Look guys, when the sales guy brought out the Air, I started having second thoughts. I said "I'm not sure, maybe I should have a look at the pro again". His response was "Hey look, go ahead and take it home and see if it works for you. If you don't like it, bring it back". That was the determing factor of my purchase....Of course I got a 10% penalty for changing my mind so it's not like I made off Scott free.
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Did I make a mistake?
- Thread starter aced411
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to requote myself:
'I have empathy for aced411 and his/her predicament of buyer's remorse and think it's a wonderful thing to have been able to settle on what was really required in the first place.'
That's why I relate to this. When I got my MBP 13 earlier this week, the salesperson pointed me to the MBA too. Of course, I had owned and sold it, so I was able to turn him down easily. If you didn't have that info? I don't know. I can see some people being disappointed with the purchase.
I don't think the MBA is a bad product. That was a bad choice of words. It's just, there is value in the MBP line. There is value in the iMac line. With the MBA and Macpro, there is not much value. It's too bad both lines aren't priced more competitively. I can see some people leaving the Apple Store with an MBA and being shocked they've just bought a commuter that can't run games well, creative software well, or even run Windows through Paraells or VM fusion.
Isn't Apple the company that doesn't want you focusing too much on specs, and more on experience?
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All depends on one's individual needs.
By way of comparison... the recent Aston Martin is not the most updated car in the world... doesn't have the biggest engine, the most gears, the highest gas milage, doesn't even offer 4wd or one of those incredible all-metal fold down tops that disappears into the back. But it's adequate for the modest needs of Mr. Ive
All depends on one's individual needs.
By way of comparison... the recent Aston Martin is not the most updated car in the world... doesn't have the biggest engine, the most gears, the highest gas milage, doesn't even offer 4wd or one of those incredible all-metal fold down tops that disappears into the back. But it's adequate for the modest needs of Mr. Ive
I disagree with the Mac Pro not being a good value. I own the single quad and love it. The cost seems steep until you open it up. It's basically a server grade workstation. Yeah you can build a faster machine for less, but pop one open sometime. The hard drives plug in like an nes cartridge. There are no cables and everything is real clean and easy to work on. It even has ECC ram. It will suit my needs for years to come.
I hear ya!
The iPad is very nice, but has limits. The MBA is also very nice, but limits as well.
What I do know, is that with the MBA I can run all software that I need. The iPad will not.
But then I think of pure convenience and the iPad wins hands down.
And then I think ...
Maybe I'll just go shoot myself ... Ha ha!
The more thought I have given to the iPad's and MBA's (different) limitations, the more I am reminded of the single inescapable fact that every ultra lightweight portable computing device has weaknesses. It is a function of the necessity of compromise in design and, therefore, is simply unavoidable.
The Air rocks, it just needs an update and soon. Any machine that hadn't been updated for so long would lag behind badly, especially at the high price its selling for.
I love Apple products and have several myself (but not an MBA) but liberal return policy? What are you smoking? Apple's ridiculous return policies are why I would rather buy things anywhere BUT from an apple store. Only 14 days? And mandatory restock fee? No thanks. I just went with a friend to Best Buy to exchange an opened notebook (admittedly not an Apple) for a different model and they did not charge a restock fee, transferred all of her programs for free, etc.
The issue under debate was whether the OP was somehow taking advantage of Apple by availing himself of the right Apple provided to exchange the MBA he originally bought for an MBP. Whether Apple's return policy is or is not "liberal" as you define the term is up to you but has nothing to do with the subject that was under discussion
sickens me
whats really sad is trying to defend apple to your PC friends who have blurays and HD monitors in their cheaper laptops. hell sony has a 3lb machine with an i5 cpu, and options up to 8gb in ram, hd 1080 monitor, and 512ssd.... oh and a bluray player which we know we'll never get.
any other company who didnt listen to its customers would cease to be a company, yet we allow apple to get away with these "crimes" by continuing to be sheep and not forcing them to give us what we want. instead they tell us what we want and brainwash us to believe it.
sickens me. stop buying their overpriced crap and demand MORE!
edit* i mean in regards to the Airs... mbp 13" and imacs do have comparable competitors and even sony has a 4k laptop
whats really sad is trying to defend apple to your PC friends who have blurays and HD monitors in their cheaper laptops. hell sony has a 3lb machine with an i5 cpu, and options up to 8gb in ram, hd 1080 monitor, and 512ssd.... oh and a bluray player which we know we'll never get.
any other company who didnt listen to its customers would cease to be a company, yet we allow apple to get away with these "crimes" by continuing to be sheep and not forcing them to give us what we want. instead they tell us what we want and brainwash us to believe it.
sickens me. stop buying their overpriced crap and demand MORE!
edit* i mean in regards to the Airs... mbp 13" and imacs do have comparable competitors and even sony has a 4k laptop
Weeeell, but at least here this nice Sony machine comes with a somewhat higher price-tag than the MBA. Not that I wouldn't pay that price tag if it were the MBA with these specs
.
I'm in the IT profession. I sincerely believe that true Apple fans are the minority, and always will be, for one reason: competition.
In spaces where there is limited competition, Apple seems to fail somewhat. In spaces where the competition is pretty even, Apple keeps up with the pack. I don't know exactly why that is, quite frankly. There are exceptions to that rule, of course.
Me, for example. After some deep evaluating it turns out I quite frankly can't stand any of the Apple products except for the MacBook Pro, and there are even things I hate about my MBP - curious design issues. The lack of a numeric keypad on the 17" for example. All that wasted real estate is a definite eyesore. Or the fact that Apple sees fit to charge a premium just to have high resolution screens instead of just making them standard.
To date I have owned an iPod Touch, iPad, AppleTV, MacBook Pro 13" 2009, MacBook Pro 15" 2010, and a mistreated MacBook Air that I recently bought from a recluse. Of them all, the MBP 15" and the MBA are still around, sold the 13" to a coworker, and the three iOS devices all got sold/returned, because I found them seriously lacking. For me, owning a MacBook is about the ability to run both OSs on a single piece of hardware, and having that hardware feel more stable than PC laptops. The fans hardly ever come on, and if they do, are significantly quieter than the PC counterparts.
That said, If I could legally load OS X on any machine I wanted, I guarantee you I wouldn't be owning a MacBook. I don't know what I'd own, but it wouldn't be a MacBook. I could spec out an equivalent 17" PC laptop for half the price, and that's the route I would go for sure.
Your use of the gentle term, "somewhat higher price-tag," convinced me that you have a nice talent for understatement.Weeeell, but at least here this nice Sony machine comes with a somewhat higher price-tag than the MBA. Not that I wouldn't pay that price tag if it were the MBA with these specs
A fully loaded Sony Vaio Z goes for $4,799.99! Would it be churlish of me to point out to the OP that the loaded Z's price is 2.67 times more than that of a top of the line MBA? Yikes!Your use of the gentle term, "somewhat higher price-tag," convinced me that you have a nice talent for understatement.
It was my attempt on sarcasm
Ah, thanks. I had suspected your remark was facetious but was glad to have you confirm that we are on the same page. As impressive as the specs are for the loaded Vaio Z, I got sticker shock long before the price tag approached $4,800.It was my attempt on sarcasm
More seriously, I hope that Apple can find a sweet spot for the MBA with both improved features and an affordable price.The Sony Vaio Z I'd configure for myself would not include all the goodies out there like the BluRay drive or the highest-capacity SSD, but would in many aspects be "middle-class" (for a Vaio Z). 256 GB SSD (mid-size), 6 GB ram (mid-size), i5, ... I'd take the high-def screen though.Ah, thanks. I had suspected your remark was facetious but was glad to have you confirm that we are on the same page. As impressive as the specs are for the loaded Vaio Z, I got sticker shock long before the price tag approached $4,800.
It would come out almost exactly $1000 above the current MBA.
The cheapest Vaio Z I could get from Sony's website is still more expensive than the better MBA. For those $150 more I'd mainly get 4GB ram instead of 2GB.
If a new MBA would offer that I'd not hesitate.
I have exactly the same love-hate relationship with my iPad. One thing I wish they would let you do with the iPad out of the box should be to play videos from an Apple/Windows File Share. For now, there is AirFreeVideo but does require a server component to be running on a Mac or PC.
The iPad is too iPhone-ish. In fact, for such a beautiful and capable device, it is severely limited. The App Store concept does works for under-powered devices like the iPhone with the small screens, but come on, let's open the iPad just a little bit or at least differentiate it somewhat. I hate the fact that I must convert my video content into MP4s and then sync through iTunes to be able to watch it on the iPad. Such as time consuming process. The AirFreeVideo will do for now... I wish I could run some emulators on the device that are open source, but well, anyway...