Comment by achompas | Hacker News Reader

Comment by achompas | Hacker News Reader

I've spent a bit of time with the 11" Air and, lemme tell you guys: this thing runs simple apps really well. Safari's icon bounces once, then Safari is open. iPhoto is pretty quick. Even bloated iTunes doesn't take a million years to back up an iPhone or scroll through iTMS.

Here's the problem, though: Siegler and I can't talk about intense applications. I don't know if it can't handle RAW file editing in Lightroom/PS, Starcraft II on high settings, or developing in Xcode. The benchmarks Siegler quotes show the Air is worse than the 13" Pro at handling these intense apps (Handbrake, PS, VM software). [1]

Someone cracked about how Siegler's activities consist of "blogging and scrolling through Twitter." For anyone who does that (i.e. your average college student), this thing will be great for years.

For more intense apps? I have my doubts. And the Air might be fine right now, but what about upgrading two years from now? What if system or available memory become an issue?

[1] http://www.macworld.com/article/154596/2010/10/macbookair_be...

Photo-editing machine? For low end photo editing it's probably fine. For high end - why would you be doing that on a laptop?

Gaming? Why would you be doing that on a laptop?

Development machine? What are you developing? I think it could handle the average web developer's work load just fine. If you're writing something intensive enough that hardware is a real issue - why are you doing that on a laptop?

Because, if you're like me, you can only afford one machine? And you don't want to be chained to one desk when using it?

EDIT: sorry, you didn't downvote me.

If you can only afford one machine, what makes you think you can afford a laptop with the specs to handle something like high end photo editing? For the same money you could buy a low end laptop for portability, and a decent mid-end PC for more intensive applications. This objection doesn't make much sense. Laptops have never been intended for high end intensive applications.

I dunno! What's up with looking for portability and power at a decent price?!

Seriously, I value portability. A lot. I don't like being chained to a desk any more than necessary.

I don't edit photos, but there are other people like me who want a powerful machine on the go. See this HN thread for about 100 examples:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1824563

Sure, I get jittery easily, don't like sitting in front of a desk either. I'd love a small, really powerful machine as well. I'd also love to sail around hawaii with an entourage of super models, but that's not going to happen. If you want a really powerful laptop - on par with a strong desktop machine - you need to be prepared to drop some serious bank. That's just how it is. Otherwise, leave desktop tasks to desktop machines and use laptops for what they where intended for - non-intensive tasks on the go.

Well I value portability over price and I also don't replace my laptop often (every 4-5 years). So I'm willing to spend a bit more this time.

And if you ever get the chance to sail around Hawaii with those models, well, you couldn't take your desktop with you. That is, if you actually planned on working...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com