Am I the only stupid person who would be seriously interested in a 15"/17" MBA with Hi Res option? The MBA is attractive to me for it's thinness and light weight rather than it's lousy 13" screen.
You might want a better screen, but as an MBA owner who uses one every day, I would not call the current screen lousy. It might not be what some users want, but it certainly suits the needs of plenty of people, including myself. Also, a large part of its light weight is the 13" screen.
You might want a better screen, but as an MBA owner who uses one every day, I would not call the current screen lousy. It might not be what some users want, but it certainly suits the needs of plenty of people, including myself. Also, a large part of its light weight is the 13" screen.
Two things would get me interested in upgrading my notebook to an Air, or maybe another regular MBP. One would be an IPS screen and the other, built-in cellular data. I've found those two things to be the best parts of the iPad. I found I really liked not having to think about WiFi availability or the lame login systems I've seen, just so I can use the internet. As spotty as cellular data can seem, WiFi often seems to be much worse.
Am I the only stupid person who would be seriously interested in a 15"/17" MBA with Hi Res option? The MBA is attractive to me for it's thinness and light weight rather than it's lousy 13" screen.
While I miss my MBA sometimes, I recently bought a 15" MBP with the 1680x1050 matte display. I don't expect to ever use the optical drive -- ever. If I could have had this display with a MBA, I would have bought it. However, would have really preferred the 13.3" form factor with a 132dpi display i.e. 1520x950. Of course, with 4GB of RAM.
As I see it, Apple have two options for updating the MBA. The conservative option is to give it the 2.26GHz SL9700 and 4GB of RAM with the current form factor. The aggressive option is to get rid of the hard drive, put the SSD on the motherboard (making it about 5mm thinner), and adopt the new trackpad (with 4GB of RAM, of course).
I'd rather they just kept the squared-off design of the 13" Macbook Pro, dropped the optical, used thin metal, dropped ethernet and FW800 and pushed the height right down to almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow.
In place of the missing ethernet and FW800 ports, just add two extra USB ports so that you get 4 x USB ports but they'd be USB 3 and for ethernet, use an adaptor.
Then they can drop the Macbook Air line entirely and just pull the price of the MBP down. They could even drop the plastic Macbook because it's the only computer left that uses the white plastic.
People who want a full-powered machine with connectivity get a lighter machine, people who want a high-performance ultra-portable get a faster one but cheaper than the MBA. Both targets win.
I'd rather they just kept the squared-off design of the 13" Macbook Pro, dropped the optical, used thin metal, dropped ethernet and FW800 and pushed the height right down to almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow.
In place of the missing ethernet and FW800 ports, just add two extra USB ports so that you get 4 x USB ports but they'd be USB 3 and for ethernet, use an adaptor.
Then they can drop the Macbook Air line entirely and just pull the price of the MBP down.
What do you mean by "almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow"??? Current MBPs accept 2.5" HDs up to 9mm thick (2 platters). The MBA only accepts thinner 1 platter drives. 3 platter 2.5" drives are 12-15mm thick.
In my opinion, MBPs need to continue to accept 9mm 2-platter HDs. If that's the case, then eliminating the optical drive may or may not allow them to be thinner.
The MBA, on the other hand, no longer needs any space for HDs. They can go to flash-only and the flash can (and should, for cost, size, weight, and reliability) be directly on the motherboard.
So, there probably is at least as much opportunity to make the MBA thinner as there is to make the MBPs thinner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
They could even drop the plastic Macbook because it's the only computer left that uses the white plastic.
While I'm convinced that Apple will eventually drop the optical drives from the MBPs, I expect Apple to drop them from the MacBooks first. I was surprised when Apple didn't drop the optical drives from the major MacBook revision last year. I guess it will happen next year. If so, Apple might limit the next MacBooks to 1-platter 2.5" HDs to help keep them thin.
It really surprises me when people toss around this idea of getting rid of optical drives so easily. Are you serious? Perhaps you know different people than I know, but most of my friends that have laptops, ONLY have laptops. If they remove the optical drive, how will they update their OS? They sure as hell aren't all coming over to use my computer! The OS requires an optical drive. iLife requires an optical drive. iWork requires an optical drive. I'd LOVE to live in your world, because you apparently have awesome download speeds where you can download these huge updates Apple releases in a couple minutes. I'm just outside Seattle, and I'm struggling with them. Imagine folks further away from major cities.
The world is NOT ready for the loss of optical drives. The truth here is that everyone needs an optical drive, if you disagree, enjoy updating your MBA without access to anyone's optical drive. You need one. Everyone needs one. The people that don't need optical drives are the ones that hand their laptop to someone else to have them deal with everything.
Until updates come on thumb drives, I'll keep my optical drive. The MBA is an awesome computer, and it's great for travel, but I still have the external optical drive.
What do you mean by "almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow"??? Current MBPs accept 2.5" HDs up to 9mm thick (2 platters). The MBA only accepts thinner 1 platter drives. 3 platter 2.5" drives are 12-15mm thick.
In my opinion, MBPs need to continue to accept 9mm 2-platter HDs. If that's the case, then eliminating the optical drive may or may not allow them to be thinner.
Right now the base is about 0.65-0.7". A 2.5" HDD is 0.37". People have managed to fit the 12.5mm height (0.49") drives in them too so there's plenty of room. The extra room is from a taller battery but taking out the optical drive means that the hard drive can go there (even two drives). Then the battery can take up the entire front of the machine but thinner.
Some people will prefer the option for 12.5mm drives but with the choice of two 9.5mm instead, you can get SSD + HDD or RAID-0 with 2 x 640GB.
Sure the Macbook Air could be thinner still but it's about weight not thickness. Plus the thickness (or thinness) of the MBA is mainly artificial as it tapers to the edge. The actual height of it is still 0.76" total and the MBP is 0.95".
I reckon they could shave that 0.2" off the Macbook too and do some tapering at the front as that would be where the battery would go and while it might not go down to 0.16", it doesn't matter because MBA fans get a more functional, cheaper machine and MBP fans get a cheaper, lighter machine too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brain Green
If they remove the optical drive, how will they update their OS? They sure as hell aren't all coming over to use my computer! The OS requires an optical drive. iLife requires an optical drive. iWork requires an optical drive. I'd LOVE to live in your world, because you apparently have awesome download speeds where you can download these huge updates Apple releases in a couple minutes.
You have to download large updates regardless. Even if the installer comes on a disc, the updates are often over 500MB. But they can use SD cards given that they ship all the machines with one now (except the Mac Pro so far). They could even put iLife and the OS X installer on the same SD card. They could even fit a ROM inside the machine as a recovery and hardware test so you don't have to remember where the disc is.
If you absolutely need an optical drive, they cost less than $50 for a USB-powered one and that much or more would come off the price of the machine as they don't have to design the machine with the optical in place or buy super-slim drives. If you want Blu-Ray, just buy an external.
Macbook Air owners have managed fine without built-in optical drives as do over 35 million netbook owners.
It really surprises me when people toss around this idea of getting rid of optical drives so easily. Are you serious? Perhaps you know different people than I know, but most of my friends that have laptops, ONLY have laptops. If they remove the optical drive, how will they update their OS? They sure as hell aren't all coming over to use my computer! The OS requires an optical drive. iLife requires an optical drive. iWork requires an optical drive. I'd LOVE to live in your world, because you apparently have awesome download speeds where you can download these huge updates Apple releases in a couple minutes. I'm just outside Seattle, and I'm struggling with them. Imagine folks further away from major cities.
I also have only laptops. I live in Eastern Europe, so unless you're using an analog modem, I would bet a new MBP that your Internet connection is faster than mine. It's probably an order of magnitude faster. My software update downloads are often overnight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Green
The world is NOT ready for the loss of optical drives. The truth here is that everyone needs an optical drive, if you disagree, enjoy updating your MBA without access to anyone's optical drive. You need one. Everyone needs one. The people that don't need optical drives are the ones that hand their laptop to someone else to have them deal with everything.
You answer your own question below.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Green
Until updates come on thumb drives, I'll keep my optical drive. The MBA is an awesome computer, and it's great for travel, but I still have the external optical drive.
External optical drives are the solution to the software installation problem. For perhaps 99% of users, there is no reason to put an internal optical drive in a laptop.
I like your SD Card idea. I will admit that I very rarely use my optical drive, and it's 99% of the time for watching DVD's (because my 30" cinema display looks better than my TV). That other 1% is for upgrades. Having an SD Card option for software would be cool, and a lot easier to store. I already have an SD Card-USB adapter for my Nikon camera to import pictures with anyway, and that would work for my Mac Pro.
I'm not as attached to the optical drive as I'm looking at the way things are currently done. Whatever the next big Cat may be, it'll come on a DVD. The MBA is great as it is, and I happily own one. But I'd be hard pressed to suggest the same of MBP's. That whole "Pro" thing demands more features - not less, by definition.
I don't see apple doing a major overhaul here. Other than the obvious processor, hard drive, & graphics updates, i see them at best moving to a 16:9 display and multitouch trackpad. But that's about it.
Even though I don't intend to give up the optical drive soon, I know I would pay more for an SD card installer. A bootable SD card would be great for OS installs, and regular software installs would probably be much faster.
Comments
You might want a better screen, but as an MBA owner who uses one every day, I would not call the current screen lousy. It might not be what some users want, but it certainly suits the needs of plenty of people, including myself. Also, a large part of its light weight is the 13" screen.
Two things would get me interested in upgrading my notebook to an Air, or maybe another regular MBP. One would be an IPS screen and the other, built-in cellular data. I've found those two things to be the best parts of the iPad. I found I really liked not having to think about WiFi availability or the lame login systems I've seen, just so I can use the internet. As spotty as cellular data can seem, WiFi often seems to be much worse.
Am I the only stupid person who would be seriously interested in a 15"/17" MBA with Hi Res option? The MBA is attractive to me for it's thinness and light weight rather than it's lousy 13" screen.
While I miss my MBA sometimes, I recently bought a 15" MBP with the 1680x1050 matte display. I don't expect to ever use the optical drive -- ever. If I could have had this display with a MBA, I would have bought it. However, would have really preferred the 13.3" form factor with a 132dpi display i.e. 1520x950. Of course, with 4GB of RAM.
As I see it, Apple have two options for updating the MBA. The conservative option is to give it the 2.26GHz SL9700 and 4GB of RAM with the current form factor. The aggressive option is to get rid of the hard drive, put the SSD on the motherboard (making it about 5mm thinner), and adopt the new trackpad (with 4GB of RAM, of course).
In place of the missing ethernet and FW800 ports, just add two extra USB ports so that you get 4 x USB ports but they'd be USB 3 and for ethernet, use an adaptor.
Then they can drop the Macbook Air line entirely and just pull the price of the MBP down. They could even drop the plastic Macbook because it's the only computer left that uses the white plastic.
People who want a full-powered machine with connectivity get a lighter machine, people who want a high-performance ultra-portable get a faster one but cheaper than the MBA. Both targets win.
I'd rather they just kept the squared-off design of the 13" Macbook Pro, dropped the optical, used thin metal, dropped ethernet and FW800 and pushed the height right down to almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow.
In place of the missing ethernet and FW800 ports, just add two extra USB ports so that you get 4 x USB ports but they'd be USB 3 and for ethernet, use an adaptor.
Then they can drop the Macbook Air line entirely and just pull the price of the MBP down.
What do you mean by "almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow"??? Current MBPs accept 2.5" HDs up to 9mm thick (2 platters). The MBA only accepts thinner 1 platter drives. 3 platter 2.5" drives are 12-15mm thick.
In my opinion, MBPs need to continue to accept 9mm 2-platter HDs. If that's the case, then eliminating the optical drive may or may not allow them to be thinner.
The MBA, on the other hand, no longer needs any space for HDs. They can go to flash-only and the flash can (and should, for cost, size, weight, and reliability) be directly on the motherboard.
So, there probably is at least as much opportunity to make the MBA thinner as there is to make the MBPs thinner.
They could even drop the plastic Macbook because it's the only computer left that uses the white plastic.
While I'm convinced that Apple will eventually drop the optical drives from the MBPs, I expect Apple to drop them from the MacBooks first. I was surprised when Apple didn't drop the optical drives from the major MacBook revision last year. I guess it will happen next year. If so, Apple might limit the next MacBooks to 1-platter 2.5" HDs to help keep them thin.
The world is NOT ready for the loss of optical drives. The truth here is that everyone needs an optical drive, if you disagree, enjoy updating your MBA without access to anyone's optical drive. You need one. Everyone needs one. The people that don't need optical drives are the ones that hand their laptop to someone else to have them deal with everything.
Until updates come on thumb drives, I'll keep my optical drive. The MBA is an awesome computer, and it's great for travel, but I still have the external optical drive.
What do you mean by "almost as low as a 2.5" hard drive will allow"??? Current MBPs accept 2.5" HDs up to 9mm thick (2 platters). The MBA only accepts thinner 1 platter drives. 3 platter 2.5" drives are 12-15mm thick.
In my opinion, MBPs need to continue to accept 9mm 2-platter HDs. If that's the case, then eliminating the optical drive may or may not allow them to be thinner.
Right now the base is about 0.65-0.7". A 2.5" HDD is 0.37". People have managed to fit the 12.5mm height (0.49") drives in them too so there's plenty of room. The extra room is from a taller battery but taking out the optical drive means that the hard drive can go there (even two drives). Then the battery can take up the entire front of the machine but thinner.
Some people will prefer the option for 12.5mm drives but with the choice of two 9.5mm instead, you can get SSD + HDD or RAID-0 with 2 x 640GB.
Sure the Macbook Air could be thinner still but it's about weight not thickness. Plus the thickness (or thinness) of the MBA is mainly artificial as it tapers to the edge. The actual height of it is still 0.76" total and the MBP is 0.95".
I reckon they could shave that 0.2" off the Macbook too and do some tapering at the front as that would be where the battery would go and while it might not go down to 0.16", it doesn't matter because MBA fans get a more functional, cheaper machine and MBP fans get a cheaper, lighter machine too.
If they remove the optical drive, how will they update their OS? They sure as hell aren't all coming over to use my computer! The OS requires an optical drive. iLife requires an optical drive. iWork requires an optical drive. I'd LOVE to live in your world, because you apparently have awesome download speeds where you can download these huge updates Apple releases in a couple minutes.
You have to download large updates regardless. Even if the installer comes on a disc, the updates are often over 500MB. But they can use SD cards given that they ship all the machines with one now (except the Mac Pro so far). They could even put iLife and the OS X installer on the same SD card. They could even fit a ROM inside the machine as a recovery and hardware test so you don't have to remember where the disc is.
If you absolutely need an optical drive, they cost less than $50 for a USB-powered one and that much or more would come off the price of the machine as they don't have to design the machine with the optical in place or buy super-slim drives. If you want Blu-Ray, just buy an external.
Macbook Air owners have managed fine without built-in optical drives as do over 35 million netbook owners.
It really surprises me when people toss around this idea of getting rid of optical drives so easily. Are you serious? Perhaps you know different people than I know, but most of my friends that have laptops, ONLY have laptops. If they remove the optical drive, how will they update their OS? They sure as hell aren't all coming over to use my computer! The OS requires an optical drive. iLife requires an optical drive. iWork requires an optical drive. I'd LOVE to live in your world, because you apparently have awesome download speeds where you can download these huge updates Apple releases in a couple minutes. I'm just outside Seattle, and I'm struggling with them. Imagine folks further away from major cities.
I also have only laptops. I live in Eastern Europe, so unless you're using an analog modem, I would bet a new MBP that your Internet connection is faster than mine. It's probably an order of magnitude faster. My software update downloads are often overnight.
The world is NOT ready for the loss of optical drives. The truth here is that everyone needs an optical drive, if you disagree, enjoy updating your MBA without access to anyone's optical drive. You need one. Everyone needs one. The people that don't need optical drives are the ones that hand their laptop to someone else to have them deal with everything.
You answer your own question below.
Until updates come on thumb drives, I'll keep my optical drive. The MBA is an awesome computer, and it's great for travel, but I still have the external optical drive.
External optical drives are the solution to the software installation problem. For perhaps 99% of users, there is no reason to put an internal optical drive in a laptop.
I like your SD Card idea. I will admit that I very rarely use my optical drive, and it's 99% of the time for watching DVD's (because my 30" cinema display looks better than my TV). That other 1% is for upgrades. Having an SD Card option for software would be cool, and a lot easier to store. I already have an SD Card-USB adapter for my Nikon camera to import pictures with anyway, and that would work for my Mac Pro.
I'm not as attached to the optical drive as I'm looking at the way things are currently done. Whatever the next big Cat may be, it'll come on a DVD. The MBA is great as it is, and I happily own one. But I'd be hard pressed to suggest the same of MBP's. That whole "Pro" thing demands more features - not less, by definition.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....egories&ks=960
... something better to come around?