Considering 11.6" MBA Please Help

[SQUIJIT]

Hi, I'm considering purchasing the new 11.6" MBA with the 128GB SSD.
I'm stuck whether I should get this, or wait for a new 13" MBP..

I am a writer so the computers main purpose would be for my writing and it's biggest positive is that it's small and extremely portable.

I am wondering however, will this MBA I'm looking at be able to run OSX Lion when it becomes available?

Any comments or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Also, anyone who has the 11.6" air if you could perhaps share your experience so far with it that would be excellent.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Hellhammer]

It would be ridiculous is less than a year-old computer couldn't run the latest OS... Nobody knows yet but it very likely will

 

[cherry su]

Hi, I'm considering purchasing the new 11.6" MBA with the 128GB SSD.
I'm stuck whether I should get this, or wait for a new 13" MBP..

I am a writer so the computers main purpose would be for my writing and it's biggest positive is that it's small and extremely portable.

I am wondering however, will this MBA I'm looking at be able to run OSX Lion when it becomes available?

Any comments or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Also, anyone who has the 11.6" air if you could perhaps share your experience so far with it that would be excellent.

Thanks a lot.

The 11" MacBook Air will be able to run Lion.

 

[SQUIJIT]

Thanks for the quick response guys.

Yeah I agree that it would be ridiculous but the air isn't much of a powerhouse and with only 2GBs of RAM I'm hoping it meets the minimum requirements, but I'm sure it will..

Anyone have the 11.6" air?
I'd really love to know what people have experienced with it.

 

[mariov]

with only 2GBs of RAM I'm hoping it meets the minimum requirements, but I'm sure it will..

It will, but it will be as snappy? an extra hundred will give you 4gb and future-proof your buy.

 

[WesCole]

I would snag the 11" MBA if only it had a backlit keyboard. That is a deal-breaker for me.

Wes

 

[bcaslis]

Thanks for the quick response guys.

Yeah I agree that it would be ridiculous but the air isn't much of a powerhouse and with only 2GBs of RAM I'm hoping it meets the minimum requirements, but I'm sure it will..

Anyone have the 11.6" air?
I'd really love to know what people have experienced with it.

Lots of people here have the 11" and given their impressions. Given the purposes you have stated the 11" should be able to do that just fine. However, you should try to go somewhere and try one if you haven't. The two main questions you should consider are:

1.) Is the storage large enough? Assuming you aren't putting much video on it, it should be fine, but only you can answer that.
2.) Is the screen good enough? I think is better than the specs might lead to believe. But the default text size can be too small for many. It's just of your eyes and only you can answer that.

If you want a very portable Mac, it's the best yet. But if portability isn't your main concern then there are lots of tradeoffs to consider.

 

[sp86]

I'm sold on the new mba ..... not only is it super portable . it's plain sexy!

 

[SQUIJIT]

Lots of people here have the 11" and given their impressions. Given the purposes you have stated the 11" should be able to do that just fine. However, you should try to go somewhere and try one if you haven't. The two main questions you should consider are:

1.) Is the storage large enough? Assuming you aren't putting much video on it, it should be fine, but only you can answer that.
2.) Is the screen good enough? I think is better than the specs might lead to believe. But the default text size can be too small for many. It's just of your eyes and only you can answer that.

If you want a very portable Mac, it's the best yet. But if portability isn't your main concern then there are lots of tradeoffs to consider.

Thanks for the response.

The storage is never really enough considering my music library alone is above 300GB, and my movie library exceeds 1.5Tb's... but I have my iMac for all of that.

I think I'm going to get the MBA after all since portability for my laptop is my biggest concern. I checked it out for the second time today at the apple store and I was for the second time, really impressed.


Thanks for all the comments everyone, it's appreciated.

 

[scenemissing]

I second the recommendation for the 4GB upgrade. You'll want the machine to last you, and 4GB will be the minimum machines are shipping with when it comes time to sell it.

 

[kolax]

I second the recommendation for the 4GB upgrade. You'll want the machine to last you, and 4GB will be the minimum machines are shipping with when it comes time to sell it.

+1.

While 2GB is still plenty for what the Air is being aimed to do, I think that Apple should have just stuck 4GB in there.

Whether 4GB is overkill or not, the RAM isn't user upgradable so if you get the 2GB machine and then feel you should have got 4GB, you're out of luck.

 

[YMark]

I would snag the 11" MBA if only it had a backlit keyboard. That is a deal-breaker for me.

Well it doesn't, so you won't. We get it. Your loss.

 

[gb1631]

I think given your circumstances you will be very happy with a maxed out MBA 11. I am sure happy with mine so far. I just upgraded the OS to 10.6.5 yesterday. No real problems except with migration ones from my iMac to MBA. I gave up on that! This might me just me though!

 

[Scott6666]

Well it doesn't, so you won't. We get it. Your loss.

Little aggressive here...

 

[paul.b.davis]

So the RAM is not user upgradable? That seems odd...

Does anyone know if you COULD upgrade the RAM by taking the thing apart? $100 seems a bit steep just to go from 2 to 4 GB

 

[paul.b.davis]

Thanks for the response.

The storage is never really enough considering my music library alone is above 300GB, and my movie library exceeds 1.5Tb's... but I have my iMac for all of that.

I think I'm going to get the MBA after all since portability for my laptop is my biggest concern. I checked it out for the second time today at the apple store and I was for the second time, really impressed.


Thanks for all the comments everyone, it's appreciated.

Do you have MobileMe? You can use Back to my Mac to get music and movies from your iMac at home to the MBA while you are on the go.

 

[KPOM]

So the RAM is not user upgradable? That seems odd...

Does anyone know if you COULD upgrade the RAM by taking the thing apart? $100 seems a bit steep just to go from 2 to 4 GB

It's soldered in, so it would be very difficult, if not impossible. That's why I went for the 4GB upfront.

 

[SQUIJIT]

I would go with the 4GB absolutely.
However, I luckily have the opportunity to get a hefty discount from a family friend who works at best buy. The negative part is they don't offer the 4GB version.

 

[SQUIJIT]

Do you have MobileMe? You can use Back to my Mac to get music and movies from your iMac at home to the MBA while you are on the go.

No I don't have mobileme.. yet.
You make a very good point, thanks for the advice!

 

[paul.b.davis]

It's soldered in, so it would be very difficult, if not impossible. That's why I went for the 4GB upfront.

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely get that BTO then.

 

[teaneedz]

Its lean and mean

I'm not disappointed with it at all ... fast start-up, instant-on (I wait for airport to connect), fast.

I really didn't want to invest in C2D technology but the flash memory tipped the scale for me.

For writing, there will be no need to worry. Go for the 128GB/4GB option. I'm running multiple apps without problem including Photoshop Elements 9. The machine is just peppy.

The portability is so so sweet. This is no netbook. The speed is there for most people.

It won't burn your thighs either. Does it get hot? I'm not sure yet ... I haven't felt it.

The screen resolution is great too. I was kind of afraid of going with the 13" MBP due to the C2D tech and glossy screen. The MBA very elegantly addresses the C2D question with its implementation of flash memory. The screen is clear and the native resolution works fine for me.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I don't think you will be disappointed at all in it. The 11.6 is the sweet spot for me.

 

[SQUIJIT]

I'm not disappointed with it at all ... fast start-up, instant-on (I wait for airport to connect), fast.

I really didn't want to invest in C2D technology but the flash memory tipped the scale for me.

For writing, there will be no need to worry. Go for the 128GB/4GB option. I'm running multiple apps without problem including Photoshop Elements 9. The machine is just peppy.

The portability is so so sweet. This is no netbook. The speed is there for most people.

It won't burn your thighs either. Does it get hot? I'm not sure yet ... I haven't felt it.

The screen resolution is great too. I was kind of afraid of going with the 13" MBP due to the C2D tech and glossy screen. The MBA very elegantly addresses the C2D question with its implementation of flash memory. The screen is clear and the native resolution works fine for me.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I don't think you will be disappointed at all in it. The 11.6 is the sweet spot for me.

Thanks a lot for your post!

It sounds like it really is quite amazing! I can't wait to get mine, hopefully I'll pick it up next week. However because of how I'm receiving it I unfortunately cannot get the 4GB's of RAM. Do you think this will be a problem?

 

[teaneedz]

Thanks a lot for your post!

It sounds like it really is quite amazing! I can't wait to get mine, hopefully I'll pick it up next week. However because of how I'm receiving it I unfortunately cannot get the 4GB's of RAM. Do you think this will be a problem?

I can't really speak to RAM size other than the fact that I went with 4GB mostly for future proofing. You'll probably be ok with 2GB though especially for writing. Maybe someone else can provide some 2GB user-experience feedback.

The RAM is not really upgradeable so it really is a good investment to go with 4GB at the start. But if you can't, I'm sure you'll still be a happy camper.

Let's see if someone with a stock MBA can provide some more feedback.

 

[Dragynfyre]

Honestly if all you're going to be doing is using a word processor to write stuff then there really is no point in getting 4GB of RAM. 2GB will be more than enough. I have the most basic 11.6" model ($999, $1049 CAD) and I can even play games like CoD4 in Windows 7 just fine. Seriously people overestimate the importance of RAM way too often.

 

[teaneedz]

Didn't buy a USB CD/DVD drive

I forgot to mention this. I was just slightly concerned about not having an optical drive. I very rarely used it on my older 12" PB. I decided to save the money now and wait and see.

The largest app that I probably will ever add is Photoshop Elements 9. I successfully downloaded it using a Windows 7 machine with Remote Disk. However, the download was painfully long ... somewhere close to 3 hours. It worked but was slow.

I'm not concerned with that though because normal sized file transfers via wireless Remote Disk should be just fine. It's actually kind of nice to simply borrow another CD/DVD drive from another computer whenever it's necessary. The slim size and weight of the MBA are excellent trade-offs in my opinion. I understand though that watching movies or playing content may not always work this way though due to DRM issues but I stream such content anyways and never really used my optical drive for playing movies.