Big thumbs up for 11.6" MBA!

[naujoks]

I've always been waiting for something to replace my Sony TT with.
I wanted something lighter (TT is almost as heavy as my 13" Sonz VPCZ1), thinner (don't need built in DVD), quieter (I don't like fan noise), with an SSD and something that plays some games. And something that's instantly on.

I couldn't believe it that Steve pulled the MBA 11.6" out of his hat! It ticks ALL the boxes! Just got it today, and I couldn't be happier. It's a beautiful machine. I"ve been playing Half Life 2 at full resolution with almost all details to maximum, no problem.

And under normal circumstances this machine is not just quiet, it's silent.

And just compare the £850 asking price to the £1500 that the Vaio TT cost when it was new.

Love it!

 

[bolsen78]

I've always been waiting for something to replace my Sony TT with.
I wanted something lighter (TT is almost as heavy as my 13" Sonz VPCZ1), thinner (don't need built in DVD), quieter (I don't like fan noise), with an SSD and something that plays some games. And something that's instantly on.

I couldn't believe it that Steve pulled the MBA 11.6" out of his hat! It ticks ALL the boxes! Just got it today, and I couldn't be happier. It's a beautiful machine. I"ve been playing Half Life 2 at full resolution with almost all details to maximum, no problem.

And under normal circumstances this machine is not just quiet, it's silent.

And just compare the £850 asking price to the £1500 that the Vaio TT cost when it was new.

Love it!

So glad you love it so far!! does the 11.6 screen look big I mean like it doesnt look tiny does it? I have the 13 MB and a Dell mini I am wanting to replace the Dell cos I hate it A LOT!! I was going to replace both but decided to keep my MB for the harder stuff and go with the 11.6 instead and get rid of my Dell mini.

 

[naujoks]

So glad you love it so far!! does the 11.6 screen look big I mean like it doesnt look tiny does it? I have the 13 MB and a Dell mini I am wanting to replace the Dell cos I hate it A LOT!! I was going to replace both but decided to keep my MB for the harder stuff and go with the 11.6 instead and get rid of my Dell mini.

No, I find it very spacious. I never planned to do more than browsing, email and word processing on it anyway, but I feel that should I ever want to use iLife for something, it would still work out just fine.

 

[Acorn]

i had no interest in the air whatsoever until they announced the 11 inch model. i will be picking one up after the holiday season for sure. the only thing that disappoints me about the new air models is they have no backlit keyboard. it kind of miffs me that apple left that out to add to a later date. the original air had a backlit keyboard. why did they take a feature away.

 

[bolsen78]

No, I find it very spacious. I never planned to do more than browsing, email and word processing on it anyway, but I feel that should I ever want to use iLife for something, it would still work out just fine.

Thats about what I wold be using it for and some college work I would need the Office thing for but I never used iLife or iMovie on the MB i have now. So I am assuming I wouldnt be using either of those if I get the new MBA. Honestly I have no idea what the iLife and iMovie do to be honest with you lol. Anyways I am so glad the screen is spacious thats great news to me as well thank you!!

 

[bolsen78]

i had no interest in the air whatsoever until they announced the 11 inch model. i will be picking one up after the holiday season for sure. the only thing that disappoints me about the new air models is they have no backlit keyboard. it kind of miffs me that apple left that out to add to a later date. the original air had a backlit keyboard. why did they take a feature away.

I sort of got mad when people were mentioning the BL thing. I mean I guess it is diff for me since I have never had the BL because I only have the 13 MB that is like 3 years old now. I feel bad for getting upset because to the people who have used it before might have loved that feature and now its not there. So I guess in way for me to get mad about them whining about it I should have thought about that part a litter better than I did. I am happy and hoping my apple store will have them soon though!!

 

[naujoks]

This is, in fact, the first Mac I ever bought. It just never felt right until now. But as Steve said, this is the future. It does so many things better and right. And tomorrow I'm going to install Win 7 via Boot Camp. Can't wait to see how that works out!

 

[bouncer1]

No, I find it very spacious. I never planned to do more than browsing, email and word processing on it anyway, but I feel that should I ever want to use iLife for something, it would still work out just fine.

Do you find it ok with word processing?

 

[hahaland]

How about temperature? Does it get hot when you play HL2?

I've always been waiting for something to replace my Sony TT with.
I wanted something lighter (TT is almost as heavy as my 13" Sonz VPCZ1), thinner (don't need built in DVD), quieter (I don't like fan noise), with an SSD and something that plays some games. And something that's instantly on.

I couldn't believe it that Steve pulled the MBA 11.6" out of his hat! It ticks ALL the boxes! Just got it today, and I couldn't be happier. It's a beautiful machine. I"ve been playing Half Life 2 at full resolution with almost all details to maximum, no problem.

And under normal circumstances this machine is not just quiet, it's silent.

And just compare the £850 asking price to the £1500 that the Vaio TT cost when it was new.

Love it!

 

[naujoks]

Word processing is great, and it did get quite warm during playing HL2, but it wasn't like "yikes!" hot and the fan wasn't annoyingly loud either. I don't even know how the warm air escapes, as there's no grill...

 

[miggitymac]

Did you get the 64 or 128GB? 1.4 or 1.6 GHz?

 

[mehmetf]

I've always been waiting for something to replace my Sony TT with.
I wanted something lighter (TT is almost as heavy as my 13" Sonz VPCZ1), thinner (don't need built in DVD), quieter (I don't like fan noise), with an SSD and something that plays some games. And something that's instantly on.

I couldn't believe it that Steve pulled the MBA 11.6" out of his hat! It ticks ALL the boxes! Just got it today, and I couldn't be happier. It's a beautiful machine. I"ve been playing Half Life 2 at full resolution with almost all details to maximum, no problem.

And under normal circumstances this machine is not just quiet, it's silent.

And just compare the £850 asking price to the £1500 that the Vaio TT cost when it was new.

Love it!

Memory? CPU?

 

[naujoks]

Memory? CPU?

All low spec. 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM.

 

[cb911]

sounds like it's a great machine. fairly sure that I will go an 11" as well, but gotta see one in person before that.

how does the 11" 1.4 go with Win7 installed? I only have one specific PC program that I need to run, but I guess maybe Parallels would be better? Interested to know...

 

[andykemp]

My concern with running windows (Parallels or Bootcamp) is the storage space issue... There is only about 49GB free on the 64GB SSD after leopard etc is there. Even a minimal windows install will run to 20+GB that doesn't leave you much room to play with...

 

[J400uk]

So you reckon its OK in the base configuration? A lot of people seem to be saying its crazy to buy it with 2GB ram and the 4GB upgrade is 'essential'.

 

[teerexx52]

So you reckon its OK in the base configuration? A lot of people seem to be saying its crazy to buy it with 2GB ram and the 4GB upgrade is 'essential'.

I have the base configuration as well and also use a 15" MacBook Pro i7. The Air is just fine for 90% of what I do which granted doesn't stress the computer much. I have had no slow downs or beach balls. I really couldn't decide when ordering to pay the $100 for 4gb or not but the 2GB seems to be working just fine. This darn thing boots in under 15 seconds.

 

[J400uk]

Thanks good to hear from someone who actually owns one for a change!

 

[cb911]

Hmmm... you're right about the space issue of running Windows programs. I have never used Parallels and never dual-booted a Mac before - just checking the Parallels specs now it requires 500MB for itself and then 15GB for each virtual machine!

Having never used Parallels before I didn't know it worked like that - from all the info I saw I thought you could just run an isolated program without needing all the overhead of Windows and running it in a "Windows container". Is there any way to do that? Or what is the best way if you have to run a PC app? Or maybe that just makes the 128GB option necessary for my requirements?

I guess the RAM question depends on what you'll be using it for, what you're used to having in the past and if the money is worth it for you. From the point of view of "future proofing" your MBA it is a good argument - and I have always said that with tech gear you should always buy as high-spec as you can. But when RAM discussions come up I always remember a good explanation that I read a while back. Lots of people focus on the "free RAM" amount - but this is misleading. Unless RAM is wired it is not being used, so basically free RAM is wasted RAM. Although if you are constantly paging out then you definitely could use more RAM (or just don't run 20 apps at once! )

FWIW - I had an original MBA (1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, double the new 11" L2 cache which is 3MB, Intel GMA video, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD), bought that used back at the start of this year just because I was travelling (sold it when I was done a month later). For web browsing it was completely fine, I also just used it for loading photos onto and posting to the web, blogging etc. The only time it seemed a bit slow and I was waiting was when resizing photos, cropping etc. (This was just in iPhoto, Preview etc.) Probably if you're doing that sort of stuff the extra RAM would be noticable.

But for me it won't be a main machine, hard to say which way to go without using one. But I guess when you're seen and used one it will just come down to what you are prepared to spend.

 

[andykemp]

The only way I know you can run a PC app without the full overhead of windows is with CodeWeavers CrossOver for Mac application but how well it works will vary significantly on what the app is you need to run!

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

Take a look at the compatibility centre and see if they support the app you need:
http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/

I should add I've never actually tried this approach as I use VM Ware Fusion...

 

[hcho3]

I wonder if it will even be able to run Lion without any issues.

 

[cb911]

Cheers andykemp. I didn't expect the software to be listed as compatible, it's the software for Bazzaz engine management for my bike. Yeah a bit obscure. But I will need a laptop to tune air/fuel, traction control etc. I was thinking of buying as cheap a PC laptop as I could, but hell - I just want a Mac again I'll probably go for one of the MBA.

Sorry to slightly take the thread off-topic...

I'm sure they'll be able to run Lion just fine. It would be a bit stupid of them to release new hardware that will not run an OS that is released less than a year later. I had Snow Leopard installed on my original MBA, it was fine. Also when I mention that it was 'slow' in resizing photos etc. I mean it just took a bit longer to do (as you'd expect), it never froze of 'beachballed' at all.

 

[naujoks]

Quick update:
I installed Bootcamp with Windows 7 Pro x86 today.
Can't tell you how impressed I am: drivers installed all without problems, struggled to find a hidden mouse settting in the bootcamp menu to enable tapping and right clicks, but since it's running fine.
Gave 20GB to the Windows partition, and I still have 10GB left, 30GB still free on the Mac OS partition. I have yet to decide which OS I will run most, but I can tell you that Windows 7 is a super smooth experience.
And here's a personal opinion: I think that the antialiasing of screen fonts is far superior on Win 7. MacOS's looks very blurry to me in comparison.

 

[jeznav]

All low spec. 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM.

That's interesting. Now a days, most people root for high specs and I bet most don't even understand the difference between i3/5/7s procs. They should be looking at GPUs too. And MBA is a good GPU.

With a great OS and technologies like OpenCL and GCD, more applications in the future will harness the GPU more often than CPU cores/clocks alone.

 

[J400uk]

Quick update:
I installed Bootcamp with Windows 7 Pro x86 today.
Can't tell you how impressed I am: drivers installed all without problems, struggled to find a hidden mouse settting in the bootcamp menu to enable tapping and right clicks, but since it's running fine.
Gave 20GB to the Windows partition, and I still have 10GB left, 30GB still free on the Mac OS partition. I have yet to decide which OS I will run most, but I can tell you that Windows 7 is a super smooth experience.
And here's a personal opinion: I think that the antialiasing of screen fonts is far superior on Win 7. MacOS's looks very blurry to me in comparison.

That sounds great, thanks for the update