Refurbished MacBook Airs Hit Apple's Online Store

[el-John-o]

Get your facts straight, or use one before you post uninformed drivel. I had a late 2008 15" MBP, with a 2.66 Core Duo, dual video, and 8GB of RAM. My new 2.13 MBA with SSD is sooo much faster than the MBP that I'm still in awe. Everything from browsing, to photo management to startup to word processing to VMWare is super fast on this thing. Heck, I even ran Autocad on it to see how it performs. Very impressed.

It's not about "Raw specs." It's about user experience.

Agreed. Don't fall for the megahertz-myth. That 2.13GHz Core2Duo will be much faster than a 2.66GHz Core Duo. In fact, that 2.13GHz Core2 is going to be faster than a 3.2GHz Pentium 4. It's more than just the number of cores, too, it's cache size, memory speed, etc. It's true that it's the slowest Mac right now (if you popped an SSD into everything else that is, the SSD makes it blazing fast). With the SSD the MBA "feels" faster, but like you said, that's kind of the point. I'm sorry, but if your trying to do enterprise level productivity, like 3D modeling or high resolution image manipulation, on an 11" notebook?

People need to realize that there are different markets out there. Apple still makes the Macbook Pro for those who need portability mixed with productivity, and the Macbook for those who need similar performance but not as many features. The air, is for the light to moderate Mac user who wants ultra-portability mixed with lightning speed in most things. Honestly, there's probably little a MBP can do that a MBA can't do (besides physical limitations, like a firewire port et al), albeit the MBP would be quicker in CPU intensive stuff.

The negativity is silly, I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Then don't buy that!"

 

[Eidorian]

Agreed. Don't fall for the megahertz-myth. That 2.13GHz Core2Duo will be much faster than a 2.66GHz Core Duo. In fact, that 2.13GHz Core2 is going to be faster than a 3.2GHz Pentium 4. It's more than just the number of cores, too, it's cache size, memory speed, etc. It's true that it's the slowest Mac right now (if you popped an SSD into everything else that is, the SSD makes it blazing fast). With the SSD the MBA "feels" faster, but like you said, that's kind of the point. I'm sorry, but if your trying to do enterprise level productivity, like 3D modeling or high resolution image manipulation, on an 11" notebook?

The older and faster Penryn is still a faster processor.

 

[el-John-o]

The older and faster Penryn is still a faster processor.

Yeah and I'm sure my last-gen Phenom II 965 is faster than this generation Core2Duo too, just like a brand new Ford Focus isn't going to be a 1982 Ferrari, despite the fact that a 2010 Ferrari can beat one from '82. The point is, clock frequency means nothing anymore, so calling it super slow because it clocks at 2.13GHz is silly, because it's still quicker than older, higher clocked CPU's, not to mention (again) the very quick SSD on the MBA.

Granted, stick an SSD into a MacBook or MacBook Pro, and you've got a screamer, but I'd still hasten to say that the MacBook Air is "too slow"

It would not be able to do what it does (be super light and thin) if it had a faster CPU. It's true to call it "slower" than anything else currently out, but it's not fair to call it "slow". It's quite a snappy machine, and can do anything you would expect a notebook to do, and despite it's size, it's much more capable than a netbook. For one, it has a fairly quick GPU (for a notebook anyway), which takes the load off of the CPU in alot of cases.

 

[ArchaicRevival]

The Macbook Air is still a flub now... It won't really take off for another couple of years at least.

Don't ask me if i've seen the numbers... I don't care about that.

 

[Eidorian]

Yeah and I'm sure my last-gen Phenom II 965 is faster than this generation Core2Duo too, just like a brand new Ford Focus isn't going to be a 1982 Ferrari, despite the fact that a 2010 Ferrari can beat one from '82. The point is, clock frequency means nothing anymore, so calling it super slow because it clocks at 2.13GHz is silly, because it's still quicker than older, higher clocked CPU's

I would be more receptive if you could find a benchmark that shows that a 2.13 Ghz Penryn is faster than a 2.66 GHz one. Car analogies fall on my deaf ears.

I can quote product numbers too if you desire.

 

[bokdol]

I would be more receptive if you could find a benchmark that shows that a 2.13 Ghz Penryn is faster than a 2.66 GHz one. Car analogies fall on my deaf ears.

I can quote product numbers too if you desire.

just looking around i found this.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+Duo+T2700+@+2.33GHz

while it did not have the 2.66 it was the fastest core duo on the list.

and here is the slowest penryn model that would have been in the white macbook. it's not the same speed but it is the same family of processors. so it was the closest i could find. i think this is what you meant.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Duo+P7350+@+2.00GHz

the 2.00 c2d model is faster then the 2.33 cd model.

 

[ravenvii]

The Macbook Air is still a flub now... It won't really take off for another couple of years at least.

Don't ask me if i've seen the numbers... I don't care about that.

You don't care about numbers, yet you claim it's a flub?

Interesting system of logic you got there, son.

 

[utl768]

way too expensive for ****** specs

 

[Mikey7c8]

That’s a great machine for $849. My primary production machine for Photoship, Flash, and all my daily computing, has equal/less power than that in every regard! It’s a first-gen Air with HD, not ideal after ~3 years, but it’s serving me very well... and I only have 58GB used on the hard disk! (Because I have another machine housing my iTunes library and my iOS app library.) Next time I’ll get the 11” Air.

If I can survive on less power than that, so can most users on the planet. Add a cheap external display and you’ve got awesome portability/durability with very little sacrifice—for 95% of users’ purposes.

No dude, that's not normal. Suppose it depends on what you're working on and your workflow though

 

[Anonymous Freak]

For those that are curious, they have a rather full selection of them right now, including a fully loaded 11" model for $1189. (Fully loaded: 128 GB SSD ($1199 just for that!) plus 1.6 GHz CPU and 4 GB RAM upgrade.) Regular price $1399, for a whopping $210 (15%) off.

 

[maccompaq]

How much thinner can it get?

 

[maccompaq]

Why are there so many MacBook Airs on the Refurbished list?

 

[madmaxmedia]

Get your facts straight, or use one before you post uninformed drivel. I had a late 2008 15" MBP, with a 2.66 Core Duo, dual video, and 8GB of RAM. My new 2.13 MBA with SSD is sooo much faster than the MBP that I'm still in awe. Everything from browsing, to photo management to startup to word processing to VMWare is super fast on this thing. Heck, I even ran Autocad on it to see how it performs. Very impressed.

It's not about "Raw specs." It's about user experience.

I think it's about considering how all the different raw specs actually impact user experience. For many, many users, a SSD + slower CPU will give a faster user experience than regular HD + faster CPU.