Recently, many of the people I have met and have discussed Apple products with have been ecstatic with news of the MacBook Air. And I can't help but always advise them against deciding to purchase it. I will try to illustrate why it is one of the most unsuitable laptops for those of us who are not yet in an environment of Wi-Fi networks and hence making do without the use of CDs/DVDs.
No LAN port: Can you imagine that? In India, and more so in the state of Arunachal, the availability of Wi-Fi is not so great, to understate it gently. And this means, either you have to invest in one of the Wi-Fi routers in case you are content to use your Air at home; but then, isn't the Air supposed to be ultra-portable and meant to be carried around?
No CD/DVD Drive: Are you kidding me? In this part of the world, that would sound the death knell for a laptop. With movie watching the primary usage of the laptop for the student population, the CD is the ubiquitous mode of data-transfer. And while the USB drives have made a good appearance, they are obviously not the cheapest storage option compared to DVDs available for 20 rupees. This would have been ok if Wi-Fi was available everywhere, but then..
Lack of a user-replaceable battery: The battery that comes with the MacBook Air is attached to the unit. In other words, when the battery conks out, then the only option will be to send it to the Apple factory to get it fitted with a new battery! Which is exactly what I am most unwilling to do with all the data on my comp not to speak of the pira**d softwares.
In all, it is not a bad product for where it was manufactured, i.e. countries with adequate Wi-Fi networks and stuff, but, for us, here, well.. not right now please.
No LAN port: Can you imagine that? In India, and more so in the state of Arunachal, the availability of Wi-Fi is not so great, to understate it gently. And this means, either you have to invest in one of the Wi-Fi routers in case you are content to use your Air at home; but then, isn't the Air supposed to be ultra-portable and meant to be carried around?
No CD/DVD Drive: Are you kidding me? In this part of the world, that would sound the death knell for a laptop. With movie watching the primary usage of the laptop for the student population, the CD is the ubiquitous mode of data-transfer. And while the USB drives have made a good appearance, they are obviously not the cheapest storage option compared to DVDs available for 20 rupees. This would have been ok if Wi-Fi was available everywhere, but then..
Lack of a user-replaceable battery: The battery that comes with the MacBook Air is attached to the unit. In other words, when the battery conks out, then the only option will be to send it to the Apple factory to get it fitted with a new battery! Which is exactly what I am most unwilling to do with all the data on my comp not to speak of the pira**d softwares.
In all, it is not a bad product for where it was manufactured, i.e. countries with adequate Wi-Fi networks and stuff, but, for us, here, well.. not right now please.
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