MacBook Air

Keano

Just had a look at in on the Apple site its available to pre-order at $1799.

Just wondering what peoples opinions are on the latest Apple gadget!

Basq

The businessman in me loves it.. but otherwise I could probably live without it for that price!

If it drops another couple of hundred, i'd consider it!

Tis very sleek though.

paulksnn

Yeah, portability is a great thing alright.
No swappable battery is a deal breaker though.

majiktripp

I think its a terrible idea, built in battery (charged a fee to replace it if it dies) onboard RAM (Never a good idea) Single USB port, Mono Speakers (!) a hefty price tag and infairness its flat but its f&*^in wide!
Is there really a market for this?

Bass Cadet

majiktripp wrote: »

Is there really a market for this?

If Steve Jobs sold his own piss with an Apple logo on it, the usual people would be falling over themselves for a pre-order, it doesn't even need a market

unklerosco

There's no fee to change the battery... Its the same battery as the mac book pro. Only thing is u have to give it back to apple to get it changed. U only pay for the new batter tho, $129

caster

I'm too long over on the PC side of the fence to consider switching over to a Mac but I must say i find the specs impressive... particularly the 13.3inch screen, Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, decent battery and storage and all weighing in under 1.4 KG and incredibly thin ! I even believe that the processor has been made smaller by Intel to fit in to it.

Hopefully some of this technology will work its way in to the likes of a Sony VAIO or a Dell XPS enabling them to get their size & weight down to these dimensions...

JackKelly

how sturdy is it? I can't imagine it takes well to bending?

Tom Dunne

You've got to hand it to Apple. When they do something, they do it with style.

While I haven't read anything in detail about it (just looking at pictures ) it looks amazing.

PauloMN

Typical Apple product. Expensive and of limited use, but there's plenty of people who will think it's cool and will therefore buy it.

The only thing that really impresses me about it is the claimed battery life. 5 hours out of an obviously small battery is excellent.

Overall though it seems a bit of a gimmick to me, just so people can say "look how small my laptop is". I expect there to be a load of problems with them.

Tom Dunne

Did anyone here our very own Flogen on the Matt Cooper show today giving an update on this machine?

He sounded very nervous.

Poochie05

It's very beautiful!

DirkVoodoo

€1700 for the vanilla model, jumping up to €2800 for the 1.8 GHz, SSD equipped version!

Can anyone give me the low down on the 80GB PATA drive? What kind of seek times and read/write can one expect at 4200rpm?

conzy

what a piece of **** imo.......

look at the price? its has worse specs than a 400 euro dell laptop and is less portable than an Asus eee PC

1800 euro and it has an iPod HDD imagine the performance (or lack of it) 1 usb port

I know the usual "must have every apple product" crowd will buy it, but for 1800 euro you can get so much more...

Like:

A top of the line Desktop PC and an Asus eee PC
4 Asus eee PCs....
An ultra light notebook with much better specs and an eee PC
.....

</rant>

papu

No ethernet port
1 USB
Non-removable battery
Sharp edges that would crack a skull if it fell on a baby
No internal drive
$1800 for the base model with a freaking iPod hard drive
Non-upgradeable RAM
Average battery life.

nuf said..:mad:

No Firewire! :mad:

Voodu Child

There's some major point-missage in this thread, and others.

They decided to make the thinnest laptop on the planet. You have to keep that in mind before thinking about the criticisms.

Not having removable battery and user-replaceable ram - in the quest for shaving mm's off their design, avoiding compartment lids, springs, catches etc, well, that's a pretty obvious design choice. Duh :rolleyes:

Battery life - well, i'd wait for the final user-reviews, but if it's anyway close to the claims, that's pretty excellent for a battery that can't be more than a few mm thick.

Size - well, I dunno what kind of little manbags you guys carry around, but I don't have anything that'll fit a 10" but not a 13". As stated already, any kind of briefcase or bag that'll carry an A4 pad will take this. Why go smaller and sacrifice screen and keyboard size if there's no real portability advantage?

Ports & optical drive - meh, it's not supposed to be a main machine. You don't complain that there's no CD drive build into your ipod; you've got to go back to your computer to rip stuff, and I think the same applies here. Anybody who can afford this probably has a great laptop/desktop already. And again, you have to remember what they were trying to design.

Personally, I wouldnt buy it, or any other apple, I think they're all a waste of money tbh, but I can appreciate the fantastic design and engineering that goes into most of them. And this one seems particularly excellent...thumbs up from me..

conzy

Ports & optical drive - meh, it's not supposed to be a main machine. You don't complain that there's no CD drive build into your ipod; you've got to go back to your computer to rip stuff, and I think the same applies here. Anybody who can afford this probably has a great laptop/desktop already. And again, you have to remember what they were trying to design.

Do you think its worth 1800 for a poorly spec'd laptop the size of an A4 pad, just to say you have the worlds thinest laptop?

And its still only a few mm thinner than most other 13" laptops, You are still carrying a laptop, which requires the same size bag and the same care as carrying an "ordinary" laptop if you know what i mean?

Its like carrying a 20 page A4 pad instead of a 80page A4 pad, its still as inconvenient, where as an eee pc, will fit in a large pocket

Mad_Max

It is a fantastic achivement it has to be said. I mean it comes in an envelope

But no cd drive, no ethernet for me is a pretty big miss. I understand its meant for moving around etc but at that price!. I don't move around that much

I am considering getting an apple shortly but i think ill go with the standard mac book.

440Hz

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Did anyone here our very own Flogen on the Matt Cooper show today giving an update on this machine?

Boo! Did they lose my number then? sniff

Nice one for Flogen though!

Trojan

conzymaher wrote: »

Do you think its worth 1800 for a poorly spec'd laptop the size of an A4 pad, just to say you have the worlds thinest laptop?

I can imagine some people might use it for computing too

papu

The best deal—if you don't mind an extra pound of weight and half-inch of thickness—is the Dell XPS M1330. It bests the MacBook Air in nearly every single category, delivering about 30% more processing power, 50% more memory, over 300% more hard drive space, plus a dedicated graphics card. All of this, for $300 less. But also, two hours less of battery life, thanks to the new smaller and more efficient Core 2 Duo processor in the MacBook Air
Linky

:P

majiktripp

For the money the Dell XPs 1330 is streets ahead of the Mac Book Air. Is there anyone here contemplating buying one of them?

AlmightyCushion

papu wrote: »

All of this, for $300 less. But also, two hours less of battery life, thanks to the new smaller and more efficient Core 2 Duo processor in the MacBook Air
Linky

:P

The faster spinning hard drive and dedicated graphics would be draining the battery a bit there. It doesn't say if the xps is using the led backlit display. If it isn't then adding that would increase the battery life. Plus with the dell (and the others I'd imagine) you can get a 9 cell battery which would give a lot more battery life although it would add to the weight.

jesus_thats_gre

I think the XPS does use a LED backlight.

AlmightyCushion

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I think the XPS does use a LED backlight.

I think it's an optional extra on it. Whether or not it's included in that price isn't known though.

DirkVoodoo

The LED backlight is an optional extra, they have to put a lesser quality camera in it too due to the profile thickness reduction.

At any rate, the base XPS m1330 is half the price of the base macbook air.

I think as a design exercise it is a resounding success, and hopefully it will inspire some more ultra-thin laptop designs. As a practical tool that I would like to use on a day-to-day basis, I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot barge pole.

WUSBDesign

Maybe it is the multi-touch trackpad which costs the most? Grabs the most fantasies? Techno-lust do cost a little...

And don't forget that $1799 pricing includes a suite of programs for movie-making, professional-quality video conferencing, etc.

Yes, I must admit that non-user-replaceable battery and HDD/SSD does put me off for the moment, but I understand there are just screws to hold the back/underside on.

And one more thing: Apple is never known to go for first position in terms of price...but neither has Sony.

timmywex

dont think this will sell all too well, the lack of dvd drive kills it for me!

conzy

WUSBDesign wrote: »

Maybe it is the multi-touch trackpad which costs the most? Grabs the most fantasies? Techno-lust do cost a little...

And don't forget that $1799 pricing includes a suite of programs for movie-making, professional-quality video conferencing, etc.

Yes, I must admit that non-user-replaceable battery and HDD/SSD does put me off for the moment, but I understand there are just screws to hold the back/underside on.

And one more thing: Apple is never known to go for first position in terms of price...but neither has Sony.

what professional software? iMovie? And How will you get footage onto the laptop without a firewire port?

conzy

ahahah



AHAHAHAHA

unklerosco

conzymaher wrote: »

And How will you get footage onto the laptop without a firewire port?

Now thats a good point....

BanzaiBk

^What's funny about that?

JackKelly

?
The powercord doesn't fit properly when the laptop is laid flat on the table, and only low-profile/thin usb sticks work (these are a minority)

BanzaiBk

Oh wow, hilarious.....yeah...isn't the PC magnetic anyway?

odie2020

conzymaher wrote: »

ahahah



AHAHAHAHA

True .. but when you read the story attached you see that the charger shown is not the one supplied with the Mac Air,,

"We just confirmed for ourselves that the MacBook Air's small MagSafe charger does work with the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but the MagSafe charger on the latter two don't work with the slot on the MacBook Air when you lay it flat on a table. It works fine on a lap, or if you slide it to the edge of your table."

http://gizmodo.com/348587/confirmed-macbook-air-incompatible-with-macbook-macbook-pro-chargers-while-on-a-table

BanzaiBk

I posted this in the mac forum, thought it'd be good to post it here too.

Hmm well a mini review of sorts. When I was making my submissons to a magazine yesterday they showed me their MBA review unit which they had received that morning. It was the base model 1.6GHz C2D with the 80GB hard drive.

First impressions, it's unbelievably thin. Pics can't do justice to how thin this machine is in real life. It's also super light, you can effortlessly turn it over and over in your hands and it just feels like a piece of metal. The architecture is beautiful, aesthetically pleasing curvature as you make your way down its sides. Opening it takes no more than lifting the screen gently with a finger. When it is open it's easy to appreciate the smallness of the overall package. One personal niggle that was shared with my editors, black keyboard looks oddly out of place. Personally an alum. keyboard would have flowed better but it's a non issue really.

Before I powered it on I did a quick shuftie around the inputs/outputs. The drop down USB/headphone jack really is a classy idea. I know that there has been issues with some USBs being too chunky to fit and stuff but all the things I tested were fine (O2 modem, Busbi pendrive, Lexar pendrive, rocket launcher ). The magnetic powercord latch also is really well thought out, yes the MB/MBP power cords won't sit flush with the MBA but why would you be using a non MBA powercord all of the time?

Anyway I powered up the machine, took roughly a minute to do everything (connect to the net etc). Screen is just like any other matte screen, easy to read off. The viewing angle is terrible if you are even slightly misaligned with the screen, a bit annoying tbh. Speed wise, MBA is a relative dog in comparasin to a MacBook(base model, no upgrades) and my own new Vaio TZ. Spinnng beachball allover the place The team had installed a few apps from the MacHeist (boo, hiss, etc) bundle and I messed around with PixelMator and Vortex Generator. The touchpad/gesture thingy is cool I suppose, I only tried it out on a few pix. My editor was saying though that from his brief with Apple that this is a hardware and not a software feature which I thought was interesting.

I didn' spend much more time with it (I already had monopolised it for 45 minutes) but it cleared a few things up for me in my mind. I know now honestly that the MBA will never be a machine I buy. It fits into none of my requirement categories. Imo, this is a machine for someone who wants to have a smallish laptop for travel who's only requirements are word processing, email and the odd downloadable application. Apart from the screen it's beyond me why any serious visual media worker would ever consider the MBA for anything serious considering you're going to get better performance out of a MacBook that costs a grand and some change, which is exactly the same size but a centimetre or two fatter.

I say all that but still come back to the point that I've been making for weeks now, the MBA was not created to be a main machine, it was created for a very niche market. This is the first rung on a very new,shiny and tall ladder for Apple. This model, imo, is not the model to buy. Revision 2/3 will be what most people expected/hoped for.

My 2 cent anyway, I'm hoping that soon I'll get a more intensive hands on.

Cina

The Dell XPS is far better specced and all, but I personally, as a college student want 2 things.

Battery life and portability.

2 things I got bugger all of in my Dell Inspiron I got 2 years ago, which at its peak, lasted about 2 hours on battery, with the screen brightness down fully! And also, was the heaviest and bulkiest piece of crap ever to carry around, after about a year, the battery life was a wonderful, magical 20 minutes, assuming I was using notepad or something.

I won't be getting a Macbook Air, because I feel without a DVD drive and removeable battery, it's not worth it yet, but Apple are definately going in the right direction.

The whole point of laptops is portability, something Dell has been sacrificing for power, which is absurd, as I can use my desktop for gaming etc, at half the price of a bloody laptop.

Well done Apple, a step in the right direction, and if in a few years your Macbook Air contains a dvd drive, i'll most certainly consider converting over.

BanzaiBk

^ Having a CD/DVD drive defeats the purpose of the MBA though imo.

BostonB

The MacBook Air is only going to suit a very specific user. That doesn't mean its flawed, its just not going to suit everyone. I think its cool. But it really isn't practical for me.

odie2020

I just got hold of my new Macbook Air.. and its so lovely... the whole unit is about the same thickness of my old mac book pro's screen... its so sleek and light as a feather... I wont even know that i have it with me....

Anyone else experience the joy today..

zAbbo

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I think the XPS does use a LED backlight.

The top end one does.

Personally I've opted for a new Sony Vaio SZ which outspecs most 13" on the market.

BanzaiBk

Did you get SSD or HDD? I'm holding out for the MBP revision.

zAbbo

HDD, I'm not made out of money

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4211959

That one

BanzaiBk

Oh how I've been misinformed!

One the supposed update to the MBP is somewhat decent I'll jump on that, otherwise back to Vaio land for me. Great little laptops.

BostonB

odie2020 wrote: »

I just got hold of my new Macbook Air.. and its so lovely... the whole unit is about the same thickness of my old mac book pro's screen... its so sleek and light as a feather... I wont even know that i have it with me....

Anyone else experience the joy today..

Share the joy. Photos odie stat.