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Backlit Keyboard to Return in New MacBook Air?

Another non-MacBook rumor

Another MacBook Air rumor.... tons of them hit us the past weeks.

Nothing regarding the MacBook, nor the Mac mini....
 
I like that the MacBook Air seems to be getting a backlit keyboard. :D

...but now the new deal-breaker for me could be the Solid State Drive, which I read might be soldered to the motherboard. If the drive goes bad in two years, it seems like the laptop becomes unreliable.

So... I did some reading... it seems that SSD technology has improved and that other parts of the laptop could wear out long before the drive does.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829/6

That's cool. Although, I don't have $1000+ to spend on a laptop right now, but at least it's cool computer hardware that I can look forward to.
 
Photics said:
I like that the MacBook Air seems to be getting a backlit keyboard. :D

...but now the new deal-breaker for me could be the Solid State Drive, which I read might be soldered to the motherboard. If the drive goes bad in two years, it seems like the laptop becomes unreliable.

So... I did some reading... it seems that SSD technology has improved and that other parts of the laptop could wear out long before the drive does.

That's cool. Although, I don't have $1000+ to spend on a laptop right now, but at least it's cool computer hardware that I can look forward to.
Click to expand...

Personally... I wouldn't worry about the SSD drive seems electronics these days are either bad out of the box or they last for a long time... of course, unless Sony made it! LOL! Sorry.... I've had a rash is issues with Sony equipment. Their quality seems to have gone south big time.

Anyway... it's Tuesday! Maybe we get Lion today?????
 
It was a deal breaker for me (would have gone Samsung 9 series instead). My credit card is ready to buy as soon as this is released. You just earned another Windows convert Apple (for now...)
 
Great news and I sincerely hope it is true. The BLK is an excellent feature and one I would love to see restored to the MBA line. I have had it on my 15" MBP and my current MBA, and would sorely miss it - actually, it is one of the main reasons I have not considered updating/upgrading my Rev C SSD.

Cheers
 
Photics said:
...but now the new deal-breaker for me could be the Solid State Drive, which I read might be soldered to the motherboard. If the drive goes bad in two years, it seems like the laptop becomes unreliable.
Click to expand...

So that's what's going to be the catch in this revision... Now I understand even better why they're planning to put the backlit keyboard back in.
 
That's one thing I thought I'd really love but in real life is pretty useless.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

Its so tempting to buy an 11" on release but I really don't need it. Whil it's expensive, it would be a way of getting Lion on release day from the Apple store. Downloading it won't be the same as opening the disc.
 
I hope this rumor is true. Sold my MBA few weeks ago, need one real soon. With Lion release, I hope Apple makes 4GB RAM a standard option on all MBAs.
 
Skika said:
Smaller than 11"?
Click to expand...

Concerning a lighter and smaller MacBook Air model, remember the very same discussions when only the 13-inch model was available. Then Apple produced the 11-inch model which outsold the larger one. Because on this kind of product, the key feature is portability (read weight and size) and not battery life or big display area. And no, the iPad is not a Mac.
 
MBA would be a lot more attractive to a lot of people with a backlit keyboard. Let's hope the rumor is true and that MBA release does coincide with Lion's release (which seems to be the near-unanimous consensus now).

A minor bump in MBPs would be nice, too (if nothing else, don't we need a Mission Control key? :D).
 
I still find it funny how many people on the forums complain about this feature, it's like they have to stare at their keyboard when typing. I haven't ever used mine on my 2 year old MBP except just to try it out and in Windows as it never seems to turn off when I boot into that for whatever reason.
 
torbjoern said:
Cool. I wonder why they dropped it in Rev D in the first place.
Click to expand...

So they could sell more rev E MBAs and persuade those with Rev D MBAs to buy yet another MBA. This is normal Apple strategy.

I want the backlit keyboard, and I otherwise have very little interest in the new MBA due to the loss of the Nvidia GPU. I just hope Apple has a real plan to deal with the Intel IGP. I didn't think I would want the next MBA but maybe it will all work out.
 
Marx55 said:
Concerning a lighter and smaller MacBook Air model,... on this kind of product, the key feature is portability (read weight and size) and not battery life or big display area. And no, the iPad is not a Mac.
Click to expand...

Battery life IS part of portability. The more portable a device is, the more battery life matters. It doesn't matter how small or light or powerful a laptop is, if the battery is flat.
 
Photics said:
...but now the new deal-breaker for me could be the Solid State Drive, which I read might be soldered to the motherboard. If the drive goes bad in two years, it seems like the laptop becomes unreliable.

So... I did some reading... it seems that SSD technology has improved and that other parts of the laptop could wear out long before the drive does.
Click to expand...

Soldered SSD isn't ideal -- less than ideal for us tinkerers and DIYers -- but it's the best way to shrink the case and lower weight and price, similar to when Apple went to non-user replaceable batteries. I thought the latter might be an issue, but it hasn't. I just upgrade every 1.5 to 2 years instead of 3 now, selling my "old" and using the cash plus a hundred or so extra for the new.

I've had an SSD in my MBP for 3 years now (transplanted SSD to new machine). It's solid and I trust it much more than any HDD as far as reliability goes.
 
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