Apple nerds, sit down, put down your drink, and make sure you have a soft surface to faint on: The new Macbook Air has just been announced. And it's tiny, affordable, and gorgeous.
From the side, the thing looks like a mere door shim -- just .68" at its thickest point in the back, at the screen's hinge, and .11" in the front. (Come to think about it, this might actually slip under a door.) It weighs as little as 2.3 pounds.
The new Air is firmly planted in the age of web-based computing: There's no optical drive, and the hard-drive has been replaced with Flash memory, of the sort you find in iPods and iPhones. (The benefits of Flash memory are both that it's 90% smaller than a normal harddrive, with no moving parts which might be damaged or malfunction in such a slim device.) The Flash memory also helps it achieve a purported seven hours on use on a single charge and up to 30 days of standby time (due to how Flash memory works when it's in standby mode).
And here's the kicker: Prices start at $999, for a 11.6" screen (the same size as the current model). Granted, that's just for 64 GB of memory. A 11.6" screen with 128 GB will be $1199. And there will be a new, larger size as well: a 13.3" screen with either 128 GB or256 GB for $1299 and $1599 -- meaning that even at the top end, the new Air will be $200 cheaper than when it was first introduced.
More on the new Apple products announced today:
Apple Launches New Macbook Air, Lion OS X, Mission Control, Mac App Store, iLife 11
COMMENTARY: The new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Airs are not that groundbreaking on the processor front, though an internal revamp has yielded a much thinner design. Let's look at the MacBook Airs specifications:
Processors: Inside are anything-but-cutting-edge Intel Core 2 Duo processors running at 1.4GHz and 1.86GHz. There are also options for 2.13GHz and 1.6GHz processors. After almost three years, Apple has elected to go with Intel processor designs that have been available for a couple of years. For reasons not yet entirely clear--but likely having to do with heat and cost--the new Airs do not use Intel's newest Core i series processors, such as the power-efficient Core i7.
Graphics: The Airs have been upgraded with Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics--the same graphics now used in MacBook Pros. And that is probably the single biggest logic chip departure from the original MacBook Air, which used older Nvida 9400M-based graphics.
Flash: This is what Apple CEO Steve Jobs focused on the most and is in keeping with his MacBook Air theme of "what if a MacBook met an iPad." Like the iPad, there is no hard disk drive per se. "We've gone to complete flash storage," Jobs said. What this means is that the flash memory is built right on the system board and is not in a larger solid-state drive enclosure, creating more space for the battery and other components.
Memory: The Air can now be configured with up to 4GB of memory, exceeding the 2GB limit on the original. But this will add $100 to the price.
Battery: "We're moving toward some more stringent tests that get us much closer to real-world results. Even using these more stringent tests, we're getting seven hours of wireless Web battery life. The previous MacBook Air, using the old, more liberal tests got only five (hours)," Jobs said.
Screen and connectors: The 13.3-inch model uses a high-resolution 1440-by-900 (native) display, higher than the original Air. The 11.6-inch model has a 1366-by-768 resolution screen. The 13.3-inch Air finally has an SD card slot--but not the the 11.6 inch model. There are two USB 2.0 connectors and a Mini DisplayPort.
No internal 3G: Yes, Apple stuck with Wi-Fi on the new Airs. In this respect, the MacBook has not met the iPad 3G (yet).
Flash memory is built directly on the system board, just like the iPad, not a separate solid-state drive enclosure. Thanks goodness that the MacBook Air supports Adobe Flash.
New MacBook Air is more aggressively priced, starting at $999 for the 11.6-inch model.
In my opinion, the new MacBook Air is basically a lower-priced, lighter and "crippled" version of the MacBook. Apple sacrificed speed and performance to gain an hour or two of battery life. Here are my main beefs:
- No hard disk. Apple opted to use Flash memory that ranges between 64GB to 256GB.
- No CD drive. They cost another $100.
- No Intel Dual Core (i3, i5 or i7) dual core processors. The MacBook Airs uses much slower Intel 1.4Ghz and 1.86 Ghz processors.
The only pluses of the MacBook Airs is their sleeker, smaller foot print and longer lasting battery life. WIFI is okay, but speeds are unpredictable. The MacBook Airs are basically designed as an alternative to existing PC-compatible netbook computers.
For my money, I will stick with the larger screen, faster processor and lower price of standard size PC-compatible laptops. I know they have a shorter battery life, but give me an electrical plug and AC adapter, and I never miss a beat. I have never liked the netbooks, which I consider "throw-away" computing devices, designed primarily for surfing the net, viewing video and graphics. For serious business and scientific uses, you need a bigger, more powerful machine.
Courtesy of an article dated October 20, 2010 appearing in Fast Company Design
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