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Will the macbook air last 3 years?

B

bart rijksen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2008
232
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Will the macbook air 1.8Ghz 64SSD last about 3 years? Hard drive space is not a problem, but will the machine last around 3 years and still work ok? I am most worried about the performance. Will that still be usable?

Thanks a lot
 
Absolutely, I see no reason why not. In terms of the applications you're running on it at the moment, they should run with exactly the same performance in 3 years time ;)

In terms of new software, who knows. The Air is a dual-core machine, so it's relatively future proof. I can't imagine it struggling with the latest web browsers 3 years down the line.
 
Considering there isn't a 3-year-old MBA in existence you're asking for pure speculation, right? So how the hell would anyone know? But, if they all suddenly start breaking down in 18 months Apple would look pretty dumb, so I think you can assume that treated well then yes, they'll last. A shorter answer would be: why wouldn't they? They're not made of chocolate.
 
I'm asking this because most of the applications are updated regularly, for example iTunes. Will it run very slowly after 3 years, or just be a bit slower. Thanks a lot.
 
it depends on what your intending the air to be used for.

for my purposes, i cant see itunes, web browsing, chat and photo storage to be anymore demanding in 3 yrs.
 
applications such as itunes would run fine, pure asumption but i cant see it getting real taxing on the system.
 
wolfie said:
it depends on what your intending the air to be used for.

for my purposes, i cant see itunes, web browsing, chat and photo storage to be anymore demanding in 3 yrs.
Click to expand...

Mostly for school work. iTunes, Quicktime, Office, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
 
bart rijksen said:
Mostly for school work. iTunes, Quicktime, Office, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
Click to expand...

You'll be fine. Not too long ago I had a PowerBook G3 233MHz running iTunes through the network like a champ. No problems whatsoever (considering it shipped with OS 8, I think it did pretty well staying useful up until 2007 at 9 years old)

Plus, MacBook Air looks really cool too, so even if performance becomes an issue you have looks to fall back on! Same thing goes for Titanium PowerBooks and Clamshell iBooks today. Sure, they have ancient hardware inside, but they look so cool you can't help but use them!
 
You'll have absolutely no problem keeping it for that long running those kind of apps.

The only thing that might stress it a little would probably be a new OS release but seeing as Leopard is fairly new and should be out a minimum of a couple of years, thats nothing major to worry about.

Do you have AppleCare btw?
 
RevolutionOne said:
You'll have absolutely no problem keeping it for that long running those kind of apps.

The only thing that might stress it a little would probably be a new OS release but seeing as Leopard is fairly new and should be out a minimum of a couple of years, thats nothing major to worry about.

Do you have AppleCare btw?
Click to expand...

No i don't have applecare. Why? Should i get it?
 
I personally have never bought it because I tend to buy cheaper, easier to replace machines and have had good luck with them.

But a macbook air is much more premium machine so I think its worth looking into. You have a year from the the date of purchase to take it out and it will extend you upto 3 years of coverage.

I used to work in an apple store, and the amount of times I saw people bring laptops in just outside the one year warranty and hit with expensive bills because they didnt have applecare was always horrible to handle.

You can shop around and get AppleCare cheap from other sources than Apple itself. I think personally that its the only way you can 100% guarantee have a macbook air for 3 years (hardware wise).

What I always said to customers buying expensive machine who couldnt afford applecare at the time was to save for it and buy it before the years warranty is up, gives you quite some time then
 
RevolutionOne said:
I personally have never bought it because I tend to buy cheaper, easier to replace machines and have had good luck with them.

But a macbook air is much more premium machine so I think its worth looking into. You have a year from the the date of purchase to take it out and it will extend you upto 3 years of coverage.

I used to work in an apple store, and the amount of times I saw people bring laptops in just outside the one year warranty and hit with expensive bills because they didnt have applecare was always horrible to handle.

You can shop around and get AppleCare cheap from other sources than Apple itself. I think personally that its the only way you can 100% guarantee have a macbook air for 3 years (hardware wise).

What I always said to customers buying expensive machine who couldnt afford applecare at the time was to save for it and buy it before the years warranty is up, gives you quite some time then
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks. I will probably get it then.
 
No. In a year the MBA will be so much better the Rev A will feel like a dinosaur. Cooler processor, more drive space, helium inserts to make it even lighter.

OK, just kidding on the last one, although...:cool:
 
I think it should if taken care of.

My take on it is I bought the 1.6/80 and in a year or two take the money saved not buying extra 200MHz and SSD and put it towards a new rev. which will undoubtedly be same price w. more options and kinks worked out.
 
Depends on what you do with it.

My iMac G5 is 3 years old and I am still happy with it.

I don't see why the MacBook Air would not be able to still surf the web, check emails, and play iTunes music in three years.

However, if you ever get into production software (video and audio editing), then this is not the machine for you.

The only drawback for me is the 4,200 RPM HDD speed (I don't have the silly money for SSD, though I hear that also is really not that much faster).
 
Don't throw it around. Don't leave it in the cold car overnight, or in the hot car in the daytime. Keep it in a smoke free environment. If you treat 'er right, she'll last a long time.
 
I have an iBook G4 I bought in late 2004. It was about the equivalent level of technology for its time as a current MBA, and it still works just fine, 3 and a half years later. Is it as "snappy" as my daughter's new MacBook? No, but it does what I need it to do. I can certainly surf the web, run itunes, etc.

Some people would find the computer's performance to be unacceptably slow, but for my needs, it's fine. It also doesn't hurt that I have a much newer iMac that I use for most of my work ;)

3-4 years is about the life of a computer these days, and I think the MBA will be no exception. You can usually squeeze out another year or two after that, but then things tend to go downhill pretty quickly.

If you're really concerned about obsolescence, why not get the MBA with the standard HD instead of SSD? In three years, you'll be able to sell your old MBA, pool it with the money you saved from not buying an SSD today, and buy a brand-new 2011 MBA with a 512 GB SSD.
 
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