New Macbook Air

[Amaris]

David cgc said:
$1000 of that $3098 is added on by the 64 gigabyte solid-state drive. Believe me, if you could get a Vostro with an SSD, that price difference would wither and die.

I could assemble a Dell Latitude with everything the Mac Air has, a T7100 1.8Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB of RAM, Vista Business or XP Pro, 9 cell battery, 90 watt A/C Adapter, 8X DVD Burner, Dell Wireless G card, and a 64GB Solid State Drive for $2,476.

Light, portable, powerful and slim. And I'm still saving more than $600.



J.

 

[Flavius]

Sorry, Allen - but who cares about the c**p that Dell makes. They fall apart when you look at them. There's a reason why our company has been using thinkpads for a long time.

 

[Amaris]

Flavius said:
Sorry, Allen - but who cares about the c**p that Dell makes. They fall apart when you look at them. There's a reason why our company has been using thinkpads for a long time.

I work for Dell, so I care. I work Dell Warranty, specifically, so I care. I work Dell Warranty Hard Drive and Networking Division specifically, so I care. Dell has a very high satisfaction rate, and I make damn sure that when that laptop or desktop leaves my care, it's going to run it's best.

So I care.


J.

 

[Flavius]

We have tried, I can't say which models, but there all gone. And our company is not huge, but we are more than seven hundred. That's sizable sampling. We do have a few Sony's, purchased on special request, you know. I once bought a Dell laptop myself. Never again.

Desktops, though, between my wife and me we had several, one of them ran five years as our server, simply wouldn't stop.

This is all about heavy use, don't get me wrong here, 8 to 12 hours a day.

 

[Amaris]

Flavius said:
We have tried, I can't say which models, but there all gone. And our company is not huge, but we are more than seven hundred. That's sizable sampling. We do have a few Sony's, purchased on special request, you know. I once bought a Dell laptop myself. Never again.

Desktops, though, between my wife and me we had several, one of them ran five years as our server, simply wouldn't stop.

This is all about heavy use, don't get me wrong here, 8 to 12 hours a day.

Oh, I'll be the first to admit I'm not a fan of laptops. All of them are troublesome, but that's because, like you mentioned, heavy usage. I have never considered the laptop a good desktop replacement, and it all comes down to the same things; cooling, vibration and environment.

I think you might be interested in the Dell Vostro line. It seems to be a higher end level of laptop and business machine, but without the high price. I'm interested in them myself.


J.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Is the Macbook Air smaller/lighter than the Sony X505? I remember Sony tried to do this same thing - it also had no optical drive and other crippled features (at a high price). I'm not sure if its even in production in the US anymore though. The only major difference was an 11 inch screen vs 13 for MBAir.

 

[Captain Intrepid]

Sheep said:For $1800, I can get TWO fully-featured laptops with more goodies like an optical drive and more HDD space that I could use to write, surf and watch my DVDs on the go. That's one heck of a price to pay for a smaller form factor AND get a gimped product in place.

Perhaps you're unaware of the existence and purpose of an ultraportable. They're very small laptops that sacrifice features and price so they can be very very small and light, for people who need to have computer access everywhere they go and don't want to carry anymore than they have to.

J. Allen said:

David cgc said:
$1000 of that $3098 is added on by the 64 gigabyte solid-state drive. Believe me, if you could get a Vostro with an SSD, that price difference would wither and die.

I could assemble a Dell Latitude with everything the Mac Air has, a T7100 1.8Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB of RAM, Vista Business or XP Pro, 9 cell battery, 90 watt A/C Adapter, 8X DVD Burner, Dell Wireless G card, and a 64GB Solid State Drive for $2,476.

Light, portable, powerful and slim. And I'm still saving more than $600.



J.

What size and weight? 'Cause you have to remember that the function of an ultraportable IS form, and the difference between 3 lbs and 4 lbs is huge.

 

[Deleted 2]

And Lenovo ups the ante. Three millimeters thicker than the MacBook Air, half a pound lighter, faster processor, and an optical drive.

I'll bet this one won't make the news.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

the thing about the MBAir though is it is still a "full" 13 inch screen. At that size, it's not really an ultraportable, and its hard for a lot of people to think about it that way in their mind. It's very lightweight... but it's not actually that small. Those 11 inch laptops, THOSE imo are a seperate ultraportable market. In this case, people are, and WILL directly compare it with other "normal" laptops.

 

[romulus]

Zero Hour said:
And Lenovo ups the ante. Three millimeters thicker than the MacBook Air, half a pound lighter, faster processor, and an optical drive.

I'll bet this one won't make the news.

Not as pretty.....

 

[philbob]

but more capable

 

[AliciaD496]

Hi, I don't usually post in tis fora so pardon me if I sound like a 'noob' or a fangirl.

I'm (hopefully) starting law school the fall after this one and I know I probably need a new laptop for that. I know it's a ways off and new things will be on the market by then but I've been pondering on this for a while. I'm not totally sold on the 'greatness' of Mac (my sister, a graphic designer, has tried instill it in me but it hasn't stuck aside from me owning an iPod nano) but had been pondering a switchover with this purchase. The PC laptop I have now is fine and will likely be functioning for quite a few years more, so this new laptop would be a second computer for me basically. I like the computer I have now a lot but it does add noticable bulk to a bag when I try to haul it to school. The Macbooks I'd looked at didn't really seem all that much lighter than my current computer so I was still on the fence. As long as the price goes down a little I will most likely make the Macbook Air my 'take to class' computer. Most law schools are wireless these days anyway (at least the Seattle area ones are). Anyway, I'm not quite ready to jump in feet first yet (it'll be at least a year before I come near to purchasing anything) but I'm very very tempted by this new model.

 

[Marc]

AliciaD496 said:
Hi, I don't usually post in tis fora so pardon me if I sound like a 'noob' or a fangirl.

I'm (hopefully) starting law school the fall after this one and I know I probably need a new laptop for that. I know it's a ways off and new things will be on the market by then but I've been pondering on this for a while. I'm not totally sold on the 'greatness' of Mac (my sister, a graphic designer, has tried instill it in me but it hasn't stuck aside from me owning an iPod nano) but had been pondering a switchover with this purchase. The PC laptop I have now is fine and will likely be functioning for quite a few years more, so this new laptop would be a second computer for me basically. I like the computer I have now a lot but it does add noticable bulk to a bag when I try to haul it to school. The Macbooks I'd looked at didn't really seem all that much lighter than my current computer so I was still on the fence. As long as the price goes down a little I will most likely make the Macbook Air my 'take to class' computer. Most law schools are wireless these days anyway (at least the Seattle area ones are). Anyway, I'm not quite ready to jump in feet first yet (it'll be at least a year before I come near to purchasing anything) but I'm very very tempted by this new model.

Unless you need the portability benefits of an subnote book like the Macbook Air or the Lenovo X300 I'd suggest going for the a regular laptop (whether running OS X or Windows). Subnotebooks are used as an adjunct to a larger system

Though I can see the benefit of having a subnotebook when going to lecturers because they'll easily go into your back and with something like the new Mac you've also got a decent size screen.

Speaking of screen size, I've been reading the articles on the MacBook Air on Anadtech where a comment was made vis a vis the screen size - while the screen is small and of a lower resolution than the author normally likes, because OS X's window handling is better the screen specs aren't quite as big an issue as they under Windows.

 

[Lindley]

An article on Slashdot is now saying that replacing the Air's battery requires only a screwdriver.

 

[StolenThunder]

And another battery, presumably.

 

[Arrqh]

And, most likely, at the cost of your warranty...