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Why the Air is not more like a Pro?
- Thread starter rumody
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I like that, I played with a MBA for quite awhile recently, and if you sharpened the edge slightly you really could have a very sharp knife..
Then just buy the 13" MBP. For me, the main reason for buying the MBA, was the portability factor. So ruining the design just to add few ports, will ruin the best thing about the Air!
Thats exactly the new 13.3inch MBP!. Th PRO came first while the AIR was a new comer to the line-up and based on Apple's way of targeting users/usage habits, it fits a different segment of usage (not necessarily users). I know a lot of PRO users also have AIR, including me!.
SLim and light has its advantages, although most would like to see FW ports, one more USB and potentially 4GB RAM support. For what it is, the great screen and good keyboard not to mention the excellent trackpad makes the AIR a great machine.
SLim and light has its advantages, although most would like to see FW ports, one more USB and potentially 4GB RAM support. For what it is, the great screen and good keyboard not to mention the excellent trackpad makes the AIR a great machine.
That's thinner than the actual Air
Hi! I'm not saying that the Air is not nice.
Just want to point that maybe they could achieve something better keeping a thin-brick shape: they will have more space for memory or others, and will still be a ultrathin notebook.
This has no CD, is only 1,8cm and shares some parts with the MacBook Pro 13 (and this makes it cheaper to produce, maybe?).
Hi! I'm not saying that the Air is not nice.
Just want to point that maybe they could achieve something better keeping a thin-brick shape: they will have more space for memory or others, and will still be a ultrathin notebook.
This has no CD, is only 1,8cm and shares some parts with the MacBook Pro 13 (and this makes it cheaper to produce, maybe?).
And maybe it's the next MBP? Apart from looking thicker than the Air, it may need more casing (heavier) and have free space inside (either they cleverly redesign it to have a better cooling, or start adding to it and make it heavier). It would be a downgrade in terms of both weight and design.
Why the Air is not more like a Pro? Well, why would Apple offer two almost identical notebooks?
The difference would be larger than between 13" and 15" MBP.
I assume that Apple expects that most people will want to see movies on their laptop, so they do not dare to omit the DVD drives and the overly large screens from their offerings. In the case of the Air, they offset the lack of an optical drive with lots of stylishness.
But see, the threadstarter just answers your doubts: There is a very vocal segment among prospective Mac buyers that do not want a clunky MBP or a stylish-but-compromising Air, but a true ultraportable. It is just that Apple does not consider this segment to be important enough.
How so? A 13" MBP that's just a little bit thinner and doesn't have an optical drive?
I didn't notice many people being concerned with thickness of MBP, it's the weight they usually complain about. If it kept the weight of Air, it still wouldn't have the optical drive, longer battery life or other features of 13" MBP. It would, however, use 1.8" drive where 2.5" would fit, and generally have a lot of free space inside (it could be designed to better dissipate heat, though).
Many people would still say it's a 13", and they wanted 11", while some say 10" is enough, still other arguing 12" is the sweet spot.
I'm pretty sure if Apple did this, people who like Air for what it is would say they broke it, people who consider it underpowered would say it's still underpowered and pathetic excuse for a computer, people who didn't like the footprint would still complain about said footprint, people who liked the design would say there's no point, people who say it's too expensive would still call MBP a better value. And people who want more ports and don't have footprint, power or price complaints, don't care about the design and are happy with current battery life would buy fewer laptops than Apple actually sells now.
The vocal minority you're talking about, based on my observations, wants a laptop lighter than Air, with a footprint of a netbook, more ports than 17" MBP has, power of 15" MBP and hopefully price of 13" MBP. Apart from weight, Apple is generally moving in an opposite direction. So that would be a "no".
The problem I have with the Air is not the thickness (it is very sexy thin) but the size. It's thin but it still has a big footprint.
I'm in the camp that wants a modern interpretation of the 12" PowerBook. Something that would fit on an airline tray table or a commuter train breakfast tray. Not quite netbook small, but more like a 12" PB or a Thinkpad X series.
I'm in the camp that wants a modern interpretation of the 12" PowerBook. Something that would fit on an airline tray table or a commuter train breakfast tray. Not quite netbook small, but more like a 12" PB or a Thinkpad X series.
I like the Air and the lack of ports, yeah I'm probably the only one here who actually likes the tradeoff of being ultrathin on the edges versus having more ports. I have one single peripheral, and that's my bluetooth mighty mouse, that's it. Everything else is networked, and any peripheral like a usb hard drive is just connected occasionally.
This is just how I use my Air, as a supplement to my main computer, not as a replacement. I would definitely vote against the linked picture/concept.
Also in terms of the Air's footprint, I came from being a long time user of a Fujitsu P1610, awesomely small tablet PC with a 10" screen but with a high resolution. This is a real PC, not one of those wimpy netbooks. One thing I learned was that even though it was a killer PC and crazy portable, the size limited what I could do on it, especially in relation to simple web browsing and especially with writing reports and such. It was also pretty thick, and I haven't even seen a netbook that was thinner, even now.
I always looked at the Air and thought they got it wrong leaving it full sized, but now after owning one I realize it was me who had it wrong. The full size but thin is so much more useable than my P1610 it's not even funny, and it's 99% as portable.
This is just how I use my Air, as a supplement to my main computer, not as a replacement. I would definitely vote against the linked picture/concept.
Also in terms of the Air's footprint, I came from being a long time user of a Fujitsu P1610, awesomely small tablet PC with a 10" screen but with a high resolution. This is a real PC, not one of those wimpy netbooks. One thing I learned was that even though it was a killer PC and crazy portable, the size limited what I could do on it, especially in relation to simple web browsing and especially with writing reports and such. It was also pretty thick, and I haven't even seen a netbook that was thinner, even now.
I always looked at the Air and thought they got it wrong leaving it full sized, but now after owning one I realize it was me who had it wrong. The full size but thin is so much more useable than my P1610 it's not even funny, and it's 99% as portable.