old MBA vs new MBA

It's more magical.

I was thinking about the same things, since apple has the old mba refurb, for less than the new one. It will surf very well; i played with one at a reseller last week. However the battery is not as good. but you get a lighted keyboard. I got the new one. battery rocks.

I had the the most recent one before the refresh. The new one has 4 GB option, bigger drive option, much longer battery, extra USB, faster CPU, faster graphics, higher resolution screen, lower price options.

When my new one asked to transfer data from my old Mac to my new Mac, I noticed my fans kicked on the old one but the new one was quiet. It is much easier to reach the Mini Display port and USB port without having the door and kinda hidden from sight at a angle.

My 13' Air has been a 15' Macbook Pro replacement for me.

I own both and IMHO in favour of the new one there is a much longer battery life, less "fan-spinning" time (and cooler temperatures...), higher screen resolution.

gadzooks22 said:

how does the old MBA compare to the new MBA in standard things like searching the internet with multiple tabs open, flash video, battery life, etc

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I compared the two (old 13" 2.16 2GB 128GB ssd vs new 13" 1.86 2GB 128GB ssd) in a store last week.
For internet and starting programs the performance is about the same.
Battery life will be better on the new one.
The other differences are well known.

I ended up buying the last old air in the store.
Why? In no particular order: Looks better, feels better when I hold it, backlighted keyboard, lower resolution is much more pleasing to my eyes and I got a good deal.
I get 4-5 hours of use out of it. It is mostly dead quiet.

gadzooks22 said:

I assume you are referring to the pre-SSD MBA's?

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Nope. I owned the last SSD revision C model.

Like night and day.

The new Air is almost perfect or at least 98% better then the previous model.

I'll be honest with you, you can get 90% of the magicalness of the new ones by sticking a nice SSD in one of the older ones. Going between my 2009 Air with an OWC SSD and one of the newest ones in the store, there really wasn't much of a difference at all performance-wise. Granted, I don't game on mine, so I don't really care all that much about the 320M vs. the 9400M.

gadzooks22 said:

im sure there is prolly another thread similiar to this, if so can you get me a link buuuuuuuuuuuuuut

how does the old MBA compare to the new MBA in standard things like searching the internet with multiple tabs open, flash video, battery life, etc

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I've been asking myself that same question for a couple of months. I got one of the last Rev C MBA's in July. At that point they had already switched to the Toshiba "flash" drives. If you compare the performance of that late Rev C with the current ones, I think the performance (speed of tasks) is about the same as the current 13" "ultimate" configuration - with the 2.13 GHz processor. I'm sure there are probably better benchmarks, but if you look at xbench results, even in the video performance, the late Rev C is as good or better than the new graphics. Battery life seems to definitely be better on the new MBA, but I easily get 5 hours on my Rev C if I use the same power conserving options that get 7 hours on the new MBA. Two usb ports on the new one is better than one on the old MBA. I wish I had that and easier access than the drop down door. However, the door is kind of a neat design. I don't use the IR port, but if someone does, that's a potential drawback to the new one. I thought I could NOT use the keyboard backlighting on mine (to save power), but I find I really do use that feature when sitting on the couch at night doing work. Seems like the screen resolution is a mixed bag, some like it, some think things are now too small on the screen using the native resolution.

There are so many measures (many of them personal preference) that determine whether one version is better than another. Had I bought the Rev C with the earlier SSD, I would be dissapointed with my MBA when comparing to the new ones. But, I find mine every bit as fast as what people are claiming for the new ones. From what I can gather from posts on the forums, the heat issues seem to be about the same for the same configuration: 2.13 GHz CPU. I suspect people who have noticed less heat from the new MBA have the lower clock speed CPU models.

yearofthe said:

It's more magical.

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lulz

AtmChm said:

From what I can gather from posts on the forums, the heat issues seem to be about the same for the same configuration: 2.13 GHz CPU. I suspect people who have noticed less heat from the new MBA have the lower clock speed CPU models.

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I disagree. I had a 1.86GHz Rev B SSD model and switched to the 2.13GHz Rev D. Granted, I had the slow SSD, but the fan goes on a lot less often now than it ever did on the Rev B.

KPOM said:

I disagree. I had a 1.86GHz Rev B SSD model and switched to the 2.13GHz Rev D. Granted, I had the slow SSD, but the fan goes on a lot less often now than it ever did on the Rev B.

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That could be, I have no point of reference. I switched from the Rev A w/4200 RPM HDD & 1.8 GHz to the late Rev C with 2.13 GHz & 128 GB early flash drive, and it was night and day for speed and heat issues. Some people have commented in a few threads that some noticeable heat generation in the new MBA is still observed. I think we'd need some real numbers under various scenarios to do a real comparison on the heat issue.