Buy MBA now? or should I wait?

Probably July ish. If you need one now buy it. If you don't, wait.

Pretty simple....

Why would you want to upgrade already? I would wait for haswell as it will benefit Laptops massively when it comes to battery performance, it will also have the much faster onboard graphics (HD 5000?)

cant wait...

...wait with me for the haswell

Yours is more than adequate for most needs - unless you have a burning need to upgrade, you should wait.

torana355 said:

Why would you want to upgrade already? I would wait for haswell as it will benefit Laptops massively when it comes to battery performance, it will also have the much faster onboard graphics (HD 5000?)

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Haswell's onboard graphics' name is HD 4600 and will be twice better and consume less energy. I have a mid 2012 MBA and sure will buy this

Wait for Haswell. Your current machine should hold you until they are released.

For me it would come down to justifying the cost to myself. It looks like you'd be buying a computer with a .2ghz faster processor and 4gb more of ram. If it were me and I had a buyer lined up for my old MBA and could get into a new one for like 200 more out of pocket, I'd probably do it. However, if you were going to sell your old one for like 700 bucks and then spend another 500-600 more on a new computer, I probably wouldn't do it since you aren't going to see much in terms of gain performance wise. I always like new toys and gadgets, but I have to be able to justify it to myself

ahmet said:

Haswell's onboard graphics' name is HD 4600 and will be twice better and consume less energy. I have a mid 2012 MBA and sure will buy this

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Yep i have the 2011 model and i think ill upgrade to the Haswell model just for the better battery life

Every time this question comes up it makes me think of that thread "Have A Cookie or Wait" ...

I just bought a 13" i5 8gb to hold me until summer when the next model comes out. I'll sell it off around June and pickup the latest & greatest.

Buy now, they're very well sorted out.

Reliable, fast and efficient there's no reason to wait for a new model. Even though it's Apple, there's always that possibility of bugs or other annoyances.

The grass is not always greener...

This time next year we will be asking the same question, and people will say, Wait for HD5000, retina (it did not surface summer 2013 )

Every 18 months? sounds tiring just thinking about it. To each his own.

ijrc said:

Thanks for the feedback.

I try to replace my Mac every 18 months. I tend to get a great re-sale value since I have AppleCare to include.

Based on the Haswell feedback I'll likely hold off another 6 months! Of course, my re-sale value will go down when there is a new announcement...but oh well.

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The old cliché about 'buy if you need, wait if you merely want' is the advice I would offer. For now, the specs on your machine sound pretty impressive to me, given that any upgrade you are likely to make before rumoured (note, rumoured) upgrades occur, will be, at best, fairly incremental.

As you have Applecare, you can afford to wait a few months and then see what the summer brings.

My own position is slightly different as my MBA is 28 months old, a year older than yours, so any change I make over the next few months will be quite noticeable.

Of course, resale value goes down every time there is an upgrade, - despite Applecare - or a significant change in the product line. That is life, and that is also the price you pay for acquiring a significant upgrade in computing power or radical innovation in technology.

Wait it out, then if you want buy "the older" model (which would be the current model now) for less and save money that way.

zedsdead said:

Wait for Haswell. Your current machine should hold you until they are released.

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Why not wait for Broadwell at that point?

If you were watching Intel's CES keynote which is streaming right now, you'd realize that it'd be wise to wait for Haswell for battery life alone. Unless you "need" to have it right now. And I roughly quote, "biggest battery leap in Intel corporation's history."

At a guess, would Haswell chips be capable of playing arma games at its lowest settings?

I usually say go for it, since the 2012 Air is awesome....but seeing that your Air is only 18months old, you might as well wait a little while until you see slowings. 18 months is pretty new, especially since you aren't getting any more storage.....it won't really be worth the money to upgrade. Might as well wait awhile

I'm just guessing but the new MacBook Airs will have 10hours of battery life~

ijrc said:

Any idea when the next MBA's will be released? What are the latest rumors?

I'm looking to replace my 18 month old MBA.
Current stats:
13 inch
1.8ghz i7
4GB ram
256gb SSD


Based on currently available MBA on Apple.com, I would buy
13 inch
2ghz i7
8gb ram
256gb SSD

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Generally they will be released in june but from what im reading the low voltage haswell chips wont be ready then (am I reading it wrong) anyway I couldnt wait and i just got a new one last week. Its pretty impressive and i dont regret it. Tech moves so fast you could always wait for the next thing and you will always be waiting.

I was contemplating buying a MacBook Air too. But I'm waiting for Haswell. I really hope that it ups the battery life. I would like to have a portable with true 7-10 hour battery life.

Why are you all saying June? Didn't intel say late 2013 for the new chips? So that sounds like q4, q3 at the earliest. It might still be worth the wait, but I wouldn't bet on June.

Although I would wait until Haswell, I would actually skip retina if it came to the air. I do not believe the air has sufficient battery to power a retina display for a prolonged period of time; thus, leading to diminished battery life.