Anyone get the updated MacBook air? (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Trying to hold out for an updated MBP 15" with the new air styling but I keep getting tempted pricing out the new 11s and 13s...

 

[Thomas Newton]

I'm not sure that I understand.


A 15" MBP would need space for a user-accessible 2.5" HD bay and an optical drive. How is that going to allow room for MBA-type "styling" unless you make one part of the 15" MBP thicker than it otherwise needs to be? (The upper edge of the metal triangle will need to clear both drives on their front edge, which means it will need to be higher than them on their back edge.)


Or are you expressing a wish for a 15" MBA that has the screen resolution of a 17" MBP (and perhaps more SSD space than a 13" MBA)?

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm among those who believe that the next MBP refresh will completely eliminate built in optical drives and hard disks. Weight and size reductions plus major speed and power handling benefits while still retaining the 15" normal footprint.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I'm quite certain the next MBP upgrade won't have an optical drive. For as little as I use mine, I'd much rather have the additional power that a larger battery would provide. I do have the new 13-inch MBA and it is light years ahead of its predecessor. Granted it is the top of the line model, but its performance is on par with my 2010 15-inch MBP.

 

[RAF]

I purchased a MBP (top of the line processor, screen size, HD and RAM) to enter the Apple computer world and within a month added a MBA 13" (also top of the line RAM, SSD, etc.) with an external superdrive for those cases where SW installs and Digital Movie transfers is required. I love the form factor, memory and versatility of the MBA. I have 30 digital movies currently installed, use it to keep all my iPad/iTunes applications and media up to date and still have plenty of room left for other tasks on the 256G SSD. I get around the two USB port limitation with a 1 to 4 USB port multiplier in those cases where I want to use three USB devices simultaneously.


I agree with others who state that soon HDDs will go the way of the DoDo Bird. X-tinct! While 256Gigs in a SSD is nice a 512G or 1 terabyte SSD will be coming down the pike probably quicker than many realize. In the meanwhile, slap a 500Gig or 640Gig Seagate Free Agent hot swap-able USB drive onto the MBA and you are ready to go for now. That same superdrive can be used in a future optical drive-less MBP. Along with a bigger battery I would vote for some more USB ports - preferably USB 3.0 to take advantage of much faster transfer speeds.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'd be down for a USB 3.0 Bluray writer =p

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by RAF


I agree with others who state that soon HDDs will go the way of the DoDo Bird. X-tinct! While 256Gigs in a SSD is nice a 512G or 1 terabyte SSD will be coming down the pike probably quicker than many realize.

With prices still 10x to 20x more than conventional hard drives, it's taking longer than I hoped. I think it's going to be five years before SSD is the norm.


I'd hoped to put an SSD in my 2007 MBP last year or this year. But upgrading from my 160 GB HD to a 256 GB SSD would cost $500! That's far too much for a 3+ yr old laptop. That money will go into an iPad instead.

 

[RAF]

Originally Posted by DaveF

With prices still 10x to 20x more than conventional hard drives, it's taking longer than I hoped. I think it's going to be five years before SSD is the norm.

I'd hoped to put an SSD in my 2007 MBP last year or this year. But upgrading from my 160 GB HD to a 256 GB SSD would cost $500! That's far too much for a 3+ yr old laptop. That money will go into an iPad instead.

I also think that migration to SSDs is taking a little longer than I anticipated so my use of the word "soon" is a relative term. 3 to 5 years seems to be more realistic for wide acceptance. I think that we will see moderately sized SSDs becoming the C: or OS drive of computers with HDD being used for programs, data, etc. With an SSD OS drive and an intelligent backup scheme for the HDDs you will be able to configure a very reliable computer for a modest investment of money to install an SSD for the all important OS drive.

 

[Sam Posten]

Not sure I agree with Marco here....

http://www.marco.org/3027446896


I'd like to see the 15" do the following:

-Move to a suuuuper thin layer of gorilla glass, but still keep glass over plastic.

-Ditch hard drives entirely.

-Ditch on board opticals (but get Bluray support in Lion, natch!)

-Be somewhere between the current Air and MBP thicknesses

-Use the space freed up for slightly more battery power

-Keep the backlit keyboards

-Keep the ethernet port

-Start at $1499


But I don't think it's possible to do all of that and get it close to 4.5 pounds. A guy can dream tho, no?

 

[DaveF]

I think he underestimates the prohibitive pricing on SSD for a $1500 laptop that people use as the one and only computer. 128+GB SSDs are 10x - 20x more expensive than conventional drives, as we've discussed. They'll be an option, probably, but not the only storage option for the MBP in 2011.


I've only spent a few minutes with the unibody MBPs, and I was surprised and disappointed by the sharp edge along the front, and the needle-like points at the open-gap.. I don't know how people use that machine. I don't know how Jobs ever approved it. It needs a file taken to it to knock off the edges. So Marco's idea that the sharp edge would be lost seems overdue.


The rest of it...no opinion.

 

[Sam Posten]

I think Apple is at the forefront of taking the entire world kicking and screaming off of hard disks forever. For servers? sure. For consumers? Hard disks are dead and done.

And Apple recognized this before anyone else could get beyond the 'well this stuff is too expensive now we will deal with it in 5 years' mentality and made smart business decisions to lock in for the gold rush when it would be economical to bring this tech mainstream. And now everyone else is struggling to compete with the price advantage that Apple has, which is significant.


I know there are still oldschoolers who want their iPod classics to have terrabyte hard disks in them 'so I can have my whole collection with me any time I want it!' Apple is NOT going to do that. Maybe someone else will but Apple doesn't serve niche markets any more unless they are at the forefront of what they see as the next mainstream. Everything about the MBA shows you that they saw the features there as serving a niche market but that niche was only temporary, and that those things are critical to their future.


It's like Bluray.... Sure it would be cool to add that in and there is a niche there to make it profitable. But Apple clearly sees physical media as a dead end and for better or worse they arent going to encourage it. Maybe it will get some love for the pro market via Lion, but I won't be surprised if that doesnt happen.

 

[DaveF]

So you think apple is goIng to cut laptop storage by two-thirds, increase prices by $250 and go SSD only in the MBP line? I'm sure apple wants to go SSD But it looks price prohibitive in Feb, 2011.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah I picked up the maxed out 13" and I love mine, nice and Light, especially compared to my behemoth HP Win 7 laptop, and powerful enough for what I do.

 

[Sam Posten]

Dave F no I think prices will come DOWN. Call me crazy x2! =)


Dave S, cool deal!

 

[DaveF]

You think they're going to drop 75% this month, after dropping maybe 25% over two years?


I don't track prices closely, but looking at SSD a couple weeks ago suggests Apple would have to work magic to keep its prices, margins, and storage capacity all constant in a switch to solid state.

 

[Sam Posten]

Do you see what the 11" is selling for?

 

[DaveF]

Yes. That's my point.


$200 for a 64GB increase

$300 for a 128 GB increase


If I were buying a laptop today, I'd get no less than 320 GB, which would, hypothetically, be a >$600 more than a stock 128 GB 13" Air.


Maybe they've got a dramatic price cuts to reveal. Maybe they've decided that MacBook Pros are nothing more than iPods and users don't *really* need to keep all their data on a laptop - that's what the $5000 Mac Pro is for!


I don't know. But that's why I think SSD-only MBPs in 2011 won't happen.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Apple doesn't serve niche markets any more

The MacBook Air is nothing if not a product for a niche market.


For that matter, a lot of Apple's products are made for niche or premium market segments. They're not interested in beating their brains out to sell $299 headless minitowers in WalMart, but they are interested in selling Mac Pros, even though the volume of sales of the latter is undoubtedly much less.

 

[Sam Posten]

Again, if you were talking about the first gen air I would have agreed with you. This generation is clearly breaking into the mainstream, it's definitely a hit with students and frequent travellers and Jobs was explicit "This is how we think ALL notebooks will look very shortly".

 

[DaveF]

Now if Apple released a home server product and revamped all its "i" software to work off a central repository, I'd have no qualms about getting SSD device with 25% the storage space I currently want/need.