The First Compelling Mac…

It looks amazing…cant wait for it to be released 🙂

typical of pc users. always bashing a clearly superior product. always just a little bit defensive.
If Macs were such a bad idea then we’d all be using floppy disks and DOS.
It’s not the dark side, it’s the right side!

anyone work with a tablet that recommends or not?

I think you get more bang for you buck by going with the Dell XPS M1330. But it aint this small…

my husband owns two macs and swears by them, he can’t seem to let go of his old one…,
I cannot even navigate a mac – way too confusing. I stick with my pc and my dell laptop (which I bought after you posted the -500 coupon, thanks!)
no reason to switch to mac, you’re not missing anything

Hey back to school time…..

I think that they are still way overpriced. Still it’s pretty cool. It makes you wonder what these things will look like in 10 years.

Dan, once you go mac, you never go back…

I have probably switched over a dozen friends to macs and not one of them regret it. If you like fighting with your computer and having it not work, then by all means, get a dell with Vista, you’ll be extremely happy. Otherwise, get yourself a mac, you’ll be a much happier computer user.

Amazing Mac. Not the first amazing Mac either.

well… http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001362.html

so, no

1699.00 if your a student

compelling? Are you kidding me? There’s no optical drive, no sd reader, barely any usb ports, crappy battery life, a 13.3″ screen instead of something more like an ultra-portable 10 or 11 inches…and I can go on and on. This laptop may be cool but it’s the opposite of practical.

Microsoft is the dark side, Dan. The good guys are and have always been Apple and the Mac.

uh hello of course i have 2 of them (not macbookairs i wish) an dthey rock. if you need windows you can run that also with ease

Dan, are you serious when you call Apple the dark side? As if Microsoft is the good side?

That’s hot!
But the nearby optical drive thing sounds like marketing hype. It probably can use bluetooth or WiFi to connect to a shared drive on another machine. I’ve done this waaaaay back when DVD-RW’s first came out, so a whole room of networked computers could use the DVD drive.
No biggie there.

But… the size of this thing! I feel like it would snap in half, but still… Its pretty. Not enough to make me give up my tablet PC, but pretty.

but the 1800 dollar one has a crappy hard drive.

Dan please consider getting one. You can get it with A student discount, for only $1699.

Ha-I knew that my dark side comment would light up the comments!

CH:
M1330 is a clunker. But you definitely will get more bang for the buck.

Zoli:
I’ve been using Dell PC’s for years and have yet to have any issues…the people that have issues should learn how to use a computer-or spend the extra money on a mac!

jay:
Sales tax from Apple will more than erase the student discount. If I do make the plunge I won’t buy from Apple.

geekizchic:
I’m a big ultra-portable fan, so it is compelling for me.

-No optical drive: who cares, how often do you use it anyway?

-No sd reader: not a deal breaker

-barely any usb ports: Again, how many usb prots do i need on a ultra-portable?

-crappy battery life: over 5 hours isnt crappy

-a 13.3? screen instead of something more like an ultra-portable 10 or 11 inches: 10 or 11 is just too small. I am very happy with my 12″ now. I’ll have to see the 13″ i person to determine just how ultra-portable it is.

Mordy
You seem happy with your tablet – any tips,pro? con?

Jack, I’ll be honest, I didn’t buy it because of the Tablet part.
I bought it because I needed a new laptop and this was *CHEAPER* beleive it or not…
You see, someone showed me that Gateway was having an unannounced sale on last year’s stock of Tablets.
The reason being that the new ones just started using Wacom technology, which means that unlike the older tech used for tablet pens, the new ones don’t need a battery in the pen part, and are pressure-sensitive (so drawing applications can react to how hard you press on the screen).
The one I got is a Gateway M285, with a Core2Duo 2.0Ghz 800Mhz FSB, 2GB RAM, DVD/CDRW, SD reader, Wifi, etc… For just over $600, brand new from Gateway.

As a laptop, its great. As a tablet, I use it in meetings to show off to clients (“are you writing on your laptop??”), but otherwise I find it much more shtick than practical. I do like writing on the screen for notes tho. I’m not sure that I’d want to give it up now that I have one.

I’m in the construction business – I’m hoping I will be able to put all my info into the computer on the spot when giving estimates.

Then I’d go for the Lenovo X60… I’ve always been very impressed at the durability and build quality of those thinkpads. The gateway was a faster CPU than most tablets sport (up to 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo), but they’re not known for their build quality. I intend to be very careful with mine, I bought it for processor power and memory only, and intend to only use it on desks and/or in meetings.

For more on-site stuff, I’d recommend a thinkpad.

I went from a $1500 dell to a $3000 macbook pro and it was the biggest mistake i ever made. Some macs work and then some of them just dont… and good luck trying to get any help… even after scheduling one of those gay appointments.

I don’t know Dan, I too have a 12.1″ Dell XPS M1210 and I cannot imagine going to a 13″. It’s too much of a change even though it seems so little. I agree that the SD card reader and lack of many USB ports is not a deal breaker, but to me the cd drive is. And isn’t there an SSD drive of only like 32GB in this laptop?

The SSD is 64gb and the 1.8 is 80gb.