David Chartier:
For all the incredibleness of the MacBook Air’s new battery, the device is still dependent on WiFi hotspots and, let’s face it, the internet is an essential ingredient these days for getting most things done. Now, keep in mind that adding 4G radios to the MacBook Air likely poses its own share of challenges that Apple has clearly decided to avoid for the Mac, at least so far. In general, it seems like 3G/4G radios have never been very popular in notebooks for some reason. Plus, a 4G radio would add weight to the MacBook Air—renowned for its thin and light design — and, of course, affect that incredible 12-hour battery or, in PCMag’s case, 15-hour battery.
While I like the idea of having in LTE built-in on my laptop, I see some potential issues — besides the ones David expertly outline. Notebooks often are used longer than iOS devices. While cell phone contracts suck, every two years, we get to start over. If my MacBook Air is “stuck on Verizon” for the entire time I own it, that might be weird. In short, I don’t want carrier-specific hardware in my laptop.
While tethering isn’t great, it works well enough for Apple to just side-step this whole problem, for now at least.