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Does anyone still use the first-generation MacBook Air?
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I was; until last week. I decided to trade it in for a gift card at J&R before the release of the new MBA. I'll decide then if I'll get the new MBA or the late-2010 based on prices and features...
I had a 1st gen 80GB MBA which was a good trooper for my needs but I figured it was time to sell before it dropped some more in price when the new MBA comes out.
I had a 1st gen 80GB MBA which was a good trooper for my needs but I figured it was time to sell before it dropped some more in price when the new MBA comes out.
No hinge issues here.
As for overheating, I used the voltage control utility and the SMCFanControl utility and didn't experience any shutdowns.
Of course, YMMV depending on your use. I do all of my "heavy lifting" on my iMac, not on the MBA. And that's on purpose; not because I was "babying" the MBA.
Apple made hundreds of thousands of them, many of which rolled off the assembly lines less than a year ago. So of course they're in use. I suspect that many people who owned them and read these forums have since sold or gifted them down the line to Mac users who do not.
wow! i hate the original rev A Air so much. when running vmware in the summer, the mouse cursor was jittering like crazy, and everything became slow, i even put coolbook, but it didn't help when I'm browsing websites that have flash.
issue is non existent with my new 11" Air
issue is non existent with my new 11" Air
Positively. It runs great and there is no reason not to use it. Also; It has an illuminated keyboard, which all the newer ones do not! To me that's important. (I like working in the dark, it's peaceful and soothing with no distractions). Laugh if you want to!
Hmm... I see an original MacBook Air with a 64GB SSD installed for $650 on a reseller's website somewhere.
I've been thinking of selling my 2009 MacBook Pro 13' for ages and getting a lighter laptop instead. Might this fit the bill? Newer MacBook Airs are far beyond my price range.
I've been thinking of selling my 2009 MacBook Pro 13' for ages and getting a lighter laptop instead. Might this fit the bill? Newer MacBook Airs are far beyond my price range.
wouldnt recommended it. the original mba is a pain in the butt. overheating and slow. would be a significant performance degrade from your machine. get rev B as the minimum.
Guy I work with has what he thinks is the 2nd gen Macbook Air and he says its a complete pain - can't watch a youtube video (despite the latest flash and click to flash) without it overheating, slowing down, throttling, beachballing. I've told him to get it looked at but he doesn't have applecare, so...
very true. i had rev A and rev B, it stuttered playing flash videos, but the rev B is much better even though it's still has issue.
First Airs should still be in use. I have an old Mac laptop code named Pismo with 8 megs of ram still in use. These were the models that had the dual bays left and right underneath the palm rests, that you could swap in and out a drive or extra battery. Runs on OS9.
I have had my Rev A for nearly 3 years now and still going strong. I upgraded the SSD to a 256Gb Photofast, had the battery replaced when cycle count got high and battery health dropped and they replaced the screen just in case even though I had no hinge probs at that point.
I agree that it gets hot and the fans fire up a lot of the time but it does not bother me too much as I am a pretty light user (word, internet, emails and a few photos). Normal youtube viewing is fine, but it chokes on HD stuff. Having said that, it pushed SD movies to my HDTV rented from iTunes no probs (apart from the fan noise LOL).
I would not recommend this laptop to anyone unless it came free! The battery life is 2.5-3.5hrs at best, it does struggle on video and it does warm up pretty fast.
Yep, although my current model is used 95% of the time, my original Rev A is going strong after having the battery replaced earlier this year.
It looks like I will not be upgrading the Rev A to Lion as the main use for the unit is maintaining Quicken 2007 which requires Rosetta.
It looks like I will not be upgrading the Rev A to Lion as the main use for the unit is maintaining Quicken 2007 which requires Rosetta.
I use mine on a daily basis.. It lives in the living room by my AV system, has my top 500 songs on it and I use it as a music server.. need more music, just stream it off my MacMini.. need something off my Mini, just screenshare or pull the files off DropBox. Probably gets more use than my MacMini other than some heavy photo editing.
Upgraded the HD to a 128GB SSD and never looked back. yes, it gets warm sometimes but I still love it. Time for a battery replacement though.
Upgraded the HD to a 128GB SSD and never looked back. yes, it gets warm sometimes but I still love it. Time for a battery replacement though.
You'll be going down in performance; is the 13 inch really that big? Or do you just like what you see and plan on getting an Air "just because?"
You have an 09 pro; that machine will last you for years to come. If you do want something smaller though, what all do you actually do with the machine? If you aren't doing anything like editing or rendering, get the next gen Airs (09/10) and use that. Of course, I suggest just waiting until tomorrow and seeing how the next gen Airs will stack up.
I mostly use it to surf the web and type papers. An occasional game or two is in the blend as well (though I have a much better equipped desktop tower for that).
The 13' is certainly very mobile, but I use it on my lap a lot, and depending on the situation, it's hard to balance 4.5 pounds of glass and aluminum without having it potentially fall off. My 13' suffered a minor dent eighteen months ago when that happened.
Three pounds of aluminum and plastic would fare better in terms of lap balance, so to speak. And many other Windows sub-notebooks either cost too much or don't pack a big enough screen (13 inches is my absolute minimum for a laptop, otherwise, it's too small).
The 13' is certainly very mobile, but I use it on my lap a lot, and depending on the situation, it's hard to balance 4.5 pounds of glass and aluminum without having it potentially fall off. My 13' suffered a minor dent eighteen months ago when that happened.
Three pounds of aluminum and plastic would fare better in terms of lap balance, so to speak. And many other Windows sub-notebooks either cost too much or don't pack a big enough screen (13 inches is my absolute minimum for a laptop, otherwise, it's too small).
Rev A Still Very Much In Use
I still use my first generation MBA all the time at college. I am an instructor and use the old MBA for showing powerpoints in class, doing email, all the normal office stuff.
My machine runs cool, has had zero problems, and I bought it the first week they came out. For my purposes, it has been very good but it is definitely slower than my new Rev C MBA with solid state drive and 4GB of memory.
Still, it is a very capable machine.
I still use my first generation MBA all the time at college. I am an instructor and use the old MBA for showing powerpoints in class, doing email, all the normal office stuff.
My machine runs cool, has had zero problems, and I bought it the first week they came out. For my purposes, it has been very good but it is definitely slower than my new Rev C MBA with solid state drive and 4GB of memory.
Still, it is a very capable machine.
My wife still uses her Rev A for her business. It got handed down to an employee and she now uses personally a Rev D, but the machine still performs all necessary tasks and works just fine.
Yes if you threw anything hard at it, the fans would come on and the thing would slow down, but overall that machine has been a trooper.
We even had to pay $900 to repair it on the FOURTH DAY of ownership because my wife spilled coffee in it. Fun times.
Yes if you threw anything hard at it, the fans would come on and the thing would slow down, but overall that machine has been a trooper.
We even had to pay $900 to repair it on the FOURTH DAY of ownership because my wife spilled coffee in it. Fun times.
Wouldn't recommend getting anything that doesn't have a) ssd or b) nvidia 9400 graphics or better. Old intel integrated (gma950 or x3100) are barely usable.
I still use my original MBA (ssd) and love it for the light weight, as I take it up and downstairs frequently during the day when researching fabric inventory issues or selecting fabrics for a project. It does not get heavy duty call on its capabilities. No overheating, no hinge issues that I am aware of. I sometimes rent movies from iTunes onto it, outside of that it's mostly browse / email / local net looking at data pulled over from another Mac (from Bento info or some spreadsheets). I don't even bother backing it up dailiy, might export a few files at day end; once a week or couple weeks I back it up if I have done any software updates, but it's back on Leopard still so that's a rarity now.
The battery is probably not what it used to be, but it's not down to an irritating level yet. I just keep an eye on its performance month to month, top it off early in the morning and it's good to go for the use I put it to during the day. I have noticed that if I put it to sleep and let it sit for a couple days it drops off a bit more than some of my other notebook Macs do or have done in the past. Some of the early MBAs had battery or charging issues right from the beginning, I think, but mine seemed fine.
The battery is probably not what it used to be, but it's not down to an irritating level yet. I just keep an eye on its performance month to month, top it off early in the morning and it's good to go for the use I put it to during the day. I have noticed that if I put it to sleep and let it sit for a couple days it drops off a bit more than some of my other notebook Macs do or have done in the past. Some of the early MBAs had battery or charging issues right from the beginning, I think, but mine seemed fine.
Yea... the X3100 is not usable. I just sold my 07 MacBook with that chipset and although it did everything from light photo editing to 1080p video, that thing just could not install and run games.