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No 1080p video for you...

S

snowboarder

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2007
539
2,004
I just checked out both Air models in an Apple store.
Really, really disappointing. Although the form and shape might
be tempting - really light, but the performance is a joke.
I understand the Intel-Apple-whoever legal issues, but they
shouldn't use the 4 years old processor in such a good (otherwise)
machine. A good screen, good keyboard, but no power.
Everything is sluggish and it doesn't even play the full HD videos.
The higher 13 model can not do it. The 11" model is even worse,
it's just a netbook.
Maybe with the 2.13GHz and 4GB of RAM is slightly better, but
they don't even have those models in the store, so no luck
checking it out.
They clearly are trying to attract your attention to the use
of flash instead of hard drives, but they forgot their OS X doesn't
support it fully....
If you need a small netbook to check out your email
and make some notes, it's good, But for anything even slightly
more demanding, skip it.
 
snowboarder said:
Everything is sluggish and it doesn't even play the full HD videos.
The higher 13 model can not do it. The 11" model is even worse,
it's just a netbook.
Click to expand...

I've had my stock 11.6/128 for about 48 hours now. My experience has been very different than this. With 10.1 installed my MBA can play HD Flash without breaking a sweat; CPU is at about 50%, no discernible heat, no fan noise, smooth video.

It's too bad that Apple is apparently installing an older version of Flash lacking hardware acceleration in stores.
 
snowboarder said:
I just checked out both Air models in an Apple store.
Really, really disappointing. Although the form and shape might
be tempting - really light, but the performance is a joke.
I understand the Intel-Apple-whoever legal issues, but they
shouldn't use the 4 years old processor in such a good (otherwise)
machine. A good screen, good keyboard, but no power.
Everything is sluggish and it doesn't even play the full HD videos.
The higher 13 model can not do it. The 11" model is even worse,
it's just a netbook.
Maybe with the 2.13GHz and 4GB of RAM is slightly better, but
they don't even have those models in the store, so no luck
checking it out.
They clearly are trying to attract your attention to the use
of flash instead of hard drives, but they forgot their OS X doesn't
support it fully....
If you need a small netbook to check out your email
and make some notes, it's good, But for anything even slightly
more demanding, skip it.
Click to expand...

The Flash version on the models in the store is outdated. With a current Flash version they run it perfectly. At least the 13" does.
 
That's funny I just spent about 45 mins at the Apple store with both 11" and 13" machines. I specifically tested 1080p videos to gauge CPU and GPU performace. While the base 11" model definitely did stutter a little bit with 1080p video the 13" was totally fluid with no dropped frames whatsoever.
 
I understand wondering if it is possible, but in real life, why would you even want to play 1080P video on a display that is essentially 720P resolution?
 
checked out a barebones 11.6 in apple store last night and I was very impressed. opened apps lightning fast, opened safari, ical, mail, garageband, iphoto, and imovie all at the same time with no issues whatsoever, couldnt watch video as flash wasnt installed so that will be my big test when i get it
 
snowboarder said:
... flash instead of hard drives, but they forgot their OS X doesn't
support it fully....
Click to expand...

What do you mean about that? Could you explain that further please? I'm still learning some of the finer details of OS/X after 3 years.
 
Adidas Addict said:
I use HTML5 on youtube.
Click to expand...

You can also check out Safari Extension: "Click to Flash" it allows you to use quicktime for all flashes that provide H264 video (YouTube etc) which always runs perfectly...

SandboxGeneral said:
What do you mean about that? Could you explain that further please? I'm still learning some of the finer details of OS/X after 3 years.
Click to expand...

He means that OSX has no Trim support for flash memory yet. Quite a non factor issue that people get hung up about a lot... It essentially means that the performance of the SSD degrades after a long while of usage because of the way it works internally. This degradation is only solvable by introducing TRIM and Mac OS users at the moment have to go through lengths to manually reset their drives. However the degradation is so minimal that for me, a heavy user of a Intel SSD for over 1 year now the performance has degraded by 3%. So it is in no way a pressing issue...

Fuchal said:
I understand wondering if it is possible, but in real life, why would you even want to play 1080P video on a display that is essentially 720P resolution?
Click to expand...

It's just to test the capability of the machines. Also some people might wanna hook up TVs or large displays...
 
einmusiker said:
checked out a barebones 11.6 in apple store last night and I was very impressed. opened apps lightning fast, opened safari, ical, mail, garageband, iphoto, and imovie all at the same time with no issues whatsoever, couldnt watch video as flash wasnt installed so that will be my big test when i get it
Click to expand...

I did the exact same thing. I opened up everything i could, included Aperture 3 and could not notice a bit of slow down. I also tried to go to youtube to see how it handled the HD stuff, but just like you, my store hadn't installed Flash. I did watch an HD trailer in iTunes though and it had no trouble, even with all of those apps running. Overall, i was very impressed! If only it was a bit cheaper I would sell my MacBook and get the 11" Air.
 
hachre said:
It essentially means that the performance of the SSD degrades after a long while of usage because of the way it works internally.
Click to expand...

Isn't the Flash storage in the new MBA different from a SSD? Does Trim affect both?
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Isn't the Flash storage in the new MBA different from a SSD? Does Trim affect both?
Click to expand...

The SSD is the same thing just in a standard hard drive casing. Apart from that there is no difference. So yes, missing TRIM affects both.
 
Fuchal said:
I understand wondering if it is possible, but in real life, why would you even want to play 1080P video on a display that is essentially 720P resolution?
Click to expand...

Ever heard of an external monitor? You know Apple sells those screens which you can connect to laptops. They usually are bigger than 13".

:rolleyes:
 
hachre said:
The SSD is the same thing just in a standard hard drive casing. Apart from that there is no difference. So yes, missing TRIM affects both.
Click to expand...

ct2k7 said:
It is still flash NAND storage, so yes, there is a TRIM. It could come in an update soon though.
Click to expand...

OK. I think I understand now. The Flash storage on an SSD is housed in an enclosure similar to that of a typical HDD, and the new MBA drops the enclosure and Apple put the Flash storage right on the logic board. Am I right?
 
SandboxGeneral said:
OK. I think I understand now. The Flash storage on an SSD is housed in an enclosure similar to that of a typical HDD, and the new MBA drops the enclosure and Apple put the Flash storage right on the logic board. Am I right?
Click to expand...

Exactly. And when it's housed it's called SSD. Otherwise it's just a bunch of flash memory chips.
 
Considering all this 1080 HD stuff is BS just like the rest of the HD market, who cares?
 
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