The MacBook Air turns four years old today

I have the 13 inch 2011 model with the i7 and it's the most amazing piece of computing tech I've ever owned. I love it to DEATH. I just wish I could more easily upgrade it at some point, but that's just my best wish, I don't fault it at all for lacking that. It's not like it really underperforms anyway, this thing has yet to make me wait for a thing, everything I ask it to do is done almost instantly, insanely powerful. So happy I spend almost $2000 dollars on it, even. I would do it again in a second.

I have the 13" macbook air which was updated when the 11" version was released.

Before this I had an HP laptop which was no less expensive, running windows 7 (rather poorly, and in 32bit), alongside a Compaq netbook which I used for travelling. The only reason I bothered to keep the larger laptop at the time was it had my entire iTunes library and the netbook had a 16GB SSD (which was more than half-way filled with the windows startup files).

The MacBook Air was a phenominal upgrade for me, lighter and more powerful than my two previous computers, with a 256GB SSD to hold iTunes and everything else... not to mention it started up and was ready for use in like 8 seconds.

The battery life is awesome, and I have never once needed an optical drive on the macbook air... my only complaint is there are only 2 USB 2.0 ports (no thunderbolt at the time) when I would have liked a third.

My only other disappointment is I doubt I'll get to experience Windows 8, since I probably wont buy another Windows PC for a long time. =)

In the last month, on my black MacBook's 6th birthday (my first Intel mac, and still going strong!), I replaced it with a new MacBook Air — the 11" model, which I've had my eye on for quite some time. It's the perfect machine for me, and the thing that I keep thinking about is how it's really a real computer! Back when I got the previous machine, I had preferred a 12" model to a 13" one, but the used 12" iBooks and Powerbooks were several generations out of date in 2006.

I hadn't used the optical drive in my macbook much in the last few years, and am glad to be rid of that excess weight. The 11" actually has a higher-resolution display, too. I also find I really like the backlit keyboard — haven't had one of those on a portable, and the build is several rungs higher in quality and more solid than the polycarbonate case of the last (which is still more solid than many current PC cases). Also quite glad to finally get the new multitouch trackpad.

I guess the best metric is how I don't really think of the black MacBook much with the new one, whereas while using the macbook, I'd constantly compare it to the one it replaced: a 500mhz PowerBook G3 "Pismo."

Three laptops in 12 years. That's pretty good quality, and they all last about 5 years apiece.

I too love the MacBook Air; I bought one when they were $2,000, if that shows the measure of my devotion.

However, as the owner of a 4 year-old (in 2007!) Toshiba Portege that weighed about 2.7 pounds and had no optical drive, I did not need to be convinced by the Jobsian Reality distortion Field that CDs were passé as technology.

The current 2011 MacBook Air is definitely the best laptop Apple has ever made. It has all the factors for success: powerful, thin, light(er than the Pro), durable, great design, at a REASONABLE COST.

I agree with "Ordinal" -- for anyone wondering, the macbook air is not just a fashion accessory or secondary computer but in it's latest iteration can in fact function as a serious production machine. I am a photographer and director who travels a lot for work, and recently purchased an 11" Air -- I am incredibly impressed with how powerful and useable it is, so much so that I wrote the following article about it:

http://www.derekshapton.com/planet_shapton/?p=707

http://www.derekshapton.com

I'm hoping to get myself one to replace my aging original plastic white macbook when i go to college :)

saving up for one. hopefully this year finally.

I have used a 2011 11" MBA as a professional work machine since I bought one a little over a year ago. People are often quite surprised by this, as I am a developer who regularly deals with heavy 3d graphics, compiles software and so on. I can only say that it is much faster in practice than the MBP that I used to use. It also fits in a tiny bag and weighs basically nothing.

Have my new 13" MBA i7 for just over a month. It replaced the early 2008 15" MBP (became a family computer. Read: Kids), which in turn had replaced a 2003 17" MBP.
As a last ditch attempt to avoid buying a new laptop, I put an OWC SSD in my 15", which gives it another few good years in my opinion. I just couldn't resist the lure of the weight and size of the MBA.
My uses are primarily content creation in MS Office, email, surfing (of course), Google Earth, windows via Parallels (QuickBooks and Office) and watching dvds in my hotel room via the external drive and plugged into a digital projector. That combined with a Bose SoundDock plugged into the audio jack makes for a pretty decent viewing experience.
After a month, so far, so good. Doesn't heat up nearly as much as the MBPs did, but does get warm on occasion. Certain tasks such as Google Earth rendering take a bit longer. I carry it to and from the office every day and when on the road, it's my primary computer and coupled with a 24" external monitor.
Cost about $1,000 less than the 15" MBP I considered, and is noticeably easier to haul around.
One unexpected benefit is that I find myself using it much more frequently when wifi's available than I ever did my MBPs. Like at breakfast in the hotel, waiting for a meeting, sitting in an airport, etc. Used to use my iPhone more for web browsing. I don't have an iPad (my wife does) but this is about as close as I can get and still do content creation of the type I need.
Outstanding build quality, decent battery life, expandable through dongles, light and slim. Really fast startup and shutdown. Larger and better trackpad. Quiet. And the keyboard fits my XL hands. For someone that travels and doesn't need the dedicated GPU or built-in optical drive, I'd definitely recommend taking a serious look at a MBA.