Why do some apple user hate the MBA

[PowerFullMac]

I beg to differ. Apple is not the only manufacturer selling ultrathin and ultralight laptops for a high price. This is not because they wanted to make their consumers laughing stock, the simple answer is that it costs so much more to make a product much thinner and lighter than a regular one because of the parts they use and because of the innovative engineering involved in being able to compress a functional machine in a very thin package.

How can you justify your statement that MBA sucks? Do you own it? Have you tried it? I for one have used mine for 6 months and its a fully functional and very portable machine. I am a light user and I travel a lot. I don't care if my applications open 2-3 seconds later than it would have been if I own a machine with higher specs. What I care about is the WEIGHT and PORTABILITY. I carry my laptop every day in my backpack walking miles around a very big campus and carrying it to every class I have.

Even if that is true, the price is still stupid for the specs they provide you with! Most thing the MacBook has low specs for £700, so another laptop with even worse specs for over £1k is just stupid! No matter how thin it is!

Yes, I have used it, it sucks. Using the trackpad makes my hand hurt, as does typing.

But despite all this, people still buy them! Ridiculous!

 

[mosx]

I actually bought my SZ a year before I bought my MBA. The reason why the performance of air is better than my SZ is probably because of OS X. With vista I have to have so many anti-spyware, anti-virus etc. installed which slows it down significantly.

Thats not true. You don't have to have any anti-spyware or anti-virus in Vista.

The only way you can get any viruses or spyware in Vista is if you go to a site you probably shouldn't be visiting, download a file against Firefox or IE's warnings that its a bad file, run the file despite Windows warnings.... you get the idea?

The reason the MBA performs better than the SZ is because the SZ uses ULV CPUs while the MBA uses a full blown Core 2 Duo.

I don't "hate" the MacBook Air. I do think it should be significantly cheaper than it is. They should have also put in ULV Core 2 Duos rather than the regular one. The design of the MacBook Air basically prohibits it from running at full speed. You have core shutdowns, CPU throttling, etc. It would have been better to include a ULV C2D. A ULV C2D running at full speed is faster than a standard C2D running at 800MHz with 1 core disable and throttling itself due to heat problems.

 

[Heavenkittykat]

Even if that is true, the price is still stupid for the specs they provide you with! Most thing the MacBook has low specs for £700, so another laptop with even worse specs for over £1k is just stupid! No matter how thin it is!

Yes, I have used it, it sucks. Using the trackpad makes my hand hurt, as does typing.

But despite all this, people still buy them! Ridiculous!

okay yes it does sound to be overpriced. However buying them is not totally ridiculous specially if you have the money. Like what I've stated before, if one happens to be a person with enough money to spend and who values portability and style and happens to be a light user then the MBA will be good buy for him/her. Every ultraportable in the market usually has the same price or most of the time even more expensive than the MBA. In addition MBA runs with OSX!

 

[Heavenkittykat]

Thats not true. You don't have to have any anti-spyware or anti-virus in Vista.

The only way you can get any viruses or spyware in Vista is if you go to a site you probably shouldn't be visiting, download a file against Firefox or IE's warnings that its a bad file, run the file despite Windows warnings.... you get the idea?

The reason the MBA performs better than the SZ is because the SZ uses ULV CPUs while the MBA uses a full blown Core 2 Duo.

I don't "hate" the MacBook Air. I do think it should be significantly cheaper than it is. They should have also put in ULV Core 2 Duos rather than the regular one. The design of the MacBook Air basically prohibits it from running at full speed. You have core shutdowns, CPU throttling, etc. It would have been better to include a ULV C2D. A ULV C2D running at full speed is faster than a standard C2D running at 800MHz with 1 core disable and throttling itself due to heat problems.

Well the tech support of sony is the one who told me to get an anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. Although I could attest for a fact that sony's tech support sucks big time. In addition to that my SZ takes forever to boot up, the battery dies easily and the programs take forever to load.

 

[PowerFullMac]

okay yes it does sound to be overpriced. However buying them is not totally ridiculous specially if you have the money. Like what I've stated before, if one happens to be a person with enough money to spend and who values portability and style and happens to be a light user then the MBA will be good buy for him/her. Every ultraportable in the market usually has the same price or most of the time even more expensive than the MBA. In addition MBA runs with OSX!

Tell ya what, it all boils down to this:

If you want style/thinness over functionality, and you have loads of money to burn, buy the Air. If, however, you want something that does more than just e-mail and internet without beach-balling, spend £100 more and get a MacBook Pro.

 

[Abstract]

Even the 17" MBP is a niche product, really. It just happens to be for a different consumer. An MBA user could just as easily say, "OMFG! Why would anybody look to a 17" MBP if they're looking for portable computing! Just buy a 15" MBP and an external LCD, or get a desktop!!" Of course, MBA owners don't question the necessity of other niche products such as the 17" MBP because, they understand what a "niche" is.

I like the MBA, but I like the 17" MBP just as much. If I switched to a desktop + laptop computing setup, I would consider getting the MBA (although it's not guarantee I'd get it). However, that's not how I roll, so I'd never consider an MBA.

For those people who buy the MBA as their primary computer, it's because their computing needs aren't high. People just don't understand how this could be, but it's true. Even 2.5 years ago, the MBA would have been considered a very fast computer. The original MacBook was a 1.8 GHz Core Duo, which is probably slower than the MBA's 1.6 and 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo. So really, should people buy the MBA if they're only interested in sending emails and posting on MR? I think people with 2 year old MacBook Pros will say "No, because I did a lot more than that 2 years ago".

Computers continue to get faster and Faster and FASTER, but for many people, their computing needs haven't increased over time. Rather than buying a faster machine every 2 years, what's wrong with buying something lighter, or sleeker, if your needs haven't increased?

Answer: Nothing.

 

[Sesshi]

I actually bought my SZ a year before I bought my MBA. The reason why the performance of air is better than my SZ is probably because of OS X. With vista I have to have so many anti-spyware, anti-virus etc. installed which slows it down significantly.

And also I forgot about the portability and battery. The SZ might be considered an ultraportable but my MBA is much more portable for me. In addition the battery life in the SZ is significantly less than the the MBA and since I planned to use my laptop everyday to take notes in class. My MBA is more useful to me.

It's a little bizarre. Even my oldest SZ - a 600-series model - goes for at least two hours longer than the Air. And my TZ's make the Air seem even more like a bad joke in terms of battery life, as well as connectivity.

Perhaps you never discovered how to enable the IGP (big switch on the front panel)? In which case I suppose the Mac really was the best solution for you...

 

[PowerFullMac]

Actually, as comouters get more powerful, the software gets more complex and needs more resources to run, so if you get a low-end computer you will need to buy another one after one or two years if you want to update to the latest OS.

Of course, if you dont care about updates, get the MBA.

I, personally, couldnt justify spending so much money on a computer with such low spec, no matter how thin or light it is.

In fact, here is another good point, if you want a computer for basic computing thats easy to carry around, why not get a £200 Eee PC with that Linux thingy on it??? Not as thin but smaller and almost as light, and much cheaper!

 

[dogsbody]

Tell ya what, it all boils down to this:

If you want style/thinness over functionality, and you have loads of money to burn, buy the Air. If, however, you want something that does more than just e-mail and internet without beach-balling, spend £100 more and get a MacBook Pro.

Don't hate the player, hate the game

 

[cube]

Form over function, as usual.

- No gigabit ethernet
- No FireWire
- No built-in optical drive
- Only one (and bad) USB port
- No card reader
- No ExpressCard slot

Samsung X360 is way better hardware.

 

[Schtumple]

Form over function, as usual.

- No gigabit ethernet
- No FireWire
- No built-in optical drive
- Only one (and bad) USB port
- No card reader
- No ExpressCard slot

Samsung X360 is way better hardware.

I agree, but not so much on the card reader, ethernet port and optical drive part, those aren't really needed if you travel alot.

 

[PowerFullMac]

I agree, but not so much on the card reader, ethernet port and optical drive part, those aren't really needed if you travel alot.

Oh yeah, I cant believe I forgot about the MacBook Air not even having a optical drive!

Now, that IS ridiculous!

 

[cube]

I agree, but not so much on the card reader, ethernet port and optical drive part, those aren't really needed if you travel alot.

Precisely if you travel, you need the card reader for loading the photos from your camera if this cannot be done by hooking it up (like my main one).

Gigabit ethernet is needed for network backup.

 

[deltaiscain]

Because some people that hate them are idiots, and GHz newbies. If they see something with less than 2-3GHz, they think it can not even surf the web normally, because it has less than 2GHz. totally insane. Plus they do not know the difference between different cpu's, like core duo, the intel core xeon processor, etc. for example a 2.4GHz xeon processor is way more powerful than a 3GHz core duo processor.

 

[glennm0270]

Form over function, as usual.

- No gigabit ethernet
- No FireWire
- No built-in optical drive
- Only one (and bad) USB port
- No card reader
- No ExpressCard slot

Samsung X360 is way better hardware.

Consider that there are some people who need none of the things in this list and are able to do their work without them quite nicely. For over 4 years I led the development of a large software application (hundreds of thousands of lines of C++) that performs at enterprise levels (hundreds of millions of txns per hour) on a Windows laptop with lower specs than the 1.8GHz MBA (and much worse battery life). I had no difficulties whatsoever, never missed any of the items in the list above. For me, the MBA would be a performance upgrade in every respect. It's not relevant that there are other, more powerful computers out there...sure there are...but I don't need them.

Now, within that group of people, there are people who have enough disposable assets that the price of the MBA is not a significant purchase. From personal experience, I know that ticks some people off. I wish that wasn't true, and I don't think that having extra cash puts any of those people into any kind of "oooh we're special" category...but I don't think it deserves other people's disdain.

Finally, within that group of people, there are those that would much rather have OSX than Windows...thereby totally disqualifying any of the "I'd rather have a Samsung/Sony/Dell/ASUS" considerations. In that sense, they can't match the MBA specs...after all, software is a part of the laptop as much as hardware is. And, some of those people just like how the MBA looks (same way they like how a Tesla roadster or a Merc or a Lexus looks).

For that group of people, the MBA could be a nice fit. You might call those a "niche market"

Now, to the question posed by the OP: Why do people who aren't in that niche hate the MBA? For some people, it's just that they can't identify with anyone who doesn't want the absolute most power for the least money they can spend, regardless of whether they need the power, and regardless of how the cheaper laptop works (e.g. is it heavier, does it run Windows vs. OSX, etc). That doesn't make those "non-niche" people bad--it just means that they don't understand the other person's point of view.

For others, it's a matter of not agreeing with the idea of buying something because it looks nice. I'm not talking about buying something *just* because it looks nice. I mean, it has to meet my functional requirements first, but within that constraint, I'd like to buy something that I think looks nice. For some of those people, they think that's the same thing as buying it *just* because it looks nice, and therefore they look at the "niche" person with contempt. Again, that doesn't make the "non-niche" person bad, it just means that they think that a person that values form may not always make sure there's sufficient function (in the purchaser's eyes) to go with it. Sadly, the real world does give them plenty of evidence to believe that's true!

And, finally...to be honest, it just makes some people unhappy that there are things that other people can afford that they can't. That's an unfortunate spot to be in, and it's going to be a source of unhappiness for those people for a lot of things, not just the MBA. There are plenty of people who can afford things I can't, and there are people who can't afford things that I can. If you measure your happiness against those standards, you can't ever win.

Lots of philosophical BS here, but the main thing it boils down to is that there are people who think you're stupid if you don't think the same way they do.

 

[gooddeal]

The MBA sucks and all it does is shows how Apple can sell you anything for a stupidly high price even though they put thinness wayyy over functuality, something Apple loves doing these days.

Why do I say this? Look at the specs for the entry-level MacBook: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD for £700. Now, look at the entry-level MacBook Air specs: 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM (which you can get on the MacBook for a extra £30), 80GB HD... For £1,200!

Now, which do you think is better value?

Well, I totally understand by reading your signature. It seems that you're one of those people who don't care if you eat a 99 cents hamburger or a $20 steak...they're all beef, so, there's no reason they need to spend extra money.

 

[PowerFullMac]

Well, I totally understand by reading your signature. It seems that you're one of those people who don't care if you eat a 99 cents hamburger or a $20 steak...they're all beef, so, there's no reason they need to spend extra money.

No, not at all... Well, maybe a bit.

But would you spend $20 on a 99c hamburger?

 

[gooddeal]

No, not at all... Well, maybe a bit.

But would you spend $20 on a 99c hamburger?

Nope...but that's your perception. Steak <> Hamburger as MBA <> MB.

It's difficult to make people to believe in something that they don't believe. There're people who rather buy an Acura TSX than a loaded Accord V6 for about the same price. You get less power with TSX but you get a better refinement inside the car. Another good example is a Lexus ES v. a loaded Camry.

If you have no problem carrying an extra 2lbs and you don't need those extras on the Air (aluminum case, illuminate keyboard, backlit screen), a regular MB should be good for you.

 

[PowerFullMac]

Nope...but that's your perception. Steak <> Hamburger as MBA <> MB.

It's difficult to make people to believe in something that they don't believe. There're people who rather buy an Acura TSX than a loaded Accord V6 for about the same price. You get less power with TSX but you get a better refinement inside the car. Another good example is a Lexus ES v. a loaded Camry.

It all comes down to buying a computer with the same power as a £200 Eee PC for over £1k... If you have money to burn, fine, it will work very well impressing your friends for a few days.

 

[mhnajjar]

The only thing I hate about the MBA is the core shutdown. If it did not suffer from that, then I would be more than happy. Oh, did I mention heat!

Apple should manage a better heat management system than the implemented one.

MBA 2G is hopefully going to solve these issues.


MBA = look - advertised performance (I am not asking more than what is supposed to handle)

MBA = no youtube videos unless you are willing to get burned and suffer heart attack from the slowness of the machine!

 

[Digital Skunk]

No, not at all... Well, maybe a bit.

But would you spend $20 on a 99c hamburger?

WOW!

That's the best way I have ever heard it, and the only way to turn that meaningless comment around. Good job PFM! And I do agree, especially about the iPhone 3G.

The Air is definitely like spending $20 on a steak made from hamburger meat, except some french chef made it with his bare hands, so now it's worth something.

 

[deltaiscain]

Oh yeah, I cant believe I forgot about the MacBook Air not even having a optical drive!

Now, that IS ridiculous!

yes i really need a cd drive, so i can play bf 2142 on it. wow. oh, wait, the macbook air can't handle it. so why do i need a cd drive? plus the mba is meant as a secondary computer, not primary. so if you need to access a cd on it, you can use the remote cd drive sharing option. And unlike you, seemingly, i almost never use my cd drive. i think i used it 3-5 times, so i wouldn't miss it at all.

 

[chameleon81]

Because while they enjoy their products, they can't understand why someone would want a computer with lower specs and a higher price. I love my MBA and wouldn't trade it for anything else in the apple lineup. It does exactly what I need in a size and portability factor that I couldn't do without.

So you didn' t have any computers before u bought your MBA? Or u had one and were always complaining?

 

[pol0001]

I think the MBA is more than well equipped for the average user as long as you're not a gamer. What is keeping me from buying one is the lack of sufficient HD space. I upgrade my MacBook to 250 GB and have only 70 GB free.

 

[PowerFullMac]

I think the MBA is more than well equipped for the average user as long as you're not a gamer. What is keeping me from buying one is the lack of sufficient HD space. I upgrade my MacBook to 250 GB and have only 70 GB free.

Its amazing how quick HDs fill, aint it? I got a 120GB HD and started with nothing transferred but a few songs, and a few months later I only have 30GB left!