The Macbook Air, Even Apple Branded Air is Expensive
01.16.08 - 03:44pm
I originally planned on ignoring the Macbook Air launch at Gomeler.com as I felt whatever I wrote would come off as a rant. Instead I wrote the following article at ChrisMorrell.com but after reading through it, I felt it was tame enough to post here. This won’t happen very often, but I had a sudden change of heart after reading my roommates post about it. So, how does the Macbook Air stack up in my opinion? Well..
More Money, Less Features
I believe the Macbook Air is priced roughly $600 too high for the product you receive. Why $600? Well that’s the price of the regular Macbook which slaps the Macbook Air up and down the court. I understand that Apple isn’t creating a main laptop with this model, their target audience are individuals that already own an Apple iMac, Mac Pro, or Macbook. The purpose of the Macbook Air is to simply be a lightweight, ultra-portable laptop that can be tossed in a bag and be fired up quickly to jot down some notes or compose a quick email. For these purposes I appreciate the ultra-thin formfactor that Apple has adopted, such a small laptop would be perfect for traveling or walking around the house with it’s extensive battery life and light weight. Now here is my first and largest issue with the Macbook Air, the battery.
Closed OS, Closed Platform, Closed Minded
The Macbook Air features a very unit chassis in that none of the components are user serviceable. Unlike most other laptops where you can atleast access the hard drive, battery, and sometimes the system memory, the Macbook Air has all of this locked away in it’s cute shell. Now the first three items I can understand, but the battery? This just reeks of all the issues associated with the iPod dead batteries. What if I have a 9 hour flight and don’t have the ability to plug in my charger, it sure would be nice to be able to simply swap out the battery for a fresh battery. What if after a year the battery capacity drops to two hours of use, it sure would be nice to simply replace the battery and keep the old battery as a hot-spare.
Connectivity, What?
I really appreciate how small this laptop is, seriously. I understand that there are issues fitting a full-sized RJ-45 connector for Gigabit Ethernet into the chassis but couldn’t they simply create a mini-RJ connector like with the mini-DVI connectors? I know they have a USB 2.0 Ethernet adapter but remember, there is only one USB port so then I need a a USB hub to utilize a wired connection AND a USB device. Now, how often would I need to do this without being at my desk? Not often, but often enough I’ve used my Macbook’s Ethernet connection to transfer large files to other machines on networks outside of my house. I know the Macbook Air doesn’t have a large hard drive but this is a rant, remember?
Do I Want One?
So at the end of it all, do I want a Macbook Air? Sure, I’d love to have something even smaller than my current Macbook to haul around to and from class and work however I won’t be dropping my hard earned cash on one anytime soon. If one magically appeared at my doorstep then I’d gratefully accept it and treasure it but that’s it. I’m willing to pay shipping.. *hint hint*.
I was pretty excited when I first saw the Airs were released; but then as I started reading the specs I was really disappointed. Apple’s usually pretty good at working out and delivering what the consumer wants, so it’s surprising how much they screwed up this product.
Most interesting, after some digging around it looks like these all feature ultra low voltage Meroms, 65nm chips rather than the 45nm chips I was told last week would be in the Macbook Air. Looks like early adopters get screwed by Apple again, version 2.0 with 45nm procs will probably launch in 6 months after Apple works out whatever kinks this product has.
What a disappointment, its too expensive for what it is, lacks any real expandability. Not worth the money.