Those might be good arguments . . .but there are a couple of countering ones as well.
On Dec 19, 2011, at 1:34 PM,12/19, Nathan Sims wrote: > 1. No optical disc slot (no one wants to carry around an external drive) Can't remember the last time I used mine for anything . . .and I've had at least 5 of them replaced over the years under Applecare on the various MBPs, MB, PB, and TiPBs we've had. If it's your only computer then just buy the external one and plug in when needed. > 2. No RJ45 ethernet jack (yes, some/many dorms still don't have wifi) USB to ethernet converter (or probably Thunderbolt to ethernet these days) if wired networking is needed. I haven't had a cable in my MBP for probably 3 years though. > 3. Too few USB ports (a perpetual problem) USB hub . . .although again even the MBP only has 2 ports and I've rarely needed to plug in more than one thing at a time. > 4. SSD too small (and pricey to Go Large) That is an issue with SSDs . . .but prices are coming down, they're the future, and don't have head crashing problems. I did note that needing a really big drive was a down check for the Air. > 5. No graphics card option (would be nice for casual gaming) I haven't really checked . . .but I think they have at least as good a graphics as my unibody MBP (mine has both the built in and dedicated graphics you can choose between, I keep it on built in all the time for battery life purposes and can play games just fine. Granted . . .I'm not a heavy duty gamer wanting the maximum frames per second . . .but it's good enough. > 6. Slowest CPU (compared to anything else out there) True . . .but better is the enemy of good enough. As I noted before; it's twice the Geekbench score of my unibody MBP . . .and I've never thought mine was too slow. Just because the Air is slower than the 4 core i7 in the latest MBP doesn't make the Air a slow machine for what the vast majority of people do with it. For almost everybody . . .the Air is plenty fast enough . . .and 3 pounds is a lot easier to schlep around all day than 5.5 pounds. I think we're way past the point of needing the fastest portable available to get decent performance. That was true years ago . . .but as CPUs have gotten faster even the entry level Air is fast enough for the vast majority of what the vast majority of people need . . .which is email, browsing, playing music, and working with Office files. There are those edge cases doing major video or working with 200 MB Photoshop files where the fastest CPU is necessary or huge drives are necessary . . .but those people aren't typical Mac users. ----------------------------------------------- There are only three kinds of stress; your basic nuclear stress, cooking stress, and A$$hole stress. The key to their relationship is Jello. neil _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
