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More Macbook Air analysis and pictures
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 15th January 2008
The Macbook air includes a backlit keyboard and from what we can tell, it uses a 65nm Merom chip.
Initially, I thought it was a fully-fledged Montevina, but then I delved a bit deeper into the specifications and it seems that Apple is using a standard 65nm Core 2 Duo chip - not one of the new 45nm Penryn chips that Intel announced at CES.
The key here is the L2 cache size - all of Intel's 45nm Core 2 Duo chips have either 6MB or 3MB shared L2 caches, while both of the processors that can be specced for the Macbook Air have 4MB of shared L2.
Most have been saying that the Macbook Air is incredibly overpriced for what it is, but when you consider that Sony's TZ-series notebooks start at around the same price point and, generally speaking, have lower specifications.
That said, the Macbook Air isn't without its problems - the first for me is the fact that you cannot swap the battery without completely removing the bottom panel on the notebook. It's nice to be able to swap out for a spare battery (providing it works, of course!) when you're low on power.
There's also a lack of Ethernet, which is another turn off because I am sure there will be a time when an Ethernet port is required as it's the only way to connect. An example of this for me is at CES, where the press rooms were only kitted out with wired networking.
The lack of a DVD drive isn't an issue for me, but that's because my ThinkPad X60s doesn't come with one as standard either. And, while I'm mentioning the DVD drive, one thing that I have confirmed though is that the wireless DVD drive functionality works on both PC and Mac. I managed to mishear Steve the first time round, during my battery shenanigans (read: panic!), and thought he had said that it was only available on other Macs.
Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty more to say about the Macbook Air and while it's undoubtedly cool, sleek, stylish <insert more superlatives here>, you need to consider its limitations before jumping on the 'Air ship - we'll leave you with some pictures of the Macbook Air below.
We're keen to hear what you think of Apple's Macworld 2008 announcements, so please join us in the forums to discuss them!
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Comments (108)
And wow Tim is updating the site but he isn't at his desk - HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!?!?!
I wonder how?
Those rental pricings are spot-on the pricing for where I used to work. Granted it was 3-day rentals (5 for older stuff) but you did have to worry about stuff being out of stock, etc.
/ninjaedit - HD appleTV? Win!
lol!
It might do, but if you really want to break it, you need to send it via CityLink.
Huh. As usual, overhyped to heck. The Air looks really nice, but all things considered is impractical for me, at least for the price (I still want something smaller than a Macbook, not just thinner). I know a magic way to knock $200 off the price, but even still it's not or me. Xserve it is I suppose (where that same magic knocks $600 off :D)
you say tht but most people do have at least one computer in their hoses these days, we have 4 and two are sitting in my room now!
most of the people on this site probably have at least 3 going right now as well!
Uh yes! I'm the most anti-Apple person in the office and it's so full of awesome even I want one. It would be perfect for trade shows, but at $1700 it's just waaay to expensive - but at least now I can see why and the Sony TZ is just as "bad".
AH
Yeah, it looks very pretty. I don't really care. As someone said on Macrumors forums, "it's cute". It's not an ultra portable, it has zero upgrade-ability, and addresses the wrong aspect of a very portable machine.
Looks like my next decision is whether to get a Mac Mini for $539 or a quad Mac Pro for $1839 along with a base-level Xserve at $2399. Oh well.
Of course, that'll have to be in another couple months as I'm still recovering from that TempurPedic purchase
but with city link i would atleast never get to see just how damaged it is because they built the depot where i would have to pick it up out in the wild instead of an area where people live, so they are definitly worth their insane prices:D
It's not the insane prices I have trouble with, it's the fact that I'm sure they load their vans with a frozen chicken gun at 200 paces.
underfeatured: no ethernet (only airport), single USB port, no optical drive, 2GB onboard RAM (that's right, the RAM is soldered onto the logic board, don't even dream of upgrading!), no firewire (which was standard on every mac since the 350MHz imacs)...
oversized: at 13" it is not much more portable than the 13" macbook.....
overpriced: there's no argument about that...
If "innovation is the refusal to compromise", I don't see any innovation on the macbook air.... They just made way too many compromises in order to achieve a certain look, ruining the functionality and usability in the process!
Give it a year and we'll see a price drop and the essential features we all need. Maybe then I'll consider one, just maybe.
The Wireless DVD is damn cool and I like the sound of it, but all thats doing is stopping people from buying if they don't already have a Mac. That, more than anything else, loses me as a customer.
That would certainly be a cheaper option.
And the best part theres NO user replacement battery so once every 5hrs its recharge time, no ethernet port is a bit of a let down as its wireless only, maybe next time apple.
My tablet has better battery life and firewire, but less processing power and RAM. I use it for office tasks on the go, and it is powerful enough for that.
You are also overlooking the innovation of the product. It is a proof of concept. The trackpad is beautifully intuitive, and Remote Disk, frankly, is seriously cool.
the dell has better battery life, more performance, upgradable, spare batteries, proper inputs/outputs, is the same width/depth, 1cm thicker and ~1lb heavier
i dont see how the Air is so much better considering what you're giving up to gain 1cm and 1lb
the multi-touch trackpad is about the only truly innovative thing on it and i'd have to use that to determine whether its actually any good or not
and remote disk? most apps dont require the disk itself just the files on it, copy the cd to disk on another machine and share that
failing that, ever heard of daemon tools? :p
I was really hoping for something like the eee except not so toy-ish.
and any usb cd/dvd not just the mac one
Pre-ordered mine already lol
Time Capsule is much more appealing to my needs than a MBA.
Good:
Thin, light, Wireless-N
Bad:
non user replaceable battery
only 1 USB port... most external drives want 2
intel built in video
2GB on the motherboard, not replaceable or upgradeable.
4200 RPM drive
1.6 (or 1.8) dual core
Undecided:
no ethernet port
no firewire.
Comments:
This is really targeted towards an ultra portable business user who does minimal graphics and works wirelessly without CD/DVD media or extra drives. Anyone else will probably be better served with the MacBook or MacBook Pro series. The final deal breakers for me are the non user replaceable battery and fixed 2GB. Running Parallels with two active OSes with essentially only 1GB each is really pushing it. Media people (movies, digital photos, etc.) won't have enough storage and don't have firewire drive options (something Apple has pushed a lot) and with the single USB port there won't be many external storage options (unless you are near a power source) that can be used.
I can understand the lower ghz CPU for power and heat issues but again that impacts media usage and leaves pretty much only the "generic" app user base.
But that's just my 2 cents.
Eh, I already have an airport extreme with a USB drive in. I consider it a wholly insufficient solution, especially as the authentication is a bit whacked and it's inside the network only (unless you ssh into one of your machines with it mounted and then navigate to /Volumes/AirportDiskName. As they're effectively the same thing, maybe Apple will release APE firmware 5.2.2 allowing TM backups so to not totally screw me over for buying something that was almost brand new a couple months ago.
Still, I'll probably be getting an XServe. I do enough web development work that I can kind of justify it on that alone, but mostly because 10.5 server should win at life (and my current fileserver can't run it, being a windows box).
Well,
$500 - Apple Developer Membership, which gets me (among other things) about 20% off a purchase once a year, knocking the XServe down to $2400, and a quad Mac Pro to just over $1800. I'll sell the MBP which will probably get me most of that $1800 back, and then maybe get a standard entry-level Macbook for $989. Dunno, contemplating it later tonight as I should be able to offload some of the cost of the server to the family (and then own them with rendering speed for whatever with Xgrid)
Those type of people would, imo, have a laptop bought for them by their work or not be incredibly proficient with systems anyway. Either way, I think its more likely those people would go with a windows system. As others have pointed out, you can get a better Dell for less and get all the support etc that goes with it. If people were really worried about size, weight etc, then they'd probably want something thats less wide too. I can see it being useful in some scenarios - but most of those I can think of, you'd either want a CD drive probably (and not have to rely on a nearby Mac too) or something with a bit more grunt for presentations.
I dig what Apple have done and I bet it'll sell out of this world - but to me it's a massive design failure. It may be thin, but it threw away everything else I'd ever want in order to bring me something I'm not too bothered about.
And those people who just need something for a train etc will only carry it for a short time anyway - I doubt weight would be a major concern for a modern travelling businessman.
Iv just picked up a Dell XPS for £730 and i think its awesome, even though iv hated Dell prior (and still do minus this laptop)
Apple is focusing more on fashion statements than features it seems. A super sexy laptop that does about half of what the compeition does, which do it for almost half the price....hmmm...i dont know but common sense is telling me, just go with value for money and i really wouldnt shell out on that laptop.
I do however want an Iphone. As much of a ripoff as it is, when it comes down in price and more realistic in its approuch, il certainly look to get one as it is "sexy" but im not paying through the nose for it which seems to be apples aim these days and cashing in on the "cool rich kids" that can afford to shell out on their items.
OK, the battery isn't a massive issue, but I can fly across the world and use my laptop for about 15 hours of my flight time without a charge (using one 4-cell and one 8-cell) - WiFi has to be disabled obviously and the screen brightness is turned right down (you don't need it on high when you're on a plane anyway). In normal use, I get around 6 1/2 to 7 hours with WiFi on and a bit of screen brightness from the 8-cell and another 3 from the 4-cell (that's now dead - I'll be getting a replacement soon).
Ethernet is the big issue for me though - the press rooms at CES didn't have WiFi and that's also the case at many other events I go to. It'd suck if I got to an event and there was no WiFi, because the only way I could then connect is to piggyback off someone else's Ethernet if they want to play nice. :)
The Air is a nice model but the things it's lacking just aren't good enough...no DVD drive? This laptop is nice but lacking far too much to be a player for me :(
Yeah, a lot of people feel a bit screwed over but I'm sure Apple will release an updated firmware.
I'm curious to know if the time capsule 500GB models hd can be swapped out with a 1TB hdd. Will be doing so if possible.
15hours on one battery Tim? thats incredible, i was amazed when i got over 7 hours out of my 3 hour Asus battery, and i was running Vista:D
SAm
Two batteries (1x 4-cell, 1x 8-cell) :)
The 8 does about 10 1/2 hours and the 4 does about 4 1/2 to 5 with very aggressive power saving features turned on.
USB to Ethernet... Hmmm.
I don't get why they made it a wedge shape. That makes no sense, they don't look right.. I think it would look a lot nicer if they leveled that off from the thick end.. included an ethernet jack, an extra usb port and bumped it up to 2Ghz with additional breathing space...also losing that hideously thick edge around the screen would be a good idea.
The multi-touch track pad is nice, it's going to be a year till that gets added to the other laptops though. Also since the Intel guy was dragged out I thought they would be announcing this thing would be running the new 45nm chips. Shame it's missed out on that...
I can't see a reason to get one of these over a 15 inch MBP. If you got it you would be sitting happily using it on the train or something and some one with an equally priced MBP will sit next to you and just say "huh.. got one of those did ya" That's gonna smart a bit...
I was hoping that this device would finally be a mac I could get.. alas no... even with a 25% discount. I'm going to have to wait for the 45nm refreshes of MBP's or Macbooks, which maybe soonish.. but I won't be able to get one without the big trackpad! Which means I'll have to wait frickin longer.
I hate computers.
BUT I'm not a fan of the aesthetics of it particularly. Those curved edge that make it look like it floats are just wrong. Should make it easy to grab and pick up