Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
To owners of the the new MacBook Air
- Thread starter ks-man
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
After spending the last week with the macbook air I'm very impressed with it. I have the baseline 13inch and in every day use the air seems much faster then my old macbook pro 13 with 4gb of ram. I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone who needs a ultra portable laptop with good speed.
Got the 11.6" Macbook Air
I love it; it's perfect for what I use a laptop for. I wouldn't have a problem using it as my only computer. It travels marvelously; perfect form factor. Pretty neat model. Now I gotta get rid of the 3 month old, 13" Macbook Pro: I can't see myself selling it for less than $100 than I bought it for. The 11.6" came entirely from left left, and I read Macrumors several times a day.
I love it; it's perfect for what I use a laptop for. I wouldn't have a problem using it as my only computer. It travels marvelously; perfect form factor. Pretty neat model. Now I gotta get rid of the 3 month old, 13" Macbook Pro: I can't see myself selling it for less than $100 than I bought it for. The 11.6" came entirely from left left, and I read Macrumors several times a day.
yeah, you should get one, it's an incredible machine. this thing is cold and i don't have any issue with the screen or hinge at all.
it's a perfect machine for me. anyway, im with 11" 1.4ghz, 4gb ram and 64SSD.
i got the new 13'' yesterday, and i love it.
the form factor is just so nice :]
this machine feels barely noticeable while it on your lap.
battery life is incredible, and the flash storage makes everything start up super fast!
only remaining wants, backlit keys.
the form factor is just so nice :]
this machine feels barely noticeable while it on your lap.
battery life is incredible, and the flash storage makes everything start up super fast!
only remaining wants, backlit keys.
Judging by the poll results, you should get one
everyone who has it loves it!
Yeah, I'm pretty shocked at the results. I understand that this is the MBA forum and most people who frequent here will be happy with the purchase, but you think there would be a few people who are a little (or a lot) disappointed. We are 45-0-0 at this point. Very impressive.
I average three days a week on the road, and also carry an iPad with me. I think the combination of the two is just perfect for what I need. Most media consumption is done on the iPad, and a fair bit of email reading, along with short responses.
The MBA 11 is perfect for all of the extended writing, form filling, equipment configuring etc. I have it configured with BootCamp, as most of my equipment configuration software is Windows based.
I would not want to give up my office system, which is a MBP 15 driving three monitors, maxed out on Ram and sporting a 256 GB SSD, but the MBA 11 picks up the slack nicely while on the road. Drop Box keeps all the important stuff in sync, and I also have a Raid 5 FTP server sitting in the office that I can get to easily from the MBA or iPad.
The MBA 11 is perfect for all of the extended writing, form filling, equipment configuring etc. I have it configured with BootCamp, as most of my equipment configuration software is Windows based.
I would not want to give up my office system, which is a MBP 15 driving three monitors, maxed out on Ram and sporting a 256 GB SSD, but the MBA 11 picks up the slack nicely while on the road. Drop Box keeps all the important stuff in sync, and I also have a Raid 5 FTP server sitting in the office that I can get to easily from the MBA or iPad.
Both new MBA's are great machines. I got the bigger one due to the extra screen real estate and my wife has the smaller one as she travels more than I do. We both run Win 7 through VMWare Fusion and MBA's handle it without any sweat. What a progress compared to the previous ones....
I loved it until I got the video card error and kernel panic, and Apple told me it was an "isolated instance" 
Considering purchase
I'm seriously considering an MBA to replace my 15" PowerBook (yes, that's right, some of us are still in 2003!) which weighs a ton. OK, not quite, but it sure feels like it at times. I had wanted an iPad, but I think the MBA is more practical.
Not sure about the SSD as a boot/write drive though. Has SS improved beyond the 1,000,000 writes-and-you're-dead stage?
I'm seriously considering an MBA to replace my 15" PowerBook (yes, that's right, some of us are still in 2003!) which weighs a ton. OK, not quite, but it sure feels like it at times. I had wanted an iPad, but I think the MBA is more practical.
Not sure about the SSD as a boot/write drive though. Has SS improved beyond the 1,000,000 writes-and-you're-dead stage?
All flash memory has a limited number of write cycles; however, once the write limit is reached (it differs based on type of flash memory), the flash memory will still be readable.
I got the MBA to replace my 15" MBP because of it's lightweight profile. Since I travel frequently for work, weight has become a major factor for me. I opted for the 2.13 GHz/256GB/4GB RAM model and have been quite pleased with it's performance so far. At home I have the Mac Pro Quad 3.0GHz so it's easy for me to give my MBP to my daughter...
I primarily use my MBA for travel reports, Excel spreadsheets, Internet and email. For those of you with the first gen MBP, I recommend this MBA. It's an awesome travel laptop!
I like my 13" MBA enough that I'm seriously considering selling my 15" i7 Hi-Res MBP and buying an iMac instead. There is only one thing I can't do with the MBA that I can with my MBP and that's do any kind of intensive rendering on-site with my clients. The video clips we render in the field are very short (30 seconds or less) but a big part of our sales process as it gives us the ability to show the client the "before" and "after" of our suggested work effort....sort of a real-world preview of the money we are asking them to spend with us.
On my 15" I can do a 30 second video render in about 10 minutes. That was a HUGE improvement over my older non-unibody MBP where it would take about 30 minutes to render 30 seconds' worth of video and at a lower resolution.
On my MBA, it takes about 45 minutes to do this same render. I'm not surprised given the processor (and the fans are SCREAMING the whole time...very distracting when meeting with a client in their boardroom or office). But thats too long to make this work effectively. We are experimenting with different settings to get the speed down but as of right now this is the ONLY reason to still carry my MBP on certain business trips.
Our go-forward solution is more than likely to do all the rendering in the cloud by uploading the content we need rendered to our servers, process them VERY quickly with our hardware back home, then stream the video to the client to show them the "after" and/or download it and display. Right now that's coming in around 15 minutes for both sides of the equation (upload/processing/stream back or download). The upload can happen without tying up anything else so to the customer its back to 10 minutes or less.
Time will tell but if my 13" MBA continues to perform as it does, I can easily see moving to an iMac from my MBP. My MBP will be my "desktop replacement" from here on out otherwise.
On my 15" I can do a 30 second video render in about 10 minutes. That was a HUGE improvement over my older non-unibody MBP where it would take about 30 minutes to render 30 seconds' worth of video and at a lower resolution.
On my MBA, it takes about 45 minutes to do this same render. I'm not surprised given the processor (and the fans are SCREAMING the whole time...very distracting when meeting with a client in their boardroom or office). But thats too long to make this work effectively. We are experimenting with different settings to get the speed down but as of right now this is the ONLY reason to still carry my MBP on certain business trips.
Our go-forward solution is more than likely to do all the rendering in the cloud by uploading the content we need rendered to our servers, process them VERY quickly with our hardware back home, then stream the video to the client to show them the "after" and/or download it and display. Right now that's coming in around 15 minutes for both sides of the equation (upload/processing/stream back or download). The upload can happen without tying up anything else so to the customer its back to 10 minutes or less.
Time will tell but if my 13" MBA continues to perform as it does, I can easily see moving to an iMac from my MBP. My MBP will be my "desktop replacement" from here on out otherwise.
I bought the ultimate 13" Air for my wife. She loves it. She starts using it at 8 AM each day, up to 10:30 each night. It performs flawlessly. Web browsing, email, Word, Light Photoshop work and Freeway Pro. (Web Creation software)
I run a MBP 15" i7, w/8 mg RAM. - Only because I run Pro Tools for audio. If I didn't need this for audio, I'd get an AIr too.
One of the best purchases we've ever made.
I run a MBP 15" i7, w/8 mg RAM. - Only because I run Pro Tools for audio. If I didn't need this for audio, I'd get an AIr too.
One of the best purchases we've ever made.
Yeah it's amazing. I can't believe the boot up and wake speeds. It makes my 15" 2008 unibody seem as slow as my old Dell Inspiron did when I went to mac in 2007. I know the SSD is largely responsible for this but damn, I also can't believe the lightness and quality of the screen. It literally feels like a toy in my hand - a powerful and useful toy.
OK, so at least your data isn't hosed! But given that all email and web surfing will write to disk I'm still left wondering how long these things will last. Probably long enough to the next upgrade.
OK, so at least your data isn't hosed! But given that all email and web surfing will write to disk I'm still left wondering how long these things will last. Probably long enough to the next upgrade.
i think it's gonna be long enough until even your mba is in the hand of the fifth-hand buyer. lol
Where do i start, i say its a great mobile light machine. I got the 13" model and typing with it has been a pleasure.
I can get connected on the go with my pre paid internet usb stick which is awesome. ( though i wish it had 3G )
Great battery life ( hoping for more in the future )
Really crisp LED display with high resolution ( 13.3" model )
So yea my conclusion that it beats any mobile laptop in the market or if you want to compare it to the netbooks which i think the MBA Pwn it in every way.
I can get connected on the go with my pre paid internet usb stick which is awesome. ( though i wish it had 3G )
Great battery life ( hoping for more in the future )
Really crisp LED display with high resolution ( 13.3" model )
So yea my conclusion that it beats any mobile laptop in the market or if you want to compare it to the netbooks which i think the MBA Pwn it in every way.