Geting 11" MacBook Air on Monday but not happy...

[Nem]

Basically we've had a home computing scheme running at work with the option this time for iPad 2's, 27" iMac, 13" MacBook Pro and the 11" MacBook Air alongside the usual PC's they provide. Works out about £28 a month over 3 years and they throw in the full 3 years Apple Care with it.

I've decided the 11" Air is exactly what I want except the scheme chooses the exact spec of the laptop and we can't customise them. So it's set at the 128Gb model but with the 1.4Ghz cpu and 2Gb ram. I've asked them about paying extra for the upgrades but they won't budge.

The only thing was they said they always provide the most current model at the time of ordering. I mentioned the new model being available soon and they said if it's available when we arrange delivery you will most likely get that one. Our scheme closed at the end of May so I had to order by then, and did so, hoping the refresh would be at the WWDC or soon after. They then have to contact us to arrange delivery dates etc etc and I was hoping to hold them off until the new one was available.

Unfortunately they have called today and said the package I chose is in stock and will be with me on Monday ( Not that I'm not still looking forward to it, but I'm basically going to end up with a laptop to pay for for 3 years which will be out of date within a matter of weeks.

I could have just waited and bought one direct through Apple when the new model came out, but the finance cost would add about £100 and then the apple care another £200 making it too much more for me to really afford.

Anyway, this being my first mac I'm sure I'll be back asking some questions next week

Nick

 

[DustinT]

Just sell it and use the cash to buy the new model. You don't even have to open the package and you'll get even more for it.

 

[Nem]

The thought had crossed my mind. But as it's bought through this scheme I don't technically own it until the 3 years are up. Also not sure if they pre register the applecare on the device or what happens about it.

Other thing is if it's £1020 in the apple store, how much would you get selling one, even unopened? I can't see I'm not going to loose a load selling it to make it even more to buy another.

Nick

 

[KylePowers]

Maybe you should have opted for an iPad 2 or iMac, then bought an MBA yourself? I guess it's too late now.

Surely you'll enjoy it regardless. What do you plan to even use it for?

 

[head honcho 123]

ebay it?

refresh are coming around july... (obviously a guess. lol)

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ly_400k_next_gen_macbook_airs_this_month.html

 

[Nem]

I've got an old Dell Laptop which I had from a similar scheme about 5 years back which is now just tired and needing replacing. I really only have one actual task I need to use a laptop for and it's to run software which I can diagnose faults on my car with. So I will have to put some version of Windows on this also just to run this software.

I've had both an iPhone 3G and now a 4 and love them and having never really used OS X at all I thought it was about time to see what else Apple has to offer.

So, for the very light use I actually need it for I'm sure it will be more than fine. Be used when at my partners house for a bit of email and browsing, and if I ever need to go away from home. Obviously an iPad would have been no use due to the software mentioned above, and it had to be portable to use outside in the car.

It's just working in IT and knowing there will be or is a faster model having only just got mine will kill me

Nick

 

[head honcho 123]

It's just working in IT and knowing there will be or is a faster model having only just got mine will kill me

Nick

more reason to ebay it LOL

 

[brand]

Also not sure if they pre register the applecare on the device or what happens about it.

If the computer was purchased with AppleCare as an option then it is pre-registered before it ships.

 

[Nem]

more reason to ebay it LOL

Indeed.

If the computer was purchased with AppleCare as an option then it is pre-registered before it ships.

If that's the case then I doubt I'll be able to sell it as it'l all be in my name.

I'm pretty sure when I get my hands on it I'll be more than happy actually. I've been in the Apple stores a few times lately and since ordering mine and each time I see the Air I can't get over how amazing it it just an an object to hold etc etc, let alone to actually use it.

Nick

 

[palpatine]

i don't understand what the benefits of using this scheme are. that's 28 pounds a month for 3 years, and the MBA only costs 867 pounds. isn't that significantly more than the cost of the computer, and spread out over several years, doesn't that make it a really awful deal?

free AppleCare is one thing, but getting locked into this deal for a computer you didn't really want seems like a bad situation.

well, the good news is that the mba is a great computer, especially if you only have light computing needs. who cares about the next shiny? this one will easily provide three years of use, and when you are done with it, you can upgrade to the macbook cortical implant.

 

[Nem]

It's the 128Gb model which is just over £1000 currently, so getting the laptop at cost price split over 3 years with no interest, and then the apple care is bacially free.

Nick

 

[palpatine]

It's the 128Gb model which is just over £1000 currently, so getting the laptop at cost price split over 3 years with no interest, and then the apple care is bacially free.

Nick

that sounds a lot better
if i were you, i wouldn't fret too much, even if a new model comes out tomorrow. it's a great computer and will age well.

 

[Mikedict]

MacBook Air

I'm sure you will have a great time with it, I have been using macs for over 20 years, they hold their value and even a 3-4 year old machine is not that much slower (Unless your a big gamer) You never know when to buy, I bought my daughter a MBP for christmas only for the new ones to come out but she loves it as a replacement for her black MB so I don't worry. As long as it survives her through Uni.

Mike

 

[hcho3]

Just don't understand what is so freaking big deal about next MBA...

Maybe people are just looking into sandy bridge and not looking at the intel HD card. That graphic card is just as awful as Core 2 Duo.

Intel HD 3000 card is almost in par with Nvidia 9400M and that graphic card was used around 2007-2008.

Faster processor and faster GPU work together to run great apps and programs.

Since all the MBA will be using Low-voltage processors, I am sure there will be huge differences...
Maybe people just looked at 2011 MBP and still dreaming about somehow, these MBA will bring a same kind of upgrade. Yea.. sure.

 

[Nem]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well I'm gutted. I'll have a brand new laptop which will be out of dat within 48 hours tops.

Nick

 

[TC25]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well I'm gutted. I'll have a brand new laptop which will be out of dat within 48 hours tops.

Nick

There's nothing left to do but throw it away since, as everyone knows, when new models come out, all previous models quit working. .

 

[fibrizo]

I do sympathize for your situation. However it does seem like your choices now are to be extremely upset and disappointed with your purchase, or you can enjoy a great product, which will likely be slower for full cpu intensive applications, but probably bequite similar in day to day uses.

Other less viable options are to sell the mba, and take the money if you happen to be on vacation in the US.... and buy a new mba for 615... and add on apple care for 120-200 pounds pounds depending on how you want to do it.

To be honest, I was not eagar to get my 2011 mbp 13 inch because I didn't feel a huge improvement from it. (I had a 2010 c2d 13 inch macbook pro) I wanted to wait until ivy bridge with improved graphics, better power consumption and usb 3.0 support, coming at the end of this year/beginning of the next.

 

[setasai]

To be honest I think you have nothing to worry about. Sure there's an update coming out... "update" not "upgrade". Practicallity wise, I find that the current MBA is an awesome machine that'll likely run circles around many comparable PCs purely because of the SSD. If you use it as it's intended purpose, 3 years I believe will be nothing in the grand scheme of things. This thing is so ridiculously portable, capable, and so "pretty" that you truely wont care.

What I would be frustrated about is that they wont allow you to upgrade the ram to 4gb.

 

[bossxii]

Just don't understand what is so freaking big deal about next MBA...

Maybe people are just looking into sandy bridge and not looking at the intel HD card. That graphic card is just as awful as Core 2 Duo.

Intel HD 3000 card is almost in par with Nvidia 9400M and that graphic card was used around 2007-2008.

Faster processor and faster GPU work together to run great apps and programs.

Since all the MBA will be using Low-voltage processors, I am sure there will be huge differences...
Maybe people just looked at 2011 MBP and still dreaming about somehow, these MBA will bring a same kind of upgrade. Yea.. sure.

Not sure where you found your benchmarks but everything I've found, even here on MR benchmarks the HD3000 well in line/faster than the 320M GPU.

Such as this thread with a comparison chart of the two running games and standard benchmarks.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1102927/

A quick google search and it's pretty obvious the HD 3000 is not nearly as bad as people try to make it out to be. I don't have the need to play games on a MBA, but if one chooses to, the Intel graphics will handle it just as well as the current gen system.

C2D to SB CPU will not only increase performance 3x+ it will likely help battery life as well. I'll never complain about longer battery life and the bonus of a more powerful platform to work from. I'll leave gaming to the consoles or a desktop with a proper GPU.

 

[endhalf]

bossxii:

Check notebookcheck for Intel HD3000 and GT320M and u'll see that according to notebookcheck Intel is actually SLOWER than GT320M. Now that image might be photoshoped, this is the real deal!

And the thing is that if they use ULV procesor, that means that GPU will be even slower than current GPUs in Core ix processors... So don't feed others with BS please...

 

[Beanoir]

I wouldn't worry about it, sounds like you've got a good deal, depending on what you're doing you may not even notice the difference between the RAM options. Don't worry about it being out of date, thats not going to affect the way the computer works for you, i've still got a 2006 Mac Mini and it's more than adequate (albeit with an upgraded chip and HD just recently) 5 years later.

 

[fibrizo]

A quick google search and it's pretty obvious the HD 3000 is not nearly as bad as people try to make it out to be. I don't have the need to play games on a MBA, but if one chooses to, the Intel graphics will handle it just as well as the current gen system.

C2D to SB CPU will not only increase performance 3x+ it will likely help battery life as well. I'll never complain about longer battery life and the bonus of a more powerful platform to work from. I'll leave gaming to the consoles or a desktop with a proper GPU.

Actually a quick search will tell you that the HD 3000 is faster... at low resolutions, which are more CPU bound. If you turn the settings up from lowest, and increase resolution, the 320M pulls ahead.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/19

That said, who would bother gaming on a macbook air at higher resolutions in the first place, I'm not sure. Also according to the testing, it seems the HD 3000 is thermally limited in the 13 inch mbp, which would probably mean it might be limited as well in the macbook air's form factor.

As for battery life increase, the advertised battery life dropped from 10 hours to 7 hours from the 2010 13 inch mbp to the 2011 13 inch mbp. Having owned both, I assure you it certainly doesn't feel like a 3x improvment in daily usage. In fact it feels like a sidegrade, rather than an upgrade. In practical usage it feels quite similar, maybe faster in cpu intensive applications. However the cpus on the airs, especially the 11 are more anemic, and probably would get a significant boost.

Should the GPU change your mind about purchasing a new air? probably not. However is the new air going to be so much better that it will make a huge difference? probably not.

It will probably be similar in specs, including battery life, unless form factor changes. It will be faster in terms of cpu. But hey that's computers. They get faster over time. I'm still more excited about the ivy bridge update though when we get usb 3.0 and a faster gpu.

 

[Abstract]

Actually a quick search will tell you that the HD 3000 is faster... at low resolutions, which are more CPU bound. If you turn the settings up from lowest, and increase resolution, the 320M pulls ahead.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/19

That's the MacBook Pro, which uses a faster clocked version.

Endhalf's link to notebookcheck.net is where people should be looking.


Having said that, the new SB ULV Intel 3000 IGP may be clocked slightly faster than the ones seen in ULV units so far. It still won't reach the speeds found in the 13" MBP, but it'll still be comparable in many cases, as long as you're not playing games.

Besides, neither GPU is great for gaming. The 320m is bad, while the Intel 3000 is very bad.