9th
The MacBook Air Scam
See AppleInsider’s article and my previous post on this topic.
This overheating problem has not been resolved since the MacBook Air was unveiled back in January 2008.
It seems Apple has hit the brick wall of physics in the real world and no RDF is able to alter physical reality.
Apple is misrepresenting the processing capabilities of the Air. Sure the Air has a 1.6 GHz processor, but it doesn’t run at that speed when its taxed.
Instead, it loses 50% of its processing power when you do mildly stressful operations (like playing videos):
- Previously, it shuts down one of the cores when it overheats causing video to stutter
- Now it doesn’t, but it reduces its speed by half to 800 MHz while keeping both cores running
Same net effect.
Buyers are paying for a 1.6/1.8 GHz CPU that can’t run at that speed inside the anorexic shell of the MacBook Air. Most notebook makers wisely use ultra low-voltage (ULV) CPUs running at a cooler 1-1.2 GHz in their ultraportable products.
Apple decided to jam a very hot processor in a casing that’s not physically capable of supporting it, for the bragging rights of pitching the Air as an innovative ultraportable that’s as robust as a standard notebook.
The 13” screen and full-size keyboard was right on the mark but not the heart of the computer.
