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Performance is no longer the driving force compelling a lot of people to upgrade their machines. Smaller form-factors, longer battery life, wireless connectivi

Performance is no longer the driving force compelling a lot of people to upgrade their machines. Smaller form-factors, longer battery life, wireless connectivity, portability, and weight are the primary motivators for a lot of people. Just look at the Macbook Air, when it came out I knew dozens of people who dumped their 17inch Macbook Pros for it because it was good enough for their needs from a performance perspective and kicked the shit out of the MBP in every other measure.

jorvi 9y ago
I... what? The first Air was underpowered, throttled quickly, didn't even have a backlit keyboard, had a worse screen and was much more expensive than the base MBP. It slightly outmatched the MBP physically and in battery life, but it did not 'kick the shit out of the MBP by every other measure'.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  If you're using the metrics that person has outlined (battery life, portability, small form factor, etc.) then the Air would destroy the 17" MBP. Those things are tanks. Not saying I agree, I'll take power over some tiny thing any day. Just pointing out you're reply is targeting all of the wrong things.
- Synaesthesia 9y ago
  He probably means the 2010 or 2011 airs, which is when they "got good"
douche 9y ago
A modern 17" Macbook Pro might be the one thing that would convince me to go over to the dark side. My girlfriend has a 5-6 year old one, and the build quality can't be beat - unfortunately it's reaching the point where it is barely usable, because it doesn't have the performance specs to keep up nowadays. I don't like these tiny little laptops everybody is building these days. I want a full keyboard and enough screen real-estate to actually do something without needing reading glasses.