Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Some thoughts on the MacBook Air


Now that Apple has announced the MacBook Air, some thoughts have come up:

The good:
Extremely desirable formfactor: The thin design is amazing; no need to pack a razor on overnight trips.
Less clutter: less ports mean less choice. Limited choices forces one to really think what is needed.
No optical drive: With WiFI connections becoming the norm, physical media have become outdated. Remember when Apple removed the Floppy Disc from it's computers?
Multi-touch touchpad: A truly amazing feat. Say goodbye to your mouse.

The bad:
No removable battery: More money for Apple's helpdesk
Totally enclosed shell: Not even a RAM upgrade is possible.
Harddisk speed: 4200 RPM? Do they still make those?
Harddisk capacity: My Ipod has more storage.

The ugly:
Keyboard: My god, it's ugly.
The price: 3100 dollars for the 1.8 Ghz version with SSD storage?

Get one if:
You are design-conscious
You REALLY need a laptop which you can put in a manilla envelope

Pass if:
You want a solid machine for, you know, real work