Menekali  Just another IT Blog.

So Apple have announce the Mac Book Air. While this notebook does look nice, the features really just ruin its chances of ever being a dedicated machine. In my eyes at least.

Let’s take a look at the target audience however (my opinion of what I think they’re target audience is anyway). With the features being as limiting as they are (No etherenet port, no optical drive, soldered RAM, among the others) the target audience seems to me at least, to be a business professional. Someone on the road, with a lot of money, who isn’t looking for a desktop replacement, just an easy to use, super portable laptop.

But for the price tag, is it really worth it? It seems all of the Apple fanboys are getting caught up in the hype. But is it really worth it? Here are 11 points made against the Mac Book Air. You be the judge.

1. Battery not user Replaceable Unlike 99% of other laptops out there, the battery is not user replaceable. This means no swapping out of a secondary battery to alleviate dependency on an AC source. Also, this leaves customers at the mercy of Apple for replacements. Good news is that the announced cost is a reasonable $129 for a battery replacement that includes installation.
2. No Optical Drive This one is obvious. I must say though, I am impressed with how Apple manages to turn any flaw into a selling point — just like how they turned the iPod Shuffle’s lack of a screen into a “Life is Random” feature. Without an optical drive, Apple claims that you can experience true wireless productivity by buying and watching your movies from iTunes instead of watching them from your DVD.
3. Mono Speakers The built in speakers on the Macbook Air are weak and sound airy (sorry) from the hands-on videos so far. Worst of all, they’re mono, not stereo! Are we back in the 90s?
4. Fixed RAM The Macbook Air ships with 2GB of RAM by default. This RAM is onboard though, meaning there is no option to upgrade or to add more RAM.
5. Slow 1.8″ Hard drive The base model comes with a 1.8″ hard drive. As most computer enthusiasts know, 1.8″ hard drives top out at 4,200rpm. Compared to regular 2.5″ notebook hard drives that are at least 5400rpm (or even up to 7,200rpm), the Macbook Air hard drive is slow.
6. Slow Processor 1.6 C2D by default is amongst the slowest Core 2 Duo processors you can get. And to upgrade to the (marginally) faster 1.8ghz processor costs an arm and a leg.
7. Ridiculously priced upgrades The Macbook Air is only available in two options, the base model or the upgraded model. With the base model pushing two grand after taxes, it is already an expensive laptop. For some reason, Apple has the nerve to charge an EXTRA $999.000 for a faster but smaller 64GB SSD drive and a 0.2ghz faster processor. Granted, SSD is currently still quite expensive but not $999.00 expensive.
8. Single Link DVI Output Probably not a big deal to most but if you’re sporting Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display, you’ll be disappointed to know that the Macbook Air won’t support it. The 30 incher needs Dual Link DVI.
9. External Optical Drive exclusive to Macbook Air The $99 external Superdrive is hardware dependent on the Macbook Air. This means you can’t just plug it into any computer and expect it to work.
10. Remote Disc is not a full alternative to an optical drive Remote Disc allows you to use the CD/DVD drive of another computer on the network. That’s all nice and dandy but it doesn’t replace an optical drive. When you’re away from home, not anyone will let you install Remote Disc software so you can borrow their optical drive. This has been available on every operating system for years *cough* map network drive.
11. No ethernet port. Come on… really?