While likely not for me, this new lappie isn't half bad.
Totally agree with you there.
Very disappointed with this release. There were so many ways that apple could have created an uber laptop, but instead all they have done is created an underpowered 17" MB Air. Let's be honest- this 17" is hardly more powerful than the existing 15".
Have you seen the internal pics? This is one nicely put together machine and should do wonders for Apples quality reputation.
As to being a powerful machine that also implies power as in watts. The whole point of this release is that it enables Apples marketing program with respect to the long battery life selling point. The battery gives Apple something to point to without the me to taste one gets with marketing Intel CPU's in the machine.
It seems Apple has solved a battery problem that didn't really exist. Sure, 17" battery life has never been great, but that is because they are designed to be desktop replacements.
That is a self serving view point. You make an assumption that everybody uses such machines as desktop replacements. They don't and some people can certainly use the battery life. Personally I do see the internal nature of the battery as a problem of sorts, but it is no where near as bad as some assume.
This laptop should have had desktop class power, and by that i mean:
That is your view but many would consider this machine to be one excellent example of a well put together laptop.
-Quadcore CPU (can't believe this isn't even an option...)
This certainly would be nice but think about it, if they put a quad core in it right now they couldn't advertise the 8 hour battery life. I expect a quad core in a few months, carefully advertised so that people will realize the power means less battery life.
-eSATA (because you'll be needing more space when you fill that meager 320GB drive haha)
This would be incredibly stupid as eSATA has no business being on a laptop. The connector isn't rugged enough for that sort of service. Second; it is a single function port on a machine with constrained I/O space. The last thing I'd want to see built into a laptop is a port that only supports one type of use. At least with USB and FireWire your can connect an abundant number of devices.
You are right about one thing 320GB isn't much. That is why I'd like to see Apple offer and adapter for the CD drive bay to allow another internal "disk". As to going beyond 320Gb they should do that as soon as field reports pinpoint a reliable drive.
-calibrated LCD for Adobe (what happened here eh?)
We don't want to add even more expense to the machine.
-Dual HDD - even better, 1 SSD, one large Magnetic HDD
As noted above this may be doable in the CD drive slot.
-a DECENT GPU, not a generic gaming card. Give us a proper Quadro/FireGL
This is a large laptop not a transportable wanna be.
-Remove that ridiculous battery, and you might have some room to fit some decent components...
Not really as the video cards you describe above would be a cooling nightmare.
The big battery isn't that much of a problem either. I mean really just what do you intend to put in the free space?
Who cares about thinness? Seriously?!
It is not that thinness is cool or anything, rather for a given screen size it is the only variable the designer has a lot of control over. Given that Apple wants to sell a reasonably light 17" laptop keeping the unit thin is the only practical way to manage that weight.
In any event if you really want to lug around all that computing power there are transportable on the market. Buy one and knock yourself out.
Dave
PS
This 17" is a very nice machine that a reasonable person can not dismiss. I'd be buying one today if it wasn't for the fact that my MBP is only about 8 months old now. The only thing that would be possibly questionable is the question of lugging around a machine that big anyways.
Dave
= New M$
