The MacBook Cube
David Gratton is wondering if the new MacBook Air is like the ill-fated Power Mac Cube:
I was about to place my order for the new MacBook Air and everyone in my office was – “I wouldn’t buy that. It looks nice, but it isn’t worth it at that price.”
Immediate flash back 7 years to the Apple Cube. I was in the market for a new desktop and was about to buy The Cube and everyone in my office was – “I wouldn’t buy that. It looks nice, but it isn’t worth it at that price.”
I think there’s a more concrete reason the Air is like the Cube. It does slightly less and costs substantially more, but doesn’t really do anything extra.
Jan 15 2008
5:48 pm
What surprised me the most was the meager battery life. I expected 10 hours from a system without a hard drive …
Jan 15 2008
11:06 pm
Problem being is that the chip is probably a 65nm chip, only a low voltage version, not the ULV version. Their refusal to compromise on using a ULV version of the chip will ultimately eat up the battery.
Now, I don’t know whether this is limited to the first generation MacBooks, but from my experience, the SpeedStep driver in Tiger is set for aggressive performance. My MacBook would idle at 1.33-1.5GHz, yet the chip can go as far down as 1.0GHz. I end up using CoolBook to actually force it to 1.0GHz on battery.
The CPU probably has a good amount of cache (to make up for its antiquated FSB link to memory), and a bunch of other things that would eat up the battery life. It’s a CPU with a packaging shrink, not a die shrink, so the performance and power consumption should be very similar to a LV mobile chip.
To make matters worse, the physical size of the machine would mean the battery size is limited. There was talk that it’s the same capacity as the MacBookPro 15″ battery, and its not a high-capacity part.
Now I’m very willing to debate whether the Air would be like the Cube. Naming aside, if it does deliver the 5 hours of battery, or at least a reasonably close duration, the notebook isn’t half bad. Last time I’ve hooked up a laptop to an ethernet port has more to do with faster bandwidth for installing software on a network share, and even with 802.11g, installing software should be more than enough. Streaming a DVD through 802.11n is probably a spotty affair, but that’s not what the machine is designed for.
This machine is designed to compete with other subnotebooks, in which many users want thin and light, but can probably tolerate bulk. I’ve been on a Sony TZ equivalent (back in the day of P3 chips), and it worked fine. I didn’t need the cdrom drive as much as anyone thinks, and I was using the wireless PCMCIA card for connectivity most of the time. The screen was a 12″ standard aspect-ratio affair, and the keyboard was on the small, but not miniature side. I didn’t need it as a speed demon, and it served me well, until the power unit inside failed.
At $1899CDN, it’s delivering a $300CDN backhand to the cheapest Sony TZ, which delivers less CPU, less RAM, thicker, running Fista. The only saving grace is a 100GB 4200RPM UATA hard drive. It’s supposed to be 4-7.5h, but that figure’s just as dubious as the 5h figure for the Air.
I think the market’s there. There are people who want thin and light, but didn’t think highly of the small keyboard and screen. I know I don’t. since my astigmatism, I basically have to ask Safari to try and serve 14pt font minimum to make my eyes easier. I’ve seen a TZ series in person, and the screen sucks. $1899 isn’t half bad for the price. Loading the SSD is an expensive option, but it’s one that would probably increase HD performance while lowering your battery usage. I wonder if Apple wrote Leopard to take advantage of SSDs.
Jan 16 2008
12:43 am
The MacBook Air comes with a 80GB iPod hard drive by default, so that’s where some of the battery life will go.
My problem is that it’s not a subnotebook. It’s a think full-size notebook. They could have discontinued the MacBook and put the MacBook Air in its place, if it wasn’t for the prohibitive cost.