Thin is still in.
Apple's MacBook Air has always prided itself on being one of the slimmest laptop computers on the market. The new 2010 refresh of the MacBook Air made things even slimmer and more compact.
Part of that was thanks to neat tricks with the LCD assembly, by having the LCD makers finish only the cell portion of the LCD module and passing it off to the backlight manufacturer to finish the rest of it. This sort of process shaved off between 3 to 5 millimeters off of the thickness of the LCD.
While Apple was the first to put this into use, the same process is now available to Acer, Asus and Lenovo. Digitimes believes that this will mean that we'll see some thin 13.3- and 14-inch notebooks using Sandy Bridge chips by the end of the first quarter.
So, if you've been lusting after that sleek form factor of the MacBook Air, but you want a PC, there could be the answer in just a few months.
I would say the average consumer in the market for one of these doesn't really care if they're easy to work on or not. In fact, I'd say that's true of most laptop users. If you want easy to work on, get a desktop.
Thats a bit of a narrow minded point of view i think. There are lots of people out there who this will be ideal for. I've used a macbook air on Windows and i found it more or less as capable as my laptop. If you're doing video editing or something similar then clearly this is not for you.
LOL got to love awkward sentences
Thats prolly what you meant to say.
I can see how rugged use would put it to the test, but the first poster's closed-minded assertion is that the laptop will somehow actually be more difficult to work on as a result. I just don't see it being easier or harder to work on. Just more portable.
Sometimes slimness and weight are a priority for people. My wife has a 11.6" MacBook Air and she takes it everywhere. She carries it around with her at work and travels internationally with it. The thinness and lightness is well worth the price. It's an excellent machine. Though I love still love it, it makes my Dell Mini seem downright chunky.
I mean I get that that is the current way it is, but it really doesn't make sense.
Mac is a generally accepted jargon term meant to differentiation hardware that is normally meant to run Mac OS X from typical PC hardware. But YES, I think we all get that Macs are a subset of PCs.
You have to consider that there was a time when a Mac was nothing like a PC. It used to have specialized components that were not available to the masses, such as the old PowerPC CPUs from IBM. They were even more proprietary than they are now.
Now they use x86 Intel based CPUs but are still proprietary and do not allow for the same customization. So because of that major difference back then, PC was always known to be the Windows based computer than you could customize.
Also back then Macs were normally only used in very special cases and not as often by the general public. Mostly in music and video editing but now most Windows based PCs can do the same thing as a Mac so it really has no specialty.
No matter what happens it will always be Mac and PC (Windows) not Mac and Windows.
I personally hate laptops. I just never understood them. I mean in most cases these days your cell phone can do the majority of what a laptop was designed for. Hell my LG Ally has ThinkFree Office which allows me to view, edit and create open word, excel and many more file types.
As for working on them, I have very large hands so that may attribute to why I dislike them. I love full sized keyboards like my Logitech G15 and larger mice like my Logitech G500.
if anything the worst part about thinner laptops is the fact that repairs are extremely hard. A regular laptop can be pretty difficult with very few being easy. The easy ones have panels to access all components while the majority don't and need to be taken apart.
For the Macs its that plus the extreme cost. A normal laptop inverter cost about $10 bucks. A Mac inverter costs at least $50. The Asus and other kind wont have the same major price markup a Mac does but they will become harder to work on which will add to labor costs. I normally charge $65 on a pretty easy laptop for labor but the hard ones, the ones you have to take entirely apart just to get to the screen for example, I charge $95.
Even Apple themselves had a whole series of comercials advertising Windows machines as PC's and their own systems as Mac's. It's an industry term that even the manufacturers use. PC may stand for personal computer, but it's a label that these companys came up with to describe the Windows machines.
No need to be so litteral.
P.C. = Piece of Crap
LOL... ok I could not resist.
I have a Mac Air.. So envy me guys...
The point is not the penis envy line like above.
The real reason is simply. it is a very practical, nice computer.
I suggest you people go and use one of these Mac Airs. I can guarantee that you will want to keep it.. they are a very nice well made computer.
And they will do virtually all things you need that any laptop can do.
And guys don't smivel about but game blaa. blaa.. go buy a desktop if you want that. My mac Air plays all the mac games very nicely. EG: world of warcraft, Call of duty, diablo, Dungeon Keeper1, Bz-flag, quake and even wolf quest to name just a few.
Also if I want to play or use a windows game or program, I have many tools that allow me to use the software directly on the computer.
for example I use Compe-Gps Air on my Mac Air. using Wine.
This is a little rant.. but I hope it will be somewhat informative..
You can have a very portable computer with tons of performance.
I do hope that the other computer company's manage to do this and make something to compete with the Mac Air. Because in reality there is no computer on the market that is in the same arena that the mac air is used.