mostly the batteries and fans seem to die rather fast on windows laptops but of course i can only speak from my own experience among my family (sony, toshiba, acer). also the whole driver mess. after 2 years i still havent found drivers that support my old old school sony vaio laptop for anything over windows vista
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Teardown Reveals New 13-Inch MacBook Air SSD is Nearly Twice as Fast as SSD in New 11-Inch MacBook Air
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mostly the batteries and fans seem to die rather fast on windows laptops but of course i can only speak from my own experience among my family (sony, toshiba, acer). also the whole driver mess. after 2 years i still havent found drivers that support my old old school sony vaio laptop for anything over windows vista
I think all old widows machines are turned in to be installed in ATM machines. They take like two minutes between each button press. Ugh.
But you are right.... many many businesses that can't afford frequent equipment purchases are using old PCs that are still going strong for many years. Doesn't seem to be any detriment to them.
I don't think it's the hardware so much, but the software. There's something about Windows that makes the machine feel increasingly sluggish after a year or so. Case in point, since 2008, I'm on my 3rd PC laptop at work (technically 2 1/2 since I got a used one when I joined the company) while my 2008 MacBoook Pro is still going relatively strong and running the latest Mac OS X Yosemite. And it's not like I get crappy laptops at work since I work for a Windows/Android OEM. In that same timeframe, my parents are on their 2nd PC laptop and my sister just got her 3rd this Christmas. So there's definitely some truth to what that poster said. At least in my experience.
My crystal ball is saying the lineup will evolve into 12" and 14" MB, 13" and 15" MBP
Come ON. If they didn't solder the RAM they wouldn't be able to design such deliciously thin machines. And for all the crazy battery nazis who detest Apple's "obsession" with thin devices, that $h!t SELLS because people LOVE IT.
The bottom line is this:
Soldering RAM is a proven design choice that just happens to lend itself nicely to monetization, which is a thing that companies do.
So the estimated 60% of Intel Macs that have boot camp or Paralells Windows installed don't suffer this phenomenon if it exists at all? Personally I think it is total urban myth. I have never owned a Mac PC so cannot comment on how they cope with OS updates, suffice to say, the more memory you use and tasks being undertaken with the same hardware, the harder it is to perform. I have 6 Windows machines, and I take no particular care in maintaining them, e.g defraghing drives, or cleaning up the registry, removing unwanted drivers etc, and I have zero impression that they are any slower than when I built / purchased them. For info I have a mix of media centres, gaming rigs and laptops. They all have their original OS's on them, namely W7 and W8, so maybe if I upgraded them to later versions, I might see something, but I can honestly say they have just not got slower over time, or if they have, not to a degree that is noticeable (to me at least)
I have several IPods, and IPads and quite categorically can say that my iPad 3 is much slower with iOS 8, but then I would sort of expect that?
Same here. Might be buying one of those new rMPB's but need to know this first.
Is this something to do with the complete absence of Mac software beyond what comes with the OS? I have no idea in truth, but do the vast majority of Mac owners, besides those that use them professionally, have a need for extra software beyond perhaps Office? You certainly don't buy a Mac to game to any great degree, so is it just the case that the install just stays 'fresh?' I.e as originally inatalled?
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I hear ya. For me, nothing surpasses the horror of getting stuck with the old loaner laptops at work. They're only 1 or 2 generations old but they feel like the 90's all over again.
My 2011 MBA has lasted almost twice as long as any laptop I have owned (and will be going strong for at least a couple more years). The machine is well built, not what I would consider disposable.
So I am not sure why Apple is so "un-green" to you.
I like to upgrade things myself, but laptops from any manufacturer are generally not very upgradeable. Other than memory soldered onboard, the MBA is no less upgradeable than any other modern laptop. SSD and batteries are simple to swap out on the MBA.
I am not an OS X fan, but I am a fan of Apple laptops. I don't like their desktops, because I constantly upgrade my computers a piece at a time, and Apple desktops definitely don't work that way.
Yet, if Apple didn't have it... People would complain endlessly about it.
That's how it goes.
Some people, probably 5%-10%, do see it; for the rest its business as usual.
The biggest impact is on battery life, and very slightly on latency. The quicker an operation occurs, the quicker you can go back to idle.
Race to idle. That's why quicker CPUs, memory/solid state storage is important if you're able to do it without bumping up the clock. Even if you don't use the full power of the CPU for processing. Having it quickly idle (idle with in a lowest power statel) is the future in mobile.
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What about the Pro 2015?
Would it be possible to swap the faster SSD from a 2015 Air and place it in a 2014 13" Pro? I successfully swapped a 256 Samsung from a 2013 Air with a 128 SanDisk I had in my 2014 Pro and sold the Air, that cost me just 30!!
You've gotten NINE MONTHS usage out of an awesome machine before they rolled out any upgrades. I'd say you came out ahead.
I believe Apple will never put a Retina screen on an MBA.
Why? Because no one would buy a Retina MBP or a Macbook (which "coincidentally" fall in the same price range.
I'm so sick of waiting for Apple to build the best machine they can, instead of building ones that are "good enough" while making the most money from them.
These artificial feature omissions really piss me off.
Damn it Apple, I'd PAY for the best you can do. Let me have it!!!
You're assuming that many Apple users would or want to replace their RAM. Sorry but that's just not the user base of Apple products anymore. Maybe 10 years ago when Apple charged a premium for RAM it was but not now. Most users just want a new Apple product they can pull out of the box and use. They stop thinking about the extra $300 they spent on RAM as soon as they here the startup chime.
It's a feature people didn't know existed as on option on a laptop until yesterday.
Disk performance is the biggest bottleneck next to memory, both have lagged behind a lot in comparison to the CPU. What good is a fast CPU if it has to sit around waiting for data to come in from memory, or worse, disk. A lot of real world applications are I/O bound..
I believe Apple will never put a Retina screen on an MBA.
Why? Because no one would buy a Retina MBP or a Macbook (which "coincidentally" fall in the same price range.
I'm so sick of waiting for Apple to build the best machine they can, instead of building ones that are "good enough" while making the most money from them.
These artificial feature omissions really piss me off.
Damn it Apple, I'd PAY for the best you can do. Let me have it!!!
The 13" rMBP actually has a smaller footprint and is thinner than the 13" MBA at both laptop's thickest point. The MBP just doesn't have the wedge shape and weighs a little more.
I believe Apple will never put a Retina screen on an MBA.
Why? Because no one would buy a Retina MBP or a Macbook (which "coincidentally" fall in the same price range.
I'm so sick of waiting for Apple to build the best machine they can, instead of building ones that are "good enough" while making the most money from them.
These artificial feature omissions really piss me off.
Damn it Apple, I'd PAY for the best you can do. Let me have it!!!
You're confusing the best and most powerful Mac with portability. Those 2 attributes will never be in the same computer. Just buy a Mac Pro and make sure you have a monitor for it. They are light and very portable, just not useable on a plane or on the go or on your lap...but then why would you need the most powerful computer they can make when you are on a plane?