Competitor to 13" Macbook Air?

[be7]

Are there any worthy competitors to the 13" Macbook Air? I don't think the Dell Adamo line is still available.

Basically, I want something just like the 13" Macbook Air with 128GB, but I don't want OSX. I want Windows 7. I also don't want to run Windows on a Mac, as I've had bad luck with that in the past.

[OakIris]

I would love to know this, too, but you see that there have been no responses. (Of course, this forum in general isn't the liveliest around. )

Here is Gizmodo's idea of a potential MacBook Air competitor : Samsung 9 series laptop Endgadget seems to agree: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/s...e-macbook-air/ as does PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375302,00.asp

The base unit price tag, unfortunately, is even more than that of the MacBook Air, and the laptop won't be available until sometime next month so it will be a while before we can get any feedback from actual end users.

I am actually thinking about saving up for the 11'' MacBook Air, the closest thing Apple has to a netbook (though they will never call it that) but I can't really justify the price of that, either. $1400, approximately, if it is configured with the fastest processor, largest HD (128 GB) and most RAM (4 GB) that they offer, and with no software except the OS. Rather a lot of money even if it is an undeniably cool-looking netbook!

Holly

[Gator650]

We are getting the 13" macbook air next month as we haven't found anything that can compete with it. We also mostly use web apps or platform agnostic programs so a bias towards any particular operating system isn't a big deal in our situation.

[OakIris]

We are getting the 13" macbook air next month as we haven't found anything that can compete with it. We also mostly use web apps or platform agnostic programs so a bias towards any particular operating system isn't a big deal in our situation.

Lucky you! Does it live up to the hype? What configuration did you get?

I would love to get one to replace my 2006 MacBook Pro but I really have no $$$ for it - not even enough $$ for a cheap Windows netbook at this point, to be honest. I love my desktop PC - and love the fact that I can easily upgrade or rebuild it - but the ease of use of a Mac is just very refreshing

Holly

[Gator650]

It's for my better half and we're not getting it until March. It will be the base 13" model as that should be all she needs. Yes, that particular laptop will be incredibly hard to upgrade on my own, but a laptop from anybody in that type of formfactor will be incredibly hard to upgrade.

I have a 15" Macbook pro and I have been able to customize it at least as much as other laptops from Dell/HP. I have multiple harddrives, 8GB ram (I do a lot of virtualization which again makes the OS decision irrelevant to me) and there really hasn't been bunch I haven't been able to do if I wanted.

It was about $300 more than the HP laptop I had planned on getting, but it was worth it for the better monitor and easier form factor. Not to mention it came with a free ipod I was able to unload for $100.

[OakIris]

Multiple hard drives? To me, "multiple" implies three or more, but perhaps you don't mean that? I know there are ways to add a second internal hard drive - I believe this involves removing the internal DVD drive (SuperDrive) to make room - but multiple drives? How did you do that?

Unfortunately, my MacBook Pro is ancient, in computer-speak, so there isn't much upgrading to be done. I have upgraded the OS a couple of times - from Tiger, to Leopard to Snow Leopard. I upgraded the original hard drive with a larger capacity, faster drive, and I also maxed out the RAM - a whopping 2 GB is the most the 2006 will take - but that's about all I can do with it.

Anyway, I hope you are both happy with the MacBook Air. From what I have read, and as you mentioned, there isn't a lot of after-market upgrading you can do to it, not even as much as with the MacBook Pro, so that is a bit disappointing, but it sure looks like a sweet machine!

To the OP - sorry, be7, that we have been high jacking your thread by discussing the MacBook Air instead of the competitor you were asking for. If you are still watching this thread, it would be nice to hear from you again. I did link some info about the Samsung 9 series laptop in my first post. Does that appeal to you, or have you found something else that will do?

Holly

[Gator650]

Ha, I meant the replace the DVD drive (I still can't buy into the Apple terminology for standard parts) and replaced it with a SSD and I replaced the base drive with a hyrbid SSD/platter drive.

On the form factor of the Air, I can't imagine I want to attempt much aftermarket upgrading be is Apple, Sony or whoever. incredibly tight form factor that requires some oddball parts to make it work.

The Samsung you linked does look pretty nice. It's a bit more expensive than what we are looking at with the Air, but glad to see there is some competition starting... However, I don't see a card reader, doubt the monitor specs match the air, and the battery life looks pretty weak... would be hard to justify paying a couple hundred more to get less.

[OakIris]

Thank you for the clarification!

The Samsung does look as if it has potential, but nothing has the wow factor of the MBA and you do indeed pay a premium for the Samsung specs. Still, I do like the idea of built in WiFi, the CPU seems to have some power to it and the display should be stellar - and how can you resist a laptop with a sub-woofer?!?

Holly

[AeroSim]

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=1

My daughter has the Macbook Pro- it's kind of nice being able to have 6-8 hours of hard usage without a recharge or having to carry all the power crap around all the time.

A pity the PC community doesn't seem to get that. I agree with every comparative observation in the review here.

One of the things I despise about laptop shopping is having to dig that much deeper to get battery life numbers on PC laptops and notebooks. That must be because the truth about them doesn't sell.

At any rate, the bottom line here is that you can get equivalent PC notebooks- and get more computer even cheaper, but you have to trade in battery life for it.