MacBook Air: Is the Price Worth It?

Well it can be hard to compare and contrast all the pros and cons to a new item because it is well...new. It lacks the amount of user reviews that one may use to decide. So let's break down the facts.

I purchased a Compaq Notebook PC several months ago. Now, PC and Macs can definitely be considered a different ball field, but for those of you that are not purchasing one or the other for specific reasons I am going to compare a standard laptop and price to this spendy product.

Price Tag

I spent $499 before tax on my notebook.
MacBook Air's price tag is a solid chunk of change for $1799.

So what really makes this computer very special, with all the hype? It's very thin and lightweight. Many of you may enjoy carrying your laptop around, taking it to the coffee shop for some free WiFi. Some of you may use your laptop constantly and travel with it. In these type of situations, the lighter the better. My notebook may have been cheap, but it definitely does not have the sleek design.

Is smaller, the new big thing?

At what cost does the Macbook Air give to allow such a sleek design? The CD/DVD drive was removed from the design. Um, what? That's right. All those DVDs you enjoy snuggling up in bed with as your single source of watching your videos can not be used on this laptop. But being able to install software may be tricky too.

However Apple has made ways by letting you still view movies by being able to rent them online and giving you 30 days to view them. The MacBook Air also is focusing on transferring files wirelessly for software installation disks.

Such a thing may be too big of a hassle for inexperienced users of computers. What is easier, grabbing a nicely labeled movie or software, popping it into the disk drive, and having auto run take care of you, or navigating your way through their wireless system and movie rental page? It really depends on the user. For someone like myself who tends to lose disks and has to open up 10 cases to find the one I want, this type of system may be nice. Again, this feature really depends on the user. A lot of software programs, video games, and movies are available for legit downloading right from the company website. With faster downloads with cable, such a feature can be a lot nicer to have then going to the store and picking up a copy.

The Macbook Air is less than 0.8 inches thin. This is impressive to me as far as how far technology has advanced. We can have more than before, but in a smaller size. But I don't think minimizing the size of technology is a "new thing". Think about how large telephones once were.

Specs?

Now the cheaper notebook that I got only had 40gigs of hard drive. The MacBook Air has 80gigs which is not bad for a notebook. But good specs on a notebook are going to be generally more expensive then just buying a desktop (if you don't mind not having a portable computer).

It also comes with 2 gigs of ram which is pretty good, but still not worth jumping the price tag to $1799. My $499 notebook had 1gig of ram, and an upgrade to this feature would not cost another $1200.

It comes with the standard USB ports, headphone slots, S-Video outputs. All in which my cheaper laptop has.

The screen is a 13.3inch widescreen. My cheaper notebook has a 15.4inch widescreen display.

Is it worth the $1799?

When choosing my desktop and laptops, standard specs like hard drive, ram, operating system, video cards, ect matter to me more then the design. My notebook is by far not the best out there, but it is a small look at how there are tons of computers out there with great capabilities. The small design is definitely something to get a second look at, but nothing beyond that for a while.

With all new things, someone always follows suit. Lately when a design decides to go smaller, certain features end up missing. Think back to the Playstation 2 when it went from the bigger design to the sleek design. Anyone who had a smaller Playstation 2 could not play Final Fantasy XI because the small design didn't allow the hard drive to be able to be attached to it.

I do not think that it is worth the $1799 price tag. It reminds me of how expensive baby clothes is for such a small amount of fabric used compared to adult shirts. Though it is probably not a fair comparison to make, I think that with anything, if you give it time the price will eventually come down. Other models with similar features will come out with a friendlier price tag, better laptops will emerge with better specs making the MacBook Air seem stone age and slow in comparison. Technology is always changing and getting better. And though an item like this is exciting and just goes to prove how far we have come, the $1799 makes it worth waiting for the price to just come down. Then again, if you've got money to blow and you're one of those people that love having the newest gadgets, this would be something great to show off.