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hcho3

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 13, 2010
2,783
0
But.....

It lacks so many things compare 13 inch MBA.

1. Only 5 hours of battery life. Deal breaker
2. No SD card slot. Not a deal breaker, but it breaks my arm

Do you think apple will add Sd card slot with better battery life in 2011?
Thoughts please.
 

MacManTexas56

macrumors 68020
Apr 4, 2005
2,496
384
But.....

It lacks so many things compare 13 inch MBA.

1. Only 5 hours of battery life. Deal breaker
2. No SD card slot. Not a deal breaker, but it breaks my arm

Do you think apple will add Sd card slot with better battery life in 2011?
Thoughts please.

then go with the 13inch, that's why there are other options.

even if they did come out with one with an SD card and better battery life, you're gonna hang around and wait for one?

I went from a 12hour battery life on a netbook to MBA and i couldn't be happier. now i'm not in college and take it to school for classes and absolutely have to have it for 7 hours. so i don't see the 5hour battery life as a big issue.
 

Mike84

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2010
818
135
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Get the 13 inch. Of course apple is going to make the next MBA better but you shouldn't wait.
 

bcaslis

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2008
2,184
237
But.....

It lacks so many things compare 13 inch MBA.

1. Only 5 hours of battery life. Deal breaker
2. No SD card slot. Not a deal breaker, but it breaks my arm

Do you think apple will add Sd card slot with better battery life in 2011?
Thoughts please.

If any of these items is a deal breaker then your decision is made isn't it? Note though that battery life of both depends on the activity. For example both of them watching videos is going to be less than 5 hours, more like 3 /12 - 4 hours. I've had both and I don't see the longer battery life of the 13" making enough difference to be a deciding factor. Neither is like an iPad which does last easily all day.

As for these changing in 2011. No, I don't think so. Either will need a form factor change or huge technology change. Don't see that happening.
 

BeyondtheTech

macrumors 68020
Jun 20, 2007
2,147
715
It's larger.

As a person who has switched from a 12" Dell XPS M1210 to a 13.3" MacBook back in 2007 to an iMac in 2008 plus a bunch of Hackintosh netbooks (Samsung NC10, MSI Wind U100, and Dell Inspiron Mini 9) to an iPad in April 2010 to the 11.6" MacBook Air just last month, I can tell you that the 11.6" screen size really is the sweet spot.

The 9" screens of the netbooks really felt cramped, from the screen to the keyboard, and the 13.3" notebooks I had was pushing it in terms of size and weight.

The iPad was a joy at 9.7" screen because it was held and used differently, but since I'm physically not as close to my Air, the 11.6" screen is perfect for its traditional notebook-style use and nearly kept that iPad form factor.

I really have to tell you, these guys at Apple really know their design, engineering, and practicality. It's really uncanny.
 

Buck987

macrumors 65816
Jan 16, 2010
1,268
2,106
so pass...didn't you start another thread like this a while back? Or maybe someone else.
 

fswmacguy

macrumors 6502
Aug 12, 2009
266
0
The 13-inch model is $200 more.

If $200 is a dealbreaker for you when shopping for a premium notebook, then perhaps you should go with a Dell or HP that will inevitably break in a year and you just buy another one.
 

wirelessmacuser

macrumors 68000
Dec 20, 2009
1,968
0
Planet.Earth
But.....

It lacks so many things compare 13 inch MBA.

1. Only 5 hours of battery life. Deal breaker
2. No SD card slot. Not a deal breaker, but it breaks my arm

Do you think apple will add Sd card slot with better battery life in 2011?
Thoughts please.

1.) You Say Deal Breaker... then continue, why ask us?

Me? I really like mine. It's a great laptop... :)

Cheers
 

teski

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2010
216
8
Don't you already have an MBA? I swear you had a thread a while back about one coming and you had some sort of dilema about the delivery and being there for it.

Anyway, you've answered your own question with your deal breakers.
 

Meric

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2010
150
0
notebooks used to have 3 hours of battery life.. that were never close to what was advertised... whats wrong with 5 hours ?

plus how often you'll be on battery ?

if they could have squeezed a sd card slot..they would... looks there is no space for it...

next gen. might not have it, too if they will keep the case same...

only faster processor... and probably base model will start from 128 gb , no 64 gb option..

thats what apple do...
 

bmat

macrumors 6502
Nov 24, 2004
471
14
East Coast, USA
I've never had an issue with the battery life.

It works for my whole plane trip (although I'm rarely on it the whole time--so often a big percentage is left). It works for my whole train rides (although they have outlets there anyway). It works long enough when I'm in conference rooms throughout the day (again, they have outlets there if I need them).

Like others said, if it's a dealbreaker because you have the need for the extra battery life, so be it. But I like the size as it is. and there's enough power to get me through the day.
 
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