College Student: Should I buy or hold off on my MacBook Air?

[Scottsdale]

The rev B MBA is solid and very capable of being your MAIN computer. People that offer it as a secondary computer don't make a lot of sense to me. You can use it with a 24" LED backlit ACD and it will be nearly the same as an iMac. With SSD, the rev B MBA is extremely fast and very capable of being your primary Mac. I used a rev B w/SSD as a primary Mac for some time. And I still would be if it weren't stolen.

Rev B with SSD is a very solid Mac and capable of being most Mac user's primary Mac. The SSD makes up for slightly slower clock speed and the MBA can feel much faster than other Macs with SSD. My advice is to definitely positively get the SSD.

Once the rev C MBA is released, I think the rev B price will be on sale in the clearance section of Apple.com for probably around $1999 for the high end model (and it will be brand new and NOT refurbished).

I would wait and see the differences though, because the rev C will most likely be worth the extra money.

Good luck.

 

[applecultvictim]

Rev. B with ssd, cuts it for me too as a first computer, esp. for college...easily...heck some years ago with the pentiums or powerpc's that were 4-5 times slower and had 4-5 times worse gfx too, and everyone was fine and dandy, plus if you want to stick an external monitor, these come in cheap.

 

[havenly007]

The macrumors buyers guide suggest to "buy only if you need it - approaching the end of a cycle" Heres the URL: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#MacBook_Air

 

[turugara]

Just remember that there´s no easy way to lock a MBA

Not exactly. Ebay search "MacBook Air Lock bracket"
They usually go for ~15 bucks and provide a great way to lock your Air.

Only problem is... it's possible to screw up your hinge quite easily with this method.

 

[HasanDaddy]

honestly, go with 1.86 FOR SURE

I have a souped up MBA (SSD, etc) and this thing lags pretty bad when I have too many apps open --- as long as I keep the number of apps running to a lower number, then it runs great

nonetheless, investing more in processing power is a choice you won't regret

 

[alice?]

Still obsessed.

The macbook, now MBP er whatever, update is just an aversion. I'm porbably still getting a MBA... $700 price cut + student discount + free ipod touch? HELLO, it's a steal. If you loved it before then what has changed?

 

[tarbo]

Since the the significant price drop are there big differences in performance between the SATA drive and the SSD? And is it possible to replace the HD with another as time goes by and upgrades appear

 

[applecultvictim]

great news for anyone in the market for an air.

Yes it's an option to replace either hd or ssd later.

Yes ssd's are faster but they are new tec and since TRIM command is not yet implemented (wiki it) the performance might degrade over time and the writes on a fuller ssd might be slower.

 

[bozz2006]

Snow Leopard won't be ready for months.

wrong.

Right.

 

[michael.lauden]

The macbook, now MBP er whatever, update is just an aversion. I'm porbably still getting a MBA... $700 price cut + student discount + free ipod touch? HELLO, it's a steal. If you loved it before then what has changed?

fffoor real man. sell that iPod touch for no less than 100$ on eBay and you'll be golden. makes me wish i would have waited for this. however my MacBook has been used endlessly and made me a lot of $$

maybe i'll upgrade sometime next year :/