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MacBook Airs Arrive, Unboxing Photos
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Wrong thread.
The Air never had Firewire. But, I agree that they shouldn't have removed (or upgraded) it on product lines that did have it.
840
Benchmarks are good, but what's the point of unboxing photos if it looks exactly the same? I always found the whole concept of unboxing photos just a tiny bit strange, but it's really silly in this case. If I go out and buy an unopened Airport Extreme from last year will you watch my unboxing photo stream?
Sorry, haven't had my coffee yet and I am just cranky...
Sorry, haven't had my coffee yet and I am just cranky...
Completely agree! Nothing changed on the air!! It is exactly the same laptop as the first release on the outside. The benchmarks are good but not great. Still not sure if it is worth the extra 900$ for the size and weight.
You hit the x-ring dead on, to much for to little.
Exactly! The reality is the AIR ought to be Apples cheapest laptop because there is nothing there. It is a shame that the concept got compromised the way it did. A little more attention to user needs, reliability and I/O would have lead to a more salable machine.
If Apples laptop division listened to consumer complaints as well as the iPod division AIRs short comings would have been addressed.
Dave
That is my question too. The number of people for whom this device is a good fit is extremely limited. The steep drop off in sales highlights that clearly.
Exactly! The reality is the AIR ought to be Apples cheapest laptop because there is nothing there. It is a shame that the concept got compromised the way it did. A little more attention to user needs, reliability and I/O would have lead to a more salable machine.
If Apples laptop division listened to consumer complaints as well as the iPod division AIRs short comings would have been addressed.
Dave
I bought that Airport Extreme off eBay with all the complete packaging. Some days I dream about putting it all back in the wrapping and box like factory-new just to reopen it and pretend Steve has given me another gift from iHeaven.
my company just received our new ones. they are super fast and the graphics are excellent. the SSD is ridiculous! we'll be posting benchmarks in the future. these babies are screamers!
Still too small!!!!!!!!
Then you have data which continually expands. You just don't have a lot of breathing room on a drve that size. More so SSD work much better with a little breathing room.
Frankly the thought of upgrading my Mac Book Pro to a SSD is very appealing but the price of +256GB drives needs to become more managable. I do have to admit though that this new drive will be a lot more useful to a larger number of people as opposed to the old one.
Dave
I certainly like the concept of a SSD but the problem is this: it is still to damn small !!!! Really I had a 100 GB of storage used on my new MBP in no time. Look at the space that Open Office takes up or Eclipse just for starters. You are talking 100's of MBs just for the compressed files plus something like Eclipse has needs for lots of extras.
Then you have data which continually expands. You just don't have a lot of breathing room on a drve that size. More so SSD work much better with a little breathing room.
Frankly the thought of upgrading my Mac Book Pro to a SSD is very appealing but the price of +256GB drives needs to become more managable. I do have to admit though that this new drive will be a lot more useful to a larger number of people as opposed to the old one.
Dave
To all of those griping that this device doesn't "fit" - you simply don't get it, and probably won't or won't choose to. It's not meant to be your primary dream machine, it's not an entry level sub-notebook, nor is it supposed to be a souped up mini-god. That's why it's the mid-level minimal notebook.
That device exists for 2 reasons alone:
A) For those travelers who really really care about size and weight, yet need a good computer on long trips.
B) To solidify Apple's past present and future in the computer industry. They made it because they can make it. That's the main point. They built it just to prove they have the talent, power, money, resources, etc to do so. It proclaims, "this is the power of Apple Inc."
For instance, they tried that with a speaker dock for the iPod a while back, but failed miserably. Though that was a damn good speaker, they did not belong in that market and could not compete. The Apple TV will go that route soon. How many Apple products do we know that make it after a couple lame revisions and continually poor sales? Few if any. They off what doesn't benefit their image. The Air is one of those proclamation products - and this one is here to stay for a while.
That device exists for 2 reasons alone:
A) For those travelers who really really care about size and weight, yet need a good computer on long trips.
B) To solidify Apple's past present and future in the computer industry. They made it because they can make it. That's the main point. They built it just to prove they have the talent, power, money, resources, etc to do so. It proclaims, "this is the power of Apple Inc."
For instance, they tried that with a speaker dock for the iPod a while back, but failed miserably. Though that was a damn good speaker, they did not belong in that market and could not compete. The Apple TV will go that route soon. How many Apple products do we know that make it after a couple lame revisions and continually poor sales? Few if any. They off what doesn't benefit their image. The Air is one of those proclamation products - and this one is here to stay for a while.
Why swap it for the AIR? There is almost no reason to get the AIR anymore with the upgraded and now lighter MB. The foot print is almost the same too with the bezel being so large on the AIR.
I'm glad they're shipping I suppose, but I don't see the point in some website posting UNBOXING photographs as but for the mini DV port, they are exactly the same as before so I don't see the interest except for those with a serious woody for the machine and plan on buying one soon.
Seems to me, Apple should've given the larger glass/buttonless trackpad on this round, too. I can see though how it would be easier to add the video port because it's just on a card that pokes through the area on the unibody for those ports. But still -- for that kind of money, you'd think you'd get that too.
The Air is nice and I suppose some can appreciate the weight, but I actually like a little weight,... seems more well-made. Kind of like the weight of iPhone 1Gen. I love the weight of that. Metal and glass -- suppose to weigh a little something, eh?
Seems to me, Apple should've given the larger glass/buttonless trackpad on this round, too. I can see though how it would be easier to add the video port because it's just on a card that pokes through the area on the unibody for those ports. But still -- for that kind of money, you'd think you'd get that too.
The Air is nice and I suppose some can appreciate the weight, but I actually like a little weight,... seems more well-made. Kind of like the weight of iPhone 1Gen. I love the weight of that. Metal and glass -- suppose to weigh a little something, eh?
I wouldn't call it lame. I would call it pretty much useless for me, tho. I think every step
takes to new form factor (in this case, thin--pun intended) is a good thing. Would I buy one? No way. But some folks gladly will, and all the power to them. What bothers me is there is huge choice for mobile fans, and no choice at all for those of us wanting headless Macs somewhere in-between the Mini and the Pro.So is there a REASON that Apple decided to forego the single button touchpad on the air? Dud they not want to spend the money to sightly alter the manufacturing and incorporate this, bringing it inline with the other models? Sometimes Apple makes the most odd decisions.
Yes, there is: The display.
I never thought Id be debating whether or not Id get the new macbook or the air, but there you go. The MB display is clearly inferior.
Maybe their engineers were busy enough with the redesign of their two hottest selling models so they put off the Air and 17" to later dates.
AFAIK, the Air is still unibody.
There's the display, and then there's this:
Xbench score for the 1.8GHz 128 SSD model: 137.12
For comparison:
MacBook 2008 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 126.23
MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 50.76
Mac Mini (1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo)
94.58
MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 95.89
MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 106.05
PowerBook G3 Pismo (500MHz G3) 18.47
Beats the 2.0 Macbook, and completely smokes the Gen 1 MBA. The GeForce 9400M and SATA SSD apparently make a huge difference. Yes you could buy 2 base MacBooks for the same price, but nobody can call the MBA underpowered any more!
Xbench score for the 1.8GHz 128 SSD model: 137.12
For comparison:
MacBook 2008 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 126.23
MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 50.76
Mac Mini (1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo)
94.58
MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 95.89
MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 106.05
PowerBook G3 Pismo (500MHz G3) 18.47
Beats the 2.0 Macbook, and completely smokes the Gen 1 MBA. The GeForce 9400M and SATA SSD apparently make a huge difference. Yes you could buy 2 base MacBooks for the same price, but nobody can call the MBA underpowered any more!
Thanks. And thanks for reading it twice. Total cut & paste job, but I genuinely wanted to know if anybody knew more about this. No better way than to place it out there in two different forums and see what happens.
Ho come things like "unchached read", CPU, and computation are more than twice as fast as the version 1 of the Air??
Amen. Im not really a fan of the Air but it does has a superior display to the macbook and lets face it, all the specs in the world are useless if you can't see what you're doing properly and have to constantly adjust. Also the fact that i can get it for almost half of the original retail price is why i am choosing the Air over the MB.
Has anyone confirmed which 128GB SSD they put in there? There is a BIG difference between the high performance and standard SSD out there. SLC vs MLC.