Mac OSX Lion on MBA 11'

BMWNEW · Mar 20, 2011

I am going to buy an 11 inch MBA 1.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM. I have never had any Mac's.
I think that it is much more functional than an iPad (I do not need to show off or to play games on it, so an iPad 2 is not my variant)...
I am not going to use MBA as my primary machine (I've got very powerful 18 inch VAIO), but as a beautiful light portable laptop which will be able to help me in education. Then I am a traveller so I think it is a perfect laptop to take with (watching films in a plane, playing Plants vs Zombies for a while, saving and viewing new photographs...).

The thing is: I want a beauty of MAC OSX LION, so I am not sure if 1.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM is able to run it smoothly.
Maybe is is better to pick up an MPA 13' Ultimate? It would be possible to play 3D games such as CoD: Black Ops, and I would not worry about Lion. But it is about 2100 USD in my country vs 1200 USD for 11 inch.
What would you recommend to me? To save up and go with very light 11 inch or to pay more and get a bit bigger, but more powerful 13' ULTIMATE?

Does anybody of you, guys, has an MBA 11 and a Lion on it? How is it going?
And do you think about 1.4 vs 1.6 GHz? Does is worth the upgrade?
And is 13' too big and heavy after 11'?

P.S.: sorry for newbie questions

tbobmccoy · Mar 20, 2011

BMWNEW said:
I am going to buy an 11 inch MBA 1.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM. I have never had any Mac's.
I think that it is much more functional than an iPad (I do not need to show off or to play games on it, so an iPad 2 is not my variant)...
I am not going to use MBA as my primary machine (I've got very powerful 18 inch VAIO), but as a beautiful light portable laptop which will be able to help me in education. Then I am a traveller so I think it is a perfect laptop to take with (watching films in a plane, playing Plants vs Zombies for a while, saving and viewing new photographs...).

The thing is: I want a beauty of MAC OSX LION, so I am not sure if 1.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM is able to run it smoothly.
Maybe is is better to pick up an MPA 13' Ultimate? It would be possible to play 3D games such as CoD: Black Ops, and I would not worry about Lion. But it is about 2100 USD in my country vs 1200 USD for 11 inch.
What would you recommend to me? To save up and go with very light 11 inch or to pay more and get a bit bigger, but more powerful 13' ULTIMATE?

Does anybody of you, guys, has an MBA 11 and a Lion on it? How is it going?
And do you think about 1.4 vs 1.6 GHz? Does is worth the upgrade?
And is 13' too big and heavy after 11'?

P.S.: sorry for newbie questions

Apple will make it run smoothly. I've yet to see an Apple OS in the OS X era that didn't work well with tech that was produced in the same year that the OS was sold. For the older MacBook Airs, I would be more concerned, but since OS X Lion will be installed on the 11" once its released, I bet it'll be just fine.

Oh, also, remember Lion right now is in developer release, so the code isn't as tight as it will be. Take current benchmarks with a grain of salt.

As for the upgrade of 1.4 to 1.6, I've no direct experience, but I have heard that the difference is minimal and the 1.4 is often preferred because of the battery life savings it provides.

alust2013 · Mar 20, 2011

The model you want is fine, especially if it's not your primary machine. I think Lion will be nearly as light as Snow Leopard, perhaps just a little bit more memory hungry, but the 4GB will take care of that.

BMWNEW · Mar 20, 2011

tbobmccoy said:
Oh, also, remember Lion right now is in developer release, so the code isn't as tight as it will be. Take current benchmarks with a grain of salt.

Thank you very much for operativeness!
I agree that today's Beta 1 is not the final product, so in summer it might be much more tight.
And what do you think about 13 inch? Does this power (2,13 GHz, 4GB, 256GB vs 1.4 GHz, 4GB, 64HB) worth the 1000 USD overpayment (as for SSD memory it does not bother me, because 64 - 128 is quite enought), the only thing I am worried about is perfomance (1.4 vs 2.13 is a big step though)... And portability (I don't want to pay more and stay with huge machine).
So does 13 inch worth it?

I have already played with both MAC's in a shop, but I am not sure about size...

PeterKG · Mar 20, 2011

BMWNEW said:
Does anybody of you, guys, has an MBA 11 and a Lion on it? How is it going?
And do you think about 1.4 vs 1.6 GHz? Does is worth the upgrade?
And is 13' too big and heavy after 11'?

P.S.: sorry for newbie questions

Those who are testing Lion are under an NDA to not discuss.

Psilocybin · Mar 20, 2011

PeterKG said:
Those who are testing Lion are under an NDA to not discuss.

PeterKG · Mar 20, 2011

Psilocybin said:

Whenever you are asked by Apple to participate in beta testing, or you purchase an Apple Developer license, you accept to abide to a non disclosure agreement. Many fail to do so, but many take agreements such as NDA's seriously.

Psilocybin · Mar 20, 2011

Oops haha. I guess I should start reading the agreements. When I signed up I didn't

aleni · Mar 20, 2011

i have 1.4ghz 11" air with 4gb. the mac os x lion developer preview is smooth as butter here.

BMWNEW · Mar 21, 2011

PeterKG said:
Many fail to do so, but many take agreements such as NDA's seriously.

Yes, it is so. Some take them seriously, but many may give details about Lion

The only thing I am interested in is: would it run smoothly as a butter and I've got the answer: yes

ovrkast · Mar 21, 2011

BMWNEW said:
Thank you very much for operativeness!
I agree that today's Beta 1 is not the final product, so in summer it might be much more tight.
And what do you think about 13 inch? Does this power (2,13 GHz, 4GB, 256GB vs 1.4 GHz, 4GB, 64HB) worth the 1000 USD overpayment (as for SSD memory it does not bother me, because 64 - 128 is quite enought), the only thing I am worried about is perfomance (1.4 vs 2.13 is a big step though)... And portability (I don't want to pay more and stay with huge machine).
So does 13 inch worth it?

I have already played with both MAC's in a shop, but I am not sure about size...

I used to own the 11" MBA Ultimate, then switched to the new 2011 15" MBP with Hi-Res 2.0Ghz|8GB|256SSD, and now I've switched back to the MBA Ultimate with the 13". In comparison between the 11 vs 13 (the 15" MBP is in a league of it's own), you will not notice that much of a performance index unless your plans regard to processor intensive requirements such as video editing, heavy photo (light Photoshop and Lightroom is very sufficient), or 3D rendering. That's where the 2.13 will perform better than the 1.4, however, heavier tasks should be more for the MBP's.

The size of the 11 vs 13 is nominal at best, but you will find that even with the 13" it is very portable. You basically get some portability characteristics of the 11", and some extra power that would come from the MBP. It's a great median between the three models

Regardless, OSX Lion will run fluid on the MBA 13" Ultimate.

Hope that helps

old-wiz · Mar 21, 2011

Considering that you can't upgrade the MBA's RAM after purchase, the smart thing to do is buy with 4Gig. I think it's foolish to buy 2Gig.

ballgeoff · Mar 21, 2011

old-wiz said:
Considering that you can't upgrade the MBA's RAM after purchase, the smart thing to do is buy with 4Gig. I think it's foolish to buy 2Gig.

You do realize when a computer runs out of memory it reverts back to the hard drive (in this case the hard drive is a SSD or "flash memory") which in essence makes buying 2gb of ram seem not so foolish.

fatlardo · Mar 21, 2011

ballgeoff said:
You do realize when a computer runs out of memory it reverts back to the hard drive (in this case the hard drive is a SSD or "flash memory") which in essence makes buying 2gb of ram seem not so foolish.

Really? This is my first time hearing this! If true, than this is great cuz I got only the 2gb model, but I wanted the 4gb. But I got such a good deal on the 2. Do you have anything that states that?

rhinosrcool · Mar 22, 2011

ballgeoff said:
You do realize when a computer runs out of memory it reverts back to the hard drive (in this case the hard drive is a SSD or "flash memory") which in essence makes buying 2gb of ram seem not so foolish.

RAM is still faster than ssd.

EspressoLove · Mar 22, 2011

ballgeoff said:
You do realize when a computer runs out of memory it reverts back to the hard drive (in this case the hard drive is a SSD or "flash memory") which in essence makes buying 2gb of ram seem not so foolish.

fatlardo said:
Really? This is my first time hearing this! If true, than this is great cuz I got only the 2gb model, but I wanted the 4gb. But I got such a good deal on the 2. Do you have anything that states that?

rhinosrcool said:
RAM is still faster than ssd.

PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066 SDRAM); Clock Speed: 133MHz, Data Rate: 1066MHz, Throughput 8.53GB/s

That's about 40-50 times better than the best rate SSD can offer under ideal conditions, and up to 1000 times under more ordinary ....

So no, no SSD today, even those much faster ones can make up for the lack of RAM

EspressoLove · Mar 22, 2011

BMWNEW said:
I am going to buy an 11 inch MBA 1.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM. I have never had any Mac's.
I think that it is much more functional than an iPad (I do not need to show off or to play games on it, so an iPad 2 is not my variant)...
I am not going to use MBA as my primary machine (I've got very powerful 18 inch VAIO), but as a beautiful light portable laptop which will be able to help me in education. Then I am a traveller so I think it is a perfect laptop to take with (watching films in a plane, playing Plants vs Zombies for a while, saving and viewing new photographs...).

I'd say spring for Ultimate 11" (1.6/4GB/128GB)
I'd guess it would be easier to find it in Russia in absence of official Apple Stores.
This config is a "standard" one which is carried by regular brick-and-mortar Apple Stores in US.
And it's the only one in stores that has 4GB RAM.

In US you only can configure 1.4 with 4GB - online, BTO.

So, apart from logistics and what-not, down the road it would be easier to procure service when you'd need one - in Russia - without the need to send your BTO MBA back to States.

Battery-wise you'd get much more from CoolBook than from most negligible difference between 1.4 - 1.6.

And once you go Mac/Lion, you'd appreciate flexibility extra 64Gigs would afford you.

old-wiz · Mar 22, 2011

ballgeoff said:
You do realize when a computer runs out of memory it reverts back to the hard drive (in this case the hard drive is a SSD or "flash memory") which in essence makes buying 2gb of ram seem not so foolish.

Humph. I spent 20 years working with OS internals on *NIX systems, and I'm totally aware that when you run out of memory you swap out to secondary storage. However, the secondary storage on the MBA is still way way slower than internal memory.

BMWNEW · Mar 22, 2011

ovrkast said:
The size of the 11 vs 13 is nominal at best, but you will find that even with the 13" it is very portable. You basically get some portability characteristics of the 11", and some extra power that would come from the MBP. It's a great median between the three models Regardless, OSX Lion will run fluid on the MBA 13" Ultimate.

Hope that helps

Thank you very much

I am not sure what is better:
1) to get MBA 13' Ultimate (about 2100 USD in Russia)
2) to get MBA 11' (about 1200 for 1,4 / 4 / 64 OR 1700 for Ultimate) and then add and get MBP 15' (about 3 200 USD for 2.2 GHz)

Of course extra 2000 USD is a big problem for me, so would 13' Ultimate MPA be able to replace both (I am not going to play 3D games on it (PS3 or VAIO is just for that), only photo editing, watching films, simple gaming, surfing web, Office etc.,)?
I think that 2,13 and 4GB would take care of that, right?
And is it possible to use it as a main computer?

BornAgainMac · Mar 22, 2011

BMWNEW said:
2) to get MBA 11'
And is it possible to use it as a main computer?

I would lean for the MBA 11' with 1.4 standard with 4 GB and 128 GB disk as a main (non gaming) computer. And also a Cinema Display instead of a separate MBP. There is nothing like having a 27 inch at home at the end of a long day to use your Mac.

BMWNEW · Mar 22, 2011

BornAgainMac said:
I would lean for the MBA 11' with 1.4 standard with 4 GB and 128 GB disk as a main (non gaming) computer. And also a Cinema Display instead of a separate MBP. There is nothing like having a 27 inch at home at the end of a long day to use your Mac.

Brillian idea! Why have not I thought about that before? Maybe 13' Ultimate with ACD is better?

ovrkast · Mar 22, 2011

BMWNEW said:
Thank you very much
I am not sure what is better:
1) to get MBA 13' Ultimate (about 2100 USD in Russia)
2) to get MBA 11' (about 1200 for 1,4 / 4 / 64 OR 1700 for Ultimate) and then add and get MBP 15' (about 3 200 USD for 2.2 GHz)

Of course extra 2000 USD is a big problem for me, so would 13' Ultimate MPA be able to replace both (I am not going to play 3D games on it (PS3 or VAIO is just for that), only photo editing, watching films, simple gaming, surfing web, Office etc.,)?
I think that 2,13 and 4GB would take care of that, right?
And is it possible to use it as a main computer?

Like I said, the 13" MBA Ultimate would serve as a perfect median for what you're looking for. It will pretty much take anything you throw at it as mentioned in the OP. My 13" MBA Ultimate is my main and only computer.

jdechko · Mar 22, 2011

If you don't have to have the extra storage space, you could always do a custom low end 13" and add 4GB RAM. The CPU is unlikely to be much of a bottleneck at any time during the life of the machine. And if you are already looking at the 11", then even more so.

EspressoLove · Mar 22, 2011

BMWNEW said:
Brillian idea! Why have not I thought about that before? Maybe 13' Ultimate with ACD is better?

Like many here, I did "upgrade" from 15" MBP (HiRes@1680x1050, i7)
I was salivating for 11"MBA, but did go with 13" just because I thought it would be safer ....

I don't regret it

13"MBA is fantastic machine - even/especially for - being my only computer

Yet I think now - I would be just as cool if I had 11" + 20-27" display or good backup PC as you have.

P.S. I did have "resolution blues" (going from 1680 to 1440), I'm way past that now.
Now I almost start to think that 13"/1440 is probably too big for me

As I've said I don't regret going 13"
But my Quad-Core Ivy Bridge Thunder-Bull MBA of 2012 will be 11"

BMWNEW · Mar 24, 2011

EspressoLove said:
As I've said I don't regret going 13"
But my Quad-Core Ivy Bridge Thunder-Bull MBA of 2012 will be 11"

Any thoughts when new MBA will be announced?

P.S.: I decided to go with 11 inch with 4 GB. It is much more cheaper, portable, lighter etc...
Then I'll wait for ACD refresh (720p webcam, HDMI in and something special from apple should be there probably, because I thought to connect PS3 to that display, but now it will cost me about 300 $ for a connector - no thanks, and then it is already at the end of the cycle)...

Mac OSX Lion on MBA 11'

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