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New MBAs: worse battery & graphics, more weight

revelated said:
People are complaining AGAIN about the graphics card. Stop being brand hookers. The Intel card is fine for the majority of regular users. If you are a power user, you need to go to another machine.
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Interesting to see this being posted on an Apple-related website. Sorry - I just couldn't help myself :cool:
 
Davidkoh said:
Going by the same test as you linked the graphics performance in WoW gave higher FPS on the 2011 model. I don't think this will be the case when we get more review out testing different conditions and so on. But it shows the problem with basing your opinions on a single review.
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It absolutely will give higher FPS.

WOW is CPU reliant not GPU.
 
Dam you MBA! Why are you so effin fat!! I'm going to go to your bigger sister now (MBP). At least has an optical drive. :rolleyes:
 
revelated said:
The problem is people don't understand. They want "...the world chico...and everything in it." and don't seem to grasp how simple this really is. I blame Apple in part for perpetuating this mythological phenom.

  • They want massive battery life. Apple tells them "up to 8 hours". They get 4 because they're using it more heavily than Apple's theoretical maximum which IS POSSIBLE, just unrealistic. Blame Apple for piss poor marketing and users for being idiots and not realistic.
  • They want a backlight keyboard. Apple gives them the keyboard. Then people complain about the battery impact, as if the light is coming from pixies in the keyboard and thus should not impact the battery.
  • They want a super slim machine. Apple releases the 2010 model. People complain that the backlight is gone and can't understand why it's gone, but tons of people say "ehh...backlight annoyed me anyway", as if they were incapable of just TURNING IT OFF.
  • They wanted a trackpad similar to the one in the Pro. Apple gave basically the same trackpad. People complained about how "mushy" it was compared to the Pro, same as with the keyboard. Even though it should be obvious to be a blindfolded stuck in the basement asleep Stevie Wonder why this is - given the existing chicklet keys' travel is about a third the total thickness.
  • They want an nVidia card. Apple gave them one. Problem is, people don't really know why they want that card; they look at the brand name and assume that it must be superior to the Intel card. In some ways it is. The issue is that for 90% of the use cases out there, the Intel is more than suffcient.

Now, here we are in 2011.

People are complaining AGAIN about the battery impact of the backlight keyboard. The backlight will consume power. It is not run from pixie ass. If this bothers you, TURN IT OFF.

People are complaining AGAIN about the graphics card. Stop being brand hookers. The Intel card is fine for the majority of regular users. If you are a power user, you need to go to another machine.

People are complaining AGAIN about the reported battery life. The battery life reported is an ESTIMATE. It is not to be held to with any real confidence. It depends on how you use the frickin machine.

People are complaining AGAIN about the weight of the machine. It's not the same processor. It's not the same board. They added the backlight. Yes, it will weigh a slight bit more. This should NOT be a dealbreaker.
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THIS! YES! THANK YOU!

Why don't people understand this!!!
 
sporadicMotion said:
He's right. A quick google search will tell you that. It's not as if it's the sole contributor but it is none the less true.
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Oh is it because it is up to the CPU to load the textures when moving between areas/characters?

Also while researching this I read that hyper threading hinders the performance in WoW. Is there a way to turn this off on the MBA?
 
Oppressed said:
Oh is it because it is up to the CPU to load the textures when moving between areas/characters?

Also while researching this I read that hyper threading hinders the performance in WoW. Is there a way to turn this off on the MBA?
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Yup, absolutely. You'll need xcode installed... good idea, that might explain the discrepancy between WoW and the other games.
 
It's also very likely Lion is not heavily optimized for power management yet. I'd expect that to get better over time.
 
revelated said:
The problem is people don't understand. They want "...the world chico...and everything in it." and don't seem to grasp how simple this really is. I blame Apple in part for perpetuating this mythological phenom.

  • They want massive battery life. Apple tells them "up to 8 hours". They get 4 because they're using it more heavily than Apple's theoretical maximum which IS POSSIBLE, just unrealistic. Blame Apple for piss poor marketing and users for being idiots and not realistic.
  • They want a backlight keyboard. Apple gives them the keyboard. Then people complain about the battery impact, as if the light is coming from pixies in the keyboard and thus should not impact the battery.
  • They want a super slim machine. Apple releases the 2010 model. People complain that the backlight is gone and can't understand why it's gone, but tons of people say "ehh...backlight annoyed me anyway", as if they were incapable of just TURNING IT OFF.
  • They wanted a trackpad similar to the one in the Pro. Apple gave basically the same trackpad. People complained about how "mushy" it was compared to the Pro, same as with the keyboard. Even though it should be obvious to be a blindfolded stuck in the basement asleep Stevie Wonder why this is - given the existing chicklet keys' travel is about a third the total thickness.
  • They want an nVidia card. Apple gave them one. Problem is, people don't really know why they want that card; they look at the brand name and assume that it must be superior to the Intel card. In some ways it is. The issue is that for 90% of the use cases out there, the Intel is more than suffcient.

Now, here we are in 2011.

People are complaining AGAIN about the battery impact of the backlight keyboard. The backlight will consume power. It is not run from pixie ass. If this bothers you, TURN IT OFF.

People are complaining AGAIN about the graphics card. Stop being brand hookers. The Intel card is fine for the majority of regular users. If you are a power user, you need to go to another machine.

People are complaining AGAIN about the reported battery life. The battery life reported is an ESTIMATE. It is not to be held to with any real confidence. It depends on how you use the frickin machine.

People are complaining AGAIN about the weight of the machine. It's not the same processor. It's not the same board. They added the backlight. Yes, it will weigh a slight bit more. This should NOT be a dealbreaker.
Click to expand...


That was funny with very good points made :D
 
i doubt any of the review sites did their battery tests with the backlit keys on.

... maybe it's the CPU, or Lion? i haven't looked into this issue carefully, but i doubt it has anything to do with backlit keys.

i plus 1'd the Ronald Reagan post though. i don't pay that much attention to the graphics tests, but it seems like all the reviews i've seen so far have the 3000 HD performing on par, sometimes better, than the 320M. (EDIT: am I wrong?) are we actually reading the benchmarks or just going on with the old 'Intel IGP sucks' dogma mindlessly?

as for the weight, i wonder if this is physically noticeable. EDIT: is it?
 
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My 11" i5 MBA shows 6 and a half hours right after I disconnect the mag-safe cable.

The weight increase is unfortunate. I blame the backlit-keyboard-wanting pantywaists. :lol:

I haven't noticed any problem with graphics. I don't care about the MBA's ability to handle graphics-intensive games though.
 
What your battery indicator shows and how long a battery lasts with real use are two different things.
 
ender21 said:
And yet its voicing ones opinions that likely affects the greatest amount of change versus keeping ones mouth shut.
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There's nothing to change! Apple can't win with its hardware no matter what it does, and it's partially their own fault with their annual release cycle. Constant complaining with no satisfaction. I mean there are people who COMPLAINED about adding the backlight back in there because their battery was impacted - instead of just TURNING IT OFF. Really?
 
If those really are the numbers for the weight increases, and people are complaining about it...

Then truly there is no hope for you ever to be happy.
 
I'm a total brand whore, on Macrumors. Lookin for somethin' big boy?

Excellent rant, by the way--spot on.
 
CapnJackGig said:
Seriously. Who the heck in their right mind buys a Mac for gaming?
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I did :). I have the 11 inch 2010 model. Dualbooting between windows and mac is great.

As much as wow is "CPU intensive", with the lower end graphics cards like the intel or nvidia one, the gpu will be your bottleneck everytime. I run wow at ~60 fps via windows at low/medium settings.
 
God, I wish I had a life and didn't have to spend my time on forums to see this symphony of whining...

Note to self: Become an alcoholic.

:)


Seriously though, I just wish to say that in the age in which we are living, the Apple and similar companies are pushing the envelope of computing. I.e. we are on the border of impossible. This is it.. It is as cool and as fast, and as quiet, and as light, and beautiful as it can get today.

If you are constantly unhappy with the latest from the best, yes you may be a person with a vision who requires the future today, but you will spend your life an unhappy bastard who always complained about that something is 0.3kgs heavier, or 10 minutes shorter, or 5 Celsius warmer, or 5 decibels louder, or not as shiny, or has an LG panel and Toshiba SSD, and before you know it.. puff.. you will be married and screwed... and there will be the colour of the curtains and kids school bills and barbecues on Sunday with people you don't really like, talking about things you don't want to talk about...

Simply, if you are not happy with what arguably the best two companies in computing today (Apple and Intel) made for you, well.. life is hard.. what can anyone do for you?

Enjoy.
 
Typswif2fingers said:
God, I wish I had a life and didn't have to spend my time on forums to see this symphony of whining...

Note to self: Become an alcoholic.

:)


Seriously though...

Simply, if you are not happy with what arguably the best two companies in computing today (Apple and Intel) made for you, well.. life is hard.. what can anyone do for you?

Enjoy.
Click to expand...

See the forest for the trees. What you call "whining" visionary companies might call useful feedback for bug fixes or features for future products.

I wonder which is more productive, shutting up and taking what you're offered, or discussing what one believes can be improved? In most cases, I'd wager action beats out no action.

Ironically you're castigating some of the very people that helped the products you love become what they are right now.

Companies don't come up with features or bug fixes that their customers want out of a hole in the ground. It *does* require feedback. As always, there's a middle ground between the extremes that can be very productive, and people can go too far one way or the other. I for one would rather err on the side of talking too much than not enough. But having that useful dialogue requires the ability to filter out the outliers, rather than complaining about their very existence (ha, complaining about complainers.)

Though this site obviously does not belong to Apple, having a community of people who can share problems, issues, bugs, likes & dislikes, helps the flow of communication get to where it needs to go moreso than silence. If 20 people have a problem with one thing on their machine, if it encourages one extra person to send Apple feedback about it (or if Apple monitors such sites on an occasional basis), then it's productive.

Trees, meet forest.
 
.06 lbs is less than an ounce. To even cite this is ridiculous considering the overall device weight.

Solution, remove iPhone case, you are now saving more than the gained ounce.
 
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