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New MacBook Air power button?

S

shurcooL

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2007
Messages
1,126
When they say the MBA is the future of MacBooks, that makes me happy (lack of Optical drive, fast SSD) and scared at the same.

Why scared? Two reasons, but I'll focus on one (I don't want to derail this post from the get-go).

The new style of having the power button be a part of the keyboard:

imagejgk.jpg


Instead of the traditional dedicated power button ala 13" MBP:

imagevl.jpg


The question is. is this a step backward or forward? Arguments please.

I say backwards, because it offers no advantage. The power button is not something you press typically while using the keyboard. So it should be separate. It also looks ugly imo.

What do you guys think?
 
Before anyone jumps in saying it has a technical reason, consider this. The original MBA, which shared pretty much the exact same dimensions and thickness, featured a dedicated power button, 13" MBP style, and a backlit keyboard.

So this was clearly a purposeful design choice done on the part of Apple, which makes me worry we'll see the next MBPs with the same power button style.
 
shurcooL said:
So this was clearly a purposeful design choice done on the part of Apple, which makes me worry we'll see the next MBPs with the same power button style.
Click to expand...

Only if it doesn't have an optical drive. All they did was replace the eject button (which wasn't needed) with the power. Why have more buttons than are needed?
 
Look again, the eject button is still there, right next to the power button.

They got rid of the two buttons to control the brightness of keyboard backlight brightness.
 
Shurcool nailed my biggest concern with the otherwise best notebook I've owned in my entire life. I don't mind the power button being part of the keyboard at all (not that I minded it separately either) but the new MBA's not having back-lit keyboards is a HUGE step backwards in overall design in my opinion. I highly doubt the slim form factor was really so limiting they couldn't possibly figure out a way to keep the back-lighting on the keyboard...

Other than that this is the notebook I've been waiting for for years...
 
I think the power button on my Powerbook 520c was located in the upper right hand corner of the keyboard. Didn't cause me any undue stress because you have to hold it in for some period of time to make the machine shut down. Same with the new MBA.

Although my wife never had a backlit keyboard (replaced first gen black MB with new MBA), she loves the new machine.
 
I'm thinking that it was a space saver, and also a cost cutter. The old "dedicated" power button was actually still attached to the keyboard internally and ran through the same ribbon cable as the keyboard.

Is there any real reason why this is a bad thing? How much more likely is it that you will accidentally hit the power button? What happens if you accidentally hit the power button?

Also, I thought the backlit keyboards looked crappy in the dark. Useful, yes. But the aesthetics looked poor. Light shined around every chicklet key through the cracks and looked really sloppy. I'm sure the design could be refined to look prettier, but it was a feature that I didn't use much anyways.
 
cbags101 said:
a cost cutter
Click to expand...
Exactly, that's how it seems to me too. But since when does a luxury Apple device like the MacBook Air (at least the original was luxury at $2500+) sacrifice design/aesthetic to save a few bucks? I can imagine Dell doing that, but never Apple. :eek:

Is there any real reason why this is a bad thing? How much more likely is it that you will accidentally hit the power button. What happens if you accidentally hit the power button?
Click to expand...
It's absolutely not related to function. I'm sure it functions nearly equally well, and you're very unlikely to do something by mistake just cuz it's a part of the keyboard.

However, IMO, it looks cheap and ugly. I am used to all my laptops having nice dedicated power buttons. The latest MBPs so far have had them in such way too. This new MBA style stands out as cheap looking and lame to me. :/

(I know it's not a huge thing, but I just like my Apple stuff to be perfect ;D )
 
I'm really more interested in why they retained the eject button?

And since this is Apple you'd think they'd just make the eject button into a power/eject (Control+power LOL)
 
shurcooL said:
But since when does a luxury Apple device like the MacBook Air (at least the original was luxury at $2500+) sacrifice design/aesthetic to save a few bucks? I can imagine Dell doing that, but never Apple. :eek:
Click to expand...

Well, if you look at the first gen iPhone and then look at the iPhone 3G, I think there was a clear drop in quality of the build. They used a crappy plasic back. The screens caught a bunch of dust between the glass and the LCD.

Apple all along was openly public with their plan to sell massive quantities of those though. 8 mil, I believe. I think much like the iPhone 3G, this macbook air was meant to sell more units and also have a higher margin. The first generation was a successful luxury device, and this one is meant a little more for the masses.

I could see the iPad trend the same way in the future.
 
cbags101 said:
this macbook air was meant to sell more units and also have a higher margin. The first generation was a successful luxury device, and this one is meant a little more for the masses.

I could see the iPad trend the same way in the future.
Click to expand...
This post makes a lot of sense. I agree very much about the MacBook Air. Once expensive and unattainable, it is now starting at 999 and 1299 as one of the most affordable MacBooks.

The iPad too should get extremely popular once they sell it for $300 or 400. Who wouldn't have one once it's that cheap?
 
mope54 said:
I'm really more interested in why they retained the eject button?
Click to expand...
A fair question. I've certainly never used the eject key. Then again, some people may use it quite often and would become annoyed with its absense.

In my opinion, moving the power button to the "keyboard space" makes the design a little cleaner. It moves a button that was out of the "button space" into the "button space". As long as I still have all of my top row/function keys, I'd be perfectly fine with it.
 
Ok, I think the most likely conclusion is the new power button style on MBA is a cost-saving measure for the lower end, not a decision made because the design was "better."

Therefore, we may or may not see same pattern with the next MBPs.
 
phide said:
A fair question. I've certainly never used the eject key. Then again, some people may use it quite often and would become annoyed with its absense.
Click to expand...
I thought the MBA doesn't have an optical drive. What would one use the eject button for on a MBA?

I barely use it on my Macbook, but I at least have a DVD drive :)
 
mope54 said:
I thought the MBA doesn't have an optical drive. What would one use the eject button for on a MBA?

I barely use it on my Macbook, but I at least have a DVD drive :)
Click to expand...

to eject mounted dmg's and external hard drives.
 
mope54 said:
I thought the MBA doesn't have an optical drive. What would one use the eject button for on a MBA?
Click to expand...
This is just a guess, but would it maybe work with the external USB superdrive? Or if you're using a shared DVD drive from another computer...
 
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