Buy now or Wait 11" Air?

[harleymhs]

Hey Guys, I know there isnt an answer to this question, BUT some other thoughts would be great! I had an 11" air 128 GB 2Gb unit, had it from day one.. Sold it to a friend at work got the IPAD2 and cant even compare to 2 units! Now I miss my MBA 11.. Returned the Ipad2 .. Now missing my MBA I was going to apple today to get another one no harm done, ( returned the IPAD, and have the $$ from the orig MBA Sale ) DO I wait for a REFRESH in the future or just go and buy another MBA? The new MBA may have Sandy Bridge but my old MBA was fast and I was happy.. Now if there was going to be a refresh with a SD card and lighted keyboard I would wait but who knows.. Any thoughts? Thanks In advance!

 

[Hellhammer]

I would just buy now. You can then sell it when the update comes if the new features are worth it for you.

 

[Edmoil12]

The new macbook air will have a much faster cpu which would be useful if you are doing say video conversions/high end gaming or other cpu intensive tasks. From benchmarks, it looks like sandy bridge will be a slight downgrade in graphics compared to the 320M, but they will be comparable. Otherwise I would expect thunderbolt instead of mini-DP, and possibly 4GB of ram standard.

It really depends on the relative importance of those features for your uses compared to how much you want/need a laptop right now.

For me, I didn't see a big use for the faster cpu or thunderbolt considering what I plan to use mine for, so I jumped on it last month.

 

[Psilocybin]

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High end gaming? Uhm... Who would do high end gaming on a rig with intel gfx? The air is not meant for high end gaming

 

[TrollToddington]

Wait, don't buy now, Sandy Bridge will be much faster... oh no, wait, there is Ivy bridge after Sandy bridge which will be even faster.... oh no, wait, there is the whatever bridge and even faster multi- mega- quintillion- processor.

 

[Capt Underpants]

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High end gaming? Uhm... Who would do high end gaming on a rig with intel gfx? The air is not meant for high end gaming

The Air has an Nvidia graphics processor...

 

[bigjnyc]

Don't feel bad lots of people make this mistake and think that an oversized iPod touch can replace a laptop.

 

[Psilocybin]

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Not when sandy bridge hits it wont

 

[Bakari45]

Never think of the iPad as a laptop. I'm typing this post using my iPad, and it's a much slower process, keyboard wise, than using my MBA.

What's really gonna shakes things up is when Apple combines the Air and iPad into one device.

 

[KPOM]

Hey Guys, I know there isnt an answer to this question, BUT some other thoughts would be great! I had an 11" air 128 GB 2Gb unit, had it from day one.. Sold it to a friend at work got the IPAD2 and cant even compare to 2 units! Now I miss my MBA 11.. Returned the Ipad2 .. Now missing my MBA I was going to apple today to get another one no harm done, ( returned the IPAD, and have the $$ from the orig MBA Sale ) DO I wait for a REFRESH in the future or just go and buy another MBA? The new MBA may have Sandy Bridge but my old MBA was fast and I was happy.. Now if there was going to be a refresh with a SD card and lighted keyboard I would wait but who knows.. Any thoughts? Thanks In advance!

I'd get a refurb 4GB model for $1189. Sandy Bridge will be a nice upgrade to the processor, but at the cost of slower graphics. If you had a 2GB 1.4GHz model, the 1.6GHz 4GB model ought to suit you for a while, at least until the Ivy Bridge MacBook Air is available sometime in 2012.

 

[harleymhs]

Thanks guys.. I bought it Friday... Got the 11" Ultimate this time around.. Got a 100.00 Govt Discount.. So it was a NO BRAINER to get the 4GB Ram and faster MHZ... It is FAST much quicker than my old 2GB 11" ... Thanks for ALL your input!!!

 

[NZed]

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High end gaming? Uhm... Who would do high end gaming on a rig with intel gfx? The air is not meant for high end gaming

MBA has the NVIDIA 320m with 256mb shared memory. It can handle CoD 4 without hiccups and can even handle crysis 2

 

[s.hasan546]

buy a refurb from apple now and sell it when the new one comes out. you won't lose too much $$

 

[Psilocybin]

MBA has the NVIDIA 320m with 256mb shared memory. It can handle CoD 4 without hiccups and can even handle crysis 2

as i commented earlier i was referring to when the mba contains SB

 

[blow45]

buy now and sell it later, trust me, I 've played the waiting game and it's pointless, and if you keep it in a good state a mac is almost always resalable at a good price, so I will be like renting the machine for a while.

don't sweat it, buy and enjoy your mac, I am sure you will, it's a splendid little device, and a very capable one.

 

[Psilocybin]

buy now and sell it later, trust me, I 've played the waiting game and it's pointless, and if you keep it in a good state a mac is almost always resalable at a good price, so I will be like renting the machine for a while.

don't sweat it, buy and enjoy your mac, I am sure you will, it's a splendid little device, and a very capable one.

what he said +1

 

[EightEight]

Macbook Air 13"

So, what is the release date for the new Macbook air 11"? I am using the 2008 Macbook Air 13", and thing of getting something smaller. I been playing with the Macbook Air 11" at Apple store for the pass two week and almost bought it this morning, I stop myself, because I remember I read something about a new version of the Macbook Air 11" is coming soon. But, when ask the Apple sales person about the upcoming new Macbook Air 11", he said, He has no idea there is a new one coming out.

Thanks All

 

[2IS]

Whether Intel or 320m, anyone who thinks the MBA is capable of "high end gaming" either has very low expectations of what constitutes "high end" or just doesn't have a clue.

 

[Moccasin]

So, what is the release date for the new Macbook air 11"? I am using the 2008 Macbook Air 13", and thing of getting something smaller. I been playing with the Macbook Air 11" at Apple store for the pass two week and almost bought it this morning, I stop myself, because I remember I read something about a new version of the Macbook Air 11" is coming soon. But, when ask the Apple sales person about the upcoming new Macbook Air 11", he said, He has no idea there is a new one coming out.

Thanks All

Your average Apple Store employee won't know whether there's a new model coming out. Present thinking on this forum seems to be June or October but I went ahead and bought an 11" Ultimate as I needed a new light laptop quickly. I did consider waiting but there's no guarantee anything will come out by October.

If you don't NEED a new computer NOW then you can wait, but if you do then I'd just go ahead and decide whether to keep it or sell it when a new version comes out.

 

[alecgold]

I needed a new laptop as my old mbp died on me. I went to the store, compared the MBA and the mbp, doubted a bit about between the 11 and the 13 and opted for the 13 as it will be my only machine and I ultimated it so it would be more or less future proof.
I waited befor and ended up waiting for months, but it's not worth it. These MBAs are superb laptops and if you think you can use it, it's useless to wait for months if there might be a new updated version. Or not.
I use it 14 to 16 hours a day at the moment and it works better than my mbp 13" ultimate with aftermarket 256gb SSD. I know it can't compete with the c2d 2,53 processor, but otherwise it's a lot better for the screen, the weight and the speed from the SSD. I installed click for flash and I liked it a lot.
So just don't think about it if you don't need it, or go and buy a 4Gb if you do need a new laptop.

 

[EightEight]

Your average Apple Store employee won't know whether there's a new model coming out. Present thinking on this forum seems to be June or October but I went ahead and bought an 11" Ultimate as I needed a new light laptop quickly. I did consider waiting but there's no guarantee anything will come out by October.

If you don't NEED a new computer NOW then you can wait, but if you do then I'd just go ahead and decide whether to keep it or sell it when a new version comes out.

Thanks! I think I am going wait until July to see if there is any news on the new MBR 11" . My 2008 MBA 13" is stay going strong, as long as I stay away from the new MBA and compare it, big speed different.

 

[Moccasin]

Thanks! I think I am going wait until July to see if there is any news on the new MBR 11" . My 2008 MBA 13" is stay going strong, as long as I stay away from the the new MBA and compare it, big speed different.

I can sympathise - If I'd thought I was able to wait then I would have done as well but really my Vaio was so hopeless and I'm going abroad a bit that I had to act now. I even considered buying a netbook to tide me over but the beauty of this thing meant it was inevitable.

Just try to stay away from the Apple Store (at least with a credit card in your pocket)

 

[EightEight]

I can sympathise - If I'd thought I was able to wait then I would have done as well but really my Vaio was so hopeless and I'm going abroad a bit that I had to act now. I even considered buying a netbook to tide me over but the beauty of this thing meant it was inevitable.

Just try to stay away from the Apple Store (at least with a credit card in your pocket)

LOL, Just leave the wallet at home, right.