1.8/128SSD drive Mini review.

[Ironic]

I was one of the original MBA owners, one of the fist to own the 1.6/80 then switched to the 1.8/64SSD. So this is based on owning all the MBAs to date.

I bought the 1.6 MBA to use as my only mac, it had a hard drive tick and a constant problem with high temps, and fans going crazy, also it was prone to core shutdown.
I traded up to the SSD, and thing were not much better, the heat and temps were still a problem, core shut down and any flash ad would set the fans to 6200Ppms, after 6 times in the Apple Hosp. it was not much better.

I bought the current model 1.8/128SSD and It's now my dream Mac.
no heat, temp is on the low side 45-50 degrees, no core issues and this seems so much faster then the last MBA, I love what the have done to the New MBA.

I would recommend it highly!

 

[Cynicalone]

I didn't have the problem you had with the Rev. 1 but…

I agree about the Rev. 2 it is an incredible machine. I can see how that this could be your only Mac. The improvements Apple made are very impressive.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Congrats and thanks for the useful review. I travel a lot, and am seriously thinking of getting a Rev B MBA SSD to add to my MBP, as I don;t take the MBP with me when I travel abroad and I need a computer. Besides, it's good to learn that some of the early "issues" which plagued the MBA seem to have been addressed.

Cheers and good luck

 

[Ironic]

Congrats and thanks for the useful review. I travel a lot, and am seriously thinking of getting a Rev B MBA SSD to add to my MBP, as I don;t take the MBP with me when I travel abroad and I need a computer. Besides, it's good to learn that some of the early "issues" which plagued the MBA seem to have been addressed.

Cheers and good luck

The old and New are like night and day, congrats if you pick one up.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The old and New are like night and day, congrats if you pick one up.

Thanks for the comments and kind words. Have not done so yet, but am seriously giving it thought. At present, I am in the Caucasus, using a Government notebook (back to Windows unfortunately), and will be here for some time. I had held off on the original MBA, because I was pretty happy with my MBP, - and my travels, while frequent, were generally of relatively short duration. Moreover, the HDD on the original was a bit small, and the devastatingly original technology had some teething problems which needed to be addressed. Besides, I wished to get feedback from owners. All of that has now changed and it seems that the Rev B SSD has everything I need, incredible portability included.

Cheers and good luck

 

[Ironic]

Thanks for the comments and kind words. Have not done so yet, but am seriously giving it thought. At present, I am in the Caucasus, using a Government notebook (back to Windows unfortunately), and will be here for some time. I had held off on the original MBA, because I was pretty happy with my MBP, - and my travels, while frequent, were generally of relatively short duration. Moreover, the HDD on the original was a bit small, and the devastatingly original technology had some teething problems which needed to be addressed. Besides, I wished to get feedback from owners. All of that has now changed and it seems that the Rev B SSD has everything I need, incredible portability included.

Cheers and good luck

I use it as my only PC, I find it very capable.
Superdrives are under 40 bucks on Ebay, bought one just in case, I need it!

 

[MazingerZ]

Posts like these are pushing me to get rid of my Rev A and buy the Rev B.

On my last trip, I almost threw my Rev A into the wall at the Cathay Pacific Lounge in Hong Kong. I was just doing some remote work, using Parallels, XP Pro, VPN'ed to work and using Remote Desktop and the MBA would keep shutting one of the cores down. It was barely useable and not by much.

I am hoping the Rev B is a much more capable machine.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I don't mean to sound like a putz, but please don't refer to your short statement on how much you like your Air as a review. As a potential buyer of the SSD model (if the HDD model doesn't make it here soon), I'd like to see actual reviews. Aside from application launching, what else can you tell us other than you love it (which is obvious from nearly every thread you post in)?

Sure, the SSD model is slightly faster, but what's the real world difference between the 1.86ghz and the 1.6ghz? Sure the SSD model will offer faster application launching, but is a $700 price premium really justification for saving no more than 5-10 seconds of my life? Once the apps are opened I am unsure if the SSD model is really worth the cash. I get the "no moving parts" deal, but again, laptops have had standard hard drives in them for quite some time. Apple has recognized the mobile user with their SMS technology though the SSD is more foolproof.

So far the only true review I've seen here is out of NC MacGuy who ran some tests on the Rev A and Rev B and then even gifted us with the sextastic pictures of the Rev B taken apart. That summed up the reason why I won't get a Rev A, but I'm still not quite sold on the SSD (other than the fact that the HDD model is so far off that it may mean I spring for the SSD model).

 

[Ironic]

Posts like these are pushing me to get rid of my Rev A and buy the Rev B.

On my last trip, I almost threw my Rev A into the wall at the Cathay Pacific Lounge in Hong Kong. I was just doing some remote work, using Parallels, XP Pro, VPN'ed to work and using Remote Desktop and the MBA would keep shutting one of the cores down. It was barely useable and not by much.

I am hoping the Rev B is a much more capable machine.

You will be very happy with it.... I use it 10 or so hours a day and nothing is bad. Really!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I use it as my only PC, I find it very capable.
Superdrives are under 40 bucks on Ebay, bought one just in case, I need it!

You will be very happy with it.... I use it 10 or so hours a day and nothing is bad. Really!

Once again, thanks for posting; it really is useful to get feedback from owners on how well (or badly) something works, and to learn what the advantages - known and unnown - actually are. I have not see any of the new models yet, and so am intensely curious as to what they are like and how they perform, as I intend to purchase one in the fairly near future. Any further comments on the differences between Rev A & Rev B, and between SSD and HDD on the MBA?


Cheers and good luck

 

[Molopo]

I don't mean to sound like a putz, but please don't refer to your short statement on how much you like your Air as a review. As a potential buyer of the SSD model (if the HDD model doesn't make it here soon), I'd like to see actual reviews. Aside from application launching, what else can you tell us other than you love it (which is obvious from nearly every thread you post in)?

Sure, the SSD model is slightly faster, but what's the real world difference between the 1.86ghz and the 1.6ghz? Sure the SSD model will offer faster application launching, but is a $700 price premium really justification for saving no more than 5-10 seconds of my life? Once the apps are opened I am unsure if the SSD model is really worth the cash. I get the "no moving parts" deal, but again, laptops have had standard hard drives in them for quite some time. Apple has recognized the mobile user with their SMS technology though the SSD is more foolproof.

So far the only true review I've seen here is out of NC MacGuy who ran some tests on the Rev A and Rev B and then even gifted us with the sextastic pictures of the Rev B taken apart. That summed up the reason why I won't get a Rev A, but I'm still not quite sold on the SSD (other than the fact that the HDD model is so far off that it may mean I spring for the SSD model).

Nobody knows just how much faster the SSD version is than the HDD version. It isn't being shipped yet.

 

[Ironic]

If you can afford it the SSD drive is great, if not get the HHD