New MacBook Airs and Mac minis reach customers: video, impressions, speed tests

The new MacBook Airs and Mac minis launched yesterday and today they have begun to reach the hands of customers. The new Macs have started reaching homes of those who ordered early yesterday and have also reached many of Apple’s retail stores and some official Apple resellers. Readers have been sending in their videos and impressions of the new machines. iGlaswegian fromAyegear put together an extensive speed comparison test between the new 13 inch MacBook Air and the older model:

For those interested in seeing the new MacBook Air’s first boot up and setup, Tldtoday made the following video:

Reader Gerry got his hands on the Core i7 1.8 GHz with 4 GB of RAM variant of the new 13 inch MacBook Air. As you can see below, his GeekBench score compares to the Core i7 MacBook Pro of 2010:

On to the Mac mini, reader Albert wrote in with his first impressions (slightly edited for clarity):

I bought them yesterday, just when they came out, and they arrived 2 hours ago (it’s 7PM in Italy).

The Mac mini is just like the older model externally, but there is a big difference between the 2 different processors. Even with only 2GB of RAM it goes way faster than the Core 2 Duo equipped with 4 GB, and Lion runs smoothly on it. The MacBook Pro, even if it’s the baseline, is faster than them, but it is also equipped with 4GB of ram. The lack of the CD/DVD is not a great idea from Apple (I think). Installing apps like iWork from my old DVD is difficult, because you have to set up DVD sharing from the MBP. I think it is a good deal because of the price drop. The new Mac Mini is good for newbies to the Mac world.

Mac mini unboxing from MrThaibox123:

Reader Dave has an extensive tour of the new MacBook Air (11 inch model):