MacBook Air

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koffiejunkie

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So last night, I suddenly found myself wondering where I am and how I got here. Looked around - glass staircase - aah, I'm in the Apple Store :D

So I had the opportunity to poke around on a MacBook Air. Two actually, one with the regular 80GB, 4200rpm drive, one with the 60GB SSD.

First off, the 80GB model is surprisingly responsive considering the drive speed. There wasn't a great deal of programs installed, but the standard stuff - iPhoto, Garageband, iWork, etc - starts up pretty much as quick as on my Macbook (5400 rpm drive).

The SSD model - wow! This is seriously quick. I opened everything installed on that machine - everything loads just about instantly. Again, nothing heavy was installed on it, but given the 1.8 C2D, 2GB mem and seriously quick I/O on the drive, I cannot see this machine struggle with Aperture/Photoshop/Logic/FC etc.
 
some websites did some benchmarking on the macbook air & the macbook air falls
in-between the macbook & the macbook pro.
 
bam-bam said:
some websites did some benchmarking on the macbook air & the macbook air falls
in-between the macbook & the macbook pro.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised it fared so well against the MB.

mxit_fan said:
yeah all nice and that...

but it has 1 usb slot, and no dvd or even a cd drive
Click to expand...
Its for the commuter set. Of all its failings those two are the ones that bother me the least.
 
mxit_fan said:
yeah all nice and that...

but it has 1 usb slot, and no dvd or even a cd drive
Click to expand...

Uhm, yeah, there was a time when most notebooks had only one USB (1.1) slot. Big deal. I use a powered 7 port USB hub with my MacBook because it has only two ports and I have more than two devices. Big deal. The absence of FireWire is more troubling to me.

And you can plug the portable DVD writer into the USB port - what's the problem? I've used the built-in DVD drive in my MacBook all of once - to install the dev tools of the Leopard CD, and that could have been done via a download.

I don't understand why people expect a notebook that's thin and light but has all the features of a 3.5kg beast? The small notebooks that has all the goodies (Sony TZ) costs £1700 and upwards - way more than the MacBook Air
 
from a powerbook user, i rarely use cd's or dvd's on my laptop. just for work, browsing, etc... macbook air would work perfect for me. Guess everyone has a different opinion of it & preference. Its just the price is too high, got a feeling apple is gonna drop the price.
 
I had a 12" IBM X60 ultra-portable, also with no optical drive. The lack of an optical drive doesn't phase me. Only 1 USB port does. It needs two. I need two to power my external HDD, or even my HUB so I can have 3G and External HDD plugged in!
 
broken1 said:
I had a 12" IBM X60 ultra-portable, also with no optical drive. The lack of an optical drive doesn't phase me. Only 1 USB port does. It needs two. I need two to power my external HDD, or even my HUB so I can have 3G and External HDD plugged in!
Click to expand...

Two ports are likely to be on the same controller, which means the two won't be enough to power your HDD anyway. Unless the controller gives enough power to power the drive on one controller anyway (like my MacBook does).
 
koffiejunkie said:
Two ports are likely to be on the same controller, which means the two won't be enough to power your HDD anyway. Unless the controller gives enough power to power the drive on one controller anyway (like my MacBook does).
Click to expand...

Yup. My macbook powers the drive too, but I have to plug it into both USB ports. Crappy enclosure.
 
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