At Apple's Back to the Mac event today, Steve Jobs closed the show by asking, "what would happen if an iPad and a Macbook hooked up?" Indeed, the new MacBook Air seems sort of like an iPad for creatives -- people who need a real keyboard and an OS that can run more than mobile apps, but something thin and light enough to take everywhere. It has iPad features like instant-on (with no boot time, apparently), no moving parts (all flash storage, with no hard drive and no optical drive), and increased battery life of 5-7 hours wireless web use and 30 days of standby (a stat typically associated with phones). Are the new MacBook Airs "iPads for creatives?"
Here are the stats of the new models:
13.3" model:
- .68" to .11" thick
- 2.9 pounds
- Full-size keyboard and trackpad
- 1.86GHz or 2.13Ghz Core 2 Duo processor
- NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics card
- 13.3" LED display at 1440x900
- 802.11n Wi-Fi
- SD Card slot
- 128GB SSD $1299
- 256GB SSD $1599
11.6" model is the same as the 13", except:
- 2.3 pounds
- 1366x768 display
- 1.4GHz or 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo processor
- 5 hours battery life
- 64GB SSD $999
- 128GB SSD $1199
The NVIDIA GeForce 320m uses shared memory (meaning, it has no dedicated RAM of its own), but these laptops should still be considerably more powerful than any iOS-powered device. One wonders how an app like Final Cut Pro would handle on these machines for light editing on the road (with a USB 2.0 external drive) -- which will be known in the coming days, presumably.
For people who were considering getting a Kindle and/or an iPad -- now there's a third ultraportable to look at, the MacBook Air. Because of the price disparity, however, with the Kindle under $200, the iPad at $500+, and the MacBook Air at $1,000+, perhaps you'll get all three? The fact is, our lives are so reliant on computers today that devices like the Kindle and iPad are designed specifically for those times when we don't want to be using a computer. Because of their portability and mobile-like features, however, the new MacBook Airs (or is it like "attorneys general," where the plural would be Macbooks Air?) almost fit into this category too. The machines are on sale today. Does this revamping of the MacBook Air make you think about buying one?
Link: The New MacBook Air
