11" Ultimate Owners : Buy Again ?

[jdavtz]

I'd buy it again, definitely.

I'm kinda wondering if I'd get the 1.4 instead of 1.6, but the 1.6 is letting me Coolbook it (is coolbook a verb??) to minimum voltages fixed at 1.6GHz and I'm getting an extra hour or so of extra battery life. I wonder if the 1.4GHz processors would let me do the same... maybe, maybe not, would it be worth the risk...?

Only "complaints":
- slight creak at times from the base
- it's not instant-on after deep sleep
- I've heard there are better screens out there (which I'd pay for if there were a noticeable difference). I have to say that I *LOVE* the high-dpi screen that the MBA has; if I didn't know there were better options available I certainly wouldn't have any complaints about it, if that makes sense.
- if I could have a backlit keyboard that used no extra battery that'd be nice too

 

[iDemiurge]

I'd buy it again with my eyes closed. I'm still amazed I can run Photoshop and InDesign in a machine this light. No heavy files, admittedly. But still... It doesn't stutter a bit, and I can carry it basically everywhere I go. It's very sweet.

 

[firewood]

So far, my MBA 11 Ultimate seems to be one of the best Apple products I've ever purchased. Would buy again instantly.

I rarely use my MBP or desktop Mac any more, except for special needs (DVD access, booting into ancient OS versions, big file storage, SETI-at-Home-type number crunching projects that take more than a few minutes.)

But I don't do any 3D gaming.

 

[Acorn]

this thread is not helping me resist buying an air. not at all. the more i read about the 11 inch air the more i want it so i got to just stop reading about it.

 

[hcho3]

I am holding off until this summer. I want Mac OS lion to come in my future mac.

 

[impulse462]

I am holding off until this summer. I want Mac OS lion to come in my future mac.

You do realize you can buy a mac now, and install Lion when it comes out right?

 

[BlackMax]

love the 11.6...

went for the ultimate 1.6/4/128 to replace a 2gz coreduo/2gig coreduo blackbook.

was concerned with smaller screen and while pixel wise you're not losing much, i had to upsize font sizes in browsers and used autohide for the dock. but after a few days, i got used to it.

the performance (no beach balls, instant launches), compact size/lightness (true portability) and amazingly cool/quiet operation is totally worth any trade offs.

I'm in the exact same position. My current notebook is a 2GHz C2D BlackBook and last week I picked up a refurbished 11.6" 1.6/4/128 MBA from the online Apple store. When I first received it I was concerned with the screen size (my eyes aren't what they used to be) and performance, but each day I use it I love it more and more. The screen, although it is a TN panel, is very bright, has good color and clear, crisp text. Taking it to work is a dream. It's as if I'm not carrying a notebook with me at all. It weighs nothing, runs cool and silently and has great performance for my needs.

I would definitely buy again.

 

[huffboy]

You do realize you can buy a mac now, and install Lion when it comes out right?

Preinstalled cost =$0. If he buys now he will probably have to shell out $100-150 for it.

 

[hcho3]

You do realize you can buy a mac now, and install Lion when it comes out right?

I expect refresh on MBA around that time. Also, Lion could cost 129 dollars to upgrade. I can afford them, but I want to save money. Also, I don't need to have MBA 11.6 right now.

 

[negatv1]

Or it could cost $29, like the Snow Leopard upgrade...

 

[torbjoern]

Or it could cost $29, like the Snow Leopard upgrade...

I wouldn't count on it. Apple is Apple.

 

[Ronnoco]

So far, my MBA 11 Ultimate seems to be one of the best Apple products I've ever purchased.

I agree with this 110%...I've purchased many many many Apple products over the past twenty-five years and this 11" MBA just may be the best of them all...truly a masterpiece!

 

[firewood]

Preinstalled cost =$0. If he buys now he will probably have to shell out $100-150 for it.

But how much would you pay to rent a MBA 11 between now and the time Lion officially ships? More or less than $50 to $150?

 

[akdj]

I wouldn't count on it. Apple is Apple.

I don't know if there's anything to NOT count on???? They DID charge $29 for Snow Leopard, period! Only $49 for a Family Pack! LOL...nothing to debate here!!!

I agree with this 110%...I've purchased many many many Apple products over the past twenty-five years and this 11" MBA just may be the best of them all...truly a masterpiece!

I'm with ya...it's tech excellence! I'm an 11.6 owner as well...not quite Ultimate. I ended up 1.4/4g RAM/128g SSd...WOW! I've not touched my 2010 17" i7 since purchase. It may just go up for sale, and we may pick up another Air (one for myself as well...this one I'm typing on now is my wife's Birthday gift from a few weeks back)

Absolutely the finest piece of computer engineering I've ever had the luxury to play with (First computer, 1986, Apple IIe...then a 20 year run on Windows, permanent switch back to Mac in '06). I'll never NOT own one of the new Airs. It's an incredible little machine, fast as hell (I'm a video geek as well), light, battery life is excellent (albeit, I too am spoiled by my iPad), and just about as pretty as you can imagine, IMVHO

J

 

[Akira1980]

I had every Apple laptop since Titanium Book. And 11in MBA in my opinion is the best laptop I've owned. My 15" MBP (i5) is now my desktop computer.

So yes, I will buy it again... and again... and again.

 

[Ronnoco]

I had every Apple laptop since Titanium Book. And 11in MBA in my opinion is the best laptop I've owned. My 15" MBP (i5) is now my desktop computer.

So yes, I will buy it again... and again... and again.

Same here...I recently bought a 27" ACD for my 15" i5 MBP and use it now pretty exclusively as a desktop with the 11" MBA as my portable unit...

 

[firewood]

I had every Apple laptop since Titanium Book. And 11in MBA in my opinion is the best laptop I've owned. My 15" MBP (i5) is now my desktop computer.

I had a PowerBook Duo 210 (25MHz 68030 CPU). Used it for many years. I could even browse the web on it running Mosaic 1.x. Every Apple laptop computer I've used since then has seemed to be too big and heavy to me... until the MBA 11.

For all the people complaining about the MBA 11 being slow, I measure the MBA as between 500 and 5000 times faster on my personal benchmarks compared to my old PowerBook... and the Duo 210 cost twice as much new (even more accounting for the value of the dollar then).

 

[petvas]

I got mine today and so far I am extremely happy with it. Speed seems to be very good, at least for most common tasks. Even running Aperture was relatively smooth.
The screen is very good (apart from the relatively limited viewing angles), battery seems to last around four hours. I have definitely a problem choosing a device to use now. I also have an iPad and a Mac Pro

Tomorrow I am going on a business trip and I am taking both the MBA and the iPad with me.
Another thing to consider is the quality of the Air. This thing is really incredible!

 

[joejoejoe]

For those of you who've had the 11 inch for a while now, how much does the 5 hour battery get in your way? Do you think getting the 13 inch solely for 2 hours more battery is worth it?

Also, for those of you who've had the air since october, how's the health of your battery? I've had batteries in my non-uni MBP go dead after a year before (before my laptop hd died, I could barely muster 20 minutes on a fully charged battery before the thing went dead). Is the battery as good as the day you bought it? Do you get less than 5 hours? More?

Thanks!

 

[Stingray454]

I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

I got the 11"/1.6Ghz/4Gb/128Gb version. It's extremely light and portable, beautiful, and handles everything I throw at it.

I use it mostly for leisure (surf/mail/occational gaming and a lot of video watching) at home, and also at work as a travel/meeting computer. So far I haven't found anything it can't do as well or better than my old 13" MBP. The 16:9 format of the screen felt a bit weird at first, but watching a lot of video on it, I really appreciate the screen now with the video filling the entire screen without the usual black borders.

Battery time is great too. I've noticed that it's very unusual that I use the computer non-stop for hours. Say in a meeting, I take some notes / show a client something, then we sit and talk for 20 minutes before I need to take notes again. In that time the screen dims/turns off, or I might even close the lid to put it to sleep. I'd guess it's the same using it in a school environment. Using it like this easilly gives me 8h+ of usage. The few times I've used it non-stop I do get 4h+, so I feel it's great either way. I've never been in a situation where battery life has been an issue, usually you get access to an electrical outlet no matter where you are.

One thing I did notice is that with Flash turned on and surfing on flash-heavy sites the scrolling can get slightly choppy. I installed a click-to-flash addon, which makes it much snappier and saves a lot of battery life, highly recommended.

Overall, easilly the best laptop I ever owned. I don't think it replaces a desktop computer entirely unless you get external screen/keyboard/mouse and don't do a lot of gaming or other "heavy lifting". I use an iMac i7 as main computer and the Air for couch computing, video, travel etc. It's the perfect laptop for me.