Apple MacBook Air

[Twin-Skies]

Apple's in the middle of their Macworld Expo. Among other things, they introduced their new MacBook Air laptop.

Good gravy, that is one thin gadget...

Did I mention it costs somewhere in the range of 70k PHP? close to 75+ if you buy the external optical drive - it doesn't have one built in.

[Grim]

Wow that's one frail looking laptop. It looks like a damn folder.

external optical drive - it doesn't have one built in.

What's amazing is that it has an 80GB hard drive! Where is it?!

[NiX]

75k is actually an ordinary price for high-end laptops. That's one's SERIOUSLY thin.

Feeling ko mababali yan kung ilagay sa bag hahaha

[Sforza]

Specs:

• .16 to .75-inch thickness on top
• 12.8 x 8.94 inches
• 3 pounds
• 5 hours of battery life with everything running
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor at 1.6 or 1.8GHz, motherboard the length of a pencil.
• 800MHz frontside bus.
• 2GB RAM 667MHz DDR2 standard.
• 13.3-inch screen, LED backlit.
• 1,280 x 800 pixels
• Micro-DVI adapter (for DVI, VGA, composite and S-Video output)
• Intel GMA X3100 Graphics processor with 144MB RAM shared
• 1.8-inch 80GB HD or 64GB Solid State Drive (no moving pieces, but for a stunning $1,300 price increase!)
• Multitouch trackpad with gestures. Pans, zooms, rotates, etc.
• 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1.
• Optional external HD for $99, USB-bus powered.
• Full backlit keyboard.
• One USB 2.0, one audio port, one Micro-DVI

NO ethernet port! NO optical drive! NO firewire! ONE USB port! Only Apple stores can change its battery, hard drive and RAM. It's sealed in as tightly as a nano.

Base cost with 80GB hard drive and 1.6GHz processor: $1800
Cost with a 64GB SSD hard drive and a 1.8GHz processor: $3100

[Sforza]

There is no way in hell I'm getting such an overpriced laptop like the MBA.

If I had $3k, I'd get this.

Specs on the Gateway P-171XL FX

- 17-inch 1920x1200 resolution
- 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo X7900 (which can be overclocked for more performance)
- 3GB RAM
- TWO 200GB 7200rpm hard drives
- nVidia 8800M GTS graphics card

- Full keyboard with number pad
- RAID 0 Drive array
- Three USB ports
- FireWire, eSATA, and HDMI ports.
- HD-DVD ROM drive (though I'd rather have blu-ray)
- Fingerprint scanner
- SD/MMC/MS/MSPro/XD card reader
- ExpressCard slot.
- Touch sensitive volume slider.
- Bluetooth
- 1.3MP webcam

[NiX]

Jake, now that you put it that way, that makes this mac just look sad. Only one USB port and no ethernet port? hahah.

Not having an optical drive was to be expected already anyway, as Apple has this thing of wanting everything to come from iTunes.

Hahaha I imagine only fashionista wannabe techies would actually unload money on this.

Personally, I don't own a single Apple product. That's right folks.

EDIT:

Philmug.ph, a local Mac forum that I also post in (ironically, yes.), loves it though.

[Sforza]

Yeah, I think it's a given that sane people would choose a highly functional, high performance laptop that happens to be fatter than that serving tray they call a laptop.

The only Apple product I have is the 4gb Nano, which I've been trying to get rid of because of its craptastic battery life. It also costs only 2k to get a 4gb memory stick for the psp, which plays music too.

Philmug.ph, a local Mac forum that I also post in (ironically, yes.), loves it though.

Well, it's a Mac forum They're like Scientologists.

[NiX]

What I find overly disappointing about this one is that for as thin as it is, it's still 3 pounds. That isn't "revolutionary at all"
When I saw the picture, I thought this better be as light as "air" lol

Heck, my dad's new laptop is 2.9 pounds. And it has a dvd burner. Plus all the necessary ports. Plus all the wireless doodads.

[Sforza]

What I find overly disappointing about this one is that for as thin as it is, it's still 3 pounds. That isn't "revolutionary at all"
When I saw the picture, I thought this better be as light as "air" lol

Heck, my dad's new laptop is 2.9 pounds. And it has a dvd burner. Plus all the necessary ports. Plus all the wireless doodads.

It's supposed to be a "green laptop" without all the hazardous chemicals that are released when it's eventually disposed of. Apple has been heavily criticized in the past for not making their products out of less hazardous products, so the MBA casing is aluminum instead of plastic, and there's another commonly used metal that's absent from its design.

National Geographic has a special feature this month on the topic of e-waste. It's a very informative read.

IF this is the justification for making a new laptop around 1 pound heavier (but with the same thickness), I'd gladly accept it IMO.

[NiX]

That's justification enough indeed. Too bad for people like me with scoliosis. -_-

[Sforza]

Apple's "Green" notebook does not impress environmentalists.

Thought you guys might be interested in the article above, as a continuation of yesterday's discussion on the "green" merits of the new MBA. However, take note that the environmental group in question is Greenpeace, often seen by many businesses as eco-terrorists. This isn't to say that technological waste disposal isn't already a huge problem.

[NiX]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141407/article.html

PCWorld.com talks about what's lacking in the MacBook Air.

[Twin-Skies]

The way I see it, the MacBook Air is beginning to look more and more like one seriously neutered laptop.

[NiX]

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9862918...=cnetfd.mt

Dissected Macbook air.