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128GB or 256GB MBA?
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That's what I did, until it broke and I lost all the data on it. You would need to use one of the special adapters that puts the smaller SD card fully inside. If I could go back, I would have just gotten the 256 GB upgrade. Plus, that will be much faster than any SD card.
I have a mid 2011 MBA with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That was the maximum available at the time. If I was buying today, no question that I would get 8GB RAM and the 512 GB SSD. Unless you really can't afford it, max everything out - nobody ever complains "I have too much disk space" around here. 
Who knows about the upgradeability of the SSD in the new machines. But I looked into in for the 2011 and 2012 machines, and swapping the SSD yourself was a rather expensive way to go (as opposed to just buying the size you want originally). But I suppose it could be offset if you can sell the old SSD to somebody. That would be more trouble than I'd want to go through personally, but others may feel differently.
Who knows about the upgradeability of the SSD in the new machines. But I looked into in for the 2011 and 2012 machines, and swapping the SSD yourself was a rather expensive way to go (as opposed to just buying the size you want originally). But I suppose it could be offset if you can sell the old SSD to somebody. That would be more trouble than I'd want to go through personally, but others may feel differently.
I have a mid 2011 MBA with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That was the maximum available at the time. If I was buying today, no question that I would get 8GB RAM and the 512 GB SSD. Unless you really can't afford it, max everything out - nobody ever complains "I have too much disk space" around here.
Who knows about the upgradeability of the SSD in the new machines. But I looked into in for the 2011 and 2012 machines, and swapping the SSD yourself was a rather expensive way to go (as opposed to just buying the size you want originally). But I suppose it could be offset if you can sell the old SSD to somebody. That would be more trouble than I'd want to go through personally, but others may feel differently.
Do you have i7 or i5? what do you recommend for the 2013 ones? I've ordered mine maxed out but having second thoughts on battery life with i7 vs i5
I would say buy the largest in terms of SSD space and RAM that you can afford. You'd rather have extra capacity than not have enough. 128gb just really isn't enough "disk" space these days, at least I don't think so.
They have the same ower draw and battery life should be very similar. If you can, I would go for the i7, so you made the right choice.
Lemme guess, you had no second thoughts until you read some threads on here?
Ignore the technical navel gazers and stay with what you ordered.
Actually I was reading the Apple tech specs page for the MBA, if you check on the small print about battery life you will see that "All tests were performed on i5 processors" for 11' and 13'
If any hit in battery life, how much I'll suffer, one hour less? 20% less? I know nobody knows yet, I'll love for Anandtech to have the review up asap, order still processing and I could change now instead of receive the laptop, ship it back, refund, re-purchase, etc etc.
Parkinson's Law (sorta) says whatever size storage you have, your work habits will eventually fill it up. I could live with 128gb by offloading lesser-used stuff more often, but I'd rather not.
256gb allows me to keep a Windows boot partition, a Linux VM, music, documents, some movies and all the apps of course. I have to offload some photos and home movies to a SAN.
512gb would not change this behavior, except that I'd have to offload less often.
I dunno, everybody has a different use-case for their equipment. But if you have a lot of movies, especially HD home video or AV collection, 512 is not significantly larger then 256. You're going to need multiple Terabytes eventually.
I have the i5, but as I stated, it's a 2011 model. Very pleased with the battery though, I have gone through several 12 hour days of work on a single charge just using simple conservation techniques like turning down the brightness and closing the lid if not in use.
Once I tried letting it run with full screen brightness, several programs open and a movie running in iTunes the whole time. I got around 5 hours IIRC. That's a whole lot better than my 2008 15" MBP. I would be lucky to get half that, even when it was new.
Ditto on #noregrets.
There are so many variables with battery tests, obsessing over i5 vs i7 is a waste of time. Do yourself a favor and enjoy your MBA.
We now have confirmation that this is not true: https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/1...veals-smaller-ssd-increased-battery-capacity/
I'd say go for the 256GB but i'm getting the 512 GB cuz i'm not satisfied with my current mac (250 GB).
That is what I would use the extra money for. Once you pick your ram, you are stuck with it for the life of the notebook!
I don't know why people waste their time asking people that don't know or have been told to say that. Of course they will tell you that, even if it's not true.
One thing I hate doing is rearranging or deleting stuff because of hard drive constraints. I won't consider another 128GB ever for as long as I live. 256GB is the bare minimum these days, IMO. Unless, of course, you don't do much with your computer.
I fall in that boat. I use an 8gb nexus phone and still have 5gb of free space. I had a 64gb air that was less than half full
cloud storage runs my life. The money I would pay for extra SSD space I put towards cloud storage