Ultra Portable notebook coming

TheKnat

TheKnat

TheKnat

Associate
Joined
13 May 2007
Posts
1,832
Location
Lancashire, UK
Apparently a new ultra portable notebook is going to be announce in February next year.

LINK

I'm not really sure why they feel the need to bring this sort of thing out, because the current macbooks are light as it is.

Thoughts ?
 
I think they'd probably want to bring one out because they current MacBooks aren't small or light at all. At least compared to what you can get elsewhere.

I have a MacBook and "ultraportable" is probably the last word I'd use to describe it.
 
No I wouldn't describe it as ultra-portable, but I was wondering what the target market is.

Only people I can think of is either students or those people that sit in Starbucks writing stuff.
 
The MacBook is still quite portable and this rumoured ultraportable will have no CD/DVD drive... so it'll be something of an "extra" on top of say an iMac or MacPro...
 
Depends on a lot of things. In theory, I think I'd buy one. Price would be a major factor, and the specification would have to be close to the MacBook.

If they could offer a light, slimline laptop with storage and video capabilities on par with the current MacBook but with an improved battery life, I'd be tempted.

I aint paying stupid money for it though. I'll keep my MacBook first.
 
Thinking about it, I can see a market for people who have a bigger PowerMac who want a bit of portability. They wouldn't be using it to do work, but just to access data/internet on the go.
 
A 13" Macbook Pro style would be perfect for me.

I currently have a 15" one and have always bought 15" G4 Powerbooks etc. just with the amount of traveling I do at the moment it would be quite nice to loose another KG on my had baggage ;)

Hope that if this goes into production they don't inherit to many of the MacBook features such as that horrible keyboard (just my opinion) and the low res display, although a glossy screen as the default would be nice.
 
If you remember Apple had great success with their 12" iBooks and Powerbooks. I think that going to a 13" screen (and the inch or so added around the screen) for the MacBook made it less portable than the previous laptops. I think that Apple are trying to recreate their old 12" laptops but bring them up to current specs.

Personally if the price was not outrageous and they were small compared to the MacBook I would buy one. I think however if they go totally SSD then the prices are going to be high. A normal SATA hard drive with a SSD upgrade option would be the way to go I think.
 
If they can do a apple version of the vaio tx (11" ws, very small optical included) with similar battery life, then I would probably consider one of those if the price wasn't any more than the 15" - weight isn't an issue with a car :)
 
Black aluminum option would also be quite pleasing to see. Just wondering how long it will be before they offer the MBPs in black :)

I'm personally not that bothered about seeing if an optical drive would be included internally, mainly as I just don't actually use it all that much once stuff is installed. If the bundled a nice slimline external drive that matched it would be certainly a winner :)
 
Leaving out the optical drive will make it a lot slimmer, but you can only make it as wide as the keyboard needs to be. Hopefully they won't put in a horrible little keyboard which would be a pain to use.
 
what we need is macbook with a better screen and better gfx..

were getting left behind...
 
True, my 12" iBook has the edge in portability but I think the 13" widescreen would still be a good choice for a portable. If you start getting much smaller its going to start becoming uncomfortable to use the keyboard and track pad.

I cant see them offering a hard disk either. If theyre going to make it properly then SSD is the only way to go. A 64GB drive is probably the minimum you'd cope with. Prices are falling though. With an SSD you could make the case extremely thin.

It would probably get quite warm though. If they were to release one I certainly wouldnt buy one straight away, I'd keep a close eye on the forums before parting with any cash.
 
It's about time, the MB and MBP are both bricks in my opinion.
At the start of next year I'll be looking to replace my current Samsung (12.1", 1.1kg) laptop - which I find to be the perfect size and weight, fingers crossed the rumours are true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom