The Macbook Air has been all the craze in the past four months, climbing the charts in popularity. And yes, it can still fit in an envelope. But buyers are now turning their high hopes of the Air into mixed feelings.
The Apple team has sacrificed much of the important and enjoyable parts of the Macbook in order to make way for space and size.
Hardware - The re-packaged Intel 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor is a little slow compared to the products of Microsoft and the Macbook Pro as well. However, the processor still delivers enough heat to maybe warm your lap a few degrees, which is great for on-the-go fliers trying to get their work done without a burning lap. The hard drive has been “downgraded” to the point where a typical two and a half inch laptops are probably considered faster. The drive can be even compared to simple portable music players. It will sustain normal usage if maximized at word processing, but apparently it fails when compared to said two and a half inch laptops. There are plugs for an iPhone if you have one, as well as the drive that the Air comes with. People have been labeling these extra USB ports as useless and a waste of space. The external drive that one must buy separately is for the fact that there's no DVD Rom drive, and that's a complication for some. The drive only works for the Macbook Air; the Pro doesn't accept it. Adding a DVD Rom drive would be a mixed result, according to Apple's thought process.
Software – The Macbook Air runs Mac OS Leopard like all other modern Apple computers. This time, however, they have added the multi-touch component. Multi-touch allows the user to do things like enlarging/shrinking an image, moving back and forth between pages in Safari, and others using hand gestures on the touchpad Apple enlarged. With this, Apple now moves one step closer to complete control using fingers only. Remote Disc is yet another option Apple as put in. This allows Macs to communicate using optical drives. According to a recent tech review, Remote Disc isn't meant for HD, ripping, or burning. It's simply for data sharing, installation of applications, and the possible OS restore if one really messes up. In general, Remote Disc falls short to the Mac Superdrive available only to the Macbook Air. Although, the Superdrive costs an extra $100 to purchase, on top of the existing $1,800.
In the end, the Macbook Air is not worth its weight in gold, it's probably worth more. The Air has lost a significant amount of important components, and the $1,900 (including absolutely essential Superdrive) really doesn't cover as much as it should. It's the buyer's call, though.
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