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Snappy? Snappier? Snappiest? I win!!!!

netdog

netdog

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
The MBA 2.13 has got to be the snappiest portable that Apple has ever made.

Raw power aside, this thing opens applications and documents, navigates through finder and updates its display in lightning speed.

They should call it the MBA Snap!
 
netdog said:
The MBA 2.13 has got to be the snappiest portable that Apple has ever made.

Raw power aside, this thing opens applications and documents, navigates through finder and updates its display in lightning speed.

They should call it the MBA Snap!
Click to expand...

Don't confuse speed of opening applications and actual raw performance...
It's very nice to use, i am enjoying mine but the darn lack of backlit keyboard got on my nerves last night when i was working in bed.
It's really a step backwards, no doubt about it.
Other than that, it's a very very nice machine (have the 2.13/4/256 13.3)
 
That's why I said, "Raw Power Aside".

Anybody trying to use an MBA to get truly heavy lifting done is probably using the wrong machine.

Most of our computing, however, never begins to unleash the power of our processors and bus systems.
 
No, I had a Rev. B MBA with an SSD, but it wasn't nearly as responsive. Apps on the new machines open MUCH faster. It's pretty much instantaneous. Everything about the machine is snappiest. It's really amazing.

And for what it's worth, I have a Mac Pro which will blow this thing away when it comes to heavy lifting, but in average light use (Safari, Mail, iTunes, VMWare XP, MSN Messenger, Preview, etc.), this laptop is subjectively much faster. Surely objectively too.

This is the future of laptops. The Rev. B only hinted at the future (if you could hear above the howling winds of the fans).
 
For most users, they will feel the snap. This is because most users NEVER come close to maxing out CPU's. The CPU speed/multicore one-upsmanship doesnt apply if you are not going to utilize the extra horsepower. The "power user" can complain all he/she wants about specs, but the Air was never designed for them.
 
at the apple store it took the MBA 20 seconds to start up.

my Ipad about .000000000001 seconds.

Ipad snappier

/thread :D
 
eawmp1 said:
For most users, they will feel the snap. This is because most users NEVER come close to maxing out CPU's. The CPU speed/multicore one-upsmanship doesnt apply if you are not going to utilize the extra horsepower. The "power user" can complain all he/she wants about specs, but the Air was never designed for them.
Click to expand...

Agreed. And most people aren't power users, even if they think of themselves as such.

This laptop was designed to meet 99% of consumers' portable needs and it does so brilliantly.


Doc750 said:
at the apple store it took the MBA 20 seconds to start up.

my Ipad about .000000000001 seconds.

Ipad snappier

/thread :D
Click to expand...

I should have said OS X SNAPPIEST.
 
Doc750 said:
at the apple store it took the MBA 20 seconds to start up.

my Ipad about .000000000001 seconds.

Ipad snappier

/thread :D
Click to expand...

The backlit keyboard works great on the iPad, and it works even better when laying in bed!

Just a bit of humor. I am not comparing the iPad to the air. Two totally different machines for different purposes.
 
Amen!

netdog said:
Agreed. And most people aren't power users, even if they think of themselves as such.

This laptop was designed to meet 99% of consumers' portable needs and it does so brilliantly.
Click to expand...

This is one of the all time true statements. Many tend to spec their machine for something they do not do on a regular basis, versus how they use a system day to day. Computer manufacturers have to create the perception of obsolete systems, so that we will buy another one, otherwise the world would have hit the saturation point a long time ago. The Mac I bought three years ago still does an amazing job. We complain about beach balls that last a fraction of a second, and we do it while waiting in line for 20 minutes to pay $4 for a cup of coffee.

Much like automobiles, we have systems designed to go 200 mph, and our driving skills max out somewhere in the 80 mph range. I read a lot about gaming specs and 1080p video, along with photo and video editing. Apple makes the Mac Pro for the high end of the spectrum.

I wanted the MBA 11" because I want to be able to open my screen in coach seating on an airplane, and not worry about the guy in front of me reclining his seat. I also bought it because my shoulder really hurts from carrying too much weight in my backpack every day.
 
yankintx said:
The backlit keyboard works great on the iPad, and it works even better when laying in bed!

Just a bit of humor. I am not comparing the iPad to the air. Two totally different machines for different purposes.
Click to expand...

Haha dude that is so true though, I do miss my iPad when laying in bed as the obvious lit up keyboard makes it nice, but I have no trouble being a touch typist I never look at the keyboard except to adjust volume, brightness etc..

The iPad is very handy for watching video, although with my MBA I don't have to pay for that BS Hulu+ so it's worth the trade off. It is a damn shame Apple didn't give us a choice on backlighting.
 
elwood58 said:
The Mac I bought three years ago still does an amazing job. We complain about beach balls that last a fraction of a second, and we do it while waiting in line for 20 minutes to pay $4 for a cup of coffee.
Click to expand...
That's a good point. My 2007 2.4Ghz Santa Rosa MBP, which is now nearly 3 years old, is still going strong. It has been my primary computer over the course of that time. I plan to buy a 13 inch 2.13Ghz MBA with 4Gb of RAM but have not yet done so. When I get it, I plan to use it for as much as possible but I get a lot of solace out of the knowledge that I will still have my very capable MBP at hand. Even my old Powerbook G4, which I have had for nearly 8 years, didn't start to show its age until about 2 years ago.
 
netdog said:
No, I had a Rev. B MBA with an SSD, but it wasn't nearly as responsive. Apps on the new machines open MUCH faster. It's pretty much instantaneous. Everything about the machine is snappiest. It's really amazing.

And for what it's worth, I have a Mac Pro which will blow this thing away when it comes to heavy lifting, but in average light use (Safari, Mail, iTunes, VMWare XP, MSN Messenger, Preview, etc.), this laptop is subjectively much faster. Surely objectively too.

This is the future of laptops. The Rev. B only hinted at the future (if you could hear above the howling winds of the fans).
Click to expand...

My experience too. I also have an SSD MBA and a i7 MBP, and my 2.13 MBA seems quicker than either of them in day-to-day tasks. I certainly wouldn't trade the MBP for heavy lifting, but for surfing the web or email or basic work in Word, the MBA really flies. I'm very pleased and impressed.
 
netdog said:
The MBA 2.13 has got to be the snappiest portable that Apple has ever made.
Click to expand...
I think the i5 and i7 laptops are faster then the MBA, especially when you put an SSD into them

From the benchmarks that I have seen, the 13" MBA is a tiny bit faster then the 13" MBP, but still slower then the 15" MBP.
 
I finally found a 2.13Ghz 4GB MBA at the OKC Apple store and bought it a couple of hours ago. So far, I have downloaded the latest updates to OS X, as well as Chrome, and iStat, and setup Migration Assistant to copy my MBP's backup, which is on a Time Capsule, to the MBA. There were 120+GB of data to be restored to the MBA so that's going to take about 6 hours, even using an Ethernet connection. So what, though? I have attached the MBA to its charger, so all I have to do is wait for the MBA and Time Capsule to do their thing while I'm using my trusty MBP in the meantime.

All of the thrashing around I have done on the MBA so far has not caused its fan to spin up at all. Right now, in the midst of the data migration from the Time Capsule, the MBA's fan is spinning at a sedate 1996 RPM. The real test will come after I reload VMware Fusion and Windows 7, and start multitasking with a combination of Windows apps and OS X apps. I'll report on that later.
 
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