The Core 2 Duo is disappointing.<p>I've been holding off on replacing my Dell, hoping Apple would announce a more powerful 13" model of some sort. My Dell has been technically excellent (LED backlit display, SSD, etc), but the build quality is distractingly bad. So, I've been seriously considering biting the bullet and getting a Macbook.<p>As impressive as the rest of the new Air seems, it's tough to justify buying ~2008 technology two months from 2011. It's hard to believe there's not a single 13" Macbook available with a Core i5 or Core i7 yet.
Anyone else notice the Software Reinstall Drive?<p><a href="http://images.apple.com/macbookair/images/specs_flashdrive_20101020.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://images.apple.com/macbookair/images/specs_flashdrive_2...</a><p>USB drive with Mac OS X?
Sony crams an i7, a gorgeous 1920x1080 high-gamut display, quad RAIDed SSDs, <i>and</i> an optical drive into a 13.1" 3-lb. package with great battery life. <i>That's</i> impressive.<p><a href="http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/Z/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/Z/index.ht...</a> (quad SSDs available only in Japan)<p>I love OS X, but I feel like a retard for sticking with Apple hardware when they're outfitting "the next generation of Macs" with the previous generation of processors.
My current MBA has an overheating problem because they didn't bother to design with heat dissipation in mind. Going to wait and see if similar complaints come up about current gen.
I was really hoping for more than 2GB of memory. I frequently want my entire application stack for whatever project I'm working on, dev environment, and a windows VM running simultaneously and that already can get tight with the 4GB I have in my MBP.
Two things I disliked about the earlier Air was display resolution and memory. Both have been improved quite a bit. Now someone needs to check heat dissipation.
Seems pretty much an Apple netbook, but 2-3-4-5 times the price.<p>Jobs said they weren't interested in that market because too cut-price, but now it's died down a bit.<p>It will be interesting to see if Apple ease-of-use etc will be enough to win yet another market - I think it might.
It seems like this might cannibalize iPad sales to some extent, no? A $999 11" MacBook with 64GB of storage is an awfully good deal compared to the top-of-the-line iPad choice, isn't it?