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Most Amazing Thing about the 2012 MacBook Air

Wow, this certainly does make me reconsider selling my 2011 MBA 13" for the 2012. It was an ardent "No, thanks" before this thread.

The battery life is the most attractive "upgrade"... Dang...
 
mikeytrend said:
I'm guessing asymmetrical fans aren't as good at dispersing heat, which would be why they went with the asymmetrical design, but on a lesser scale.
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I would expect the fans to be just as effective, but just be quieter. I wouldn't expect the asymmetry to affect cooling in a negative way.
 
snapper64 said:
Do you use it with an external monitor at all?
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Sometimes, but not that often. Usually when I'm working out of our office (I have a standup setup), but I always go back to using it without. Creature of habit I suppose. This might sound corny, but working with the smaller screen feels more personal (I use the 11" for every aspect of iPhone and iPad development, from asset creation, to UI/UX design, writing all the code, testing and debugging, etc).
 
bizack said:
Sometimes, but not that often. Usually when I'm working out of our office (I have a standup setup), but I always go back to using it without. Creature of habit I suppose. This might sound corny, but working with the smaller screen feels more personal (I use the 11" for every aspect of iPhone and iPad development, from asset creation, to UI/UX design, writing all the code, testing and debugging, etc).
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Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm in a similar situation to you in terms of performance needs.

I've currently got a top end 2011 15" MBP and aside from being massively overpowered for my needs I'm sick of the size and weight. The 11" Air (possibly in addition to an external monitor at home) is looking very tempting. Either that or a 13" Air.
 
Most Amazing Thing about the 2012 MacBook Air ?

That it arrived in the Apple store way ahead... of the upcoming iPhone - Whatever They Call It.

You Know, the one we keep hearing rumors about.

Perhaps Apple is still struggling with the paint. :eek:
 
It's certainly good news regarding the battery life of the 11" MBA. IMO, it's the best machine ever, and now it's even better!

I won't sell my current 2011 11" MBA, but it's nice to know that people are seeing better battery life. It rarely gets better by such a large amount!
 
I'm not stressing my 11" MBA much (websurfing, no Flash, Xcode, network file xfers), but I am getting 5+ hours on a battery charge with screen brightness around 50%, wifi on, BT off.

Also agree with bizak; even though I can hook up to a 1080p 24" as my second display, I've only done it to prove it works so far. Would rather be on the couch with my MBA in my lap. The trackpad with its 4 finger gestures makes it super easy to flit between multiple full screen programs.
 
Sounds Good said:
What does the 4 finger gesture do? (sorry, no Mac just yet -- but soon)
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In Lion, you can set up multiple desktops (use an upward 4 finger swipe to see all). This way, you can 4 finger swipe left and right to switch between desktops and programs running full screen.

for example, screen 1 could be Safari. Swipe to the right and MS Word is full screen. Swipe to the right again and another program is running. Swipe to the left and you're back to MS Word, and one more swipe to the left brings you back to Safari.

It's really cool and allows each program to use 100% screeen space and still be easy to flit between programs.
 
This is my best MBA ever!

After owning the original MBA and all 3 releases of the 11" MBA maxed out (except for my 2012 which has the 256 GB SSD), I can unequivocally say this is the most amazing notebook ever.

Yes, I was VERY tempted by the Retina MBP, but I could not go back to a larger, heavier notebook for daily use. This new 11" MBA is a dream...

1.- The battery lasts way longer
2.- The fan is much quieter
3.- It feels way cooler than the 2011 MBA
4.- It is super fast! I mean super fast!

And at $1,649 and in stock at many Apple stores, this is the most satisfying notebook purchase I've ever made!
 
Ptdr said:
On the top of these, we also have USB3 and the screen resolution is improved :)
(Many people were complaining about the crap screen resolution on the macbook air..)
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Outrigger said:
how has the screen res been improved on the air???
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The poor screen resolution of the 2011 13 inch MBA was the reason I decided to stick with my 2010 model. The 2011 13 inch MBA had a native screen resolution of only 1336 X 768, compared to 1440 X 900 on the 2010 model. The loss in resolution was the result of the GPU that Intel had integrated with its last generation i5 and i7 chips. The new Sandy Bridge i5 and i7 chips, which are used on the 2012 model MBAs, contain a new integrated GPU, which once again produces a native resolution of 1440 X 900.

EDIT: Upon further research, it appears that I may have been wrong about the native resolution of the 2011 13 inch MBA. In any event, the conventional wisdom is that the graphical performance of the 2011 models was inferior to that of the 2010s
 
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gwsat said:
The poor screen resolution of the 2011 13 inch MBA was the reason I decided to stick with my 2010 model. The 2011 13 inch MBA had a native screen resolution of only 1336 X 768, compared to 1440 X 900 on the 2010 model. The loss in resolution was the result of the GPU that Intel had integrated with its last generation i5 and i7 chips. The new Sandy Bridge i5 and i7 chips, which are used on the 2012 model MBAs, contain a new integrated GPU, which once again produces a native resolution of 1440 X 900.
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The 2010 MBA13 used a Core 2 Duo + nVidia GT320m IGP setup. It jumped straight to Sandy Bridge in 2011.

The MBA13, since 2010, has continuously been 1440x900. Before that, it was only in 1280x800. Only the MBA11 has ever had the 1366x768 resolution.
 
jeremyshaw said:
The 2010 MBA13 used a Core 2 Duo + nVidia GT320m IGP setup. It jumped straight to Sandy Bridge in 2011.

The MBA13, since 2010, has continuously been 1440x900. Before that, it was only in 1280x800. Only the MBA11 has ever had the 1366x768 resolution.
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Yeah, I decided to avoid getting into the nitty gritty of the difference between the discrete Nvidia GT320m GPU, used in the 2010 MBAs, and the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU used in the 2011 models. Getting into that would have invited a discussion of the reasons for the change, which I feared was more information than most posters here wanted to receive. Also note the addendum I added to my post when I edited it.
 
Guys, have you checked the display make of these and compared it to last years? Just wondering as the display is currently the only thing preventing me from upgrading my Air versus getting a new Retina Pro. I don't need the resolution of the Retina Pro, just the IPS color accuracy and saturation. I know the new one isn't IPS, but was hoping for some improvement nevertheless. Thanks!
 
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Maziar said:
It seems the battery life is indeed longer on the MBA 2012(as some guys mentioned here )
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-2012.aspx
"We were pleasantly surprised to find that, during the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi), the Air lasted 8 hours and 10 minutes. That's almost 90 minutes longer than the ultraportable category average, and well above the last 13-inch Air (6:25)."
Click to expand...

Would like to see the same battery test comparison done with an 11" too.
 
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