This would defeat the point of the MBA being ultraportable, super lightweight/thin, having a 13.3" LED display, and a full sized keyboard.
Actually, a crappy battery in a machine designed and marketed as an ultraportable defeats the purpose of it being an ultraportable; you always talk about how heuty-teuty-executive-level-Mr.-Important the MBA user is, well if they are really SO important, wouldn't they be traveling constantly and giving presentations on the move constantly and flying constantly, and constantly need something better than a laughable 2-3 hour battery? The oxymoron in the MBA lies in its crappy-ass battery.
Scottsdale said:
I believe the vast majority of these people want a 10-hour battery because it's "MORE." More more more, better better better, faster faster faster, etc. etc. etc. People just think they need more.
You drone on and on about this "wanting MOAR" crap. But do you not do the exact same thing? How many times did you champion 2 GB of RAM, saying (as you tend to do) that nobody else needs more than 2 GB of RAM, that 2 GB of RAM is PERFECT for an ultraportable? Then a few months later I saw you agonizing over 2 GB of RAM, and how 4 GB was the new gold star that would just make your heart pitter-patter. Then a few months later, I saw you post repeatedly about how ungodly amazing and necessary 8 GB of RAM now is; in fact I saw you post nearly verbatim, "I don't need 8 GB of RAM, but if Apple offered it I would buy it in an INSTANT." The thing is, I have pointed this progression out to you several times in the last year, and each and every time you conveniently don't respond to it.
Battery life is one of the most important factors when considering a laptop. This becomes magnified when considering an ultra-portable because it will often be used in travel situations or places where a power cord is unavailable. That's why we want and need a longer battery life in our MBA's. To insinuate that most people are "just fine" with 3+ hrs is ridiculous. To state that I and others want our ultra-portable laptops to last much longer simply because "it's MORE" is both condensing and completely inaccurate.
I never once said or implied a 10-hour battery. Please don't put words in my mouth. And if you think the new MBA won't have a longer lasting battery than what it currently has you are sorely mistaken.
Agreed 100%. Expect around a 7 hour battery, or thereabouts, WITHOUT the expense of precious, precious weight. I don't get it; I really don't mean to pick on you Scotty, but I see you gripe and moan so much about how it would be a life-shattering event if the MBA was a gram heavier, but I've somehow never seen you complain about having to lug a bulky power adapter around? Not only is that weight, it's also size and shape.
I bet that more people have use for better battery than they have for better GPU...
Sometimes you (Scottsdale) just cross the line with your posts. You aren't the only one who can posts his opinions here. We've heard what you want from the next MBA for 1 000 000 times. If some of us want MBA with better battery life, then we want one. Just like you want one with discrete GPU. I don't want to carry the freaking power adapter with me everytime I go somewhere, it's not portable anymore if it has to be plugged in all the time. It's not your job to decide what WE want.
True. This is why I too hardly ever frequent this forum anymore. Every thread is just the same old ranting and raving rhetoric, most of which is so far detached from the reality of Apple's core philosophy.
I look at it this way too... if Apple could give me the exact same MBA as right now with a 10-hour battery at 3 lb. or a 5-hour (as now) battery at 2.5 lb., I would take the lightweight option. Again, I find that in reality people don't need or use a 10-hout battery, and it's just part of the wanting "MORE" mentality. Apple has done this to itself by making a 10-hour battery standard in the MBP... I believe it's a waste.
Sounds to me like you have a textbook case of the "wanting more" mentality too--wanting more in terms of less weight. Really, you'd give up something infinitely useful to go a half a pound lighter? Is your current MBA really breaking your back? Do you NEED to go a half pound lighter? "Wanting more," no doubt...
Even if they could get a 10-hour battery in a 3 lb. MBA, I believe they would drop the weight and go thinner trying to make it a 2.5 lb. MBA vs. making a true 10-hour MBA. I believe this is what the ultraportable user wants... not weight and thickness for a ten-hour battery.
I think what the true ultraportable user wants is a machine that is useful, not something reverting to a $2500 pricetag for what amounts to nothing more than heuty-teuty status points. I did see you mention that a lot lately, that you want the MBA to take a price hike back to the $3k zone. Coupled with how you drone on about what an executive-level machine the MBA supposedly is--which originates from a flaming liberal green hippie company--something just sounds to me like you just want a status symbol.
Really not trying to pick on you man, but damn is your schtick here old. No matter how little Apple actually delivers, you will still buy one immediately citing "Hey its only a few extra days' worth of consulting," and then come here and agonize over how it didn't deliver the moon, just like you have done for every single revision.
I owned a Rev. B. Apart from the laughable screen (which has made it's way from Rev. B to Rev C and is still the line-filled garbage on store shelves two years later), it was an OK computer, but there was really nothing remarkable about it at all. It was a basic computer in a small package with a horrible lack of ports. Big deal. As far as I'm concerned the MBA can barely be considered a full-function computer in its current state, nearly three years after it was released.
