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13-Inch Haswell-Powered MacBook Air With PCIe SSD Tested
MojoKid writes "In addition to the anticipated performance gains that Intel's new Haswell CPU architecture might bring to the table for their new MacBook Air, there are additional component-level upgrades that Apple baked in to their latest ultra-light notebook; namely a higher capacity 54 Whr battery and a PCI Express-based Solid State Drive (SSD). Apple still hasn't seen fit to up the ante on the MacBook Air's display, opting instead to stick with the 1440x900 TN panel carried over from the previous generation 13-inch machine, with the 11-inch variant sporting a 1366x768 native res. But in terms of performance, this is Apple's fastest Air yet, with storage throughput in excess of 700MB/sec for reads and 400MB/sec for writes, along with graphics horsepower that rivals entry level discrete GPUs, thanks to Intel's HD Graphic 5000 core in Haswell. Battery life has been improved dramatically as well, with the new Air lasting over 9 hrs on a charge, playing back 1080p video content. Apple also reduced their MSRP by $100 versus last year's model."
Not too bad at around $1100. The 54Wh battery looks it improves the portability a bit.
Why is this news, this is just another none upgradeable, overpriced, unwanted connectors; low resolution laptop...sorry electronic trinket, that nobody wants...and the Apple brand is not enough to sell these, and now without a future second hand market.
Apples sales have dropped over the last three quarters 22%; 2%; 7% people are not buying.
The chromebook is exciting at the low end. The surface and windows 8 are exciting (for all the wrong reasons), There are a whole load of exiting cheap ARM devices.
Apple are simply the iPhone company..and even that has a limited shelf life; They should have kept computer in the name.
Apparently you don't remember the first $3000 Airs. Their overpriced-ness and under-usefulness could not be overstated.
But yes, as long as you can justify getting less for your money because there's something Apple offers that's worth "more", you can justify anything (and people do).
I would say that Apple has reduced the price premium because it can no longer be supported, not that competitors can't build a machine for less. There's plenty of evidence for that. No one came out with an "Air apparent" at $3000 during generation 1 nor did anyone introduce such a crappy product as that one was. Apple's overpricing is alive and well, as we will see when the new Pro comes out. Apple won't leave a dollar on the table.