Why would anyone buy a MacBook Air?

We all remember the announcement of the MacBook Air with the image of sliding it out of an envelope showing us how thin it is.  We were enamored of the thought of a Mac that is thinner than any other notebook out there and how portable it is.  Then the reality set in and the high price coupled with the hardware compromises that Apple had to make with the Air began to get noticed by those who pay attention to such things but at the end of the day since it was the smallest MacBook available it still ruled the portable Mac roost.  That all changed with the introduction of the new 13-inch MacBook and I can’t see why anyone would buy a MacBook Air today.  Let’s take a look at the two notebooks and I’ll explain my reasoning.

Macbook_air

MacBook Air

Macbook

13-inch MacBook

Road warriors will be the first to jump all over a notebook that is thin and light.  Carrying a notebook and accessories around while traveling is a chore at best and a nightmare at the worst.  The MacBook Air at 3 pounds certainly makes it one of the easiest notebooks to carry around and it’s no question that Apple did a good job in this regard.  When you look at what that light weight cost you in capability and price though you are wise to begin looking at alternatives.

The introduction of the new 13-inch aluminum MacBook is just that alternative.  At less than an inch thick the MacBook packs a much larger wallop than the Air in a package not much bigger.  When you compare the two notebooks feature for feature you begin to see how wide the capability margin is between the two (optional configurations used):

MacBook Air vs. MacBook

  • Processor:  1.86 GHz vs. 2.4 GHz
  • Hard drive: 120 GB 4200 rpm vs 250 GB 5400 rpm (SSD options available on both models)
  • Memory:  2 GB vs 2 GB (4 GB available on MacBook)
  • Optical drive:  None vs. 8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • Graphics:  NVidia 9400M on both
  • Battery:  Integrated (37 W/hr) vs. user replaceable (45 W/hr)
  • USB: One vs. Two
  • Ethernet:  None vs. 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)

To keep things fair I compare the high-end MacBook with the MacBook Air to give a feel for price comparison.  The 1.86 GHz processor in the Air is a $200 option but I used it here to narrow the performance gap between the two models.  Here’s what the pricing is currently for the two models as configured above:

MacBook Air:  $1,999

MacBook:  $1,599

If you think it’s not fair that I compare price with the faster Air processor here’s the price comparison with the slower 1.6 HGz processor:

MacBook Air:  $1,799

MacBook:  $1,599

Looking at this from any angle tells us that the Air is much more expensive for a lot less performance, primarily in the area of processor and hard drive speed.  Add in the fact that you can bump the MacBook hard drive to 320 GB for $100, the memory to 4 GB for $150 and pick up a second battery for just $129 and you get the picture.  Don’t get me wrong, the Air is 1.5 pounds lighter and is thinner than the MacBook.  But is that slight weight difference worth the extra money, and at the expense of a big performance hit?  Not to me and this is why I can’t understand why anyone would buy a MacBook Air today.

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