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How do Airs age?

I have the 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA and it holds its own quite nicely. I run software like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Filemaker Pro, Vectorworks, Photoshop, MS Office and others with no problems. Admittedly, I am running older versions of these programs, but they do everything I need.

I use the MBA as my primary computer. At home it is connected to a big screen, external keyboard, USB audio interface, control surface and external drives. But I love the portability when travelling and the screen is an acceptable compromise for me.

This machine is two and a half years old now. I would expect it to meet my needs for another two or three years.
 
Mid-2011 11" MBA i5 4GB RAM 128GB SSD

When I bought an iMac I turned the MBA into a "netbook." I installed the apps I expect to use when I'm not at home and keep any files I might use on Dropbox. Battery life has been good, but I don't run it hard. On the rare occasions it's used in the house (away from the iMac), I have no problem accessing the iMac Finder. I can't say enough good things about my MBA.

Sometimes I wish I had a 13" MBA.
 
navaira said:
@torana355, has the battery life decreased since you bought the laptop, or was it always dissatisfactory?
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It was never fantastic but the battery has gotten worse over time., the current MBA's are much much better in this regard. Screen aside i think the MBA is one of the better laptops you can get for the price you pay. The rMB is way to expensive for what it is and the rMBP is overkill for most people.
 
I have a mid-2011 MBA 13" i5/4GB RAM/250GB SSD as my main computer for the past 14 months. It's running the latest El Capitan, connected to a CalDigit Thunderbolt 1 dock, Dell UltraSharp U2413, multiple bluetooth devices and USB drives.

I use it for most light tasks like word-processing, web browsing, Adobe Lightroom, light photo and video editing. Works smoothly after El Capitan upgrade. Very few lags occurring. Only issue is fan noise, which cranks up frequently with heavy web browsing both on Safari and Chrome. Otherwise, light tasks keep it around 65°C at the default 2000rpm fan speed.
 
Thanks for all replies! I have pretty much decided on 13" with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. 11" is too small. It's lovely but it's just too small. The 12" Macbook is GORGEOUS, tiny, cute, lovely screen and the worst keyboard I have ever tried. I tried to type a sentence and somehow managed to miss half of the keys. The 13" is going to get one of those flush SDXC bays with a 256 GB card inside. I don't mind the non-Retina screen at all, especially when it costs 350 euro to have it and I lose a lot of processing power in return. The Pro is too heavy (and pricey) for what I want to do with it.

Now I hope Apple don't manage to either take it off the market or bump the price before I've got ca$h to buy it ;)
 
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navaira said:
Thanks for all replies! I have pretty much decided on 13" with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. 11" is too small. It's lovely but it's just too small. The 12" Macbook is GORGEOUS, tiny, cute, lovely screen and the worst keyboard I have ever tried. I tried to type a sentence and somehow managed to miss half of the keys. The 13" is going to get one of those flush SDXC bays with a 256 GB card inside. I don't mind the non-Retina screen at all, especially when it costs 350 euro to have it and I lose a lot of processing power in return. The Pro is too heavy (and pricey) for what I want to do with it.

Now I hope Apple don't manage to either take it off the market or bump the price before I've got ca$h to buy it ;)
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Sounds like a great device for your needs... getting one of those low-profile SD card adapters has greatly helped both my daughter and my wife expand the storage capacity on their 13" MBA's.
 
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navaira said:
Hi all,

I am thinking of buying a maxed out Air 11". I am worried Air will be removed from Apple's line-up in March, and I definitely don't want the rMB with its toy processor. My goal is to have a laptop which will still be with me in five years. While obviously nobody can tell me if the 2015 model will still work in 2020, what are your experiences with Airs? What tends to break (or not)? Is it realistic to hope that an Air will still work in five years?

Thanks for any response!
Click to expand...

From my own experience, I maxed out an Air 11 and loved it. I'm now at the stage to replace it but am worried about a couple of things with getting another Air 11:

1) Benzel - The screen is a bit small and I would love a screen that is slightly bigger. The Benzel's are quite wide though and old school, and really need an update as they waste a lot of space compared to newer laptops on the Market.

2) Screen - The non-retina screen is fine, until it goes side by side with a higher resolution screen. Not this is not a killer issue though, just a minor convenience.

3) No USB-C. This would future proof it for a couple more year if it had at least one USB-C, but it doesn't! Apple doesn't have a coherent strategy it seems with USB-C. If they were really pushing it, they would put it on all there devices.

There is no way I'm touching the New Macbook as it has a weak processor, only one port, and no magsafe 2. I am holding out to see if someone at Apple gets there head on straight and puts out an updated air or makes the new macbook for a larger target market.

If not, I might do something I never thought I would say, and look at the Microsoft Surface Book.
 
The USB-C thing seems completely random with Apple. New iMacs don't have it. iPad Pro doesn't have it. I don't think I need to worry about that one.

I've got a 11" Chromebook with Linux installed on it and SSD upped from 16 to 128 GB. It's... sufficient. But I constantly have problems with Linux for some reasons, and I'm just tired of spending half of my time resolving keyboard issues, trackpad issues, Polish character issues, etc. I'd like a computer that Just Works (TM).

I compared the Air screen with the Macbook screen. Yes, the Retina screen is lovely. But the Air screen isn't all that bad either. I agree on the bezels on 11" – this screen is just too small. The 13" has faster SSD, SD slot and is bigger, so I'm going with it.

I would love to know how the Macbook with one port and that keyboard is selling. I quietly hope it's a massive flop to discourage Ive from removing ports and thinning things out.
 
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I have a mid-2011 13 inch MBA which is still going strong and expect it to last another year.

Very hard to say whether the same would be true of the current range though, as 5 years is a long time in tech. The 2011 models have aged well because there has been a period of stagnation in terms of performance, with only minor incremental improvements in most areas.

I rather doubt you will be happy with a 2015 MacBook Air in 5 years, but (with a probably battery change) it will work just as well as it did the day you bought it.

Definitely get the 13 inch one though - the vertical resolution on the 11 was hopeless even in 2010, let alone 2015.
 
playtech1 said:
I rather doubt you will be happy with a 2015 MacBook Air in 5 years, but (with a probably battery change) it will work just as well as it did the day you bought it.
Click to expand...

Again, it depends what you do with it. If you're doing intensive stuff, it may not last 5 years, but if you're using it for the internet and iWork apps like I am, it will most likely be just fine.
 
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My wife has a 2011 13" MBA 8GB/256GB/i7. It runs Aperture, iMovie, Photos, etc. as well as light gaming better than my recently-deceased 2008 iMac with 6GB RAM and 256GB SSD. Although the iMac was showing its age, it was my daily driver. So I don't think you'll have any problem using this for 5 years. I WOULD consider upgrading to a larger SSD, as 128GB will fill up fast in 5 years, unless you don't plan on putting on photos, videos, or other digital assets beyond documents.

I'd also suggest Applecare, as it's doubtful your battery will last the full 5 years. Apple replaced the battery on hers after 2 years, as after only 400 charging cycles is was holding less that 75% of its original charging capacity. Apple claims you should get 1,000 cycles and still have 80% original capacity. They also replaced the mag safe charging cable twice, as it frayed and broke. So we got $300 work of repairs for $200 for Applecare.
 
We use a 13" MBA we bought in 2013. It has 4gigs of RAM and works like a charm. It was bought as a home laptop, but the girlfriend now normally brings it into work and runs an external display with it. We have a good but old-ish camera also, that doesn't have wifi but has an SD card. The 13" (but not the 11") has an SD card slot so that suits us just fine.

We had upgraded from a terrible Toshiba Windows XP laptop, so as far as we were concerned the MBA display was amazing! :) We lived abroad for a little while also, and watched movies on it most evenings (with a separate speaker - JBL Charge 2 which I also recommend, great bass!!).

The battery life is really good, but inevitably it will start to lose charge faster after a few years (a problem with all lithium batteries). Ours is still fine, but you can replace the battery easily enough: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Battery+Replacement/15205

We normally use Chrome on it (force of habit) which is a memory hog. If I was purchasing it again, I would go for 8gigs, but to be honest it's never really been an issue (only when we get lazy and don't close tabs).

The girlfriend is also starting to learn Swift with it, and first impressions are that it can handle light Dev projects easily enough. But obviously the more RAM the better.

Absolutely no way we'll replace the MBA for the foreseeable future.
 
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I'm on my 3rd MBA as I replace them on a 3 yearly cycle (around the time the AppleCare expires).

My 2013 is still used daily and doesn't look or perform much differently to it did 2+ years ago.

My previous 2010 is still used daily by my partner and she's more than happy with it. Whenever I pick it up, it's noticeably slower than mine, but still in great physical condition and runs OSX10.11 for all the basic stuff.

I sold my original (2008) MBA in 2014 for over £300 on eBay! I had replaced the (incredibly slow) 80GB HDD with a 128GB SSD, but even so - £300 for a 6 year old machine when for £300 you could have bought a pretty basic spec new Windows laptop.
 
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No silicon covers, although after having a screen replaced through AppleCare on my 2010 model, I have a very thin RadTech microfiber cloth that always sits between the keyboard and screen before I put it inside a neoprene sleeve for travelling.

Apple said the marks on my screen were caused by the keys rubbing against the screen, and suggested it was probably due to it being carried with other items in a bag, so I bought something to stop it.
 
My 2010 MBA is still serving me fairly well as my needs have not changed that much and I hope to squeeze another 3-4 years from it ;)
 
navaira said:
Hi all,

I am thinking of buying a maxed out Air 11". I am worried Air will be removed from Apple's line-up in March, and I definitely don't want the rMB with its toy processor. My goal is to have a laptop which will still be with me in five years. While obviously nobody can tell me if the 2015 model will still work in 2020, what are your experiences with Airs? What tends to break (or not)? Is it realistic to hope that an Air will still work in five years?

Thanks for any response!
Click to expand...


My late 2010 1.6Ghz 11" C2D with 4Gb and 128GB SSD still rocking hard with el Capitan. granted its just used for normal computing, Safari, mail, numbers, light youtube. I want to upgrade but i cant really find a reason too other than backlit keyboard.
 
current form factor MBA (starting with 2010) could be the least aging laptop in Apple's history haha. I'am serious.

Thanks to it's SSD even machine from 2010 is still plenty fast for most people.
And the longer they keep this form factor (5 years and counting), the more legendary it becomes.
 
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The interesting thing on this and other threads in the MacBook Air Forum is how much people who use the computer really like it, even the older models. I believe the MacBook Air is in the running for the best computer Apple ever made.
 
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