A while ago Intel decided to revolutionize the market and impose some high standards for a new breed of laptops: the ultrabooks. Only a few years later, we now have plenty of ultrabooks on the market, some better, some worst, but all built around the same idea: stylish, sleek and fast portable computers.
However, many of you probably know that before Intel decided to create this Ultrabook brand, there was already such a thin, light and fast computer in stores: Apple’s Macbook Air.
Preceding the ultrabooks by a couple of years, the Macbook Airs are right now the most popular premium ultra-portables and there are plenty of reasons why people like them. However, many of you looking for such a portable computer today will want to know how good ultrabooks are when faced with the MacBook Air, and I’m going to tell you a couple of things on this subject in the rows below.
Ultrabooks vs MacBook Air – the similarities
Both ultrabooks and the Macbook Air are laptops, with a body, a display, a keyboard, ports and internals. So Apple’s computer should be pretty much on par with most ultrabooks when put side by side, and if we’re looking at what you could do with the two types of laptops, that’s actually true.
However, when looking at HOW you can perform the various tasks, at how good the overall feel and everyday experience is when using the MBA or any of the available ultrabooks, things are a bit complicated.
In terms of design and build quality, Apple set the bar high, with their unibody thin and light approach. In fact, the 13.3 inch MBA measures about 0.7 inches and weighs 3 pounds. Most of the premium 13.3 inch ultrabooks play in the same class as well (although some are lighter and cheaper, like the Toshiba Z930), while taking various design directions. The Asus Zenbooks for instance is a close replica of the MBA, with the same feather shape and aluminum body. The Lenovo, HP, Fujitsu or the Samsung ultrabooks however feature metallic cases as well, but with their own characteristic styles.
What matters is that you can find devices as beautiful and as solid built as the MBA between ultrabooks, and there are plenty to choose from.
The MacBook Air and the new ultrabooks are all slim, light and powerful
In terms of battery life, both the MacBook Air and the new ultrabooks go for about 5 hours of battery life during daily use, despite producers claiming they should last longer. In fact, there are some ultrabooks that can indeed go for 6+ hours of use, but that’s mainly because they pack a bigger battery, which also makes them slightly heavier and bulkier. On the other hand, there are plenty of ultrabooks that can’t really last for 5 hours of average use.
The hardware platforms are also pretty much on par on the MBA and on the recent ultrabooks, as they are all built on Intel ULV Ivy Bridge platforms. The standard configs feature Intel Core i5 processors, 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB SSDs on all of these, and both the Macbook and many of the premium ultrabooks can also be upgraded with better Core i7 processors or a bigger 256 GB SSD. You should notice however that ultrabooks cover a wider range of hardware specs, packing hybrid storage solutions or Core i3 processors on the budget models, but also dedicated graphics on a select number of devices.
Now, despite featuring the same hardware, that doesn’t mean that the two types of computers perform the same during daily use, and that’s mainly a software matter, as the Macbook Air runs OSX, while the ultrabooks run Windows.
Some ultrabooks look a lot like the Macbook Air
Ultrabooks vs MacBook Air – the differences
Once again, all the things listed in this chapter are mostly present on both of these laptops, but the way they are actually implemented makes on side better or worse than the other.
We’re going to start with the keyboad and the trackpad. The Macbook Air features a good combo, a nice chiclet backlit keyboard with good feedback and a spacious and accurate clickable trackpad with support for plenty of gestures.
Now, with the ultrabooks, things are a bit complicated. Most of them also feature chiclet keyboards, but not all of them are backlit, while many offer poor feedback and shallow travel, which leads to a rather poor typing experience. There are however some ultrabooks with good keyboards, some better than the one on the MBA, and I’d include the Dells, Lenovos and the HPs in here, closely followed by the Toshibas.
With trackpads, things are however worse for the ultrabook camp, as many devices in this family feature spacious click-able trackpads, but most of them are either jumpy, tacky, imprecise or too stiff. For many, the issues are software related, but as a potential customer, you don’t care about that, you just want that bloody trackpad to work as intended. Which isn’t the case in most cases. Once again, the Dells, HPs and Lenovos tend to offer higher quality trackpads.
You’ll hardly find a better keyboard than the one on the MBA on an ultraportable
Most ultrabooks feature a 13.3 inch screen, like the MBA does. There are some that can match the smaller 11.6 inch MBA (check them out in here), but also some bigger devices with 14 and even 15.6 inch screens.
However, what’s more important here is the quality of these screens and many ultrabooks trail the Macbook Air, with their 1366 x 768 px TN panels. Now, the display on the MBA also uses a TN panel, but with higher 1440 x 900 px resolution and better contrast, colors and viewing angles.
However, there are several ultrabooks that clearly outmatch the MBA these days, with either Full HD non-glare IPS panels or IPS touchscreens (found mostly on hybrids), and many more are being launched each month. I do expect the next MacBook Air to get a better screen as well though, probably a Retina screen like the one on the MacBook Pros.
The screen on the Asus Zenbook ultrabooks is excellent
When it comes to operating systems and performances, the MBA runs OSX, an OS built around the hardware around the computer, thus everything will work smooth on it. Of course, that’s pretty much the same with the modern ultrabooks running Windows, as most apps will work as they should, although you might encounter some drivers and software glitches from time to time. Still, it’s up to you to choose one camp over the others, each has its pros and cons.
There’s usually little space for ports on these types of computers, and that’s why you’ll usually find 2 USB ports on them, a card reader and the classic headphone/microphone jack, plus the PSU.
However, on the MBA you’ll also find a Thunderbolt connector, but none of the classic video output methods, like VGA or HDMI. And there’s no Ethernet slot either, although you can buy adapters for most of these. On ultrabooks you’re usually going to find more connectivity options, even on the very thin machines that tend to replace Full-sized ports with miniaturized ones.
The MacBook Air (on the left) and the Acer S3 (on the right)
So while both camps provide the basic posts, one could easily say that ultrabooks kind of have the upper hand here.
And then there are the prices.
The 13.3 inch Macbook Air starts at $1199, for a config featuring a Core i5 processor, 4 GBs of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. It can be found slightly discounted online though.
Premium ultrabooks on the other hand usually start at around $1000 for a pretty much similar configuration and most of them come with solid discounts, if you’re looking for them online. And while there are many models and configurations available in stores, most of them tend to be cheaper than a similarly configured MacBook Air.
Of course, you ca find ultrabooks that sell for between $500 and $800 in stores as well, but those aren’t exactly close competitors for the MBA.
The 11.6 inch Macbook Air is slightly cheaper, starting at $999, and it too can be found cheaper online. How about 11.6 inch ultrabooks? Well, you can find a handful of them in stores these days, and you can read all about them in this post.
Wrap-up
Those being said, while there are plenty of ultrabooks available on the market these days, only a handful of them are able to stand next to the Macbook Air. And even then, it’s tough to say that any of them is plain superior to the MBA.
Yes, many have something on top of Apple’s ultraportable, like better screens or more ports and features. But most of them also have things dragging them down. Still, there are several very good alternatives to the MBA, and all of them are mentioned in my list of best ultrabooks of the moment.
In the end, we can say that the MBA is an excellent device and for many, it might be the perfect ultra-portable. However, for others it might feel outdated, and hopefully ultrabooks could offer them what they need. So there’s no universal winner in this Apple Macbook Air vs Ultrabooks fight, it’s up to you to pick your own winner.
So before we wrap up this post, don’t forget that each device has pros and cons, as each of your have your own requirements from a computer. Find the balance between these aspects and you’ll end up satisfied with your acquisition.
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I have very much appreciated your reviews and am wondering whether I would like to replace my HP Pavilion (17 in.) with an ultrabook, more specifically the MacBook Air. Would this machine suffice as my sole computer as my HP currently does? Would the switch from Microsoft to Apple be too daunting? Thank your for any advice you may give.
I use the MBA 13″ for development, and as my only machine. It is fantastic. I went with the i7, 256G. It is fast, quiet and cool.
I have them both, Ultrabook is superior and was easier to use, maybe it was the o.s. so i made the BA dual boot
is macbook and macbook air the same thing i need this in 10 minutes
yes
I have a MacBook and it has a DVD/RW. As far as I understand it, the MBA doesn’t have this drive.
The switch from Windows to Apple was amazing easy. I’ve been Windows bigot for a long time, am an IT professional, and just switched to a MacBook Air last November. It was rediculous how things just work on the Apple. If I had known it was this easy I would have switched a long time ago.
No MacBook and MacBook Air are not the same thing. The “Air” is much thinner and you can get more horse power in the MacBook.
Thinking longterm, 1.8ghz i7 is a smarter buy than 1.7ghz i5. Given the rather steep price, would like to know realistically what the lifespan of this beauty will be. Any estimates?
Gail, theoretically you can have a laptop for about 3 years. However, they are designed to “break” just after you’re out of warranty. So, if you plan to keep it for longer, go ahead and buy extended warranty, it’s the safer way, just in case
Also, don’t forget that a new generation of such means pops out each year, so in 3 years, you’ll have quite an outdated machine
Wow, Mike…I’d say your comment on these laptops being “designed to ‘break’” might seem like a fair assessment of manufacturing and marketing in general…but you just can’t apply that logic to an Apple computer…especially true for the latest generations with the unibody case.
these are some of the best made products in ANY category. I’ve had mine for about two years now and have DROPPED it several times (silly, i know, i never used to) and it still powers my business without a hitch and the denting is barely noticeable.
Did you know that the gyroscope built into the MBPs is there to protect the hard drive in case it’s dropped? They built in tech to KNOW when it’s falling to sure up the HD to keep it from being damaged! This is a company that builds products that last.
Gail, (and Mike), I’m sold on Apple laptops (and other devices). They fill my home and their ages range from 5 years to 6 months.
Buy at the beginning of a new product cycle to be sure you have the latest tech when you buy, and keep it for as long as the speed and technology serve you, but NEVER doubt the sturdiness of the hardware
In cases of lemons, I’ve found the Apple stores (though super busy) and their employees to be the most helpful of any company I’ve ever worked with.
I know, I sound like an employee, but I’m not. I’m a developer for a University, in case you were wondering
Edited by Mike: Can’t see the purpose of that link here…
Daniel, I assure you, Macbooks break just like all the other computers. Sooner or later, they all do
And yes, you seem a bit too biased towards them Macs 
haha…ok
Well, thank you for your “Assurance” Mike. I’ll be sure to use that to trump my personal experience, since that doesn’t seem to count because I’m “biased.”
You know, Apple fanboys can be overbearing with their cult-isms, but the opposition can be just as negative.
There’s a difference between “this will probably break eventually” and “this product is designed to break,” or at least I’d like to think so. Apple products are designed (with many available examples, including magnetic power cords) NOT to break. The exact opposite of what you described. That was the point I was drawing out.
The point of the link was obvious, it was a page from a website that details when Apple product cycles are so you can “buy at the beginning of a new product cycle to be sure you have the latest tech when you buy.”
At this point, i’m convinced you didn’t even really read my comment, but instead assumed it was worthless since I didn’t agree with yours. I’m sorry to have bothered you, and I’ll keep my biased comments to myself from here on out.
Daniel, I truly am sry if I offended you by removing that link, that was for sure not my intention. I did read your comments and the link posted but I still do not consider that I was wrong. And I most certainly value reasoned different opinions like yours, even though I disagree.
I’m not going to debate whether Macs are more reliable than other laptops, I’m in no position to do so. There are studies for that.
I did not say Apple products are designed to “break”. I said that all computers will eventually break and I’ve seen a lot of them in these last years. That means that it’s a bit unreasonable to buy a computer hoping to last you for more than 3 years, as long as you’ll use it everyday. You might get lucky and indeed get one that will last you for 5, but you can also get one that will break after just one. It happened to me, it happened to people I know, I’m sure it happened to people you know as well. Machines will break, sooner or later, whether we like them or not.
I agree with Daniel.
You never address his point and you seem more childish removing his link than he does questioning your assertion. (You’re obviously quite knowledgeable about computers but be careful, you’ll turn in to one of those annoying tech geeks who everyone laughs at.)
Apple could be changing soon but they really do seem to try harder to give the customer a product that works (rather than using MBAs to determine the lousiest possible product to sell so people won’t notice and buy it even though it breaks and causes them heartache).
Yes, I admitted my mistake and I’ll try my best not to repeat it.
I’m not going to comment on Apple laptops vs others. I do agree Macs are very beautiful and solid built, but that doesn’t mean they are indestructible or meant to last forever. While laptops have gotten more reliable today than they were before, they’re still going to break sooner or later…
I’ve spent lot of time trying to find ultrabook that matches Macbook Air and the sad truth is it simply doesn’t exist. All of them (apart form UX31) has vertical resolution of 768 pixels which is ridiculous in 2012. Zenbook keyboard is atrocious and it misses keypresses. That’s just inexcusable. Also speaking of Zenbook, while it has better resolution than MBA, the viewing angles and colors are much worse, combined with bright Windows 7 style gradients that it is a recipe for headache.
Lot of them have HDMI instead of display port, which makes connecting display with 2560×1440 resolution impossible (might not be a rule but it is definitely so with zenbook). It should be possible in theory (as HDMI specs permits the resolution), in practice it just doesn’t work.
So while you might find certain attributes of certain ultrabooks better than MBA, as a whole they just fail.
Sony vaio Z with 1600×900 and before people go complaining about the price, you can spec it however you like
Chris, the Vaio Z is an alternative, but it’s way more expensive than these (not complaining, just saying) while also more powerful. I’m not a big fan of the shallow keyboard, but besides that, the Z is top notch. If you’re willing to pay 1500-2000 bucks for one…
Yep, my Macbook Pro’s hard drive crashed even with that tech. I’d still wait for the later ultra books with Nvidia kepler GPU
I’m going “out on my own” in business and will no longer have a company-furnished computer. Choices! Wow, too many. I’ve heard that if you want to run Windows Project and Visio, which Mac doesn’t make, you have to run a virtual machine on MAC, which means you better have at least an i7 and 8Gb of memory, leaving out the Mac Air as a choice. Mac Pro? Does anyone do this or should I give up on Mac and go buy an Ultrabook?
mike J,
Another option is running Windows 7 on Boot Camp, which is an application that allows you to create a partition (like a separate hard drive, please forgive me if you already knew that) for Windows 7 to run natively. It will run at normal speed and capability, rather than sucking up valued resources for virtualization.
The drawback is that you won’t be able to be in both operating systems at once. At start up, you’ll hold down ‘Option’ and choose whether to boot up in Windows or OSX. I ran my 15″ MBP like this from the moment I received it until about a year later when I decided to go back to OSX. It ran Windows 7 better than my desktop did.
This has long been one of the greatest selling points for Mac, as far as I’m concerned. You can legally and officially run both operating systems on exceptional hardware.
Daniel, if I am allowed to interfere, from what I’ve read, I’ve lived under the impression that there are various drivers issues with MBs running Windows 7. Did you encounter any? I for one haven’t tried BootCamp myself yet
Mike, The only driver issues I’ve ever encountered came when trying to install Beta version of Windows, and those were overcome by allowing the OS to find the right drivers based on Windows Vista.
Now, with full Win 7 support, Boot Camp will create the drivers disk for you (you have to burn it, of course) and then roll you right into the process. You have to have your own Win 7 disk though, no ISOs anymore.
So, if the consumer is buying a new Macbook, there should be no issues (discounting the unknown of course)
Windows 8, on the other hand (being in Beta) is another story
I have it running on my late 2010 MBP and since much of the OS is gesture-based and I haven’t found a Win8 driver for the Touchpad, it’s unusable.
To be fair, in all of this…I personally prefer Windows 7 as the best OS on the market…right now. I just feel like Apple makes the most exceptional hardware in the business.
thanks. Windows 7 on a Macbook does sound great if it works properly like you’re saying. I’ll look into it myself when I’ll get the chance
Will any Apple computer run AutoCad 2001 designed for XP?
So much bias towards Apple in this article.
“The MacBook Air runs the terrific MacOS 10.7 Lion, while all the other ultrabooks are Windows-based.”
why not write:
“The MacBook Air is MacOS-based, while all the other ultrabooks run the terrific Windows 7″
see what I did there? There are many other cases in the article.
I could not find the sentence you’re talking about. Maybe the article has been edited since. Anyway I dont find this article biased. I’m not a mac user and I don’t own one but I had the occasion to try my father’s mb air and it’s simply true that it has the best ergonomy when it comes to the trackpad. I have a hard time finding anything not top notch in that device contrary to windows based ultrabooks that always seem to have at least one element that doesn’t fit well in a price above 1000 euros. More that price I expect the machine to be flawless.
That being said, personnaly, I’m looking for a cheaper alternative so I’ll probaly go for the asus ax32a as computing power is not my priority.
I wish apple would make cheaper declinaison of the mac book air for 700-800 euros. I would not mind a less powerfull cpu for instance, as it will probably still be more powerfull that the one present in older mb air and nobody seemed to complain at that time. But I guess it would go against apple policy to always be in the top row of the panel.
That’s too bad because I find that the typical computer user that wants to renew his laptop for a more powerfull one ends up doing pretty much the exact same things on it. That sound more like a luxury to me that a real need.
theoretically, older computers can be revived with a fresh OS install and maybe some small upgrades, like adding more ram or a newer SSD. However, that’s a bit techie and perhaps mot users just prefer to buy a new one.
Even though this article is old, I fele like things haven’t changed. Ergonomically, the MBA is still the best ultraportable out there. Yes, ultrabooks have gotten better and outmatch the MBA on some aspects, like the Zenbook UX31A or the Lenovo X1 Carbon, but they still fail here and there, and that’s kind of unacceptable for a $1000+ computer (close to 1500 in some cases), like you said.
I do expect future generation ultrabooks to get better and better, so things should change in time. For now though, the article and the conclusion stands…
Mike, thanks for your reviews.. I’ve heard that the macbook air screen is ext fragile-breaks easily, sometimes mysteriously… I want to go in for it but am sacred to invest 1.2K and get a broken screen as i travel alot… would appreciate your advice on this one… thanks!
Well, I can’t say for sure but I know a lot of people who travel tens of thousands of miles every year and own MBAs. haven’t heard any of them complaining….
I find it a bit staggering, a site called ultrabookreview which tries to sell the MBA as the best ‘ultrabook’. That’s quite cynical if you ask me (I was expecting some Intel/Ultrabook biased stuff), and also a bit too easily concluded, as there are enough downsides to the MBA and its OS, just as most other laptops have downsides.
I would be interested in seeing a non-biased comparison between the UX31A and MBA, as the UX31A has one of the best screens on the market as I’ve seen in other reviews (notebookcheck), great performance, keyboard, etc, notebookcheck actually lists it as the best subnotebook.
I need to use MS-Office products (MS-Word, Excel, Powerpoint) for 100% of my work. In this case how do you compare MBA loaded with Word/Excel etc. with any of the ultrabooks? Thanks in advance.
The Office suite works on Macs so should be the same as on Windows based laptops