Apple cuts £300 from flash MacBook Air

Posted on 4 Jul 2008 at 07:49

Apple has slashed £309 from the price of the high-end MacBook Air. The 1.8GHz model equipped with a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD) now costs £1,719 (inc. VAT).

Apple has also reduced the price of the SSD option for the 1.6GHz model to £389. The standard, hard drive (HDD) equipped version is unchanged at £1,199.

The cut in SSD prices follows falls of up to 25% in the trade price of the nand flash memory used in the drives, but DRAMeXchange does not anticipate further falls as the 3G iPhone and new low-cost laptops increases demand.

SSDs have generally enjoyed a good press since they first began appearing in laptops a couple of years ago: they enable faster startup and read times, are quieter than HDDs, generate less heat and are more physically durable, since they have no moving parts.

But contrary to initial assumptions they don't appear to consume less power. Tests by the respected Tom's Hardware website found that the opposite is true.

"We've looked at almost a dozen different flash SSDs from seven vendors over the last few months, and measured acceptable or sometimes even disappointing power requirements with most flash SSDs," it reports.

The reason appears to be that SSDs require power to be supplied at all time and have no power saving mechanism, while HDDs rarely need full power, and spin down whenever they are not being accessed.

However tests on the MacBook Air have found that the SSD version can have a longer battery life, though these findings are far from universal.

Author: Simon Aughton

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

< Previous News : Laptops Next >

Be the first to comment on this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.