MacBook Air - Review - Performance - Part 2

The battery autonomy is also very good on the MacBook Air. The test was done with minimum lighting, wi-fi connection on and open office applications, and the battery last for around 3 hours. The only downside is the recharge times, which are rather long compared to other models: around 4.5 hours.

The lack of an optical unit can be compensated either by an external USB device or the Remote Disc integrated system. The latter allows the MacBOok Air to connect to another Mac or PC’s optical unit through a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. In order to activate the sharing, the Remote Disc Setup software must be installed on the other machine. From that moment on, however, it will be able to use their reader as an external device, hence allowing the MacBook Air to mount it and see the icon at its desktop, and use it to read CD’s or DVD’s. This system, however, can be rather uncomfortable and can only be used for reading and not recording. Also, the reading of a DVD is twice as slow with this system.

It’s astonishing, in any case, that when it comes to the Solid State Disk system, the only mobile internal component is the processor’s cooling fan. This situation makes us realize how much potential this system has when it comes to the mobility factor.