In addition to its upgraded RAM configurations
Apple has, to its credit, exerted quite a bit of muscle in an attempt to make the Air’s lack of an optical drive a nonissue. In addition to selling the external SuperDrive, the company Compaq Presario C700 Battery has added a feature called Remote Disc that allows the Air to take over the optical drive of another computer (Mac or PC) on your local network. Just install the Remote Disc software (included on the Air’s install disc), and the MacBook Air can use Bonjour to browse your network and read what’s on any data disc. This feature worked well in my testing. The MacBook boot software has even been updated for the Air so that it can boot via Remote Disc in the event that you need to reinstall Mac OS X.
But does that mean MacBooks aren’t a good value? That’s where subjectivity comes into play. In my opinion, MacBooks, with the exception of the white $999 model, are indeed good values. I’ve owned both Macs and Windows PCs since the early 90s, and my Macs have tended to last longer and give me far fewer problems. And Macs are simply a joy to use, thanks to the Mac OS’s many ingenious features and Apple’s design savvy. I’ve rarely felt that way about a Windows computer.
If you want a smaller, lighter notebook to tote around, you may be glad to note that the 13-inch 2.53GHz MacBook Pro’s benchmarks results were nearly identical to the 15-inch 2.53GHz model, but it costs $200 less.
In order to make the MacBook Air small and light, Apple had to remove features once considered standard on all Apple laptop models. This model is the first in HP Compaq NC6000 battery recent memory to have no built-in CD/DVD drive and no FireWire ports. Its internal storage is limited, and its connection to peripherals has been reduced, too. In order to take advantage of the Air’s light weight and small size, users must be willing to sacrifice some of the features that they previously took for granted.
Also, the prices and specs quoted in this article will likely have the shelf life of a spotted banana. My goal here was just to give you a snapshot of what you’d get for $2000 with these specific systems, right this very minute.
If you’re having any unexplained problems with your laptop, install these updates (and any newer ones that may come along). With Apple generally not divulging all that these updates do, you never know what might be fixed.
In addition to its upgraded RAM configurations, the new 2.53GHz and the 2.66GHz models come with 3MB of shared L2 cache. The 2.8GHz model ships with 6MB of shared L2 cache. All models retain the 1,066MHz frontside bus and HP Pavilion DV8000 Battery built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi with 3Mbps Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. The 15-inchers come standard with Serial ATA 5,400 rpm hard drives of 250GB, 320GB, or 500GB respectively. Both of the higher end 15-inch models have the dual graphics setup with the Nvidia GeForce 9400M and GeForce 9600M GT, but the amount of video RAM for the 9600M GT differs-the 2.66GHz MacBook has 256MB, while the 2.8GHz has 512MB.