When do you reach the limit of your MBA's capabilities?

[throAU]

For me, the limit is the 4gb of ram soldered to the damn board.

4gb is not a realistic limit for any serious use. SSD can be removed and replaced if need be at a later date, or you can run with a thunderbolt external disk... RAM can't be upgraded.

If they included an option for 8gb i'd consider it, if they had slots, even better.


If the new MBA comes out with 8/16gb (apple: retail cost for that is currently ~50/100 bucks) options it's on my shopping list.


And yes, i'm one of the guys in post 2 - i run multiple VMs and need more than 4gb of ram for the thing to be useful - hence I run an MBP (the MBA in my sig is the girl's)

CPU/GPU is fine. Storage can be upgraded/pushed to external. If i need higher res i can plug into a monitor.... but 4gb is a deal breaker.

 

[Mak47]

I had a 13" MBP, upgraded to 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD. The upgrades were done myself, so effectively it was about a $1500 machine for me.

The 13" MBA gave me the same stuff, but with 4GB of RAM instead of 8 and an i7 processor instead of an i5. The clock speed is slower in the Air, but the architecture is better so it just about meets the performance of the MBP's chip. The MBA is a $1300 investment.

I switched from the Pro to the Air and haven't looked back. Some of the other MBP options (larger screens, quad core processors with dedicated gpu's) are going to give you better performance without a doubt--but at a much greater cost. Even the 2.8GHz 13" MBP, after adding a comparable SSD (apples to apples) on your own will cost you an extra $400 compared to a 13" Air. It does carry an i7 processor, so there will be a performance increase--but is it $400 worth of an increase?

For what you've described as your typical usage, quite frankly no.

The limitations of the Air are the RAM, and for users who don't also have a desktop or network storage solution, the smaller capacity of the SSD. It also runs the Intel HD3000 integrated GPU. This is fine for most tasks, gaming is pretty much out however.

I use my Air as follows: Image editing, lots of it in numerous applications. Keynote presentations with lots of animations and high resolution images, both creating and presenting on an external monitor. Minor video editing. Occasional video conversion, but that usually gets done on the desktop. Typical web browsing, email and document creation.

I haven't hit a snag yet. Video rendering and output is a bit slow compared to other machines, but that's a very intensive task and should be expected.

Quite honestly, and perhaps it's because all of the parts and firmware were made for each other (as opposed to putting my own stuff in the MBP), this machine performs more smoothly than my MBP did.

I think you'd be just fine the MBA, particularly the 13" model. The only thing that may hold you back is the storage capacity. It isn't an issue for me, as I keep everything permanently on my desktop at home and use back to my mac to access files all the time. Your needs may differ from mine.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Thanks everyone for your replies. While your replies made me decide that I would go for the Air if it were the same cost, I decided that I can add a 256gb SSD in my 2.6Ghz MBP with 8mb ram and make do. The machines will probably run at a similar level, but I'll be saved the hassle of selling my MBP and I'll save 500$ in exchange for a clunkier mac. Maybe when I'm out of school, I'll make the jump to the MBA.

For what it's worth, this unibody MBP is an Apple supplied replacement for the MBP "classic" I bought on clearance from Apple for $1150 after discounts back in 2008. If the $300 I'm about to spend on the SSD carries me another 2 years, I'll be looking at a 6 year macbook pro that cost only $275 per year - including applecare!

 

[DoNoHarm]

So you've sacrificed thinness over productivity and longevity of performance in ownership?!

MBA 2011 corei5/256GB SSD & 4GB RAM vs MBP 2011 Corei7/500 or 750GB HDD & 4GB RAM.

Lets see:
Immediately performance gain for saving large files while mobile, more powerful dual-core cpu even if its a corei5 in the MBP; the Corei7 2.8Ghz is $100 cheaper than the topline MBA 13" Ultimate.

Productivity oer time = performance:
(Lets say 1-3yrs with AppleCare)
Upgrade Storage: It'll cost you $1000+shipping for a blade SSD for MBA to go double (480GB SSD). MBP costs less than $700 for same 480GB (or 512GB SSD) with same peformance.
Upgrade RAM: woops sorry cant do that on MBA so you're stock as Mountain Lion and more powerful Adobe Suite and similar apps increase in performance and features requiring more RAM. MBP ... ugprade to 16GB official Max for $130.

All prices stated are Canadian; currently slightly higher than US$ value ... and I'm shopping online locally which means you should be able to get much cheaper prices on SSD. with MBP you still save $400 vs upgrading your MBA for better performance - unless of course you upgrade to a new MBA which means more than $1300US.

weight ... barely a pound difference and I'm sure changing to an SSD in the 13" MBP you'd barely notice it ... unless thickness is a concern for you. The ONLY gain you get with MBA is the slightly higher resolution vs the 13" MBP ... I had the ultimate and for Logic, Office 2011 Suite (all running on corporate LAN), Safari, VM access via RDP (Windows Server 2008 R2's) and soon XCode the RAM limitation and exhorbitant SSD Blade costs tipped my hand to trade for 13" MBP Ultimate.

PS: I cannot STAND the 750GB HDD WAAAAy too slow.

----------



If still under warranty:
Upgrade the RAM, and switch to a 256GB SSD for $319 (Samsung) on Amazon. Wait until summer promotions ... sell it for decent quid (due to dedicated video card) and ugprade to 2012 MBA ultimate.

I owned a 2010 15" Hi-Res MBP with 256GB SSD and I was incredibly impressed as the speed was equal to the 13" MBA Utlimate I owned. Going from a 15" to a 13" MBP/MBA is like night and DAY!

I can imagine just how much 15"MBAir Pro's Apple will sell with high end dedicated video cards, 3x 3.0USB, 1 ThunderBolt, SDXC Slot and FW800 for those that still require it.

So I basically did exactly this and damn! this is such an awesome machine with the SSD. It feels faster than the first day. Apparently all the little annoying lags that I was dealing with were due to the HD. And that was an upgraded HDD too that wasn't even half full. I hope this thread can be helpful to other people who may be thinking the same thing: should you upgrade the SSD or switch to the Air. My experience has been a resounding YES!

 

[Smiller4128]

Normally I'd agree with not being able to upgrade the RAM but honestly, if you need more than 4gb of RAM, chances are you don't need a MBA but a MBP for whatever you're doing

 

[bp1000]

It's the 4gb ram for me

It shows after using pixelmator for an hour or so. Working with lots of images and the problem is magnified if I'm running Firefox too which is quite terrible on memory.

I'm a cad / pyorammer type of user so program's are usually open and running all day. Safari, mail, Skype, iTunes are normally always open with terminal, macvim, libreoffice, ff and pixelmator the ones I open occasionally. When I do I have to periodically fully quit them to free memory. Or else the machines gets hot, fans spin and memory is swapped out using the ssd

 

[DeepIn2U]

So I basically did exactly this and damn! this is such an awesome machine with the SSD. It feels faster than the first day. Apparently all the little annoying lags that I was dealing with were due to the HD. And that was an upgraded HDD too that wasn't even half full. I hope this thread can be helpful to other people who may be thinking the same thing: should you upgrade the SSD or switch to the Air. My experience has been a resounding YES!

Glad that I could help. And it seems you've done some good math with pricing out over time the cost; well done!

 

[aleni]

So I basically did exactly this and damn! this is such an awesome machine with the SSD. It feels faster than the first day. Apparently all the little annoying lags that I was dealing with were due to the HD. And that was an upgraded HDD too that wasn't even half full. I hope this thread can be helpful to other people who may be thinking the same thing: should you upgrade the SSD or switch to the Air. My experience has been a resounding YES!

yes, i'd take SSD upgrade over 500-700mhz clock of processor speed.

hell even if apple releases a 3.4ghz core i7 macbook air with HDD and a 1.6ghz core i7 with SSD air, i'll take the one with the SSD.

 

[AlanShutko]

I'm on a MBA 2,1 which is really hitting its limits for me. I am nearly always 2GB into swap, sometimes more. 1.5GB to 2GB is still pretty performant for me since the SSD is fast at paging. But there are times when I am thrashing the disk (time machine, portable home directory sync, and swap all at the same time) and the machine slows to a crawl where it can take several seconds to respond to a click.

Disk space is my other problem. I've got a 128GB SSD, and an awful lot of data I keep around since I don't know what I'll need at any given point. (This doesn't include media, that's on the network.)

So, I'm going to be upgrading when the next refresh comes out. Having 256GB and 4GB ram would be good, if we can get up to 8GB RAM I'll be happy.

 

[DoNoHarm]

An update after a few weeks: this machine is amazing. It's so incredible all the difference this SSD made. It's more than twice as fast as the old machine. very usable. it feels like there is no machine, if that makes any sense. like an iPad.... I'd recommend an SSD upgrade for everyone!