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Time to stop calling the MBAir "slow."

esvee said:
My biggest complaint isn't the speed, my complaint is how much they're charging for it, in comparison to other products. Spend 3 grand on a mac pro and see what you get. From the review itself: "slower than other MacBooks"

Also, from the MR homepage: Wireless Remote disk details: can't play DVD media, can't burn a CD, can't listen to a music CD.

So, you can read a data cd. Way to go.
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Not a good analogy. Yes the Mac Pro at $3k will be a sweet system but at what cost? The cost of only being able to use it at a stationary place, it needs a screen to use it. Nuff said.
The Air can be used anywhere and the SSD model at 1.8Ghz probably will kick A$$. Can't wait to get one.:D
 
HLdan said:
Not a good analogy. Yes the Mac Pro at $3k will be a sweet system but at what cost? The cost of only being able to use it at a stationary place, it needs a screen to use it. Nuff said.
The Air can be used anywhere and the SSD model at 1.8Ghz probably will kick A$$. Can't wait to get one.:D
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The simple point of my analogy is that people are only calling the mba slow as a matter of relativity. How much power you can get for that money, regardless of the form factor.
 
HLdan said:
The Air can be used anywhere and the SSD model at 1.8Ghz probably will kick A$$. Can't wait to get one.:D
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I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the SSD model to benchmark significantly faster in real-world tasks. OTOH, it would be funny to see what the "performance is everything" MBA-haters would have to say if the SSD benchmarked faster than their fat MBP machines. I might even put off my purchase to see the benchmarks, and perhaps the SSD premium will drop a bit.
 
iMpathetic said:
OK, I agree. Not even in terms of benchmarking, it's just that IT'S NOT THAT EFFIN' SLOW. It would toast a mini, toast a dual-core G5, toast my 1.33GHz iBook, toast any computer I've ever owned.

In fact, I would give my left nostril for one, purely because of a speed increase.
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Correction, it would toast your iBook 1.33 and a 1.42 iBook, and that's it. no way it would toast a mini that has higher clocked processors and a faster HD, let alone a desktop g5 with 3.5 " drive. You're being a little optimistic.
 
No doubt about it, you get less for your money with the Air than with the MB.

OTOH, the same could be said about the iPod Nano vs. the Classic. And I don't see anyone making this complaint about the Nano.

The Air is simply the Nano of laptops. Nothing more, nothing less. It will have a market because of its limited size and weight compared to the MB.
 
MacinDoc said:
No doubt about it, you get less for your money with the Air than with the MB.

OTOH, the same could be said about the iPod Nano vs. the Classic. And I don't see anyone making this complaint about the Nano.

The Air is simply the Nano of laptops. Nothing more, nothing less. It will have a market because of its limited size and weight compared to the MB.
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Spot on.
 
iMpathetic said:
OK, I agree. Not even in terms of benchmarking, it's just that IT'S NOT THAT EFFIN' SLOW. It would toast a mini, toast a dual-core G5, toast my 1.33GHz iBook, toast any computer I've ever owned.

In fact, I would give my left nostril for one, purely because of a speed increase.
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Are you sure it would toast a Mini? I mean Minis come in 1.83ghz configuration nowadays you know...
 
It's wider and longer than a MacBook, yet it's slower than the last two (three?) generations of MacBooks. It's not an ultraportable, it's not a subnotebook. The ultraportables the MBA outperforms all have 12" screens or smaller.

If you want one, buy one, but face it: it's a 13" notebook and Apple makes a faster one of those.

It's slow.
 
Freyqq said:
it is slow in comparison to a macbook..basically its main competition
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Comments like these make me laugh out loud! Do you people have a stopwatch and time things on a laptop or what?

People, a 1.6 GHz C2D is a common thing, even in Windows laptops. My two month Dell Inspiron has one, and I have zero complaints.
 
2G memory vs. 1G?
mac vs windows?
1.0Ghz vs 1.6Ghz?

only fair comparison is price. Not much else.

if from this, you want to call MBA "fast"

do you also admit MBA is "Large"? "crippled"? "heavy"?
 
Only fair comparison is price?

You must be kidding. Your choices are a decrepit 4200rpm drive or a cost prohibitive SSD. Not to mention the external optical drive and all the other missing features that have been repeated here ad nauseum.

Again, buy it if you must, but step out of the distortion field. There's nothing practical about the MacBook Air.
 
im not a power user

personally, with a mbp of 2.4 with base everything, i know that in the portable world, i am standing pretty well. i can pretty much fly through ps and id stuff that took much longer on our work amd dual core 2.0 system.

i am not in the market for a computer but...

this mba is just capturing something else in me. it is not that bad of a price if you consider what it is compared against. if against under 3.0 lbs computers, it is if not skimpy on connections, otherwise well fitted. it looks good, runs what will be a great os and when it is good, there will be hardly any reason to use an external optical drive - until 10.5.4 or so however, i would keep 10.4 and a disk ready.

but, from the perspective of a nice looking machine that is probably going to usher in a tide of new computers based on a similar design it is very very intriguing. it may do well or it may not but it surely is a step toward probably what has been the last step to take for portable computing - just getting rid of everything but essentials. dvd would be great - sometimes, but lately, i have bought games and music from internet and dvd - you can download as well - i rarely watch movies anyway.

some of you do and heaps, but that does not mean that there is no market for this computer. if i were properly settled and had a bit more means, i would be in market for this. small, fairly light, nice to look at, has option of ssd and gets rid of what i basically never use. the keyboard looks great and it has all the essentials for what i am usually using a computer for and for what a heap of others are probably using as well.

time to probably stop bashing... it is good, for some and for some, it is worthless - just like every other product on the market. for me, i could not deal with a macpro no matter how nice it is. i would love the power, but i move house every... well very often. it is nice for apple to have finally brought us a beauty that will i am sure just like the ipod nano be the first step in a new and boundless direction. cheers
 
MBA's are overpriced and underpowered, get over it. If you wish to fall for Steve's tricks, then go ahead, but don't pretend that the machine is something it's not. It's thin... that's it.
 
is it me or the guy @ cnet.com is pretty annoying when he does his review...looks like he thinks he knows everything with is ugly not trendy style..sorry for bashing him..on just woke up on the wrong side of the bed i guess...
 
Until the MBA has a proper graphics chip like the MBP, it will forever be "speed-challenged".
 
mrJnC said:
Until the MBA has a proper graphics chip like the MBP, it will forever be "speed-challenged".
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Well, you can say the same thing about the Macbook then.
In fact you say the same thing about the Mac mini.
In fact you say that the MBP will be speed challenged against the Mac Pro since you can't change the graphics chip.

Every one of Apple's computers is made for SOMEONE.
Posters like you need to get off their high horse and stop acting like, "IF IT'S NOT FOR ME IT'S FOR NO ONE".
"IF I CAN'T USE IT NO ONE SHOULD".

Your post is pointless.:p
 
zeiter said:
is it me or the guy @ cnet.com is pretty annoying when he does his review...looks like he thinks he knows everything with is ugly not trendy style..sorry for bashing him..on just woke up on the wrong side of the bed i guess...
Click to expand...

At least he seems moderately cheerful unlike most of the other people that seem like they hate life and really don't know what they're talking about and sound like they're utterly clueless.
 
tstarks33 said:
MBA's are overpriced and underpowered, get over it. If you wish to fall for Steve's tricks, then go ahead, but don't pretend that the machine is something it's not. It's thin... that's it.
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"Powerbooks are overpriced and underpowered, get over it. If you wish to fall for Steve's tricks, then go ahead, but don't pretend that the machine is something it's not. It's portable... that's it"

:p

Why can't people understand that there has always been a premium on increasingly smaller form factors? That's why no one compares a $3k MBP to a $3k Mac Pro.

The MBA is a marvel -- consider the fact that it is only 40% of the size of an MBP.
 
Wow, I know there are two camps on this whole thing . . . but . . .

When it comes right down to it, there are a looooooooooot of users for whom the MBA will represent way MORE power than they need.

Take me, for example. I'm a doctor, I work in an academic setting. I go to national meetings and give lectures on stuff. (Yes, stuff. ;)) I use my laptop for, get this . . . email, web surfing, and Keynote/PowerPoint. Oooooooooh. I have a good friend who's a lawyer. Want to know what he does with his laptop? Email, websurfing, and word processing. Ooooooooooh, again.

Yeah, I need to have an 8-core Harpertown 45nm Mac Pro with a Quadro graphics card and SAS 15,000-rpm drives to do that. Oh, right, and considering the fact that everyone in the US who needs a computer needs his/her laptop to be able to do 3D modeling of various complex molecules and run simulations of the effects of seismic activity on bridges, there's nobody for whom the MBA is an appropriate laptop. And let's not forget being able to run Unreal Tournament at 1000 fps.

GET REAL, folks.

:)

Stuart
 
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