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Apple Announces New 13.3-Inch and 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Models with Flash Storage

11 or 13?

11" 128 GB mem & 4 GB RAM
1.6 Ghz and 5 hour battery
= $1,399

13" 128 GB mem & 4 GB RAM
1.86 Ghz and 7 hour battery (and SD slot)
= $1,399

Oh jeez Steve, don't make me decide....
 
I will help you

bluefox9er said:
and see how the nerds defend this overpirced nonsense.
Click to expand...

You're doing your trolling all wrong. Here's how:
1. It's not "nerds", it's "fanboys". Or, if you're an elite troll, "fanbois".
2. "overpirced" should be "overpriced".
3. You'll probably misspell "rediculously overpriced" in your next post. FYI, it should be "ridiculously overpriced".
4. You forget to mention: reality distortion field, advertising, sheep, sheeple, cult, and black turtleneck.
 
Caliber26 said:
I was very much on the verge of giving into the iPad, but a lot of its limitations made me hold off. The iPad is not self-sufficient, as it depends on an actual computer for its content to be fed to it. I want ONE machine and this caters to me 100%. Undoubtedly, the entry-level MBA will be a very popular item, particularly with students and many 'basic' users who just want to browse sites, download songs, and chat online. Not all of us want to do heavy-duty video editing. (I'm going to sell my MPB and go with the 13-incher, myself)
Click to expand...

Not to mention users such as myself: own an iMac for "power" applications, but may want a lightweight notebook for a little writing, or to store photographs on the road, or email on the road. I bet you'll be able to do more than you might think also, such as iLife and Office applications.
 
The new 13" MBA looks very tempting to replace my late-2007 MB next year when it'll be almost four years and by then Lion will probably be out. Very good news for me. :)
 
It looks like Apple have finally released my next laptop with the 11" MacBook Air. That said, I will still be keeping my 3 year old MacBook for some time. It's still plenty fast for my needs and there are a few things that I am hoping for in rev.2 of the 11" (besides a better bank balance):
  • USB 3.0 (Intel adoption in 2011, so fingers crossed)
  • 3G modem (surprised this wasn't in it this time TBH)
  • 256GB option
  • 1.86GHz + processor

With those amendments, I'm sure it could easily be my only computer until 2014, if not longer. On a side-note, I just checked eBay and I could probably get £400-500 for my current laptop, which I paid about £750 for in November of 2007! Gotta love resale values of Apple gear.
 
0092762 said:
No it isn't, not even close. It's not faster by any stretch of the imagination.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the actual benchmarks? In the cases where Core i3 is faster, it's by a very small margin.

And any positive gain Core i3 might have is offset by Intel graphics. Core i3 might be one step forward but the inclusion of Intel graphics makes the entire setup take a thousand steps backwards.

My 2 year old 2008 2GHz unibody MacBook with the GeForce 9400M would be a significantly overall faster system than one based on Core i3 and Intel graphics.

Especially with things moving more and more towards using the GPU. Web browsers are on the path to using GPU acceleration. Video already does. Many UI elements in OS X apps rely on the GPU for animation.

One thing I noticed when I went from a MacBook with Intel graphics to the 9400M was just how much faster and smoother the entire UI ran.

Even Flash in OS X uses hardware acceleration now.

Don't forget the slow migration to apps taking advantage of OpenCL as well.

I can think of a million reasons why Core 2 Duo with a GeForce 320m is better than Core i3 and Intel graphics. Even in situations where people think a faster CPU would be more important than the faster GPU, little things will take advantage of that extra GPU power. Even in Pages when you start a new document and you're at the template selection screen. When you select the document and it zooms out from the little window? That takes advantage of the GPU as well. It's significantly smoother on non-Intel graphics. I know that from experience.

And what if you wanted to drive an external display? The GeForce 320m (or 9400M for those of us with older units) will have no problem pushing a high resolution external display and the built-in display. Intel graphics will have a very difficult time pushing both displays even remotely smooth.
 
koach said:
New Air compared to Macbook:

Slower processor
Worse battery life
Same price


WTF?

Air should have been $799 at most. The new one is definitely more reasonably priced that the insane prices they charged for the Air initially, but they still aren't there yet. A 1.4 GHz processor and 5 hours of battery life is worse than my 5 year old Macbook.
Click to expand...

For the love of GOD processor speed is not the 'most important' spec, for like 6 years.
 
FuNGi said:
11" 128 GB mem & 4 GB RAM
1.6 Ghz and 5 hour battery
= $1,399

13" 128 GB mem & 4 GB RAM
1.86 Ghz and 7 hour battery (and SD slot)
= $1,399

Oh jeez Steve, don't make me decide....
Click to expand...

I hear ya, I was all like ooh 11" 16:9, albeit with a 5" bezel.... And then more like umm....

So, to upgrade to 4GB RAM = $US100; to upgrade from 1.4GHz to 1.6GHz = $US100.

To upgrade to a 2" bigger screen, higher res, 16:10 but with a less ridiculous bezel, another 260MHz, an SD slot and 2 hours more battery life ... FREE!!

I like maths up to a point but this had me head-scratching, and then that started to hurt. It has always been Apple's way to reduce prices for smaller machines, and usually significantly; I guess that's only true to a certain point - the 12" PowerBook benefitted from it but not this 11.6" job. I'm torn ... but don't worry I won't start singing. Just thinking.
 
A Step Backwards

Chundles said:
The keyboard is no longer backlit on either model of the MacBook Air. That's a shame, love the backlit keyboard.
Click to expand...

Good catch! The lack of a backlit keyboard is one downer, and the loss of the glass over the screen is a second downer. (Why not offer the Air in matte then?) The loss of these features makes the Air more like a MB and less like a MBP. Perhaps the MB will be phased out in favor of only two notebook lines--the Air and the MBPs. This would create more uniformity in Apple's lineup and would explain SJ's comment that the Air is the future of MBs (my paraphrase).

I do expect the MBPs will be the next to receive the SSD treatment across the board at the next update with mechanical hard drives as an option.
 
Different keyboard?

Did they change the keyboard? Seems like a MBP keyboard and not like the old MBA keyboard (see the shape of the keys). In my opinion the old MBA keyboard was the best keyboard ever to write with.
 
shanmugam said:
Give it a 6 or 12 months time, see what it can bring for $999...

it just the beginning, wonder this Flash will come to Macbook and MBP?

Are these CPUs are Low Voltage or Ultra Low Voltage?

Looks like 11" is using ULV

and 13" is using LV.

two usb ports and sd card slot on 13" awesome, $$$ is the question, everything else is nice. cannot wait for Sandy Bridge CPUs !!!!
Click to expand...

I'll be buying one shortly as my first gen MBA is nearing the end of its 3 year extended warranty and we always ebay them a months or so before that. My question is why are the 11" and 13" basically the same price? The 11" with the $100 processor upgrade and $100 RAM upgrade and 128G flash is $1400. The 13" with a slightly faster processor (only one available), 4G RAM and 128G flash is also $1400.

As much as I'd love a lighter by a half pound or so MBA I think a larger screen, longer battery life and considerably larger screen makes the 13" the better machine. Too bad the back-lit keyboard is gone. I've always found that useful.

Any thoughts?
 
yoshipop said:
It looks to me that the only thing great about this new MBA is that you can impress others with it. I have the original MBA when it first came out. When novelty wears out, there's nothing great about it I can think of.

The suckiest thing is the slow single USB port. And the clunky superdrive for the MBA is so slow (and bulky too, if you think about it) and sometimes faulty. Then there's no ethernet port either. And it isn't exactly light as netbook out there (which some have 2 usb ports).

Oh, and did I mention that it's S....L....O....W....?!
Click to expand...

How can a laptop with istant ON be slow?
 
Robbery

Non US prices are turning into robbery around the world.
iLife $49 but £49 ie £ for $!
Macbook air starting price $999 but £849 in UK
Apple prices are a real joke now, this now turning into robbery and is beyond a joke!
 
genosseinski said:
I wonder how many people will go for the 13" MacBook Pro now... Cheaper and better
Click to expand...

Cheaper?
MBA 13" $1299
MBP 13" $1199

Still have $100 in your pocket if get the MBP.

If talking about the 11.6" version. Performance wise the MBP 13" beats that system like a rented mule. Chopped down memory bus, chopped down frequency, etc. Unless your playing games that are capped on the graphics there is a big difference. It is lighter and smaller ... but those are the main benefits.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Typically underwhelming spec and over priced, yet since it bass an apple logo it will sell like hotcakes.
 
I wish they gave up the thin-ness obsession.

But, does anyone know why they did not include a 3G sim card reader on the new Macbook Airs ?
 
trrosen said:
Before the PC whiners get in here there are plenty of PC's being sold with weaker specs and higher price tags.

The MBA clearly beats out Dell's Adamo, their only comparable machine.

Nobody wants to hear your rants about $400 Atom powered plastic machines with Intel GMA graphics and screens from a portable DVD player.

The MBA is a high quality thin and light with plenty of power and storage for 90% of users that is priced very competitively if not cheaper then comparable PCs.
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You forgot the Vostro v13, comparable to the older Macbook Air's. It has a pleanty good enough screen, a nice metal body, and a core 2 duo.

I'd love an 11" MBA, but not for $1000.
 
Can anyone confirm the RAM is user upgradable to the 4gigs?

Or do i have to spec it from the get go?


Thanks
 
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