MacBook Air 2014?

[heryaniadam71]

Hi.. I was goin to buy a macbook air 2014 13".. i wanna use it for browsing the web.. school.. and video editing with imovie and maybe final cut..

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...

and im in canada.. so they didnt even lower the price.. the 2014 is $1099.. and the 2013 is now on sale for $1049
im talking about the 13" version..

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

 

[EthanNixon]

Hi.. I was goin to buy a macbook air 2014 13".. i wanna use it for browsing the web.. school.. and video editing with imovie and maybe final cut..

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...Image

and im in canada.. so they didnt even lower the price.. the 2014 is $1099.. and the 2013 is now on sale for $1049
im talking about the 13" version..

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

I don't know if any of what you said is true, but let's say it is:

The SSD will be only a MINOR speed decrease, if any at all. You would not notice it in what you plan to do with your MacBook Air, you would only notice it if you actually benchmark it and compare it to another MacBook Air.

The .1 Ghz actually made about a 10% increase in my gaming performance (only tested one game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive).

The screen on my 2014 goes far enough back to lay in bed with my knees up, so that doesn't bother me at all. It's also far enough for me to sit in an upright position at a normal desk, and that is saying a lot because I'm 6'4.

 

[mad3inch1na]

Hi.. I was goin to buy a macbook air 2014 13".. i wanna use it for browsing the web.. school.. and video editing with imovie and maybe final cut..

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...Image

and im in canada.. so they didnt even lower the price.. the 2014 is $1099.. and the 2013 is now on sale for $1049
im talking about the 13" version..

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

Hi heryaniadam,

Your freinds are misinformed. The SSD is not slower at all. Apple sources SSDs from multiple manufacturers, some which produce faster SSDs than others. There was an article where a tech site bought a new MBA, and it had one of the slower SSDs in it. They wrote an article claiming that all 2014 MBAs had slower SSDs without doing rigorous sampling. The 2013 MBA can also have that SSD, and the 2014 one can have the faster one. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it, as these are synthetic benchmarks, and the SSDs in these computers are so fast that they will rarely be a bottleneck.

In terms of the hinge being replaced, I have not heard anything about that. If they did replace the hinge, I doubt Apple would have made it worse, as it is a fairly cheap part to start with.

So, should you get the 2014 MBA? Your friends were right on at least one end, that it is a minor spec bump from the 2013 model. Apple never claimed that it was a major upgrade, and they didn't even make a live announcement for the product. Apple is not trying to rip customers off, and if anything they were just letting people know that a major update was not coming for a while, and they cut the price by 100$ while they were at it. My philosophy is to get what you need. Do you have a computer that does what you need right now? If not, then get a MBA. I would look on the Apple refurbished site, as you can find essentially new computers on there that are heavily discounted. Definitely look into getting a 2013 model if you can find it discounted for 50$ or more.

If you can wait, I would. Apple is supposedely releasing a redesigned, retina MBA that will be thinner than the current MBA this fall. It isn't 100% going to happen, but the rumors about it are more reliable than what your friends are saying .

The bottom line is that the 2014 MBA will be great. You can save some money and get the 2013 model, which isn't any better than the 2014 model, but it isn't any worse either. If you do not need a computer right now, do not get one.

The real geek at your school,
Matt

Edit: I looked around online for the hinge problem, but there isn't any article or even a forum post about it. If you are concerned about the hinge, ask where your friends heard that from, because I don't see anything to back that up.

 

[SmOgER]

Hi.. I was goin to buy a macbook air 2014 13".. i wanna use it for browsing the web.. school.. and video editing with imovie and maybe final cut..

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...Image

and im in canada.. so they didnt even lower the price.. the 2014 is $1099.. and the 2013 is now on sale for $1049
im talking about the 13" version..

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

That's actually interesting about SSD and screen tilt if it's gonna turn out to be true.

 

[mad3inch1na]

That's actually interesting about SSD and screen tilt if it's gonna turn out to be true.

It isn't.

 

[Orr]

You need to find more knowledgeable geeks to get your information from at school. Your current ones aren't very useful.

 

[SMDBill]

Hi.. I was goin to buy a macbook air 2014 13".. i wanna use it for browsing the web.. school.. and video editing with imovie and maybe final cut..

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...Image

and im in canada.. so they didnt even lower the price.. the 2014 is $1099.. and the 2013 is now on sale for $1049
im talking about the 13" version..

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

I just got a Macbook Air 13" today that I have been watching for a while. When the price dropped $100 recently I was sold on it. I charged it to 100% and after a couple hours of streaming video and browsing I'm only down to 94%. The concerns about the SSD don't appear to be an issue because this thing accesses data and responds to input faster than any laptop I've used, and I'm comparing it to my 2 year old Chromebook, a 2012 Macbook Pro and a 2013 Macbook Pro. None are as speedy in feel as this, and I'm not using the 802.11ac capability since my router isn't capable.

I didn't wait for the retina because this one has really nice resolution (but not retina quality) and is more than sufficient for my needs. Your uses you listed would do incredibly well on this machine. I bought the standard 4GB/128GB because I don't push my RAM usage much and I have a large cloud storage service already. The data I save off-drive isn't "personal" so security isn't a huge concern. Besides, for my purposes 128GB is still large since most of my files are spreadsheets and text document or pdfs.

If you're in need of greater resolution, hold out. If you're like me and want the larger size instead of the higher resolution, buy now. It's a certainty the screen will shrink when it goes retina so you'll probably have a choice of this screen or a smaller retina, and the retina may be a tad slower to push the retina display (unsure but seems reasonable). I'm in awe of this machine and I have zero regrets, regardless if a new one comes out in the coming months. They always do so at some point you'll have an older one anyway.

 

[scaredpoet]

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs..

Wrong. There's a teardown of the 2014 model Airs, and it shows the only thing that has changed is the processor being slightly faster. Literally no other piece of hardware has changed.

they said they put a slower ssd in it..

Wrong. Same SSD models as before. See link above.

and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade..

The only thing they got partially right. Though for $100 less, I'd take "only" a 100Mhz "upgrade" any day.

and they said the screen doesn't tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...

Where did they get their info from? The casing is exactly the same as the 2013 model.

so is this true.. caz if the screen doesnt tilt as far back and if its slower should i just save $50 and get the 2013 one???

If you want to get the 2013 one and save $50, go for it. But you'd not lose anything (except those $50) by going for a 2014 model.

 

[HarryWarden]

Everything I've read pretty much says that there really isn't a reason to get the 2014 MBA when the 2013 can be had for less if you go refurb. That's why I bought a 2013 refurb over a new 2014.

 

[MsMerryMac]

I had the June 2013 MBA 13" for six months before I started having insolvable wifi issues. They upgraded me to the highest 2014 MBA release configuration so I can't really tell any difference except the nice RAM upgrade.

That being said, my 2014 outperforms the 2013 by a margin. It's a great machine. I would not go back to the 2013 - even the Genius at the bar said it was not a great build.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Wrong. There's a teardown of the 2014 model Airs, and it shows the only thing that has changed is the processor being slightly faster. Literally no other piece of hardware has changed.

I thought they changed the Thunderbolt controller (TB2)! Not?

 

[Meister]

so i asked some geeks at school if i should get it.. and they told me the 2013 one is better cuz the 2014 was made to cut costs.. they said they put a slower ssd in it.. and only increased the speed by 0.1 ghz to make it look like an upgrade.. and they said the screen doesnt tilt as far back as the 2013 one.. which i think would be very annoying...Image

Your geeks are not geeky enough and not well informed.

 

[MikeVera]

I thought they changed the Thunderbolt controller (TB2)! Not?

I think that was some sort of misprint, and in reality it's just thunderbolt, not TB2...

 

[SmOgER]

I think that was some sort of misprint, and in reality it's just thunderbolt, not TB2...

There was an discussion thread about it, but unfortunately the OP got banned (for other reasons ).

There is a somewhat possibility that Apple silently made a branch of TB2 MBAs either for testing purposes or it was/is simply cheaper for them than using outdated and no longer mass produced standard.
The idea itself isn't unbelievable, as we recently saw some anomalies in MBA line like 2014 models being disguised as mid-2013 despite having faster processor so there is certainly some movement and transition going on meaning machines bought today can certainly be not the same.

 

[rambo47]

If the OP is going to do any digital video editing, the MacBook Pro would be a better choice IMHO. I love my MBA but I don't do any graphics-intensive work on it. Mostly MS Office stuff, PDF creation, etc.

 

[SmOgER]

If the OP is going to do any digital video editing, the MacBook Pro would be a better choice IMHO. I love my MBA but I don't do any graphics-intensive work on it. Mostly MS Office stuff, PDF creation, etc.

Well it's only worth the hassle if it's 15inch, since 13inch ones aren't much more powerful. But then again, portability and battery life will suffer badly, not to mention the price. If he's gonna edit the video only occasionally and/or these video are short, I would say he's okay with MBA, but it would be wise to get it with i7 obviously.

 

[scaredpoet]

I thought they changed the Thunderbolt controller (TB2)! Not?

Nope.