This year's Apple Keynote at Macworld saw the release of many products, services, and updates. I quite liked the Time Capsule NAS, the updates to the iPod Touch, and the AppleTV. If the iTunes Movies service was here, I wouldn't use it unless they struck a deal with my ISP to ensure that my purchases are unmetred.
And then Apple release their Macbook Air. Yes it looks amazing, with the specs to suit it (Almost). But there are a few things that made me look elsewhere.
I am searching for a laptop. I find sometimes it is more convenient to surf the internet away from my desk. I own a 20in iMac which has served me well over the last month. What gets me is the price. It starts at AUD2499. Excluding AppleCare my 20in iMac costed less than the base Macbook Air, it comes with Firewire, a bigger screen, Ethernet, a DVD Burner, a bigger hard drive, a faster processor and more USB 2.0 ports. I could even consider the standard Macbook as a more cost effective option. And what I don't get is why for another AUD1839 you get a slightly faster processor and a smaller albeit apparently faster solid state drive. I may as well get a Macbook Pro.
I am not the biggest fan of the exclusion of a SuperDrive in the Air. I do prefer to have access to one when on the road, but Apple have workarounds. These include a USD99 external SuperDrive (more money???) and Remote Disc, a function that allows you to use the drive on another Mac or PC on the Air. Apparently you can also boot discs this way, but what happens if you are away from that computer? Unless you have an external drive at your disposal, or have the SuperDrive, you're out of luck. And also, because the Air has only ONE USB 2.0 port, unless you have a USB Hub which you can use, you can't have your flash drive and your external SuperDrive plugged in at the same time. Yet again we are at the mercy of 'Dear Leader' and his crew...
But there are some positives to the Macbook Air, which include the form factor. The laptop is incredibly thin, yet it packs in a 13in display, the dual core processor and everything else in between. Like all other Apple products, they are well designed and look amazing. The inclusion of 802.11n is a good thing to see, and the portability of the laptop can come in handy for those who travel a lot.
There are other laptops in the rapidly emerging sub-notebook category, and most notably the Sony VAIO laptop which was referenced in the Apple Keynote and the ASUS eee. Let's focus on the latter. The laptop is really small and inexpensive. The OS of choice is a customised version of Xandros Linux which is based on Debian Linux. The battery life is good, and you can almost take it anywhere. With the price, it is great for a kid's first computer, or someone who wants Linux on the go (I do! I do!). I have my criticisms of the eee. First off, the low screen resolution makes it harder to view websites that are designed for 1024x768 screens. A bigger screen would be nice, even though it would increase the size and weight of the eee. Also, the GUI of the customised Xandros distribution installation is designed for the beginner at heart, and I am no beginner; although it can prove useful for the computer illiterates out there.
I also think that the storage offered is quite small, considering that 65% of it is used for the Operating System itself. You can use USB flash drives, but it doesn't help a lot. You can install other Linux distro's on it, but it requires you to put the installer on a bootable USB flash drive. You can use the eeeXubuntu distribution, which requires you to boot a CD onto a normal computer, and it copies the installer onto a USB drive, which you can plug into your eee. This version of Xubuntu includes fixes specific to the eee which proved a problem to those who tried to install Ubuntu onto their eee.
In conclusion, Apple really should release a slightly lower spec Air. The base model is way over powered for a sub-notebook computer. I will hold on and wait for something else to come on the market before I commit to one.
Matthew Rossi.
Comments
You two may not be Apple's target but I will say I am. I have wanted something like this for ages, and the eee was just to toy-ish for me. The lack of CD/DVD drive is fine by me. We don't have uses for them anyways. Hopefully the future will hold A) Some form of an installer similar to apt-get B) Applications on flash drives. The only drawbacks are I wish it was smaller (10 inches) and.. what were they thinking with only one USB slot. I couldn't plug in my iPod and external hard drive (not that I would sync iPod on mac, far less hackable if you do) so all in all the only reason I don't have one on my lap is Apple's signature sky high price. But hey, the future cost money, especially if you get it early.
You are right Justin, it isn't really designed for me... I'd be better suited elsewhere.
Well, you are obviously not in Apple's target market for the MBA. I think that they are targeting the "road warrior's", those business people who are constantly traveling and want a laptop that is extremely portable and small, and who generally have more money to spend. Sub-notebook's are always more expensive because of all the extra research, hardware shrinkage, extra cost of that shrunk hardware, etc. that goes into making them, so comparing it to a full-size iMac really isn't a fair comparison. For example, the MBA needed a much smaller C2Duo processor, which I can imagine costs much more than the normal version (Steve Jobs said that they asked Intel to make it 60% smaller in the MacWorld Keynote).
And I'm not a huge fan of using an external optical drive either, but once again, that's because I'm not in their target market. There are many people who rarely use an optical drive (in the target market) and would probably be quite happy using the remote disc feature for the rare instance's that they needed to read a CD.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, don't complain about the MBA when Apple makes other notebook's that you should be using instead ;-)
Post new comment