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calverson · Nov 11, 2008, 05:34 PM

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...cbook_air.html

Could be badass... what to y'all think?

cbrfanatic · Nov 11, 2008, 08:58 PM

isnt there a carbon fiber viao already?
not too much of a fan of the air but a carbon one would be pretty cool, a carbon netbook would be even better

mduell · Nov 11, 2008, 10:36 PM

Saving 0.2lb and having a CFRP bottom aren't terribly interesting. Not bad, but not good.

slugslugslug · Nov 11, 2008, 10:42 PM

As a bicycle nerd, I want Apple to do this. Because then the logical next step would be to round out the list of bike frame materials they use for laptops and make a MacBook out of steel.

And who doesn't want a steel computer?

MartiNZ · Nov 11, 2008, 11:38 PM

More than that, I'd like an Air that could also be used as a bicycle!

Urkel · 12:12 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

Saving 0.2lb and having a CFRP bottom aren't terribly interesting. Not bad, but not good.

You'd be surprised. Look at much press and hype they got the unibody aluminum to produce. It's cool and all but it's hardly as necessary or groundbreaking as some make it out to be.

What I'm hoping to see is Aluminum Macbook colors. The aluminum black ipod has a great look and texture so I'd love to see that on a notebook.

Maflynn · Nov 12, 2008, 08:47 AM

Given that apple just moved the MB to an aluminum case, I have my doubts that they'll abandon aluminum in any of their lines - at least for the foreseeable future

Simon · Nov 12, 2008, 10:11 AM

I don't care about carbon fiber. It's lighter, but not so much that I think it warrants the additional cost.

In my book, what would be a huge MBA improvement, were if they found some way to do away with that huge bezel around the KB and screen. That would immediately reduce the width by 1.5". That would (beside being lighter than the MB) also give it a clear size advantage over the cheaper and more versatile MB.

MartiNZ · Nov 12, 2008, 04:12 PM

Yeah that'd be nice. Would simply going the glassy route of the other 'Books on the Air make it lighter than it is now? I'm confused about this seeing as the MacBook got so much lighter than the plastic one but the MBP got heavier than the old aluminium. Clearly there are more things at play there, but I think it's interesting and would like to see the Air with glassy, a smaller bezel and 4GB RAM ... then we're talking, somewhat.

Simon · Nov 13, 2008, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by MartiNZ

Would simply going the glassy route of the other 'Books on the Air make it lighter than it is now?

I don't think so. The MBA has already benefited from weight reduction due to Al unibody manufacturing. Adding glass like on the MB(P) would make it heavier.

The MB became lighter because the Al unibody weight savings more than made up for the weight of the glass. Also, the glass on the 13" MB isn't that big. On the 15" MBP you now have this comparably large glass panel. Sure the unibody manufacturing has reduced the weight of the case compared to the previous Al case, but not so much as to make up for the weight of the glass, hence the new MBP is slightly heavier.

Spheric Harlot · Nov 13, 2008, 04:57 AM

IIRC, carbon fiber is a pretty good *insulator*, meaning heat would be a problem?

Simon · Nov 13, 2008, 05:54 AM

Here's what an engineer had to say about carbon fiber MBs.

calverson · Nov 13, 2008, 02:18 PM

Well, I guess that debunks that. I think that it could look quite nice, but I agree with Maflynn, I don't think that Apple, after just unifying the look of all of it's products (save the Mac Mini) will change the air.

MartiNZ · Nov 13, 2008, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

I don't think so. The MBA has already benefited from weight reduction due to Al unibody manufacturing. Adding glass like on the MB(P) would make it heavier.

The MB became lighter because the Al unibody weight savings more than made up for the weight of the glass. Also, the glass on the 13" MB isn't that big. On the 15" MBP you now have this comparably large glass panel. Sure the unibody manufacturing has reduced the weight of the case compared to the previous Al case, but not so much as to make up for the weight of the glass, hence the new MBP is slightly heavier.

Ta. Makes me wonder if glass will hit the Air at all; I've been envisaging being rather happy with glass, buttonless trackpad and up to 4GB RAM in its next iteration

. Maybe if they do the bezel reducing thing and make it smaller overall!

Simon · Nov 14, 2008, 07:30 AM

Even though I think the MBA would profit mst from a reduced bezel, technically it's probably also the hardest portable Mac to do it on. Due to the thin case the extra width and depth give Apple's engineers some space for the battery. Removing that bezel probably also means removing battery capacity. And that's not to say they could still easily fit the same chipset in there if you remove 1.5" of width and 3/4" of depth.

And I'm not quite sure how Apple has actually fasted the glass panel to the lid assembly, but I'm assuming the bezel actually makes it easier. If the MBA were to get the glass screen, I'd expect the bezel to stay anyway.

joe · Nov 17, 2008, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

In my book, what would be a huge MBA improvement, were if they found some way to do away with that huge bezel around the KB and screen. That would immediately reduce the width by 1.5". That would (beside being lighter than the MB) also give it a clear size advantage over the cheaper and more versatile MB.

Great idea! Apple has already done this with the 12" Powerbook. So why not with the MacBook Air (or even MacBook).