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No spin: Ars reviews the MacBook Air with solid state drive

arstechnica.com — The MacBook Air's high-end model comes with 200 extra MHz and a solid state drive. Is it worth the extra $1,300 to upgrade? We compare the two Airs directly to find out whether the price is worth paying.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 6, 2008

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  • quickjack, on 02/06/2008, -8/+137For 3K i would rather have 2 Macbooks or a Mac Pro





  • Jonh, on 02/06/2008, -3/+73*Sigh*... Let's wait another year.
  • Retnuh730, on 02/06/2008, -5/+67Or a decent MacBook Pro and a kickass gaming PC too. The combinations are endless!
  • Skurt, on 02/06/2008, -5/+60Expensive... My Air Guitar didn't cost that much. And the salesperson was oh so friendly.
  • f4nt0m4s, on 02/06/2008, -2/+50I plan on buying one and an envelope so I can impress all my friends with my laptops envelope power.
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -3/+50The Air is supposed to be pretty and thin,not have any substance. Like a supermodel.
  • camix, on 02/06/2008, -35/+75They should've never labeled this as MacBook. It should've been under a new category/label like iPodBook. I don't know why anyone would spend this much on such a useless device.
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -3/+33200K+ miles ,still going strong and only $550 for new motor ,delivered, if it ever craps out,youre damn right it is. But at least your laptop fits in an envelope!!!!!!
  • tigerjk, on 02/06/2008, -0/+29I like the sticker/decal thats on the Apple logo on their Air. Brings back the old school Mac memories. That is all.
  • bobbybobington, on 02/06/2008, -2/+31Ah the joys of being an early adopter...
  • flashboy131, on 02/06/2008, -2/+30that's a really idiotic blanket statement.
  • kinseyincanada, on 02/06/2008, -9/+36but its so thin......
  • Dgen_X, on 02/06/2008, -0/+27on second thought...forget the car and the gambling
  • madeingermany, on 02/06/2008, -4/+31battery life even worse then the HDD version? you gotta be kidding. What other point is there in buying SSD?
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -6/+32We call them Douchebags where I come from.
  • robbh66, on 02/06/2008, -5/+29You're basing this on what? The first ars review panned the MBA and everyone else is realizing the battery on it is a joke for what you pay. Yes, the MBA SSD is a lot better, but lets be honest, this comes at quite a premium... basically double the cost.

    And this is coming from a guy who's writing on his MBP. Apple hits the nail on the head a lot of the times, but this is not one of those times.
  • technoredneck, on 02/06/2008, -5/+29I wouldn't say they're useless, just a tad too expensive. I'd be all over one of these if they were in the $900 range.
  • Miche1987, on 02/06/2008, -8/+32Steve Jobs doesn't make cars, why would you get one of those?
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -20/+43Chumps. Sure spend the money of you have it,but for $3K I can build one HELL of a windows desktop and still have money left over for a bitchin EeePC and a new engine for my car.
  • RyeBrye, on 02/06/2008, -1/+23This review basically proves that there is no rational reason to get the SSD version. It does not make sense to pay $1300 for about $300 worth of performance gains (depending upon how you quantify the performance gains...) - especially since Battery life sucks on the SSD just as bad as it does on the HDD.
  • potisreallygood, on 02/06/2008, -7/+29My $550 1.8ghz turion x2 toshiba s4747 scored:
    1x-1464
    2x-2853
    multi-speed up 1.95

    It's faster than a $3,100 laptop!!
  • andnever, on 02/06/2008, -1/+21seems right on with what i thought. macbook pro > macbook > macbook air. with that said the macbook isnt THAT much thicker than the air. and its not THAT much slower than the pro. save yourselves $1000 - $2000 respectively and get the best all around macbook.
  • wTheOnew, on 02/06/2008, -8/+28Considering the Macbook / Pro destroyed the Air in most benchmarks. So the lesson is slower + more expensive = FAIL unless you would like a trophy wife, I mean computer...
  • adooga, on 02/06/2008, -4/+24Don't give him any ideas. I don't want a car that gets 10 feet per litre of fuel, has no stereo or heater, only comes in automatic, has no back seat, no trunk, you can't open the hood, has to be parked in Apple spaces for $20 an hour and fits in a cigarette box.
  • mateo60, on 02/06/2008, -3/+21But Steve told me to buy it!
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -5/+23So is Steve Jobs premise for wanting me to buy this stupid thing.
  • tbunreal, on 02/06/2008, -1/+18ugh, i'll say it. Thats what she said!
  • m3th0dm4n, on 02/06/2008, -1/+17Read the article. SSD option is neigh useless for the dollar value.
  • graemee, on 02/06/2008, -3/+18I find the results of the SDD not surprising. After all flash is slow writing and the power consumption of the SDD & HD should be close.

    The AIR is a V1.0 product.
  • Incomp3tnt, on 02/06/2008, -2/+17Unfortunately, I can only digg you up once.
  • shok77, on 02/06/2008, -2/+16do you have any idea how pretentious you sound?
  • WiZZLa, on 02/06/2008, -2/+16FreeBSD actually, although a large amount of OS X is taken from the open source community, which Apple has yet to give back to.
  • maxlightz, on 02/06/2008, -0/+14it's like the wendy's commercial with the cheeseburger in a wind tunnel "that's FAST!" ... but does it taste good? who cares, it's FAST
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -6/+20who cares,OSX is a tarted up linux ,you know,the one they give away for free?
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -3/+16So what good is it compared to an Eeepc?
  • BeatPunchbeef, on 02/06/2008, -4/+17nice car
  • EricAnderton, on 02/06/2008, -1/+14Or three PS3's ... and some cake.
  • chinolofus, on 02/06/2008, -1/+14seriously...shut up
  • bxblox, on 02/06/2008, -0/+12what did it score on the manilamark?
  • Skitals, on 02/06/2008, -3/+15There should be some third party group that gives unbiased battery life ratings. I'm sick of the lies.
  • Dgen_X, on 02/06/2008, -4/+15*****, I'd put half of that into a used car and the other half into gambling and hookers

    ggs!
  • drastik21, on 02/06/2008, -4/+15The Macbook Air is not meant to replace your main computer. It's for the rich guy who likes a small laptop for the internet at the airport.
  • gradivus, on 02/06/2008, -1/+11Thanks.
  • bxblox, on 02/06/2008, -0/+10how thin is the car?
  • shodanx, on 02/06/2008, -5/+15he doesn't know any better, he's one of the ignorants himself
  • sgtpppr, on 02/06/2008, -0/+10But it wouldn't be 'cool' and help others realize you're an individual.
  • burrgrinder, on 02/06/2008, -1/+10I vote that it's useless with it's 2 hour battery life. My regular Macbook gets double that. I think most people would need to carry a charger around with short life like that.
  • cardboardbox, on 02/06/2008, -2/+11node3 is just bitter because he wasted his money
  • LowFuel, on 02/06/2008, -0/+8I recommend Bisquik if you're looking for good batter life. I usually prep it the night before, but the pancakes are still tasty the next morning.
  • louiedog, on 02/06/2008, -2/+10It's about value. If I wanted a snickers right now, I could afford to pay $12 for it. But I wouldn't, because that's stupid and it isn't worth it.
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