips today. It can actually playback 1/4 res easily if you let it buffer...it only has 4gb of memory so it can't buffer a ton unfortunately. At 1/8 res buffer stays juuuust ahead of playback. That is pretty amazing, you can work with 1/8 res Epic R3Ds in realtime on a Macbook Air...Crazy.

Handles full res peeks like a breeze.
Click to expand...

I'm ordering today then :) that's pretty amazing that this little pocket rocket can do things some of my older MacBook pros couldn't!
 
Ivan Kovax said:
I'm ordering today then :) that's pretty amazing that this little pocket rocket can do things some of my older MacBook pros couldn't!
Click to expand...

It's amazing how every other laptop feels like a 10 ton brick after using an Air for a couple days...and it is faster than some 2010 models. Kinda reminds me of a certain absurdly small/powerful camera you might have heard of. ;)
 
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