When comparing MacBook Air vs Framework Laptop, the Slant community recommends Framework Laptop for most people. In the question“What are the best laptops for business?” Framework Laptop is ranked 3rd while MacBook Air is ranked 9th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Solid build quality and elegant design
Macbook Air has a high quality all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad.
Pro Great keyboard
The MBA has a well-spaced, back-lit keyboard with convex keys and placed in way that the resting arms on the sides of the trackpad is comfortable.
Pro Good battery life
The 11" model lasts up to 9 hours and the 13" model up to 12 hours. Great for programming on the go as you don't have to worry about the battery dying.
Pro Best-in-class trackpad
MBA has an excellent button-less muti-touch trackpad that's highly accurate and comfortable to use.
Pro OSX is developer-friendly
OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X.
There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free.
Pro Highly configurable
Pro Windows pre-installed option
If you want Windows you can buy the license during checkout and it will come pre-installed. This makes for a larger customer base to keep the company sustainable, and means you don't have to pay for a license to a product you won't use.
Pro DIY edition for fun, saving money
The DIY edition means you add some components yourself and is saves you several hundred dollars.
Pro Instructions for multiple linux distros
see the Support Forum
Pro Marketplace for spare parts
You can get additional or replacement parts easily.
Pro Right-to-Repair is a first class citizen
Started from a right-to-repair philosophy. This has also helped with resiliency against global supply chain issues.
Cons
Con Low resolution screen
Depending on the model, the MBA has either a 1366 x 768 or 1440 x 900 screen and that's behind the expected 1080p screens of most modern ultrabooks.
Con New company
The company still has to be around to get replacement parts.