Anyone else regretting buying the MBA?

[The Viking]

To the OP: I'm not regretting it yet. I'm completely, utterly blown away.

Coming from a late 2008 unibody MBP with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

I can say that I've felt the processor's bottleneck when editing RAW photos in iPhoto, but it's otherwise been snappy as hell. The ability to pick up and use my laptop instantly has already completely changed my usage. I only now realize all the times I stare at a closed laptop and think, "it's just not worth it".

It really is as effortless as the iPad, only better, since everything is in the state I left it in (rather than having to unlock the screen, choose an app, and remember what it was I wanted to do).

Using one for a day has made me realize that it's just a different ballgame than a typical laptop.

 

[mark28]

Compare the MacBook Air to the original Mac Portable, or, better yet, the original Compaq. The definition of "portable" has certainly changed a lot over the years.

That said, the term "netbook" was coined primarily to refer to machines that are capable of web browsing and little else. A machine running Windows 7 Starter on an Atom with 1GB RAM is broadly comparable to a mainstream notebook from 7 years ago, but can't run much modern software and is marketed primarily for web use. "Ultraportable" refers to devices that are running mainstream OSes and are capable of running mainstream software. The 1.4GHz C2D is certainly at the low end but still runs circles around any Atom. Plus it has a full keyboard and a full version of OS X.

$200 netbooks have no problems running mainstream software such as Office at all.

edit: And if you don't like Windows 7, you can always install Linux and costumize it the way you like, or even build a OS X clone. I heard netbooks are pretty easy to hackintosh also if you want OS X on it.

 

[grovertdog]

Is the Mini Cooper an "econobox"? It's cramped, has a Chrysler engine, and is boxy. It's also sub-$20K.

Actually, a better analogy might be a VW GTI. It has a decent engine, but among the slowest in its class. It still is faster than a typical Golf or Civic.

What in the world are you talking about? Mini Coopers have had BMW/Peugeot engines since 2007. Secondly, "cramped"? What does that mean? I sold my 2002 BMW 540i and bought a '03 Mini Cooper S that has the "Penta" engine built in Brazil which has a bulletproof reliability record across a number of platforms, but back to the point, the cockpit for the driver and passenger are quite generous, and front seat riders are sacrificing nothing. I'd recommend driving and learning more about such vehicles before using them as examples.

In any case, I do like the cars you refer to. Cheers!

 

[gorchest]

I purchased a 11.6'' 128GB MBA a few weeks ago and have found myself using my MBP 13'' instead. I love the air for how light it is and it's perfect to carry around university all day, as the MBP can feel like carrying around bricks, but the MBA is simply too small.

I was selling my MBP as I cannot afford to keep both, but I think I'm going to have to see the Air....

Think before you sell that MBA. Too small is drive or screen? Look for cloud solutions to size or thumbdrives etc. As for screen would a cheapo external monitor help for your dorm room and simply adjust your habits on campus?

Bought the 13" MBA (fully loaded) and am selling my 2007 15" MBP. I had
to get aggressive on the space issue but it is working out. Light years more portable w MBA.

gorchest
iMac 24" Core 2 Duo on the desk, MBA 13" + Kindle DX in the overnighter, iPad w wifi + kindle + touch in the 'round town bag. Selling:
2007 15" MBP Core 2 Duo.

 

[bowlerman625]

With all the banter about what it's called or not called, this thread has lost it's original purpose and is pretty meaningless now.

 

[KPOM]

Think before you sell that MBA. Too small is drive or screen? Look for cloud solutions to size or thumbdrives etc. As for screen would a cheapo external monitor help for your dorm room and simply adjust your habits on campus?

Bought the 13" MBA (fully loaded) and am selling my 2007 15" MBP. I had
to get aggressive on the space issue but it is working out. Light years more portable w MBA.

The 13" MacBook Air is much closer to the MacBook Pro than the 11" given that it has the faster processors with 6MB L2 cache, starts with a 128GB SSD, and has the SD card slot built in.

 

[gwsat]

The 13" MacBook Air is much closer to the MacBook Pro than the 11" given that it has the faster processors with 6MB L2 cache, starts with a 128GB SSD, and has the SD card slot built in.

I admire the 11 inch MBA and tried to justify buying one in every way I could think of. Alas, at the end of the day, the 11 inch MBA's 128GB of flash storage and small display forced me to reluctantly give up on it and get the 13 inch Ultimate MBA instead.

Nevertheless, for those who can make do with 128GB of storage and whose eyes are acute enough to deal with an 11 inch screen on an all day, every day basis the 11 inch Ultimate would be a great choice, it seems to me. I also think that the $999 entry level MBA would be a terrific adjunct to a more powerful computer with a bigger screen. It seems to me that the $999 model would be a perfect replacement for an iPad.

Finally, I don't really know whether the 11 inch MBA is a netbook or not. More pertinently, personally, Scarlet, I don't give a damn.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

For me the single biggest tradeoffs you'll make for the 11" is the smaller battery capacity, smaller screen and less horsepower. That alone makes the netb....er....smaller MBA too much of a tradeoff in usability for me.

Assuming you can live with those compromises, then all that leaves is the smaller HD capacity which I hear many users decry as an issue for their unique needs. As has been mentioned in other threads, however, you can pretty much come up with workarounds to deal with the smaller capacity SSD.

One way is to get one of the tiny thumb drives that stay in the device all the time. I've got a 32g installed right now and another 64g on order. It is designed to be left in there all the time and you'll barely know its there. Supplement this with Dropbox, maybe even a Dropbox premium account, and file storage isn't an issue with the 128g SSD and maybe not even the 64g SSD. App storage may be a little more problematic but if you are just talking iWork/MS Office and maybe a few specialty apps, not an issue really.

Again, I think its important to think about "cloud based computing" when looking at making the 11" model your full time traveling companion. While we are all accustomed to having gargantuan hard drives these days, you really have to stop and ask yourself how much of your stuff is really "active" at any one time. If the answer to that is "all of it" then you are likely already talking an external hard drive with any laptop you choose, inclusive of a 13" MBP. If you can discipline yourself to purge your files of ancient and seldom-used files, storing them to your home NAS or something, then you really shouldn't have any problems with storage space.

Again....this assumes you stick to native OSX. If you need to go with VM boxes and Windows apps, good luck. The 64-bit version of Win7 Ultimate takes up 15 gigs of space on my bootcamp partition alone.

 

[teerexx52]

For me the single biggest tradeoffs you'll make for the 11" is the smaller battery capacity, smaller screen and less horsepower. That alone makes the netb....er....smaller MBA too much of a tradeoff in usability for me.

Assuming you can live with those compromises, then all that leaves is the smaller HD capacity which I hear many users decry as an issue for their unique needs. As has been mentioned in other threads, however, you can pretty much come up with workarounds to deal with the smaller capacity SSD.

One way is to get one of the tiny thumb drives that stay in the device all the time. I've got a 32g installed right now and another 64g on order. It is designed to be left in there all the time and you'll barely know its there. Supplement this with Dropbox, maybe even a Dropbox premium account, and file storage isn't an issue with the 128g SSD and maybe not even the 64g SSD. App storage may be a little more problematic but if you are just talking iWork/MS Office and maybe a few specialty apps, not an issue really.

Again, I think its important to think about "cloud based computing" when looking at making the 11" model your full time traveling companion. While we are all accustomed to having gargantuan hard drives these days, you really have to stop and ask yourself how much of your stuff is really "active" at any one time. If the answer to that is "all of it" then you are likely already talking an external hard drive with any laptop you choose, inclusive of a 13" MBP. If you can discipline yourself to purge your files of ancient and seldom-used files, storing them to your home NAS or something, then you really shouldn't have any problems with storage space.

Again....this assumes you stick to native OSX. If you need to go with VM boxes and Windows apps, good luck. The 64-bit version of Win7 Ultimate takes up 15 gigs of space on my bootcamp partition alone.

I hope this is not off topic but I'd like to ask a DropBox question. I had thought of using DropBox for my itunes and iphoto libraries therefore allowing me to use a smaller SSD. However, if DropBox only syncs then wouldn't all the files have to be present on my computer as well?
Also, if anyone has a link to the small thumb drives they use I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[gwsat]

Although there are many, many ways to gain additional capacity for a computer with relatively limited built in storage, the 13 inch MBA's 256GB of storage allowed me to use it as a turnkey solution for my rather large storage needs. Even with such storage, I still use a Time Capsule, a FireWire network drive, and Dropbox extensively. Nevertheless, I am still able to use the MBA in exactly the same way I was using the MBP, which it replaced. In fact, I sometimes have to remind myself that I am work on a different computer.

As noted earlier, I finally reluctantly decided that I had to write off the 11 inch Ultimate MBA because of its limited storage and small screen but I wasn't overly concerned about its power. I have a hunch that its 1.6Ghz processor along with its 4GB of RAM and flash storage would have been able to do the job for me.

 

[treynolds]

One way is to get one of the tiny thumb drives that stay in the device all the time. I've got a 32g installed right now and another 64g on order. It is designed to be left in there all the time and you'll barely know its there.

Brand on those drives please?

Tony

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Lexar Echo USB drive. Looks like this:

Its $97 for the 32g version at Amazon, 35 reviews give it an almost 5-star rating.

http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Echo-32GB-Backup-DriveLEHZE32GASBNA/dp/B0031RG2A6

I have a hunch that its 1.8Ghz processor along with its 4GB of RAM and flash storage would have been able to do the job for me.

The 11" tops out at 1.6. And I can state emphatically that the 13" with 2.13 ghz feels FAR snappier in MS Office apps, not to mention when playing HD videos or working with large spreadsheets. I can also state that it runs Parallels in Unity mode much faster, at least with MS Project and MS Visual Studio running inside the Win7 box. The 1.6 is great for simple web surfing....but then so is my iPad. You don't need much horsepower for websurfing and email. There, you don't notice the performance differences at all.

 

[grovertdog]

Lexar Echo USB drive. Looks like this:

Thanks for posting that! That will be a cool way for me to store and edit, heck 800+ 7d RAW files while on the road with my 11.6 and then have easy transfer to the mothership when I come home. Very cool.

BTW, I use Parallels in my MBA/11 and tho my needs are modest, Excel and proprietary software that only runs over the web with IE (hence the need for Parallels), I find the apps fly with my 11. Running XP fwiw.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Thanks for posting that! That will be a cool way for me to store and edit, heck 800+ 7d RAW files while on the road with my 11.6 and then have easy transfer to the mothership when I come home. Very cool.

BTW, I use Parallels in my MBA/11 and tho my needs are modest, Excel and proprietary software that only runs over the web with IE (hence the need for Parallels), I find the apps fly with my 11. Running XP fwiw.

YW. And right now that's what I'm using it for....I store a crapton of blueprint files on there that I don't want to keep on Dropbox. It does come with a Mac trickle-backup utility on the USB key itself, but I've not been using it.

And I'd imagine Parallels w/XP would run faster than Parallels w/Win7. I've got both VM's on my 15" i7 MBP and the XP VM is tons faster than the Win7 VM. I use the XP version to do some backwards compatibility testing.

I hope this is not off topic but I'd like to ask a DropBox question. I had thought of using DropBox for my itunes and iphoto libraries therefore allowing me to use a smaller SSD. However, if DropBox only syncs then wouldn't all the files have to be present on my computer as well?
Also, if anyone has a link to the small thumb drives they use I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

If you download and setup the whole Dropbox client on your MBA then yes, you'll need as much space on your MBA as you need in the cloud. So it doesn't really save you any space, it just replicates that space to all your other Dropbox-enabled devices. Which is a godsend when you consider that these little machines are typically your secondary machines and need synchronization with the mother ship.

But what I have set up for my assistant on the 11" MBA is access to my Dropbox account via their web interface. So that way you don't have to keep the files on your local machine at all....you just access the files via the web "on demand" as needed. She uses it to keep my itinerary up to date, my contracts, sales presentations, etc.

I don't think using Dropbox as your iTunes library will accomplish anything for you....you'll not save any space.

 

[Cave Man]

I love the air for how light it is and it's perfect to carry around university all day, as the MBP can feel like carrying around bricks, but the MBA is simply too small.

For carry around, I'd probably go with the iPad. But I love the MBA for airtravel.

 

[grovertdog]

YW. And right now that's what I'm using it for....I store a crapton of blueprint files on there that I don't want to keep on Dropbox. It does come with a Mac trickle-backup utility on the USB key itself, but I've not been using it.

And I'd imagine Parallels w/XP would run faster than Parallels w/Win7. I've got both VM's on my 15" i7 MBP and the XP VM is tons faster than the Win7 VM. I use the XP version to do some backwards compatibility testing.

As a semi-related question, can I format that little Echo to get rid of whatever proprietary backup software, etc., is on it and just use it in similar fashion to a generic, "dumb" USB drive?

Thanks.

 

[Restinbeast]

I recently ran my 13" MBP into the ground (I think it was 09) because it was my smack around computer. You know the one you are watching videos on while taking a shower? Well it finally caught up with me and I killed the trackpad (already dented the back).

My fiancee surprised me the other day with a 13" Air Ultimate and this might be the best overall computing experience I've had. The combination of speed and size are unparalleled imo and I have owned A LOT of high end macs.

I now use my 17' I7 8 gb ram 256 ssd for a HTPC (the mac mini isn't good enough imo) and use my mac air exclusively for my day to day use. Sure when I want to do something demanding I use my i7 via screen sharing but for 95% of my activities the air is perfect!

I also have an Ipad b/c how can you resist? But I could easily give that up in favor of the air IF i was able to run app store apps in OS X (is this still going to happen?)

I just cannot give up playing words with friends yet!

anyway, my combo of equipment is pretty amazing and I couldn't be happier. I just don't think I'd feel as satisfied if I had a 11" but I can see how it works for some people.

 

[teerexx52]

YW. And right now that's what I'm using it for....I store a crapton of blueprint files on there that I don't want to keep on Dropbox. It does come with a Mac trickle-backup utility on the USB key itself, but I've not been using it.

And I'd imagine Parallels w/XP would run faster than Parallels w/Win7. I've got both VM's on my 15" i7 MBP and the XP VM is tons faster than the Win7 VM. I use the XP version to do some backwards compatibility testing.



If you download and setup the whole Dropbox client on your MBA then yes, you'll need as much space on your MBA as you need in the cloud. So it doesn't really save you any space, it just replicates that space to all your other Dropbox-enabled devices. Which is a godsend when you consider that these little machines are typically your secondary machines and need synchronization with the mother ship.

But what I have set up for my assistant on the 11" MBA is access to my Dropbox account via their web interface. So that way you don't have to keep the files on your local machine at all....you just access the files via the web "on demand" as needed. She uses it to keep my itinerary up to date, my contracts, sales presentations, etc.

I don't think using Dropbox as your iTunes library will accomplish anything for you....you'll not save any space.

Agreed. This machine is my only machine so still looking for another "off world" solution for my wife.

 

[KPOM]

Regarding XP vs Windows 7, it's possible the latter would be faster on the MacBook Air. Note that Windows 7 is aware of SSDs while XP is not. Win7 has TRIM support, while XP has no "garbage collection" at all. Thus, XP is likely to slow down over time.

 

[bowlerman625]

Lexar Echo USB drive. Looks like this:

Its $97 for the 32g version at Amazon, 35 reviews give it an almost 5-star rating.

http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Echo-32GB-Backup-DriveLEHZE32GASBNA/dp/B0031RG2A6



The 11" tops out at 1.6. And I can state emphatically that the 13" with 2.13 ghz feels FAR snappier in MS Office apps, not to mention when playing HD videos or working with large spreadsheets. I can also state that it runs Parallels in Unity mode much faster, at least with MS Project and MS Visual Studio running inside the Win7 box. The 1.6 is great for simple web surfing....but then so is my iPad. You don't need much horsepower for websurfing and email. There, you don't notice the performance differences at all.

I've got a smaller one and absolutely love using it with my new MBA. It just looks like they were made for each other!

 

[treynolds]

And I'd imagine Parallels w/XP would run faster than Parallels w/Win7. I've got both VM's on my 15" i7 MBP and the XP VM is tons faster than the Win7 VM. I use the XP version to do some backwards compatibility testing.

Thanks for answering my question regarding the micro-USB drives. I wanted to edit my post earlier but was unable to, stating that those stubby little drives would be the perfect thing, as I think leaving a rather fragile (by comparison) SD card in its slot would be asking for trouble, both for the card and for the slot.

Your comments regarding XP versus Win 7 is one of the reasons why I have stuck with XP Pro for my VM running ACAD under Parallels: Smaller footprint and as bulletproof (relatively) as Windows gets without the hit for the new interface. If I want a nice looking interface (GUI), I can always jump out of Parallels and back into my Mac world.

I have had very few problems running ACAD under XP and Parallels. It's generally very snappy and overall a better experience (believe it or not) than on many of the PC's I've run it on for the last, oh, 16 years. Getting more and more used to the Mac experience all the time...

Tony

 

[grovertdog]

Regarding XP vs Windows 7, it's possible the latter would be faster on the MacBook Air. Note that Windows 7 is aware of SSDs while XP is not. Win7 has TRIM support, while XP has no "garbage collection" at all. Thus, XP is likely to slow down over time.

I'm fairly certain that the VM environment XP/7 occupies is agnostic in terms of it's space.... Parallels/VMWare allocates its resources and what the MSO/S sees is really an illusion. I doubt trim support factors in here. Perhaps Boot Camp is a different situation, I just don't know

 

[koobcamuk]

INevertheless, for those who can make do with 128GB of storage and whose eyes are acute enough to deal with an 11 inch screen on an all day, every day basis the 11 inch Ultimate would be a great choice, it seems to me. I also think that the $999 entry level MBA would be a terrific adjunct to a more powerful computer with a bigger screen. It seems to me that the $999 model would be a perfect replacement for an iPad.

I agree and disagree with some points here.

I think the 11" is great on an everyday basis. Why not plug into a 20"+ external display when at home, and enjoy the maximum portability on the road?

 

[maflynn]

Regarding XP vs Windows 7, it's possible the latter would be faster on the MacBook Air. Note that Windows 7 is aware of SSDs while XP is not. Win7 has TRIM support, while XP has no "garbage collection" at all. Thus, XP is likely to slow down over time.

You realize that OSX has no TRIM support as well, and the issues facing XP are the same with OSX (SSD related). Many SSDs (like the toshiba and sandforce controllers) have their own basic garbage collection routines and many over provision to keep performance top notch. My point is, don't worry about this and focus on other factors.

 

[KPOM]

Your comments regarding XP versus Win 7 is one of the reasons why I have stuck with XP Pro for my VM running ACAD under Parallels: Smaller footprint and as bulletproof (relatively) as Windows gets without the hit for the new interface. If I want a nice looking interface (GUI), I can always jump out of Parallels and back into my Mac world.

Tony

You can turn off Aero in Windows 7 if you want. However, I have found the new MacBook Air just fine for Windows 7 64-bit, both in Boot Camp and Parallels 6.