Now, just for the record, I’m not an Apple (or PC) hater. I think Apple is an innovative company that makes some cool products. I’m even writing this up on a Macbook. I do, however, think that Apple can make some pretty dumb products sometimes and the Macbook Air is a good example. The Macbook Air has the same dimensions as a normal Macbook, but is one third of an inch thinner (at its thickest point) and 2 pounds lighter. In order to shave off this space, a lot had to be given up. Too much. Below is a list of the top 5 reasons to avoid the Macbook Air:
5. No Removable Battery
What is it with Apple’s continued insistence that we are never allowed to remove the battery from its devices? It’s one thing on an ipod, but being able to swap out a drained out battery on the fly seems to be a really important feature for a lot of laptop users. Imagine a long flight or bus ride with only a single battery charge. Or the dread felt in 6 months when your battery dies early and the only way to get a new one is to ship off your whole notebook. This just seems like it’s a sly way to force users to pay to have official OEM battery replacement, or even worse, to buy a whole new laptop once the battery finally quits.
4. No Optical Drive
Apple shipped the original iMac without a floppy drive in 1998, and it annoyed the hell out of a lot of people. It’s 10 years later and they’re still making the same mistakes. Apple says its no big deal since you can use their new remote disk software to stream a disk’s contents from your desktop wirelessly to the Macbook Air. Isn’t breaking away from your desktop the point of having a laptop? Apple suggests if that doesn’t work you can always buy their USB superdrive which of course means more money spent, and more to lug around.
3. Weak Specs
The maximum sized hard-drive is 80 gigabytes. The fastest processor available is 1.8ghz. The graphics card is integrated. There is only 1 usb port and no ethernet port! This is not a powerhouse by any means, and it feels like a laptop from one or two years ago and not a brand new prestige model. The argument could be made that the configuration is similar to other "sub-notebooks", but the Macbook Air, is thin but not small. The specs wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for…
2. No Upgradeability
Ok, so laptops aren’t known for their amazing abilities to upgrade components, but almost every laptop allows at least minimal upgrade. Not the Macbook Air. There’s no adding a higher capacity battery, or a larger hard-drive or even adding a few more megabytes of ram (There are initial reports you can replace the hard-drive, but this requires opening the case and will void your warranty). What you buy is what you get… forever.
1. The $1800 price tag
At a price as high as the Macbook Pro, this laptop seems targeted towards business users. Yet, as we’ve seen, the Macbook Air is missing some really critical features that businesses need. Smart consumers with the cash to spend would probably opt for another laptop with much more bang for the buck. Apple might be more successful if put the same configuration in a normal sized case and sold it as a cheap entry level “disposable” laptop. For now, the Macbook Air might be a fun toy to show off, but in the long run it just isn’t functional.
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