On New MacBook Air, Mac Mini
In conjunction with Lion (downloading now) Apple updated the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini as expected. Thoughts:
MacBook Air:
- The old “college student“standby white plastic MacBook at $999 is no more. The message is, get the cheapest Air or upgrade to a MacBook proper. Junior’s spine will thank you for this anyhow.
- Little annoying that the base $999 model sports only 2GB RAM. The others feature 4GB.
- Backlit keyboard will please those who felt that was a deal-breaker, and the Thunderbolt port and faster processors prep for the future.
Mac Mini:
- Base model has only 2GB RAM.
- No optical drive. Slightly disconcerting, but seeing how I just cancelled our Netflix DVD plan in favor of streaming, software comes through the App Store, etc. not that big a deal. Yes, the DVD is being ushered out the door as the floppy was way back when, and if it’s a really big deal for you to have an optical drive in a desktop, you can get an external SuperDrive … or an iMac.
- Adding a SSD is pricey — there’s a 256GB option for $450, and seems only available to the $799 model.
Our current Mac set up is two Mac Minis and last year’s MacBook Air. I tend to skip a generation, and don’t see any “must have” reason to upgrade to these models. It sure would be nice, though.