Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I love Apple, but here is a worthy contender to the MacBook Air.

Steve, I know you love simple concepts (look at the iPod, and iLife and Mac OS X for starters) so what on earth possessed you to leave off the killer items needed to ensure that the MacBook Air ruled them all? One USB port in an unusable place and form? Silly. No industry standard VGA or DVI out to allow connection to an external monitor (increasing the built-in's 13.3" real estate and paltry 1280x800 resolution)? Stupid. A flip down PITA of a hidden connector panel? Shortsighted. No wired Ethernet connection? Dubious. NO OPTICAL DRIVE?? That's just plain nutty, my friend.

OK, you laid the gauntlet down but now someone has answered and they have done so with a very convincing package. If I had to choose between looking good and being fully functional, looks will lose every single time. I hope by Christmas you do your thing and release the MacBook Air that you should have released in the first place. Use this Lenovo product as your target and blow it away. We know you can do it, so just get it done.

Ciao.

PC World - Business Center: First Look: Lenovo ThinkPad X300

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You just don't get it, do you?

Dtrini said...

I just LOVE intelligent, full, engaging comments. Keep them coming.

Anonymous said...

Lenovo x300 Notebook PC $2,799 (tigerdirect)
MacBook Air. $1,799.00 (apple)

I cant believe anyone would buy this overpriced POS....
...
...
...
...
called MacBook Air.
I told all of the 8 former friends that I had that they were POS to buy Apple products. Apple Sucks, Jobs Sucks. BTW. iPhone and iPods are passing fads and Apple will never make money of it. I told so when my former friends in Taiwan and India asked me to carry iPhones and iPods for them as gifts. What POS's..
Arrivedici

miker said...

I remember the outrage when Apple discontinued floppy drives. Even at that time, as a forward thinking Windows user, I was using bootable CD-R for everything.

Nowadays I use solid-state USB thumbdrive thingymajigs for everything. I'd gladly lose an optical drive which I use rarely. I can get 8, 16, 32GB on a thumbdrive that fits on my keyring.

Granted, the single USB port in some flappy flap things sounds a bit annoying and buying a £5 extension cord must be really painful and look a bit naff.

If nothing else, proof that Apple are bold enough to continue to Think Different.

Anonymous said...

I use a X60 regularly. And I think the X300 is neat in terms of weight, I/O ports and some added features, but 3 things: It doesn't run OS X, it's processor is slower, it's battery life is lower, it's bigger, and it's more expensive. Most of those added features are not what I need right now - yet they add to the cost and kill the battery. Otherwise, it is a neat achievement.

Anonymous said...

Hellllllooooooo!

Then don't buy an Air! A MacBook Pro 17" has all that you demand and more. The Air not suitable for everyone.

Anonymous said...

I think a Macbook or Macbook Pro is the better comparison to the Thinkpad X300, full featured specs, and cheaper too, depending on configuration. You might as well compare the X300 to the iPhone! It all depends on what you really use, and what you consider to be "features". Me, I am tired of "features" that don't work, or are handicapped by a processor hog OS like Vista.

I am intrigued, that many wags are writing stories where they are changing their minds from negative to positive about the Macbook Air... once they actually use it in real life. Funny how that happens.

Hint: Go out and buy the Thinkpad and Air. Use them both for 30 days... then report back to us.

Cheers!

Dtrini said...

Not much of a hint I am afraid. If you have the funding to buy two laptops of that price range simply to satisfy your curiosity, more power to you. For the rest of us, we have to rely on each other's experience and knowledge and, yes, opinions. I am stubborn to a fault but I will waver and abdicate if you can successfully prove your point. So far, you haven't.

I have used many Mac products in my lifetime and I personally own quite a few including three generations of iPod. At no time will I say any of them are perfect devices because they lack crucial features found in other products from their competitors. And please, save the OS Wars for another site that cares. I use at least four different operating systems during a normal week and there are pros and cons all around.

Speaking specifically to the Mac Book Air, I do not need to use one to be of the opinion that Apple missed the mark. If the goal is to produce a lightweight laptop that satisfies most of a person's typical needs, then they to revisit things. Needing an extension USB cable? Bad. One USB port? Bad. No wired ethernet port? STUPID.

I can forego the VGA port, and even the optical drive (though I personally would require one) but without more USB ports and the LAN port, this laptop simply would never see my money. That does not say it is bad. It says it does not meet my needs and it says that in MY opinion, it is an incomplete effort.

I welcome further intelligent comments.