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I went computer shopping over the weekend....was looking at a Mac Air...11 inch screen that might be a bridge between a tablet that won't do all that I would need it to do and a ltraditional sized laptop that would be bulkier and heavier to carry around.
Thinking I could hook this up to a larger external monitor on the desktop whenever I feel the need for a larger screen and yet it would still be quite portable for when I am mobile.
Thank you....C
The 11" is pretty nice. Personally I prefer the slightly larger 13", but it's hard to go wrong with either, especially if you're going to hook it up to an external display.
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Yeah, not really all that "slow" if you understand how much can be done in each cycle.
Eh, some people are still living in 1999. The statement about the i5 is also not true- the newest Airs are available with a 1.7 GHz i7 as well.
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And all the heat and bad battery life that comes with it.
But, the specs! Who cares if it has a battery that's dead in an hour (as opposed to 12), is too hot to sit on your lap, and so heavy that you never want to carry it around? There are use cases for that sort of power, but for most people, it's just pointless overkill that results in a crappier overall experience.
The unfortunate thing about these threads is that they always get derailed by clueless people who make outlandish statements, suggest ridiculous systems for the OP, and generally completely disregard what the OP was actually asking for.
Last edited by i7pXFLbhE3gq; 08-12-2013 at 08:10 PM..
already own iPods and iPhone, familiar with Apple products
I would highly recommend a MacBook Air. As light as light gets, near instant wake times, a great keyboard (backlit so you can see what you're doing in a dim environment), at this point in time no real or widespread security concerns (I've been a Mac user for over 15 years and have never had a single issue), excellent included software (no crap), ridiculously great battery life (9 and 12 hours for the 11" and 13" respectively), and many other great features that you can see at Apple's web site.
I use a Mac everyday (macbook pro) and you're wrong about several things.
- There are other laptops that have the same weight and some who have better size-weight ratio.
- The Mac keyboards are horrible compared to competitor keyboards... The ThinkPad keyboards for example.... which are widely touted as the best laptop keyboards out there.
- Macs have serious security concerns. The only difference is that Mac virus developers don't care to harm the computers like PC virus developers do. Mac virus developers prefer to stay silently running in the background stealing information. It's less annoying, but quite intrusive.
- Many competitors don't have crapware as well.
- Battery life on the Mac Air is due to the Haswell CPU. Any haswell based ultrabook will offer similar battery performance. The X220 ThinkPad series has a 9hr battery option with a secondary battery that gives up to 24 hours if necessary.
You also left out durability. If you drop a macbook air, it's done for. If you spill water on a macbook air, it's done for. etc.
The Macbook air is a great laptop. But it's not inherently better than something like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon or ThinkPad Helix (which gives up to 10 hours of battery, btw).
08-12-2013, 08:41 PM
i7pXFLbhE3gq
n/a posts
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You also left out durability. If you drop a macbook air, it's done for. If you spill water on a macbook air, it's done for. etc.
Watch the video I linked to above - it shows a macbook air surviving being frozen, baked, knocked off a table, dropped, and flung off the roof of a moving car without breaking. Even dumping a glass of water onto it didn't kill it.
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The Mac keyboards are horrible compared to competitor keyboards...
Horrible? Hardly. They're quite decent, actually. I wasn't a fan of the chicklet keyboard at first, but it's grown on me - it has decent key travel and works well enough, certainly better than the mushy keyboards one finds on many laptops.
Surely you can spell out the multitude of serious security concerns that exist in the wild and sit around in the background stealing information.
The reality is both Windows and OS X can be used in a reasonably secure manner. It's probably easier to do on OS X simply because people generally aren't targeting a smaller platform.
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ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Not a bad choice either from the little I've played with it. Of course, it gets worse battery life and doesn't have Haswell yet.
Watch the video I linked to above - it shows a macbook air surviving being frozen, baked, knocked off a table, dropped, and flung off the roof of a moving car without breaking. Even dumping a glass of water onto it didn't kill it.
I've spilled just a small amount of water on a macbook air keyboard and it died. Go figure.
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Originally Posted by JasonF
Horrible? Hardly. They're quite decent, actually. I wasn't a fan of the chicklet keyboard at first, but it's grown on me - it has decent key travel and works well enough, certainly better than the mushy keyboards one finds on many laptops.
Yes, horrible. It's not that they're chiclet (there are good chiclet keyboards out there). It's an ergonomic mess. Take a look at the keys. They're completely flat across the top. No curvature at all. Horrible for accuracy. The only good thing that Mac does is keep their keyboard consistent (same feel) across all their products.
There are many horribly touchpads out there. But we shouldn't dismiss that these experts who favor the Mac Book Air over many ultrabooks called the X1 Carbon's touchpad the best ever: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review
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Originally Posted by JasonF
Surely you can spell out the multitude of serious security concerns that exist in the wild and sit around in the background stealing information.
I'd rather just point you to the location where it is discussed. Look under the mactrade threads on the hidden wiki. You'll find plenty of discussions in regards to an agreement of Mac hackers to not be disruptive to the "Apple experience" while implanting trojans.
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Originally Posted by JasonF
The reality is both Windows and OS X can be used in a reasonably secure manner. It's probably easier to do on OS X simply because people generally aren't targeting a smaller platform.
Not a bad choice either from the little I've played with it. Of course, it gets worse battery life and doesn't have Haswell yet.
It gets worse battery because it hasn't gone through an haswell refresh yet. One thing that stands out about it, however, is that you can recharge it completely in 40 minutes. It takes 5 hours to completely charge a macbook air. If the haswell refresh of the x1 carbon can maintain the rapid charge capability, that would be real slick.
Btw, I'm typing this from my Macbook Pro. So I'm not against Macs.
Look at NASA and tell me Macs aren't used there. Look at the media labs at any of the universities throughout the US and tell me Macs aren't used there. I use both Mac's and PCs at work (university research centers).
The international space station uses mostly Thinkpads.
This is silly. You can just say you don't like Apple/Mac/OS X or whatever...but this drivel is silly.
News flash: not everyone wants/needs to update their machines. Guess what else...a lot of machines are headed in this direction. I have a PowerBook, MacBooK Pro, and an iMac that I've never upgraded, all while certainly having the capability to upgrade them.
So what? You're making arguments on individual specs rather than a system as a whole.
Yeah, not really all that "slow" if you understand how much can be done in each cycle.
And all the heat and bad battery life that comes with it.
Or...and this is a stretch...have used Macs for a very long time and have never had a virus. Like me.
I don't believe apple has made any claims that their complete systems are immune to accidents and stupidity. But they do put measures in place to protect the data.
My PowerBook from 2004 is still running, my iMac fro 2006 is still running, my MacBook Pro from 2008 is still running. No service on any of them. What's your point?
Why doesn't it make sense? Your computer isn't shipped with viruses, so it remains your fault when you crash it from misuse. Maybe if I total my car I should call Mazda and blame them for it. I mean, I just crashed it into a guardrail on the highway at 70MPH, it shouldn't fall apart or anything.
People don't think their pcs need to be maintained, they expect it to be blazing fast no matter what crap they ruin it with. That is why everyone is complaining about how pcs are slow and freezing, they put hundreds of programs on, never defrag the hard drive, and install lots of toolbars. Pretty soon the computer is a slow pile of junk, I wonder why?
Why doesn't it make sense? Your computer isn't shipped with viruses, so it remains your fault when you crash it from misuse.
Agree
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Originally Posted by LPDAL
Maybe if I total my car I should call Mazda and blame them for it. I mean, I just crashed it into a guardrail on the highway at 70MPH, it shouldn't fall apart or anything.
I get this point and agree.
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Originally Posted by LPDAL
People don't think their pcs need to be maintained, they expect it to be blazing fast no matter what crap they ruin it with.
Agree
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Originally Posted by LPDAL
That is why everyone is complaining about how pcs are slow and freezing, they put hundreds of programs on, never defrag the hard drive, and install lots of toolbars. Pretty soon the computer is a slow pile of junk, I wonder why?
Agree. Even on a Mac you have to run maintenance routines.
But, what you originally stated was,
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Originally Posted by LPDAL
Unofrtunately people would rather blame the hardware and other stuff when they click on what is obviously a virus.
And this is what doesn't make sense to me. I'm pretty sure everyone knows/assumes this is a software issue and not a hardware issue. I'm pretty sure everyone's knee-jerk reaction is "I have a virus, how do I get it off?", not "what do I need to replace?".
I use a Mac (3 actually ... a MPB, Mac Mini and an iMac) everyday too...so I'm not sure why this is part of the conversation.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
and you're wrong about several things.
Nope, I'm not. Specifically because you seem to think my statements are saying that a Mac is this and everything else is not. When clearly I'm making statements that only reference a Mac, imply nothing about anything else, and are stated to back up a recommendation based on very specific preferences/requirements.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
The Macbook air is a great laptop. But it's not inherently better than something like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon or ThinkPad Helix (which gives up to 10 hours of battery, btw).
I never claimed an Air was inherently better than anything. I went on the OP's criteria, recommended a product and then offered some info to back up the recommendation.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
There are other laptops that have the same weight and some who have better size-weight ratio.
That doesn't matter; they may also have worse battery life and/or performance. You can always find something else that has a better spec than what is being recommended. But find something that beats it as a system at the same price. Again, the recommendation was based on a range of preferences.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
The Mac keyboards are horrible compared to competitor keyboards... The ThinkPad keyboards for example.... which are widely touted as the best laptop keyboards out there.
That is completely subjective. I love the keyboard. The keyboard alone is only a very small part of the entire ergonomics equation. Also, it becomes even less relevant given that he want to use this as a "desktop" (where an external/secondary display, keyboard and mouse are likely to be used.) in addition to on the go as a notebook.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
Macs have serious security concerns.
False
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Originally Posted by NJBest
The only difference is that Mac virus developers don't care to harm the computers like PC virus developers do. Mac virus developers prefer to stay silently running in the background stealing information. It's less annoying, but quite intrusive.
While this as a policy may be true, it is in no way a wide spread threat.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
Many competitors don't have crapware as well.
I never said they weren't free of crapware either ... just stated that a Mac was.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
Battery life on the Mac Air is due to the Haswell CPU. Any haswell based ultrabook will offer similar battery performance. The X220 ThinkPad series has a 9hr battery option with a secondary battery that gives up to 24 hours if necessary.
OS X and hardware engineering have a lot to do with it too. And I never said nothing else matched that or bettered it.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
You also left out durability. If you drop a macbook air, it's done for. If you spill water on a macbook air, it's done for. etc.
You drop anything and it runs the chance of being done for. And that statement applies to a whole range of notebooks. Notice how all of these "drop demonstrations" are very calculated, land perfectly flat (no side or corner direct impacts), and come with the disclaimer "don't try this at home". There are plenty of instance where a MBA is dropped and not done for. I'm sure there are instances of the so-called "drop resistant" ones being done for. You can find anything to argue each side.
My point is, you're 1) arguing individual statements under a false assumption and, 2) not looking at the recommendation as a whole based on what the OP put forward.
When I worked at Jacobs ESCG doing Nasa design work we worked on Dell workstations, doing Proe on them.
I'd tell the OP to upgrade to a newer Dell but lately Dell is behind the curve... Their latest Inspiron laptops don't have the latest Intel Haswell and Nividia 700 series GPUs.
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