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Coming from i7 13 Pro to i7 13 AIR, Quick Observations...

G

GadgetGeek407

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 26, 2009
994
61
florida
I just picked up a 13 i7 Air from the Store at the mall, ironically they had the ultimate in stock, I thought most stores didn't, this is considering my i5 13 comes tomorrow from Amazon lol GOD I am not patient at all, wonder what i should do with that one.

Anyhow I noticed right away that even 3 notches below the middle in terms of brightness the screen seems way more lively and brighter compared to the pro. I FORGOT not having had an air in forever how beautiful this screen looks and how bad the glossy looks.

The keys are definitely pushed in a bit more

ITS FASTTTT

The text is def smaller but nothing unbearable. Someone talked about the reason behind this, was it cause of more pixels compared to 13 pro?

Camera isn't as sharp

OMG the trackpad on my 13 pro either sucks and has been used a lot or the Air is definitely way more clicker and solid, on my pro you can't even hear it click anymore n most of the time i have to press it more than once to get it to respond

Under my hard drive 9 gb is dedicated and taken by OTHER wtf is that?

236gb free of 250 out of the box on a 256gb what a ripoff lol 20 gb gone thats a lot lol

my moshi keyboard skin kind of hangs off the edge a slight bit, is there one specifically for this model?

Thats it for now, will play with it some more and let you all know
 
BigB82 said:
Under my hard drive 9 gb is dedicated and taken by OTHER wtf is that?

236gb free of 250 out of the box on a 256gb what a ripoff lol 20 gb gone thats a lot lol
Click to expand...

The 9GB is the OS. Also, the recovery partition takes up some of it, I think. Anyway, the total usable capacity of the 256GB SSD is 250GB, since both Toshiba and Samsung use overprovisioning to reduce wear on the SSD. All SSDs do it (at least all good SSDs do), so you aren't getting "ripped off." On the 128GB, it's 121GB, so proportionally you lose less space with the 256GB.
 
BigB82 said:
I just picked up a 13 i7 Air from the Store at the mall, ironically they had the ultimate in stock, I thought most stores didn't, this is considering my i5 13 comes tomorrow from Amazon lol GOD I am not patient at all, wonder what i should do with that one.
Click to expand...

You got a 13" i7 MBA from a store in the mall, and you have a 13" i5 coming tomorrow from Amazon? So you have two MBAs?
 
DieterRams said:
You got a 13" i7 MBA from a store in the mall, and you have a 13" i5 coming tomorrow from Amazon? So you have two MBAs?
Click to expand...

Sounds CRAZY I KNOW!!! AHHH I couldn't resist. I don't want to return the amazon one cause it was a good deal, I might just sell it but wonder what it will get me considering typically the market for airs is very niche but these new ones the manager said has been flying off the shelves
 
BigB82 said:
Sounds CRAZY I KNOW!!! AHHH I couldn't resist. I don't want to return the amazon one cause it was a good deal, I might just sell it but wonder what it will get me considering typically the market for airs is very niche but these new ones the manager said has been flying off the shelves
Click to expand...

Was it one of the 20% off deals with the Kindle coupon? If so, then maybe see what you can get on Craigslist. Otherwise, I'd be inclined to keep the cheaper one. The difference between the i5 and i7 on the 13" isn't that great (just about 8-10% on CPU-intensive tasks).
 
Please please let me know if you notice a different in high end applications. E.g video editing. I'd love to know the difference. Cheers!!
 
Out of the box it is charged like 88 percent should i plug in the charger or let it die completely?


Also if I upgrade to lion 10.7.1 and burn a dmg would I be able to use that to do a clean install on the air?
 
BigB82 said:
Out of the box it is charged like 88 percent should i plug in the charger or let it die completely?


Also if I upgrade to lion 10.7.1 and burn a dmg would I be able to use that to do a clean install on the air?
Click to expand...

Just go ahead and start charging it. It's a bit trickier setting up a USB installation kit with the new setup. If you have an external drive big enough, just use Carbon Copy Cloner to take a clean setup just in case.
 
BigB82 said:
Sounds CRAZY I KNOW!!! AHHH I couldn't resist. I don't want to return the amazon one cause it was a good deal, I might just sell it but wonder what it will get me considering typically the market for airs is very niche but these new ones the manager said has been flying off the shelves
Click to expand...


As much as I hate you because I'm waiting for the same machine from Amazon (and had to buy an interim Macbook Air 13" 128 GB for a trip) I say sell it on Craigslist. I bet you can snag $1500 for it...especially unopened.
 
btw I forgot to mention one BIG thing....reading all the negative crap on here about the light leak and keyboard this and that and screen issues and creaks OMG i was scared to death turning this thing on wondering how many times I would have to exchange and return. But I don't know if I'm not as analytical as some people, which I think I'm super analytical btw, but this thing is perfect. I cant see any light leak on the bottom of the screen at all and wondering if this is on every single unit and i just don't notice it or its only on some?



On a separate note I have like 180gb of stuff on my 13pro I don't want to transfer it all. Thinking to just put the apps, and as far as movies and everything else put them on a backup drive. How can I move over all my favorites and such from safari? is there any file on safari and mozilla I can copy over?

Thanks gang sorry I'm stupid excited :)

----------

btw one thing I will NOT miss on the pro in terms of SUPER poor design is the fact of having two usb ports side by side where you cannot even put two usb drives in together. I love that on the air they are on different sides.
 
BigB82 said:
btw I forgot to mention one BIG thing....reading all the negative crap on here about the light leak and keyboard this and that and screen issues and creaks OMG i was scared to death turning this thing on wondering how many times I would have to exchange and return. ... but this thing is perfect.
Click to expand...

You dodged the "MacRumors Syndrome". Good for you! You'll be a lot happier. Mine is perfect too! :D
 
I too had the i7 13" Air with a 13" i5 from Amazon coming. I ended up returning the i7 because it ran super hot, it froze twice (I had to hold the power button to shut off), and frankly, the price difference.

For me, the price difference isn't as drastic - the i7 13" Air was 1640 + free $100 printer + $100 iTunes giftcard. No tax because I bought it during tax free weekend. Even assuming the maximum value of everything else, with the i7 256 Air at 1440, it is 470 more than the i5 128 at 970. 50% increase in capacity and 10% increase in speed wasn't worth 470 to me, so I returned it.
 
minnus said:
I too had the i7 13" Air with a 13" i5 from Amazon coming. I ended up returning the i7 because it ran super hot, it froze twice (I had to hold the power button to shut off), and frankly, the price difference.

For me, the price difference isn't as drastic - the i7 13" Air was 1640 + free $100 printer + $100 iTunes giftcard. No tax because I bought it during tax free weekend. Even assuming the maximum value of everything else, with the i7 256 Air at 1440, it is 470 more than the i5 128 at 970. 50% increase in capacity and 10% increase in speed wasn't worth 470 to me, so I returned it.
Click to expand...

crap i wonder when tax free weekend was here lol probably last weekend lol oh well...anyhow how do i know if mine is running hot? i know people on these forums always use all these tools to see speed and temperature and iv never really gotten into all that, you all mind pointing me in the right direction to make sure all my details are up to par? thanks

yeah for you the 128 is sufficient i had to get the 256 ;)
 
BigB82 said:
crap i wonder when tax free weekend was here lol probably last weekend lol oh well...anyhow how do i know if mine is running hot? i know people on these forums always use all these tools to see speed and temperature and iv never really gotten into all that, you all mind pointing me in the right direction to make sure all my details are up to par? thanks

yeah for you the 128 is sufficient i had to get the 256 ;)
Click to expand...

There is a lot of denial that the Macbook Air runs hot, but if you haven't noticed it while using your Macbook Air normally, then you probably won't push it hard enough to notice. It is most noticeable when you're doing something CPU/GPU intensive, such as playing games or encoding/editing media. From what I understand, even playing video/flash puts the Air to a full load. For my air, it was hitting 95/96C on full load (uncomfortably warm for me, but fine for others that are more...tolerant). If you're interested how your system is performing, a popular tool is iStat Pro.

Heat wasn't a big contributor to returning the machine - more the two freezes and the huge price difference. I am also interested in seeing if the i5 runs cooler at all.

Yeah, the 256GB is definitely nice. If Apple ever comes out with a Thunderbolt hard drive enclosure though... (which I imagine would happen eventually), an external SSD would be just as awesome as an internal one. Till then, I'll lug around my slick 5oz Seagate Go drive and save myself the (in Amazon prices) 250 ish.
 
minnus said:
There is a lot of denial that the Macbook Air runs hot, but if you haven't noticed it while using your Macbook Air normally, then you probably won't push it hard enough to notice. It is most noticeable when you're doing something CPU/GPU intensive, such as playing games or encoding/editing media. From what I understand, even playing video/flash puts the Air to a full load. For my air, it was hitting 95/96C on full load (uncomfortably warm for me, but fine for others that are more...tolerant). If you're interested how your system is performing, a popular tool is iStat Pro.

Heat wasn't a big contributor to returning the machine - more the two freezes and the huge price difference. I am also interested in seeing if the i5 runs cooler at all.

Yeah, the 256GB is definitely nice. If Apple ever comes out with a Thunderbolt hard drive enclosure though... (which I imagine would happen eventually), an external SSD would be just as awesome as an internal one. Till then, I'll lug around my slick 5oz Seagate Go drive and save myself the (in Amazon prices) 250 ish.
Click to expand...

thanks dude my cpu is at like 59 I'm just on the web surfing and chatting is that normal?
 
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