Who else would have really loved to see this: A 15 inch Macbook Air which weighs 4 pounds by omitting the optical drive and instead uses the extra footprint space for a larger hard drive and faster CPUs, and has the faster graphics card as an option for video editors and gamers, but not as mandatory price raiser for the remaining 90% of us out here? I do need the increased screen size (though which it had higher resolution!) and CPU clock rate of the MBP over the air, but haven't had to use an optical drive on my last notebook since I got it ~3 years back, and also don't game and edit videos while I'm away from home.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
how about a Macbook Air Pro?
- Thread starter macbook123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
your the 1910202930304943829383 person to ask this. sure it would be great. but it will never happen and it would be to hottttt
If there's indeed demand for this, it just proves that Apple should sell not just one machine, but cater to different kinds of pro customers, doesn't it? But why don't they have a wider product spectrum? Is it because laptops as good as theirs take too long to design, so they can't come up with one every few months, like Sony&Co? In that case, will we only see laptops of this kind from Apple once optical drives become outdated like floppy disks, which will probably take another 5 years? Just thinking out loudly...
The thing is taking out the optical drive wont free up space for more performing parts. You can't put bigger hard drives in there, since they are thicker, for example. Also, the motherboards these days are tiny, and the extra space isn't needed for a better video card. So cutting out the optical drive could free up space for a 2nd hard drive or a bigger battery. But either way it wouldn't lead to a thinner laptop.
It would definitely be cool though, although I probably wouldn't buy it myself.
It would definitely be cool though, although I probably wouldn't buy it myself.
Considering the low-end MBA is $1799 and the low-end MBP is $1999, buy a MacBook Pro and just deal with having an optical drive, as "old school" as that is.
You have my vote!
I have been barking from the get go for a 10" 13" and 15" Air
Steve are you listening?
I have been barking from the get go for a 10" 13" and 15" Air
Steve are you listening?
Is it really true that one can't make a hard drive wider and deeper while keeping the thickness the same? Can't one just use a larger disk in there?
While I'm sure it's physically possible without a doubt (like a 3.5 inch hard drive with fewer platters to make it thinner), I don't think any company will be doing it any time soon, if ever. I think they just want to make hard drives as small and thin as possible, because making it long, wide and thin would be useful only for super thin laptops with big screens.
By the way, just to tell you, there's a 500 gigabyte Western Digital drive that fits in the MBP! It's at 5400rpm. Don't let Apple's 320 gig hard drive max limit you!
wouldnt making an air "pro" kinda defeat the point of the air?
Its supposed to be a lightwieght travel laptop thats sort of a satelite peripheral to your other computers.
Side note: Can anyone explain to me why the air has twice the L3 cache (6mb) of the macbooks? (3mb)
Its supposed to be a lightwieght travel laptop thats sort of a satelite peripheral to your other computers.
Side note: Can anyone explain to me why the air has twice the L3 cache (6mb) of the macbooks? (3mb)
I typically carry my laptop between home and work, have an external screen in both locations, and use the laptop screen itself while on the go and while business traveling. For all this having it be 1.5 pounds lighter would be awesome. For some this may not be much, but keep in mind that I NEVER use the optical drive, so it's like carrying a 1.5 pound bag of sand with me for no reason.
This is sort of out of context (since I guess a graphics card doesn't take up much space, or does it?), but I'd gladly swap only 0.1 GHz more processing power for that 9600 card, as I don't need a laptop to play video games or edit HD footage, and those are about the only uses I can see for the improvement in graphics performance.
It appears that I'm not that atypical when it comes to needing a large screen capable laptop that doesn't have an internal optical drive and is not hobby gamer toy (and I don't mean this in an offensive sort of way), and I just wonder why Apple won't address this kind of demand.
You wouldn't even notice a .1 Ghz processing difference. You would need a much faster processor then what the Air currently has to work any sort of "pro" application. In order to call it a "Macbook Air Pro", it should have the power of the MBP with the form factor of the Air, right? Well, it's impossible to build with our current processor technology. The MBP's CPU has a TDP of 35W while the Air's is only 17W and it still overheats half of the time. Perhaps in five years or so you'll see a laptop as thin as the Air with the power of a MBP, but not now.
from what i've read in the past, Apple prefers to have a few select, distinct product lines. Granted, they've sorta blurred the line between the macbook and macbook pro now.
But i highly doubt they'll create 10" 13" and 15" macbook airs or even a macbook air pro.
I think we might see them add one more product to the notebook like. But don't hold your breath on having all sorts of options like Dell.
Apple prefers to keep it simple.
But i highly doubt they'll create 10" 13" and 15" macbook airs or even a macbook air pro.
I think we might see them add one more product to the notebook like. But don't hold your breath on having all sorts of options like Dell.
Apple prefers to keep it simple.
Easy to remove optical drive? How much associated weight loss?
At the risk of beating a dead horse:
1) how much weight would the MBP loose approximately without the optical drive?
2) is it easy to remove the optical drive, now that access to it has (apparently) been made easier?
At the risk of beating a dead horse:
1) how much weight would the MBP loose approximately without the optical drive?
2) is it easy to remove the optical drive, now that access to it has (apparently) been made easier?