Just bought a 11" MBA...

[Ronnoco]

I just joined the MBA club tonight...11", 1.6GHz, 4GB Ram...just lovin' it...joins my 15" MBP i5...nice little Mac family...
This little guy is going everywhere with me...I was going to wait and get a iPad2, but after playing with this thing at the Apple store, it just blows the iPad away for my needs...coolest little computer ever!

 

[jace88]

welcome to the club it's a great little laptop!

 

[0007776]

Enjoy it, I would get one if I had the money and some way to justify buying it to myself.

 

[Ronnoco]

welcome to the club it's a great little laptop!

Like many others here, I was leery of the size of the 11" thinking it would be too small, but I am just loving it for what I need it for (and heck, I was gonna get an iPad 2 anyway and that is even smaller lulz)...I use my MBP i5 with a 23" Samsung monitor and two external drives and I just got tired of disconnecting everything whenever I needed the portability...as I said, I was leaning toward an iPad to use around the house or at the coffee shop but this things just rocked me so much I didn't want the ipad anymore...couldn't be happier...thanks to all of you who posted reviews...I read them all and the went and took one for a spin...just took a few moments to get hooked...

 

[Ronnoco]

Enjoy it, I would get one if I had the money and some way to justify buying it to myself.

I felt the same way (trying to justify the purchase)...having to disconnect my MBP every time I wanted or needed to go portable was getting old so I just up and did it LOL
Like ia said, couldn't be happier...this is about the nicest comuter I've owned and I've owned quite a few...so light and so fast...does about anything I need it to do and with the SSD, is a bit snappier at some things than my i5 MBP...

 

[dmelgar]

Like many others here, I was leery of the size of the 11" thinking it would be too small, but I am just loving it for what I need it for (and heck, I was gonna get an iPad 2 anyway and that is even smaller lulz)...I use my MBP i5 with a 23" Samsung monitor and two external drives and I just got tired of disconnecting everything whenever I needed the portability...as I said, I was leaning toward an iPad to use around the house or at the coffee shop but this things just rocked me so much I didn't want the ipad anymore...couldn't be happier...thanks to all of you who posted reviews...I read them all and the went and took one for a spin...just took a few moments to get hooked...

You realize, if you want to, you could still hook up your 23" monitor and two external drives to the air and not need the MBP. That's what I do. I have a 28" monitor, another 20" monitor and two 1tb drives. Takes two cables to plug them all in because most of them are on a USB hub.

 

[Akira1980]

I have the same setup as you. The 15" MBP and 11" MBA. But now I am thinking about selling 15" MBP for iMac. My 15" just stays home these days while my 11" goes with me everywhere.

 

[Ronnoco]

You realize, if you want to, you could still hook up your 23" monitor and two external drives to the air and not need the MBP. That's what I do. I have a 28" monitor, another 20" monitor and two 1tb drives. Takes two cables to plug them all in because most of them are on a USB hub.

Yes...I got that, thanks. I love the i5 MBP as I do a good amount of video processing and the MBP does a nice job of it and I prefer the firewire 800 connection for my 7200RPM drives...I just wanted the Air (or iPad) to use around the house or at the coffeeshop or for travel...it works very very well for that purpose...what I may do later this year is sell the MBP and get a new (Sandy Bridge) iMac...then, I'll have the iMac and the MBA which would be perfect for my needs...

One more thing about the new MBA...My daughter has a rev C and loves it and I had played around with hers this Christmas when she was visiting...I DO miss the lighted keyboard that her version has (and my MacBook Pro has as well) as I'm NOT the world's best typist LOL
That is a very nice feature that as I have read here, many think will be put back in as a feature in the next rev...

 

[bowlerman625]

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Congrats
I love mine and you'll love yours too

 

[Kenzembo1]

You realize, if you want to, you could still hook up your 23" monitor and two external drives to the air and not need the MBP. That's what I do. I have a 28" monitor, another 20" monitor and two 1tb drives. Takes two cables to plug them all in because most of them are on a USB hub.

That's very interesting...would you mind elaborating on exactly how one might go about doing this? The reason I ask is I have my newly acquired 11.6" MBA connected to my 24" Apple cinema display and currently have all 5 ports being used- 1.) for power cord 2.) for mini display port connection 3.) ethernet to USB 4.) USB to power my 1 TB external passport, and 5.) speaker line to power my JBL Creature speakers.

I have a USB 'squid' that I bought to connect my iPhone, iPod shuffle, and external superdrive, since the cinema display only includes 3 USB ports. If I can purchase some kind of hub and consolidate these cables, where I only have 2 or possibly 3 lines connected to my MBA at any time then that would be amazing! It's kind of a pain to disconnect and reconnect those five cables every time I want to use my MBA on the go, or just to use on the couch, etc.

If you guys can provide any additional insight and help me make my setup more hassle-free with less cables/wires connected to my MBA then I would be forever grateful!

 

[Ronnoco]

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Congrats
I love mine and you'll love yours too

thank you bowlerman...I'm just lovin' this little guy!

 

[jazziethomas]

It's portability is really amazing, but since I have the MBA 13 I would choose the iPad 2 over the 11 MBA

 

[BornAgainMac]

That's very interesting...would you mind elaborating on exactly how one might go about doing this? The reason I ask is I have my newly acquired 11.6" MBA connected to my 24" Apple cinema display and currently have all 5 ports being used- 1.) for power cord 2.) for mini display port connection 3.) ethernet to USB 4.) USB to power my 1 TB external passport, and 5.) speaker line to power my JBL Creature speakers.

I have a USB 'squid' that I bought to connect my iPhone, iPod shuffle, and external superdrive, since the cinema display only includes 3 USB ports. If I can purchase some kind of hub and consolidate these cables, where I only have 2 or possibly 3 lines connected to my MBA at any time then that would be amazing! It's kind of a pain to disconnect and reconnect those five cables every time I want to use my MBA on the go, or just to use on the couch, etc.

If you guys can provide any additional insight and help me make my setup more hassle-free with less cables/wires connected to my MBA then I would be forever grateful!

I think the optimal setup is a desktop like the Mini or iMac and a Macbook Air 11 inch. The docking setups are a pain with all the cables but if someone complained to Steve Jobs he would reply...

"It isn't that hard."

-Sent from my iPad

 

[Ronnoco]

It's portability is really amazing, but since I have the MBA 13 I would choose the iPad 2 over the 11 MBA

Yes...I would do the same if I already had the 13"MBA...

Even though I now have the 11" MBA, I'll probably get an iPad2 anyway

 

[YMark]

I love my 11.6 Macbook Air. In fact, I'm posting this message, sitting on an airplane from Phoenix to Charlotte using Gogo inflight wifi. This little thing fits on a tray. nicely and I still have room for a drink on the tray.

 

[Ronnoco]

I love my 11.6 Macbook Air. In fact, I'm posting this message, sitting on an airplane from Phoenix to Charlotte using Gogo inflight wifi. This little thing fits on a tray. nicely and I still have room for a drink on the tray.

Epic!

 

[gglockner]

I think the optimal setup is a desktop like the Mini or iMac and a Macbook Air 11 inch.

I have the Mac Pro + 11" MacBook Air. It's a fantastic setup. I have my router setup so that I can remote desktop (VNC) to my Mac Pro when I am away but need the greater processing power. I also use ChronoSync to keep the important data in sync between the two machines. It's an awesome setup.

If your budget is lower, an iMac would be fine. I wouldn't bother with a Mac Mini for this setup - it would be nearly redundant with the MacBook Air.

I've briefly considered replacing the Mac Pro with a couple of Linux servers (I work in scientific computing) and using the MacBook Air with an external keyboard and mouse as my only desktop computer. But as great as the MacBook Air is as a remote system, I would probably find it underpowered for some tasks. So having a second desktop Mac is a great combination.

 

[2IS]

Fun little gadgets aren't they? The MBA is my first Mac and i'm really liking it. I wanted the ultra portability of the 11" but decided to go with the 13" for the longer battery life.

 

[Ronnoco]

Fun little gadgets aren't they? The MBA is my first Mac and i'm really liking it. I wanted the ultra portability of the 11" but decided to go with the 13" for the longer battery life.

The only hesitation I had buying this little gem was that I know darn well that within 6 months a new version will be released with a backlit keyboard, a card reader, 1.86GHZ processor, 1066MHz frontside bus, 256SSD and a 7 hour battery for $100 less...

 

[Ronnoco]

I have the same setup as you. The 15" MBP and 11" MBA. But now I am thinking about selling 15" MBP for iMac. My 15" just stays home these days while my 11" goes with me everywhere.

I just may do the same Akira...I'm gonna take a serious look at the upgraded Sandy Bridge iMacs...

 

[jace88]

Like many others here, I was leery of the size of the 11" thinking it would be too small, but I am just loving it for what I need it for (and heck, I was gonna get an iPad 2 anyway and that is even smaller lulz)...I use my MBP i5 with a 23" Samsung monitor and two external drives and I just got tired of disconnecting everything whenever I needed the portability...as I said, I was leaning toward an iPad to use around the house or at the coffee shop but this things just rocked me so much I didn't want the ipad anymore...couldn't be happier...thanks to all of you who posted reviews...I read them all and the went and took one for a spin...just took a few moments to get hooked...

Haha I took a similar path as you- read lots of very positive reviews of the 11" as being perfect for casual computing and portability, and then the Apple Store gave me the option to try it out.

 

[Ronnoco]

Haha I took a similar path as you- read lots of very positive reviews of the 11" as being perfect for casual computing and portability, and then the Apple Store gave me the option to try it out.

This 11" MBA is hard to resist once you get your hands on it...

Like I said earlier, I'll still probably get an iPad2, but I haven't hardly touched my 15" i5 MBP in three days...Ha!

 

[Bakari45]

Hello folks, I'm new to the club as well. Just got the MBA 11 this past weekend. I wanted to get the 13", but I didn't want to over extend myself money wise. I'm mainly going to use the Air for writing, so I'm not super worried about the speed. Plus, after using the iPad for several months, I'm just hooked on small portable devices, and the Air fits the bill.

I'm also not worried about the low memory space because I constantly take advantage of cloud services like Dropbox, my MobileMe account, and other wireless features and software. I have to fill up my low end iPad or 3G iPhone, simply because of cloud computing.


Just want to add: for those of you who are new to Apple‘s laptop, I strongly encourage you take advantage of the large trackpad. I‘m a heavy mouse user myself, and I started to purchase a mouse even to use withe Air. But instead, I‘m really pushing myself to use the finger gestures for navigation, and I‘m already finding it a better way to go. I took a few screen shots of the instructions for using the trackpad, combined them in Photoshop, and pasted it the graphic to my desktop. I’ll leave it on there for a few days until I get used to using the appropriate gestures.

 

[Ronnoco]

Hello folks, I'm new to the club as well. Just got the MBA 11 this past weekend. I wanted to get the 13", but I didn't want to over extend myself money wise. I'm mainly going to use the Air for writing, so I'm not super worried about the speed. Plus, after using the iPad for several months, I'm just hooked on small portable devices, and the Air fits the bill.

I'm also not worried about the low memory space because I constantly take advantage of cloud services like Dropbox, my MobileMe account, and other wireless features and software. I have to fill up my low end iPad or 3G iPhone, simply because of cloud computing.

Congrats on the new 11" Air Bakari! Welcome to the Club!

 

[Gymgenius]

after spending an age in the Apple Store last night, I ordered in-store what was going to be my first ever Mac - 11.6 inch, 1.4GHz, 4GB, 128GB....

....then I came on here and read how almost everyone who had an 11.6 inch MBA has the 1.6GHz with 4GB of Ram....and thought to myself 'why didn't I get that spec?'....so for another £82 (which is peanuts in the grand scheme and cost of these beauties)....that's what I'm going to do.

I promptly cancelled my on-line order, and will return to the Apple Store tonight for the better spec model.