Longevity of a Macbook Air

I still run an old Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with 512 MB of RAM and a lightweight Linux distro, its perfect for light browsing. I do feel that some people on here over-exaggerate about just how much RAM you need. My 2010 MBA with 2 GB of RAM handles Lion, Word, Safari+countless tabs, and iTunes open all at the same time without problems.

If you are looking for a computer for alot of professional work, I think that the Pro is better for you; bigger HDD, and upgradable RAM is something that is necessary for things such as virtual machines, photo-editting, etc. The Air is a great portable computer, but I do feel that it is much more suited for a slightly more casual user. Saying that, 4 GB of RAM is plenty, and it is going to be a long time before 8 GB is a necessity.

Since the Air uses SSDs, pages ins and outs are faster. More memory is always welcome.

JMS803 said:

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That is good to know. I feel like the SSD helps a lot with keeping the speed up. My 5400rpm hard drive can be pretty bad at times.

Not really doing any professional work per se, moreso hobbyist photography.

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Do you use Lightroom on yours?

Taking Geekbench as a measure, the current 1.7/1.8 GHz Airs are about as fast as the 2010 Pros. They are more than 50% faster than the 2008 models with Santa Rosa chips.

Ivy Bridge should bring a moderate performance boost (20% maybe), a significantly better integrated GPU, and some power savings. I hope Apple can fit 8 GB at least in the 13'' MBA - that would be a real powerhouse.

My 2011 MBA 11" runs CS5 well.

I only bought my MBA as a toy, so I got the lowest spec. 11inch model. I only bought it for browsing, writing, and using as a thin client with my iMac so I had a powerful tiny computer if I needed one. Much to my suprise the little cheap MBA is amazing. Sometimes I create extra virtual desktops and run programs to put in them just so I can watch what my memory demands are. I can run 3 or 4 desktops, a desktop which is my iMac's screen for CPU intensive jobs, I also use my MBA to control iTunes on my iMac and send the programs to my ATV to watch on my TV. And with all that use I still only use 1.8g or thereabouts. I have no slowdowns at all. For such a cheap machine the MBA is amazing.

i am not sure that an MBA is appropriate for a main machine, in the spec I have. But it probably is, considering how much power it has. SO I intend to keep it for ages, and in fact my iPad is now completely redundant,

I have the base 2010 model with 64GB SSD and 2GB RAM and it works well for basic usage like web browsing, iTunes, word processing, etc. (It actually does it better than anything else I've used)

The only issue I think making me consider upgrading is definitely the 64GB of HD space and the 2GB of RAM. The processor at 1.4Ghz is kind of a bog especially when I want to watch ESPN360 online.

I will def upgrade to a 256GB + 8GB model if one comes available.

As others have mentioned, the Air is a great machine for writing and browsing. However, I find that graphics-intensive tasks really stretch the processor and the machine rapidly warms up. While it can probably handle some photo-editing, I'd be inclined to wait for the graphics enhancements in Ivy Bridge to do this.

As for longevity, the machine does everything I bought it for, and I don't expect to replace it for at least 3 years, and probably 4-5. (I have found that all my computers give me about 4-5 years before starting to slow down, but this is my first Apple).

I think were going to see technology start tapering off from speed and focusing more on usability. Platforms for tablets and laptops will start to mix together. As a result specs will not be nearly as important. Unless you plan on playing games (you really shouldn't be buying a MacBook air if this is the case), I think you can expect this air to keep up with updates for the next 5 years.

I just ordered a 13" MBA / 1.8 proc / 4 gb ram. I plan on running VM Fusion3 so that I can also run windows 7 concurrently. Is that enough ram?

lnferno said:

I just ordered a 13" MBA / 1.8 proc / 4 gb ram. I plan on running VM Fusion3 so that I can also run windows 7 concurrently. Is that enough ram?

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Yes, but create a separate windows partition and bootcamp into it for longer uses. The extra45 seconds is worth it.

JMS803 said:

I'm amazed at the speed, quality, and portability of the new Macbook Airs, and am seriously considering one for my next laptop. One concern I have is, due laregly to the Air's lack of upgradability, (Ram) is its longevity. How will the upcoming 1.8/2.0 Ghz Ivy Bridge processors in May compare to a 2.4 Ghz Santa Rosa MBP? From what I've seen already in the i5 Air, it seems like they will blow it away. Besides basic word processing and web browsing, I will use it for Photoshop and Lightroom, and perhaps some video editing in the future. Does the Air handle DSLR video files well?

Also, my late-2007 MBP is approaching the 5 year mark in June, so I suppose somewhere around 4 years would be a target.
Thanks for any advice!

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I'm still using my 09 MBA and won't replace it until it's irrevocably dead ... mostly because I can't stand the look of the new wedge-shaped Air.

My mid-2009 Air is hitting its third birthday next year and shows no signs of letting me down yet. Still runs all the latest software, latest OS, and is insanely fast thanks to the SSD I put in it. I fully plan on getting at least another two years, if not more out of it.

I have the 2011 1.7Ghz i5 MBA with 4GB RAM. I fully expect it to cope with anything I may throw at it until at least July 2016. My biggest worry is SSD failure, which seems to be surprisingly common.