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MacBook Air First Impressions and Notes

After one week of usage I´m still more than pleased with my MBA 1.6/80.It perfectly suits my needs and build quality is really amazing.Only thing that I noticed:My MBA screen seems to have a slight "structure" or grain,as seen on MBP displays (non glossy).You can see it quite well on a bright webpage when scrolling.
Anyone else experienced this?
 
Dr.Seafeld said:
After one week of usage I´m still more than pleased with my MBA 1.6/80.It perfectly suits my needs and build quality is really amazing.Only thing that I noticed:My MBA screen seems to have a slight "structure" or grain,as seen on MBP displays (non glossy).You can see it quite well on a bright webpage when scrolling.
Anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a little grain, though it seems much better than what used to be the case with the MBPs before they started using the new LED lit displays. I don't find it very bothering, but of course I'd prefer if there were none like on the macbooks and current MBPs.
 
I don't want to start a new thread for my question so I figured I would ask here: Does anybody know the official release date? I have to wait one month to get a discount 🙁 and I still can't order as of yesterday
 
Silly reply - I love this computer

I am a Windows user, work the entire day with that machine, it is a company issued laptop, the sensation when I go back home and use this machine, is that this is a fun machine, not work related. No logic in it, just emotion.
 
El Guapo said:
I don't want to start a new thread for my question so I figured I would ask here: Does anybody know the official release date? I have to wait one month to get a discount 🙁 and I still can't order as of yesterday
Click to expand...
Official release date of what?
 
Munich said:
I am a Windows user, work the entire day with that machine, it is a company issued laptop, the sensation when I go back home and use this machine, is that this is a fun machine, not work related. No logic in it, just emotion.
Click to expand...

Nah, that's logical enough. It's the same deal with actually move to somewhere to do work as opposed to having our desk in our living room.
Makes sense to me.
 
Finally!!!

Moved over from PCs. Was hating my Toshiba for quite some time. Travel a lot for work and carry two laptops, personal and work. This MBA is perfect. It is faster by far than any PC I've used and I'm no longer a slave to Microsoft.

This is my only computer and is quite fine in size and performance for my needs. Enjoying all the features which are new to me if not everyone else.

My one complaint, and it is a big one, is the sharp edge. Right now I wrap a blanket around the edge to protect my wrist/palm while sitting in bed. Will keep my eye out for more elegant solutions which I'm sure will arise.
 
After selling my MBP and purchasing my MBA, all I can say is that I'm very happy with the switch. I have a Mac Pro at home for power and the Air is a great satellite machine to complement it. I travel all the time and it's a pleasure carrying the Air as opposed to the MBP, which was overkill for the tasks I performed on the road. All I really did was email, chat, blogging(MarsEdit 2 rocks), Slingplayer, iTunes and iPhoto. The Air is more than enough for this. This is a must buy if you travel frequently.
 
A shared tale of woe to share, good stuff too!

I've had my MBA (1.8/80)~ 3 weeks, and like most, have loved it. I am a convert from Windows, so am learning the OS.

A few days ago, I felt that the machine was slowing down. Then, I had trouble with the booting slowing down. Then it took several re-starts to boot, and finally, no boot at all! By the way, I take better care of this beauty than I do of myself, so no trauma or abuse was involved.

Fortunately, The Apple Store is right across the street from my office, and 3 miles from my home. I brought it in, and it is a dead hard drive! If you notice these symptoms, be sure to back up (as I am now doing with .mac, until I get time capsule).

The Apple crew was very good and gave me a new machine, but oops- a 1.6/80! So it looks like in a couple of weeks when my new special order 1.8/80 comes in, I will be the proud owner of a 3rd new MBA. Is this a record or what?

On another techtourture note, last night my Airport extreme stopped working wirelessly, so tomorrow another trip to The Apple Store. I hope they just have to wave a magic wand to fix it (I tried all manuvers), as I am want a new 1TB Time Capsule, not a new replacement Airport Extreme! We will see.

The final technomisery I have been experiencing is frequent "unexpected shutdown" of Keynote when I copy and paste slides. I also notice slowing down when I create a moderate number of slides. When the machine slows down, I restart it, and this helps. Anyone else notice these issues?

On a happy note, I found that the Boqa Bag Vyper I belive it is the XS2 (http://www.pivotgear.com/products/sleeves) to be very light and strong. It has 3 external vertical reinforcement ribs to keep the sleeve somewhat rigid, and the reinforced nylon provides excellent protection for my aluminum case. Inside, it is scratch resistant, and the strong zipper with two pulls are protected from the computer. It is a very nice bag, and interestingly, when I magically remove my computer, it has the same awe inspiring effect as removing from a yellow mailer.

Please let me know if any of you have had similar experiences.

thanks.

sek:🙁
 
Great in-flight battery life

Just got off an SFO to JFK nonstop and got 4+ hours battery life. After reading about potential battery life issues for long plane rides, this was a pleasant result.

Great machine.
 
I got my MBA yesterday and so far so good. The screen is gorgeous, it sits flush on any flat surface, no fan noise yet, and as far as my MBA is concerned, the battery meets Apples promised battery time and the charging time is also acceptable.

However, I have one concern that is really a non-issue and I will not act on it. The gap between the right hinge and the plastic Airport antenna is three to four times as wide as the gap between the left hinge and the antenna. This discrepancy is only visible when the lid is open. Anyone else have this issue? Since I am super anal about these things, I can't help but being annoyed about this very minor, but in my eyes very unsightly flaw. I know that I had a similar issue with my first Alu Powerbook, but at least that flaw was less obvious.

All in all I am very pleased with my purchase. Even thought updated MBPs were released today I do not regret going for the MBA. It certainly is a marvelous machine!
 
I've been using my stock 1.6GHz/80GB MBA for the past week and a half now and it's been by far, the best apple notebook I've ever used.

I want to give you a bit of background on my computer usage. I've been using apple products for a little less than 5 years now. Notebook wise, I've owned a 12" PB/867MHz (sold, got too hot), 15"PB/1.25GHz (LCD cracked and died) and a 15" MBP/2.0GHz CD (logic board just went). Desktop wise, I've owned low end CD Mac Mini (forgot the CPU speed) and now a mac pro. This machine is flat out awesome. It fits the niche that it is meant to fill - the student that is always on the go, the business professional that is on travel half the year, a person that wants a laptop and none of the bulk that uses it only for internet, email and light CPU usage. I am #2. I use my mac like everyone else - for internet/email/productivity/itunes, etc, use parallels for MS project, watch movies that I've handbraked etc. I don't use it for CPU intensive apps like final cut, MATLAB, Mathematica, etc.

For me, this machine fits the bill. You are probably asking, why is he saying that this is the best apple notebook he's ever used? Weight is #1 on my list when carrying around a computer. When the 15" PB came out - I found that to be a great compromise of portability and power. I had the opportunity to buy the 17", but I am on a plane or train so often, it would never fit on the damn tray! People laugh when I tell then the 3 lb difference means a lot when I'm travel, but IT DOES. Walking in an airport or on the metro, the less the better. So weight wise, this machine is nirvana.

Performance wise, it's snappy enough. It isn't as fast as my old MBP and I do miss the extra real estate on the screen, but like I said, weight savings is #1 in my book. Like I said, I run the apps mentioned above and if you are a power user, this isn't the machine for you. I have the luxury of having a mac pro at my work desk because I am a pseudo IT guy, so anything that I need to run that requires CPU or CPU heavy lifting, I just do it there. If this is going to be your main machine, I'd really think about what you are going to use it for before you break out your credit card. Granted, its a new machine and all of us that open up the box and use their new mac is always snappy...but for now, its a great machine for what I use it for. In addition, I notice no change when plugging it into my 24" monitor at work - no lag time with the Intel X3100 graphics (there was noticeable lag when I was using my friends older macbook) - this is probably due to the difference in graphic chipsets.

Feature wise - I love the full size/backlit keyboard and its feedback is among the best out of any keyboard I've ever used on a mac. I love the 13" screen. I used a 13" black MB as a loner mac during the two months that my 15" PB was dying but the LED screen really does make a difference and the weight savings is a dealbreaker. I do miss the screen real estate, but I wouldn't change this machine a bit (I saw a thread about a 15" MBA - I think that would defeat the purpose of an ultra-portable.) You do compromise on the 1 usb port and non user replacement batter - but who cares. Get a hub. End of story. Get applecare that will, in the end, pay for itself in the form of a replacement battery.

There is a thread in the MBA forums - "he real point of MacBook Air - and why everyone is missing it." It's mostly haters that it's so expensive, there's only 1 USB port, you can't replace the battery, blah blah blah. I think that everything that I've mentioned in my post surely justifies the purchase. As a working professional that needs a lightweight notebook that will perform day-to-day tasks and can sacrifice screen size/limited ports/no ethernet without using the USB etc, then this machine is for you. If not, Apple has 2 other notebooks that will do the job. But people find a reason to complain anyway...

So anyway, do your research when buying anything new! IMO, this machine ROCKS and for what I need it for, it fills the bill perfectly. 😀
 
Just Right!

Well, I've had this machine now for a few weeks and it does exactly what I wanted it to do! No, it is not a desktop replacement and doesn't have the speed of my MBP C2D machine. What is does have is better battery life, better keyboard, a great screen and of course the weight savings. If you want a great travel machine that does most everything you need then this is the way to go!
 
Parallels

I love my MBA. It's my first macbook--my last apple computer was an Apple IIc.

I finally made the switch because of Parallels, and my ability to run a couple of essential windows applications side by side with mac applications.

Unfortunately, Parallels has been causing kernel crashes, and after many hours of consternation (adjusting settings, reinstalling windows, etc.), I came to find out that this is a problem with many other/all Macbook Air users.
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=19507

I hope this is fixed soon! It's really ironic that I've been waiting for years until a program like parallels worked well before I made the switch--and parallels will run on every modern mac except mine!
 
Returned mine

Lots of people seem to like the MBA. I got one thinking I would sell my MBP, but ended up keeping the MBP and returning the MBA. For me, the added flexibility of the MBP -- and especially the larger screen -- was more important than the reduced weight. Fortunately, I have an MBP with an LED glossy screen, like the MBA. After using the LED screen, I would not buy a computer without it.
 
glhiii said:
Fortunately, I have an MBP with an LED glossy screen, like the MBA. After using the LED screen, I would not buy a computer without it.
Click to expand...

My next MBP will have the LED screen. My LCD screen on my first generation MBP is not bad, but compared to the LED screens, there's less power used and the brighter colors stand out a lot more.
 
Final Cut Pro and MacBook Air

Not sure if other people have already commented on this (if so, I'd like to know the thread), but Final Cut Pro doesn't seem to be installable on any MacBook Air because of the integrated Intel video card/chip. This seems to me like something many people haven't been made aware of when buying.
 
adriankong said:
Not sure if other people have already commented on this (if so, I'd like to know the thread), but Final Cut Pro doesn't seem to be installable on any MacBook Air because of the integrated Intel video card/chip. This seems to me like something many people haven't been made aware of when buying.
Click to expand...

Yet it's no surprise. I can't help but wonder why you're trying to use FCP on what is essentially a dumbed down MacBook?
 
I've had my MBA (1.6, 80) for a few days now, and my first impression is good. This is my first Mac, I've had a DOS/Windows PC for almost 20 years now, and some Linux experience.

Overall I'm happy with the quality and performance of the machine, but there are a few glitches. The Adobe Flash plugin eats up way too much CPU, so watching YouTube videos makes the fan rev up quickly. My previous laptop is a single core 1.6GHz Celeron and seems to run flash better than the Air. But I know this is more of a software bug that - I hope - will get fixed soon.

The processor temperature gets as high as 85C when importing CD's to iTunes, installing software or doing something CPU intensive. But usually I'm just running a browser, a terminal and iTunes, which keeps the cpu at 50-60C and the fan virtually silent.

The display is awesome, but I noticed a build quality flaw in the panel: when rapidly changing from a mostly white window to a black window, there is an area on the right hand side that leaves a dim "shadow" of the previous image that fades away within a few seconds. This is also noticeable sometimes when watching a night scene in a movie. So I'm taking my Air back to the store to get it fixed or replaced.
 
I received my MBA (1.8, 64 SSD) on Monday and have been playing with it ever since.

I used to use Macintosh in the distant past (remember Owl? Hypercard?) but when I changed institutions 12 years ago I switched to Windows.

Since I travel and speak a lot for work, I have been trying to find the best traveling laptop. I went from a Dell X1 (three years ago) to a Sony Vaio TX (April 07) then TZ 190 (August 07).

The Vaio TZ is not a bad machine, but Vista Business and Office 2007 really didn't turn me on so much. Form factor and weight (2.2 lbs with the lightweight battery you can get from Japan) were excellent, and the battery life with the extended battery is over 7-8 hours. I liked the internal DVD player but found that after a while I wasn't using it that much.

I loved the WWAN with Sprint, and routinely got around 1 Mbps downstream just about everywhere (it is fun Skyping your kids and wife from the back of a limo riding down I-76 in Ohio). The Wifi/WWAN software interface of the Vaio is a bit kludgy (it is Sony proprietary software) and occasionally would freeze when the sleep function was activated, but overall it worked fine.

I am the kind of guy Apple and Steve Jobs want to suck back into the Apple fold, and their strategy worked perfectly with me.

It started with an iPod for my wife several years ago (3rd gen nano), and progressed today to a 4th gen nano for my daughter, a 24 inch 2.8 intel iMac running Parallels and Leopard for the family in the kitchen (form factor is really a plus), and an Apple TV for the entertainment center in the family room. I also bought a 1 GB shuffle for songs when I work out. I need Exchange Server for work, and I will buy a 16 GB iPhone when they come out with the software upgrade in June which will allow push email in Exchange.

So when the MBA was announced in January, my 8 year old son (who is a computer and software nut like me--his current dream is to work at the Genius Bar before he is 10) and I knew that one would end up in our family. My TZ has the 32 GB SSD, so I knew I wanted one with an SSD.

I ordered it through work about a month ago, and it came on Monday. I did two things before it came. I first read this forum (found through Google) and I also found out about an EVDO portable battery operated router (Cradlepoint PHS 300) which I bought with a Novatel Sprint USB antenna from 3gstore.com.

When the MBA came, the first thing I did was to reformat the SSD and reinstall Leopard without much of the features (printer drivers, translations, etc) that I didn't need. I followed the instructions from this forum. I had about 44 GB left.

I also read in this forum that Parallels didn't work very well on the MBA for some unknown reason, so I installed a trial version of VM Fusion with an 8GB partition. I installed Windows XP as well as Office 2003 and AVG free antivirus software, and I have to say that all work perfectly.

I also installed Office 2008 Mac on the MBA, and it also works perfectly.

The EVDO portable router with the Sprint USB antenna works like a charm, allowing internet access everywhere at about 1.1-1.2 Mbps dowstream everywhere, without any need for Mac OS specific software interfacing.

I have spent the last day or so sifting through my GB of files to put on this new machine, and without putting any of my music or video on the machine (that's what a Firefly drive is for) I have about 27-28 GB left.

Everything has worked great, and only one or two resets needed (basically from my ignorance and learning curve for Leopard).

Ask me again in a month (I'll repost them) and I'll let you know how I feel, but to me this is the future of computing---NOW. Two OSs, a lightweight, portable machine, EVDO access everywhere.

In the immortal words of Dick Vitale--"AWESOME, BABY."

Soory for the long post, but I am glad to return to the Mac family after a long absence, and I'm loving it.
 
jont-fu said:
The display is awesome, but I noticed a build quality flaw in the panel: when rapidly changing from a mostly white window to a black window, there is an area on the right hand side that leaves a dim "shadow" of the previous image that fades away within a few seconds. This is also noticeable sometimes when watching a night scene in a movie. So I'm taking my Air back to the store to get it fixed or replaced.
Click to expand...

Oh, this is weird, but now the shadow spot is gone. I can't reproduce the effect anymore. So it's kind of fixed by itself overnight? I'll see for a few weeks if it will come back, let's hope not. BTW I haven't carried the MBA with me yet, so it can't be any physical damage. I'm happy with the machine now 😀
 
Should I buy my AIR now?

do not want to start a new thread.. but i really want to get some opinion. Should i get my AIR this weekend? or should I still wait till APPLE settle all the bugs?? I have been waiting to buy AIR since day 1.. starting was because there is no stock.. now is because of the bug.. how?
 
macairlover said:
do not want to start a new thread.. but i really want to get some opinion. Should i get my AIR this weekend? or should I still wait till APPLE settle all the bugs?? I have been waiting to buy AIR since day 1.. starting was because there is no stock.. now is because of the bug.. how?
Click to expand...

there will never be a 100% flawless line, I say go for it, worst comes to worst you'll have to exchange it. no big deal... or?
 
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