Are all Rev As defective???

[anirudh]

I was thinking of buying a Rev A MB Air. Dont really need the hard drive space as I have external storage. But after going through the posts it seems almost all the Rev As have video and over heating problems. The MB Air I am getting is with Apple Care until 2011.

So is their anyone who DOESNT have a Rev A with problems??? What do you guys suggest?

 

[Turmoil]

I love my Rev A - it works perfectly.

 

[Popsie]

Mine is working as i want it to work.
Very pleased with it.

 

[Carl Abudephane]

.

 

[mlblacy]

I was thinking of buying a Rev A MB Air. Dont really need the hard drive space as I have external storage. But after going through the posts it seems almost all the Rev As have video and over heating problems. The MB Air I am getting is with Apple Care until 2011.

So is their anyone who DOESNT have a Rev A with problems??? What do you guys suggest?

Hi, could have chosen a Pro over the Air, but went with the Air (Rev A). Agonized for 2 weeks over decision, went to Apple store twice, bought the Air. Never once regretted it for a single moment, not once. Machine works perfectly. I was concerned about the 2 gb ram limit, but it has not been an issue. Held off on the external DVD, glad I did... didn't need it, or miss it either. Apple has a long track record of ditching things we think we still need, we whine, but often they were ahead of the curve. When I bought the first Biondi Blue iMac for my family, the first comment was "ccol", the second was "I would never buy a computer with out a floppy drive, what would be the point?".

Anyhow, at the around $999-1150 they are going for now, they are a steal.
This machine insights trolls and naysayers like none I have ever seen before. If it isn't for you, you don't have to buy one, but why tell everyone about a computer you don't have, or don't use (or "bought" one, but "sent" it back... my favorite fable, lol).

I use Aperture, CS suite, Quark, Rapidweaver, hook it up to my projector for meetings, watch movies, etc. It is not a primary workstation, but I can indeed work on it. Watch the little vents on the bottom, especially if it is laying on a squishy cushion, which will block the vents.

Good luck.
michael

 

[Scott6666]

I would stay away from the Rev a. I had one for a few weeks and could not stand it. All the issues about stuttering, heating, etc are quite real.

I, too, could never get a handle on whether this was true for all or some. I personally came to the conclusion that they are designed the same and therefore have the same limitations. I concluded that some people care about the limitations and others don't; more that its a people discriminator rather than massive hardware variation. That is, the machines kind of work the same but people react differently.

For example, my wife's Lenovo has a moderate but audible fan noise. She couldn't care a whit. It drives me batty. The Rev A fan is on OFTEN. Some people care, others don't.

That said, there does seem to be some difference between early Rev A's (let's say first 6 months and later) but I don't think major enough improvements to warrant buying.

As for me, I had a first week of release MBA. The fan was always on. I had core dropouts. I had stuttering on iTunes audio and video. I thought it was unusable. I am now the happy owner of a MBPro.

The price could drop to $300 and I still couldn't put up with all the noise and limitation my personal machine had.

PS Note my join date, right around the release of the Air. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out before I bought it if it would be suitable and afterwards if mine was a rare defective one. I saw people buy and return 3, 4 and more MBA's hoping to get a good one. I know I am a chief naysayer on the Air but I think Apple really screwed up the Rev A. (I'd buy a Rev b if the reports of screen lines and issues didn't seem to be so prevalent).

 

[miffed]

Had mine for nearly a month now (rev a 1.8 ssd ) and not had a sniff of a problem - That said I only use it for Office , Browsing , youtube videos etc

I am SO glad I took the risk and didn't take too much notice of the negativity , reading various forums you'd get the impression that these are practically unusable - TBH this is the best computer I have ever owned (all things considered ) and I prefer it to the MBP I sent back a few weeks earlier ( Obviously I am not suggesting the MBA outperforms the MBP , I am talking about for my day to day stuff )

 

[ClassicBean]

Loving my Revision A refurb that I just picked up. I really only use it for surfing and writing when I head downtown to visit clients. At the home office I'm on an iMac and when I work from a Starbucks or anywhere else that doesn't require me to travel by subway, I'm on a MacBook Pro (yes, I know, I have a bit of an Apple addiction).

The MBA has served me well so far. No complaints.

 

[iBookG4user]

My Rev A is working great, it hasn't given me any problems at all. I've learned over the years to just not trust those who have all of the problems. Why would you go out looking for problems with a computer, if you don't notice them in day to day computing what's the point of getting upset over them?

 

[mikey28]

I have a Rev A. It had no problems. ( I upgraded to B 128/SSD) but if the Rev A had a lot of problems, I would have never bought another AIR.

Most of the people on this forum are here because they are expressing a problem. There a several thousand people who have bought the machine, and are perfectly happy.

What I mean to say is: on this forum you may get a "lopsided" view...

 

[buckawheat]

Just update

If you just update the apple software to current a version 1 air should work fine. I watch youtube clips up to an hour in length with no video issues.

Heat - the apple software update for H264 about 4 months ago did wonders for heat when watching flash video. Fans kick in much sooner (which yes, does bring a bit more noise), but if you are not hooking up a big external display, heat is now managed effectively.

If I lost/dropped my rev A, I would rush out to buy a refurb or mint ebay one to replace it asap.

 

[SFStateStudent]

I'm thinkin' that there are just as many MBAir Rev A computers with "0" problems, as there are that have problems.

 

[dborja]

I'm thinkin' that there are just as many MBAir Rev A computers with "0" problems, as there are that have problems.

I'd venture to say more with 0 problems than those with problems. See next quote.

I have a Rev A. It had no problems. ( I upgraded to B 128/SSD) but if the Rev A had a lot of problems, I would have never bought another AIR.

Most of the people on this forum are here because they are expressing a problem. There a several thousand people who have bought the machine, and are perfectly happy.

What I mean to say is: on this forum you may get a "lopsided" view...

+1

Hi, could have chosen a Pro over the Air, but went with the Air (Rev A). Agonized for 2 weeks over decision, went to Apple store twice, bought the Air. Never once regretted it for a single moment, not once. Machine works perfectly. I was concerned about the 2 gb ram limit, but it has not been an issue. Held off on the external DVD, glad I did... didn't need it, or miss it either. Apple has a long track record of ditching things we think we still need, we whine, but often they were ahead of the curve. When I bought the first Biondi Blue iMac for my family, the first comment was "ccol", the second was "I would never buy a computer with out a floppy drive, what would be the point?".

Anyhow, at the around $999-1150 they are going for now, they are a steal.
This machine insights trolls and naysayers like none I have ever seen before. If it isn't for you, you don't have to buy one, but why tell everyone about a computer you don't have, or don't use (or "bought" one, but "sent" it back... my favorite fable, lol).

I use Aperture, CS suite, Quark, Rapidweaver, hook it up to my projector for meetings, watch movies, etc. It is not a primary workstation, but I can indeed work on it. Watch the little vents on the bottom, especially if it is laying on a squishy cushion, which will block the vents.

Good luck.
michael

Very true. The MBA is not meant to replace the MacBook nor the MacBook Pro. It has its own target users. With that said, the Rev A MBA has been excellent for me as a supplement to my desk-bound iMac.

Yes, the fans do kick in a bit earlier than on the MB and MBP but no big deal. The firmware update has made the MBA stable. I did get Coolbook to undervolt the CPU which runs it cooler and extends the battery charge life. I also got SMCfan to run the fans higher should I need to.

 

[mshaf]

Love my rev a. Runs great. I also bought coolbook. I havent heard my fans kick on once since i got it last week. I had the same concerns as you after reading posts. Got the refub model for 999. What a great decision!

Good luck with yours

 

[Scottsdale]

s

I definitely regretted my original MBA from the minute I got it.

All it could do well was Word, email, and brief Internet.

The fact is, it overheated ALL of the time. Watching a video was IMPOSSIBLE. It would experience complete lock ups, core shut down, and overheating. I remember just using one app at a time. Pleading and begging the thing to just get through a simple session with it. Was the worst Mac I have ever owned, by FAR!

Now, the rev B MBA is the BEST Mac I have ever owned. The rev B is a completely different computer. Everything works fantastically. Now, I have heard a lot of people say the original MBA is better now with drastic software improvements. But it still needs core undervolting and etc to make it run. The point is, nobody is going to say that they were wrong buying there $999 MBA because it was cheap and an affordable way to buy a MacBook Air.

I don't know how much has changed, but I can tell you that I talked with a guy at one of my client's offices this very week that says he still has major problems with his original MBA. Nobody is going to tell you that they were wrong buying there MBA for $999.

I am going to tell you that I was VERY STUPID for buying the original MBA at $1799, but knowing what I know now, I would not buy an original MBA for $500 for me to use. I was very wise for selling it right before the new MBA was announced. And I feel like my $2499 MBA rev B with SSD is the best computer purchase I have ever made. I would rather buy one MBA rev B for $2499 than an original MBA for $500 for personal use even. To me, the original isn't worth it knowing that the real deal is available in the rev B.

Everything the original MBA should have been the new MBA is!

PATA to SATA-II
perhaps most importantly 65 NM CPU (overheating chip) vs 45 NM Penryn CPU (just like the chip in MB and MBP) AND 6 MB L2 cache
Intel graphics to Nvidia GPU
667 MHz RAM to 1066 MHz RAM
and there's more

So, I would tell anyone, use the original MBA as you would a netbook, or use a MBA rev B as your only computer. You can even plug it into a 30" ACD and you have an instant desktop. I use my rev B MBA as my sole computer. I plug it into a 24" ACD at my desk. It's the fastest Mac I have ever owned, I know it's mainly due to the SSD. But truthfully this is one solid Mac! I love the rev B MBA. I absolutely thought my original MBA was WORTHLESS.

 

[robeddie]

Here here!

 

[robeddie]

So, I would tell anyone, use the original MBA as you would a netbook, or use a MBA rev B as your only computer. You can even plug it into a 30" ACD and you have an instant desktop. I use my rev B MBA as my sole computer. I plug it into a 24" ACD at my desk. It's the fastest Mac I have ever owned, I know it's mainly due to the SSD. But truthfully this is one solid Mac! I love the rev B MBA. I absolutely thought my original MBA was WORTHLESS.

Excellent post!

I could not agree more. Last October, I got a rev. A Air (at a nice discounted price). For two weeks I lived with the limitations and kept trying to tell myself "yeah, but I saved $500".

But day in and day out, telling myself "I saved $500" was becoming less satisfying, and the huge limitations of the rev. A Air kept becoming more annoying.

Now I own a Rev. B Air (yes, I too bit the bullet and got the SSD version), and even though I spent more than I would have liked, I LOVE the Air now and the pain of writing that big check is growing more distant.

The thing is, spending that kind of money is a one time pain. But having a computer that underperforms as much as the rev. a Air was painful every minute of every day I owned it. And I usually keep my laptops for 3 or 4 years.

 

[Carl Abudephane]

.

 

[SeaneyC]

Had my rev A for almost a month now, budget $15 for coolbook and you need never worry about a thing. Video editing, watching MKVs through plex, running multiple VMs, all completely fine.

I must say however that undervolting is a must, huge huge gains to be had from it.

 

[Thorbjorn]

FWIW, I've had my Rev A since October and it's everything I need or want it to be. I primarily write and spend time on the 'Net. I watch youtube and hulu and rarely have a stutter. Fans don't come on for a while, but in my case that hasn't been a problem. Haven't installed coolbook or undervolted. I did disable the dock, and that may have helped lighten the load (don't know). For me, the MBA Rev. A is a gem of a machine, a pleasure under the hands, the perfect traveling companion.

 

[Phil A.]

Got my Rev A (1.8, SSD) when they were first announced last year and have had zero issues with it since - it copes with everything I throw at it without a single problem (including VMWare Fusion, Aperture, Photoshop and Office)

 

[robeddie]

'Cause I gotta say, these posts above make absolutely no sense whatsoever to me. You know, when I was deciding what to do, I read posts like the two above, and more besides, and eventually I began to doubt their veracity, due mainly to a gut feeling.

I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say. We're ALL just voicing our opinions here.

But as far as FACTS go, there is no dispute that the rev. a Air is a heck of a lot slower and more limited (heat, performance) than the rev. b.

Those of us who favor the rev. b are responding to that difference and think it's a big deal.

On the other hand, if you have no problem with a computer that performs only basic tasks, and maybe even that (playing online videos) makes it overheat and stutter, be my guest... buy your $999 rev. a Air.

 

[twoodcc]

i love my rev A air, but it does seem to have a few problems. though i had it checked out at the apple store, they said it was fine, but the fans do seem to come on just watching a youtube video.

but would i recommend my laptop? sure, but only if you get a really good deal. if you can afford the newer macbook air, then i would go that way myself

 

[sk147]

I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say. We're ALL just voicing our opinions here.
....
On the other hand, if you have no problem with a computer that performs only basic tasks, and maybe even that (playing online videos) makes it overheat and stutter, be my guest... buy your $999 rev. a Air.

So, voicing your opinion = insulting anyone who owns or purchases a certain version of a certain make of computer?

Here's a link for you and Scottsdale...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/532829/online_forum_etiquette_how_to_deal_pg3.html?cat=15

 

[Scottsdale]

So, voicing your opinion = insulting anyone who owns or purchases a certain version of a certain make of computer?

Here's a link for you and Scottsdale...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/532829/online_forum_etiquette_how_to_deal_pg3.html?cat=15

What so because I will not say that the rev A is a great computer, it's NOT. I get a nice link to a bully article.

Whatever!