had to share... just got a MBA!!

[melissarae]

so i was in the market for a new laptop for school... mostly for portability reasons... i have a 20 inch iMac at home that would be my "workhorse" and so i was looking at getting the 13 in white macbook for about $1200 with an education discount... my budget is roughly $1400. so last night we went to best buy to check out surround sound systems for our living room and i wandered over to the apple section.... where a bright yellow sticker caught my eye... "open item" MBA 1.6ghz 80GB for $699!!!!! i wasn't even considering the MBA because of $$$, but this just blew my mind! so i got it however, they couldn't find the restore discs and have to order new ones from apple so that they can restore it and remove the demo software off of it. so it will be a couple days before i actually get it. i was a little worried about it being open item, but best buy reassured me that if anything doesn't work properly or anything is wrong with it i can return it. and now i have extra money from my budget to buy peripherals needed... such as apple care via apple store... external cd-rom.... i got a 320GB external hard drive... and now i'm in the market for a nice case to carry my new little friend in! ahhh i'm so excited!! haha i feel i have now truly turned into an apple geek.

 

[sushi]

i wandered over to the apple section.... where a bright yellow sticker caught my eye... "open item" MBA 1.6ghz 80GB for $699!!!!! :

Sounds like you got a good deal.

Be sure to check it out thoroughly.

Since it is a laptop, you might consider getting AppleCare if you haven't already.

 

[theMaccer]

congra on the purchase. Definitely buy applecare for it, since it is an open box. if you wanna save some dough on applecare, try Amazon or eBay.

 

[melissarae]

oh yeah i'm definitely getting applecare... didn't realize you could get it via ebay or amazon though... thanks for the tip!

anyone else have any tips for a new MBA owner?!

 

[uberamd]

How long is the existing warranty on the laptop? Verify there is still warranty time left on it. An Apple Certified refurb of the exact same model runs ~$300 more than what you paid with a 1 year warranty. What worries me is that since its an older model that has been out for over a year its *possible* (not likely, but possible) that there is no Apple warranty on it at all, thus not eligible for Apple Care either.

 

[melissarae]

there is original apple warranty currently on it... however, i don't know how long. but i will be finding that out asap. thanks for bringing that up!

see i'm glad i have somewhere to go to bring up things like this that i knew i'd miss!

 

[spriter]

oh yeah i'm definitely getting applecare... didn't realize you could get it via ebay or amazon though... thanks for the tip!

anyone else have any tips for a new MBA owner?!

Coolbook - My Rev A was fine without it (no core shutdowns etc) but I use it for the extra battery life. 5+ hours on an MBA was something I never thought possible.

Arctic Silver 5 - again, I didn't have to do it but my idle temps dropped to 39-42C.

Oh, and careful with the hinge...

 

[theMaccer]

How long is the existing warranty on the laptop? Verify there is still warranty time left on it. An Apple Certified refurb of the exact same model runs ~$300 more than what you paid with a 1 year warranty. What worries me is that since its an older model that has been out for over a year its *possible* (not likely, but possible) that there is no Apple warranty on it at all, thus not eligible for Apple Care either.

It should technically have a full year Apple warranty, since he just bought it. But it is bestbuy we are talking about here, you never know what they have done to the machine.

 

[DesignerOnMac]

oh yeah i'm definitely getting applecare... didn't realize you could get it via ebay or amazon though... thanks for the tip!

anyone else have any tips for a new MBA owner?!

Also look at LAComputers.com, they seem to have the best discounted Apple Care!

 

[jrabbit]

SquareTrade

You can also check SquareTrade warranties (coupon available at http://blog.squaretrade.com/). Similar to AppleCare, but cheaper; w/in 30 days of purchase you can also cover accidental damage and handling damage. That's the way I'm covering my gear now.

If you want to stick with AppleCare, don't forget eBay; in the past, I've gotten much lower prices on AppleCare from eBay, and had no trouble.