Check out this video: Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
Design
The Wheel is derived from the iPod wheel and it is certainly very responsive. However, typing without a proper keyboard is usually uncomfortable and less efficient. Even the invention of infrared keyboard which enables users to type on any surfaces could not ultimately replaces the physical keyboards that we use daily.
Replacing the normal keyboard with the Wheel makes thing even complicated. No doubt that it will be fairly easy to navigate through files and programs using the Wheel. But the Wheel and on-screen keyboard just do not work well at all in this occasion. The Wheel can only replace the mouse.
The Battery
Looking at the video, the battery power dropped two percent in less than 10 seconds. To calculate the battery life based on 2% in 10 seconds, Macbook Wheel only last about 8 minutes compared to the stated 20 minutes. I wonder the purpose of Apple creating Macbook Wheel.
Verdict
I never use the Macbook Wheel before and this article is about my very own opinion. Who need a laptop without keyboard and only last 20 minutes? An 8GB version cost around $2599. Wouldn’t it be better off using a touch screen version or handwriting recognition pad? From the video embedded, I could see a lady trying on Macbook Wheel with frustration.
