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Why is there a Macbook Air with 64GB of storage

K

kvnkvnkvn

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
55
10
What is the point of having this model; why not start off with 128GB ? What is the purpose and logic of having this model instead of just starting off with the highend Macbook Air 11inch
 
A friend of mine has the 11" i5/2/64 and loves it. He also has an i7 27" iMac to complement it. He only uses the 11" out on site when he is doing photography and does all the proper work on the iMac. He wanted to save the extra in order to spend on the iMac instead.
 
Iwork

I needed a computer to run e-mail, spreadsheets, and the web. My 2010 base MBA does these perfectly; performance is not an issue so why pay more for no benefit?
 
I could easily get by with only 64GB; right now I'm only using about 28GB. The only reason I went up a level to the 128GB is because I got the 20% discount from Amazon.
 
Considering that all my work barely comes close to filling up my 4gb thumbdrive (which means I can just squeeze it into dropbox), 64gb would actually be a luxury for me. :D
 
I get by with "just" 64GB fine. I only use it for web browsing and other basic stuff. I've got a 1.5TB network drive and 1TB on my server so I didn't need the extra storage. I always run monolingual after every install and get rid of all languages, except English and all code apart from x86 and x86 64, which slims down installs quite a bit.
 
Maybe because people buy them :)

If it was a bit cheaper I'd go for it as well.
 
I also have the 64gb version and I'm perfectly satisfied. I have an 1TB external 2,5" hard drive in my backpack and connect it whenever I need my movies, photos etc. For all my movies, even 256 GB wouldn't be enough, that's why 64 GB is perfect for me.
 
The issue for me is why not 4gb of ram standard? With the price of memory going down all the time and apparent cost savings of sandy bridge vs needing the 320 gpu, it seems possible they could do it at the same price point. I remember a story on MR before the Lion launch that stores were getting upgrade kits to bump the memory up to 4gb in machines that had 2. Apple must have felt the experience would be better/smoother with at least 4gb, and yet the Airs released at the Lion launch still had a model with 2gb of non-upgradeable ram. Why would they want to make/stock an oddball board with soldered ram when they could have standardized it? The prior year they had even more models with 2gb/4gb vesions of each one IIRC. Obviously the good sales speak for themselves, but as a consumer, I question it. As far as the SSD, at least you can upgrade it.
 
I have the 64gb and as someone mentioned above, I am also using it to complement my iMac. So while I would welcome extra storage I really don't need it.

I do wish I had the 4gb ram though. Don't get me wrong, it's still amazingly fast (my first experience with SSD, yay!) but I want this Air to last me at least 3-4 years. I think I should be ok though as I only use it for web browsing, word processing, and possibly Keynote/PPT presentations.
 
I guess at that point, it boils down the profit. The entry level MBA 11' reportedly has the lowest profit margin (28%), and I suppose soldering in extra ram would squeeze that even further. Seems Apple really wanted to debut one version at the psychologically important price point of $999.
 
I can BARELY get my stuff inside of 128GB. and I don't want to buy a laptop just to carry around other parts like a external HDD, or an optical drive, or a NIC connector to video connector. if i have to carry all that stuff it might as well be a full laptop.
 
Once again , the rumor audience completely fails to look thru other people's eyes and just issues proclamations as to how it should be according to them.

there are plenty of people that like the 999 price point, run a little word and excel and surf the web and the 2gb and 64 g work perfectly fine. I was one of them for over 18 months...
 
I was thinking of it as a replacement to the $999 Macbook; that's what had me thinking of the storage issue either you spend $200 extra for the pro or get a neutered 11inch model. But that 2GB of ram as others have mentioned is a good question but an even bigger question would be the base model of the mac pro which comes with 3GB of ram
 
the 64gb model is for travellers, or those who don't store their files in the ssd, or don't have much files.

before i switched to the max, i managed to use a 40gb hard drive last year, and it has a lot of my design files.

=)
 
64gb is more than sufficient for a casual computing experience.

yes, you wont have space for your libraries of music and videos and other large media. But thats not the intention of this device.

For your casual user, Web, Email, facetime, chatting, your odd download or two. Heck, i even have World of Warcraft installed on it fine (with 20gb still to spare), it is more than sufficient.

my primary use of it is around the house. When i'm there, I don't need to carry my entire library of data with me (almost 1 tb). I have it all accessible on a NAS box with a PNP and itunes share. There's no need for it to be stored locally. And i recommend anyone who uses vast amoutns of media, to have a similar settup (backup, plus ability to use on any device in the house without worrying about ensuring everything is the same).

tis for US that the 64gb is around. if its not enough for you, that is why there's the 128gb model
 
I had 64GB base 2010 albeit BTO'd with 4GB RAM

ran:

Office for Mac

Firefox

VLC and some other utils

a few take a 5 min break style games (angry birds etc)

Eagle PCB layout software

Processing and Arduino IDEs

virtual box of XP hosting half a dozen of our main clients access control suites

big library of hardware manuals for all the kit we install/maintain on sites

Even used to stick a couple of movies and a few TV shows onto it if I was travelling

Was more than enough for the job.

In all XP included I doubt I ever scratched more than 40Gig or so into the 64Gig storage
 
BlackViper said:
I needed a computer to run e-mail, spreadsheets, and the web. My 2010 base MBA does these perfectly; performance is not an issue so why pay more for no benefit?
Click to expand...

you could get all that in a $250 netbook. and no, "but OS X!" does not matter in this case, you don't even need a OS for those tasks.
 
Goratrix said:
you could get all that in a $250 netbook. and no, "but OS X!" does not matter in this case, you don't even need a OS for those tasks.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought too. I have my iMac and wanted something really portable to use when I'm out of the house, at the library, or on the couch. Of course, I wanted the Air but didn't wanna shell out the money for it. I figured a cheap netbook would be fine but I had used a Windows laptop a few months ago after not having touched one in well over a year and I hated it. I really thought it wouldn't be a big deal but I guess you don't know what you got til it's gone. I'm just so used to the Mac OS and Apple hardware, trackpad, etc. that I can't go back! So I just picked up the base 2010 Air for those basic tasks, I love it! Trust me though, I wish I could handle going back to Windows because it's hard to keep up financially. :p
 
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the 64GB MBA in my mind serves as an accessory to a 17 incher as well as a nice accessory for an iMac. It pretty much just needs the basics, as long as it runs Lion, that's all you really need it to do. You likely won't be running AutoCAD on it, you likely won't be running Xcode on it, nor hosting your entire iTunes library on it. I see it as a lightweight solution to take to class/meetings, take notes, maybe work on documents when on the go, and that's about it.

For a $999 accessory, the 64GB MBA seems like a fine solution.
 
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