Drawbacks to the MBA?

[beysus]

The thing about my Air that bothers me every now and then is the screen. Overall I like the colors and I really have no problem working with it for hours, so the screen itself isn't really bad but sometimes I can't really tell whether those jeans on an online shop are black or blue. I usually double check then with my iPhone and my sister's MacBook Pro where I can clearly tell the difference. Maybe I could calibrate it better but oh well...

Yes, I do have an LG screen and no, I don't want to start discussing about it

It might be taken into consideration since you mentioned photo editing.

 

[coldjeanzzz]

been running a 11" MBA for over a year, mostly home use.
drawbacks are limited screen space and sound/speakers are horrible.
other then that its a solid machine.

+1. The speakers on my 13" are awful. At first I thought there was something wrong with them. The speakers on my crappy Toshiba laptop are much better. These things sound like the quality out of my iPod touch when I play music without headphones. Fortunately the sound is fine when I use headphones.

 

[rabidz7]

You're saying that a GPU from 2004 is better than a GPU from 2012?!



Funny you should say that, it might be able to. I know the FX5200 is the desktop card, but it might work (just not very well)

Yes i am, one is a real video card... Integrated graphics is much slower. And my powermac G5 is an entirely faster computer too. Geekbench is an avarage my powermac has maxed everything.

 

[Sully151]

Thanks for the info, everyone. I stopped by the apple store today and the salesperson all but talked me out of the 13" rMBP and basically told me to save some cash and get an Air.

Since, hopefully, it will be my secondary computer, it seems to make sense.

Silly question, but without an optical drive, how do you watch movies and store music? All through an external?

 

[53x12]

Silly question, but without an optical drive, how do you watch movies and store music? All through an external?

This: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive

or you could find a 3rd party drive that is cheaper.

----------

Yes i am, one is a real video card... Integrated graphics is much slower. And my powermac G5 is an entirely faster computer too. Geekbench is an avarage my powermac has maxed everything.

Not sure if serious? So you are saying ALL integrated graphics are much slower than every dedicated GPU ever created? You couldn't be more wrong. The Intel HD 4000 is a much better GPU than your NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200. I have already shown you a source of info for that. Please show us an independent source of information backing your statement. Guess what? You won't be able to do so.

 

[rabidz7]

No, it does not.

Well, it kind of does.

----------

Thanks for the info, everyone. I stopped by the apple store today and the salesperson all but talked me out of the 13" rMBP and basically told me to save some cash and get an Air.

Since, hopefully, it will be my secondary computer, it seems to make sense.

Silly question, but without an optical drive, how do you watch movies and store music? All through an external?

Movies on itunes and music online. http://www.allflac.com is good for music. you can put things on usb drives like you do cd's and dvd's.

 

[Stingray454]

Yes i am, one is a real video card... Integrated graphics is much slower. And my powermac G5 is an entirely faster computer too. Geekbench is an avarage my powermac has maxed everything.

Ok, not sure if you're just trolling, but you couldn't be more wrong. Check the answer from 53x12 given earlier:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 = 134
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 = 2

(higher is better)

http://novabench.com/gpuchart.php?a=1

Integrated graphics from the Air render the test 70 (seventy) times faster than your dedicated GPU. Also, on pure CPU benchmarks (geekbench) the Power Mac G5 gets about 3500 points maximum, and a "maxed out" would probably maybe be +100 points or something. My Air gets >7000, so about double the CPU speed as well. Sorry, but your G5 is old, face it.

 

[Makntosh]

Backup

Be sure to backup - my ssd fried just after warranty expired.

 

[rabidz7]

This: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive

or you could find a 3rd party drive that is cheaper.

----------



Not sure if serious? So you are saying ALL integrated graphics are much slower than every dedicated GPU ever created? You couldn't be more wrong. The Intel HD 4000 is a much better GPU than your NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200. I have already shown you a source of info for that. Please show us an independent source of information backing your statement. Guess what? You won't be able to do so.

Ok, not sure if you're just trolling, but you couldn't be more wrong. Check the answer from 53x12 given earlier:



Integrated graphics from the Air render the test 70 (seventy) times faster than your dedicated GPU. Also, on pure CPU benchmarks (geekbench) the Power Mac G5 gets about 3500 points maximum, and a "maxed out" would probably maybe be +100 points or something. My Air gets >7000, so about double the CPU speed as well. Sorry, but your G5 is old, face it.

Oh, so apperantly a geforece 580 or 670 is better than a 690!!!

 

[Accord3]

Silly question, but without an optical drive, how do you watch movies and store music? All through an external?

You download to itunes and watch from there or stream via www via the numerous online services. Or buy a non Apple ext DVD drive.

I have a late 2011 13"MBP with optical drive and have used it once when i first installed MS Office when i got it.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Oh, so apperantly a geforece 580 or 670 is better than a 690!!!

You're embarrassing yourself kid. Give it a rest. Go watch some HD YouTube on your PowerBook. Oops. You can't.

 

[rabidz7]

You're embarrassing yourself kid. Give it a rest. Go watch some HD YouTube on your PowerBook. Oops. You can't.

yes i can. and I can play minecraft at 25 fps. i watch 1080p utube all the time

 

[Pakaku]

yes i can. and I can play minecraft at 25 fps. i watch 1080p utube all the time

It's one thing to say you can, it's another thing to provide evidence to back up your claims. So far you haven't proven anything.

Also... 25fps, you say? And that's max resolution, right?

 

[myrtlebee]

The fan tends to kick up at full blast almost the instant I open some games, but I guess that's to be expected on a base model 2011. Other than that, I love it. I've only got 2GB RAM and I've been warned about that, but so far, no issues in that regard. I think you'll be very happy if you get one!

As for movies: I've got my bare essentials on my drive (around a dozen or so) and then I will rent the occasional movie on iTunes, but 99% of my movie watching is done on my big screen.

 

[GizmoDVD]

It's one thing to say you can, it's another thing to provide evidence to back up your claims. So far you haven't proven anything.

Also... 25fps, you say? And that's max resolution, right?

And it's running Mountain Lion!

 

[throAU]

I have read a lot of positives for the MBA, but what I want to know is what are the negatives?

The only negative in my experience (other than the obvious spec differences) is storage capacity - but that goes for the rMBPs as well.

Aftermarket storage upgrades are expensive, as you are SSD only. So long as you have a NAS or something you can offload stuff you want to keep but can't store on your machine when you run out of space, go for it.

Worth noting is that you could probably buy a Mac Mini server (with fault-tolerant RAID to store things on you don't need with you all the time, and time machine backups) and MBA for the price of an rMBP with a heap of storage.

 

[b3av3r]

I have had my 13" MBA for about a month now and I haven't found any faults in it so far. It does everything I need to do exceptionally well which is just basic stuff. The real selling points for me were the weight, the keyboard size, and trackpad. If I put my MBA and charger in my bag, I can't even tell anything is in the bag. The keyboard is easy for me to use without cramming my fingers together. And of course the trackpad is huge and works flawlessly.

For the tasks you have listed I don't see a problem with the MBA, especially if you are going to get an iMac as a primary computer to do anything serious with like photo/video editing.

edit - make sure you take a test ride at a store before ordering, while I find the 13" to fit me perfectly there is no way I would be able to use the 11" model.

 

[leman]

Oh, so apperantly a geforece 580 or 670 is better than a 690!!!

Well, Novabench is mostly a joke. But comparing GeForce FX 5200 and the HD 4000 is just silly... the HD 4000 is obviously much faster than a card which was criticised as being outdated before it was actually released.

And modern Ivy Bridge CPUs, even ULV ones, are also considerably faster than the ancient G5...

 

[Liquinn]

Hmmm... you're stuck with the configuration you buy.

 

[yinz]

Hey All,

I have finally decided that it is time for a new computer (actually 2)

I am currently on an archaic iMac running an Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 G of memory.

Anyway, I am going to be getting a laptop very soon and a new iMac in the next few months if the world and my wife are on the same page as I am.

That being said, I think I am looking at the 13" MBA. I am going to probably max it out with the exception of the 512 GB flash.

It will be used for regular day to day use, a little photo/video editing (the brunt will be done on the iMac, I assume) and will be used for travel.

I have read a lot of positives for the MBA, but what I want to know is what are the negatives? Are there any faults that would/should lead me in the direction of the rMBP?

Thanks in advance!

Sully

Umm.. if I had to say something, maybe the Fn key and the control key could be switched around.

 

[rabidz7]

And it's running Mountain Lion!

I am still working on that...

 

[Michael Goff]

Funny story about that powerbook he's bragging about.

The latest iPad is even more powerful. >_>

 

[JoshMKB24]

I can't think of any drawbacks. I have had a few MBPs and an iMac and iPads/phones and this is great for what you want to do with it.

I use mine for travel and just sitting on the couch. Its great because its very very light so fits in a bag nicely when traveling and when you are on the couch for extended periods, it doesn't get very hot on your lap. I have an 11" MBA though, not a 13, but can't imagine the 13 would be that different.

The only drawback I can say, and this is being very nitpicky, is it does get a little warmer on my lap than the 15" retina does. I'm assuming because it is so thin the little bit of heat that it does generate you can feel. I'd say go for it!

 

[Saturn1217]

Small text

I've only had my 13-inch MBA for a couple days so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

But I would say one draw back that I didn't anticipate is that the higher pixel density of the MBA makes certain apps that were optimized with the older MBPs in mind have text that is a bit too small. Not an issue with browsers because you can always zoom in. But some apps like the old Papers app don't have the ability to change text size and the text is very small (upgrading to Paper2 gives text size options)

My eyes are definitely having an adjustment period although I remembered the same thing when I moved from my old thinkpad (really low resolution) to my MBP so I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.

Also on my particular machine the backlighting is a bit uneven at the very bottom of the screen. But that might just be an issue with mine.

I'm still debating whether or not to keep mine. It is a great machine but honestly not as huge a step up from my 2009 13-inch MBP as I expected (in both weight/form-factor and performance terms)

 

[nick_elt]

Its great but after having my macbook airFor less than a week it has alot of wifi issues its really annoying.