Macbook Air 11.6": It's High End Netbook And Why It's Worth Every Penny Spent On it

I'm gonna get a lot of grief for this but I'm going to say it. The 11.6" Macbook Air is a high-end netbook. Don't get me wrong. I'm very close to getting it.

Now, I know last week that I was leaning towards the Macbook Pro but after discussions with some mobile warriors about specs, needs, and costs, I have taken on a new perspective about it.

Including that I think it's a netbook. However, it's a very well designed netbook with a lot more muscle than most low-end laptops packed with a lot of innovations that most PC laptops will not see for years to come.

Having said that, here is why I think it's a netbook and why it's worth the money.

A lot of people I know who bought this, most of them are writers and bloggers, bought the 11.6" version of the MBA over the 13" version and have fallen in love with it because if the light weight, longish battery life, and has enough processing power for the times when you absolutely have to do some more intensive work.

Compare this with my MacWind, which is a MSI Wind with OS X installed on it, it has a 10" screen with just as long of a battery life but with a more aged processor with less power and a graphics card that really has not right to be created and used.

I did a lot of writing on Macwind and it did well. However, there was a lot of getting used to. The keyboard was cramp and the touchpad was just average. And before you state that this may have been because I was running a hacked OS X on it rather than the Windows XP that came with it.

Sorry, on OS X or Windows, the keyboard would still be just as cramp and the plasticky feel of the touchpad would feel just as, well, like plastic.

Surprisingly, the Atom chip in the Macwind was adequate for general use but I had no illusion that I would use it to do some Photoshopping or simple iMovie work.

However, with the 11.6" MBA's Core 2 Duo running at 1.4 or 1.6 Ghz, I can imagine myself using it from time to time when needed. In fact, this would be a markedly improvement over the original Intel Mac Mini Duo Core I bought in early 2006.

The decision now is just how long I should wait before getting it. While the late-2010 MBA is much more improved over the 2009 version, it is largely due to the improved Nvidia integrated graphic card. There were more than a few, but judging by the sales, detractors who wanted to see the Core i3 or better chip in use.

The speculation is that there was no way for Apple to use the current Intel mobile chips with Nvidia GPU. Regardless of the reason, the Air is more than just about the CPU. It is the sum of all the innovations that came from Apple.

And the 11.6" MBA is a netbook that I just don't see HP, Dell, or anyone else come close competing. Just like the iPad 2 unveiled this week really forced some of Apple's competitors back to the drawing board, I think that was what the new Airs did with the very portable segment of the laptop market.

iPad Not Cannibalizing Macs But How About PC?

I think not. Well, not likely. That's the answer I've got to the question to the title of this post. This subject came up in today's Apple earnings call when an analyst asked about what Apple think about potential cannibalization of the Macs by iPads in the future, since today's report showed no sign this is going on. But a statement by Apple's Tim Cook, COO, seems to have set off a storm in this regard.

"Our guts tell us that this market is very big...if it turns out that iPad cannibalizes PCs, that's fantastic for us because there is a lot of PCs to cannibalize..." was what he said. However, it was merely an off the cuff statement and nothing more.

But is the iPad really capable of cannibalizing PCs?

MacWind Battery Life Benefit From 10.5.7 But Not Macbooks?

Like all Macbook and desktop Mac users, I can't get enough of updates from Apple. New features, stability, and general bragging rights over our Windows peers. With the latest update, 10.5.7, there may be a bit of a surprise for hacintosh netbooks. In particular, for some users who bought a MSI Wind like myself and Dave the mobile warrior who turned them into "MacWinds", are experiencing longer battery lives.

Is that possible?

I'm gonna hold off on that until there are more evidence that this is actually happening. A couple of guys on forums reporting this is nothing. But that may change in the next few days as people give this recent update a try.

The greater issue, if this happens to be true, why aren't there an explosion in reports of longer battery life for Macbooks? Also, why the optimization for MacWinds which Apple doesn't support. Here are possible scenarios.

• Imagination. All in the heads of these few individuals. Some lucky few are benefiting from this. Perhaps, their installation was flawed to begin with and now that they've updated their MacWinds, things are the way it should have been.
• Apple fine-tuned the OS update's battery optimization protocols and the benefit is now spreading to the MacWinds. Folks have long observed that the Winds have longer battery life under XP than under OS X. This is not unexpected since the Winds are officially supported under Windows, not as a Mac. The OS update likely tweaked some codes for bugs that coincidentally benefits the Wind.
• In optimization the iPhone 3.0, the benefits between the mobile platform and the Mac platform are being shared. Why 3.0? Let me ask you this, have you seen an update from Apple for the iPhone or the iPod Touch recently? - but let's not jump to any conclusions here. New iPhones are coming. New iPod Touches in the fall. 3.0 Will benefit old and new hardware. No evidence that unannounced hardware release is imminent. Though I hope I'm wrong...

What's unlikely happening here is that Apple decided to throw the loyal legion of MacWind users a bone. What's also unlikely is that Apple has something in the works that involves Intel's Atom chip for some sort of a netbook. There are tons of speculation brewing along this line. Trust me on this one. There isn't an Apple netbook built along the traditional line coming. Cupertino finds Atom disgusting.

The iPod Touch and the iPhone are Apple's netbooks until a bigger form Touch is introduced. Remember that.

Links:

• Wired
• MSI Forums

Note: I won't be upgrading to 10.5.7 for a while since I'm happy with the setup on the MacWind at the moment. Dave the mobile warrior said he'll get on it after he has a good idea of the MW's battery life under the current OS regime before upgrading. Perhaps then we'll be able to get to the bottom of this mystery!

Another note: I've yet to update my Macbook with the most recent update. One of the reason is that it's possible Snow Leopard may be only weeks away. The other reason is that even at 10.5.6, my Macbook works just fine. But once I hear anything about better performance or battery life, I'll be all over it. Now, I have to ask myself whether Apple can do more to give us better battery life. I know there are applications that control the speed of CPUs. I imagine at the moment, OS X does it behind the scenes for us. But suppose I'm only writing my...ahem...memoirs and I don't need my Macbook running anywhere near 2.4Ghz when one core running at 1.6Ghz like the Atom will suffice.