ABOVE: The new MacBook Air measures 0.3cm at its thinnest point and 1.7cm at its thickest. It weighs 1.06kg for the 11-inch model and 1.3kg for the 13-inch.Apple has been near the head of the pack with previous technology changeovers. It was one of
ABOVE: The new MacBook Air measures 0.3cm at its thinnest point and 1.7cm at its thickest. It weighs 1.06kg for the 11-inch model and 1.3kg for the 13-inch.
Apple has been near the head of the pack with previous technology changeovers.
It was one of the first manufacturers to kiss good-bye to the floppy disk, and to leave chunky CRT monitors behind.
Now, it’s flagged its intention to ditch traditional mechanical hard drives.
Two new models of the ultraslim MacBook Air both come with Flash or “solid state” memory only.
One of the new Airs comes with an 11-inch display (from $1477), the other with a 13-inch (from $1699).
Apple says Flash memory is:
• Faster - solid state flash storage is up to twice as fast as hard drive storage
• More reliable - hard drive crashes are eliminated
• Lighter and smaller - solid state flash storage is up to 90% smaller and lighter than hard drives
That's the good news. And the claims are not controversial. The tech media has repeatedly found Flash memory out-performs a mechanical drive at tasks such as (on the Wintel side of the fence) booting Windows.
The bad news is that - largely because they're relatively new and lack any economy of scale - solid state drives are very expensive.
Laptop makers are getting around this, in part, by offering smaller capacity drives.
Thus although 500GB and larger Flash memory drives are available for notebooks, many models come with a modest 64GB or 128GB (by comparison, a 500GB mechanical hard drive is pretty standard on a sub $1000 laptop).
Even if you're not into video or other storage-hungry multimedia, 64GB could get eaten up pretty fast.
Against this, Apple (and other manufacturers gradually adding more Flash models) point to the growth in online apps, and online storage.
And speaking of online apps, Apple today also pledged to launch a Mac equivalent of the iPhone/iPod/iPad AppStore at some point in the next ninety days.
NBR's advice: there's no doubt that solid state drives are superior, and the way of the future - for both MacBooks and Microsoft Windows based notebooks.
But don't buy one now unless you can afford a 256GB or (if it's an option) 500GB Flash drive.
Pricing and specs:
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air are immediately available through Apple's NZ online store and retailers. All pricing incl. GST.
The 1.4GHz 11-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage starts at $1699 with a 128GB model for $1999.
The 1.86GHz 13-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starts at $2199 with a 256GB model for $2699.
Configure-to-order options and accessories include faster processors, 4GB of memory, MacBook Air SuperDrive and a USB Ethernet Adapter.
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