Macbook Air 2.0 Reviews / First Impressions

[six.four]

all fanboy comments aside, I'd like to see someone that owns both the 1st gen MBA and 2nd gen MBA to give some real world objective comparisons - particularly in heat and battery life.

there is definitely rampant fanboyism in this thread (not referring to the OP) that convolutes the objectivity of this thread.

 

[mac jones]

Yes some side-by-side tests stressing the fans and temps just using iStat -all things being equal.

I just can't believe how the fan ramps up to 6K on mine just by breathing on it.

this new one MUST be at least a little better.

 

[Scott6666]

So I'm still not sure what the verdict is...

New MBA is
a) Nice and quiet now?
b) Not much better than before?

 

[NC MacGuy]

Yes some side-by-side tests stressing the fans and temps just using iStat -all things being equal.

I just can't believe how the fan ramps up to 6K on mine just by breathing on it.

this new one MUST be at least a little better.

I'll do some comparisons tomorrow but they won't really be valid since the 1.6 (my gen 1) was supposed to run cooler than the 1.8 (or my 1.86 gen 2.)

From my less than 5 hour observations my gen. 2 does seem to run cooler. By how much, I don't know. I'll compare tomorrow and post.

I do like having the extra 46GB of hard drive, err SSD space available.

 

[sparkie7]

I'll do some comparisons tomorrow but they won't really be valid since the 1.6 (my gen 1) was supposed to run cooler than the 1.8 (or my 1.86 gen 2.)

From my less than 5 hour observations my gen. 2 does seem to run cooler. By how much, I don't know. I'll compare tomorrow and post.

I do like having the extra 46GB of hard drive, err SSD space available.

how much were u getting with yr 1st version MBA?

 

[rittchard]

Not much time to post details, but...

woohoo!

Installed XP through Bootcamp and immediately loaded up Warhammer Online. Left resolution at max (1200x800) and set things to fastest framerate. Ran around Altdorf (busy crashy city area) and had consistent FPS above 20 (looked like 15-30+). Some stutter but it looked very very playable, I am thrilled. Quality was nice as well. I'm sure with further optimization I can squeeze some more performance out of it.

Drivers on the disk seem to be fairly recent for mobile users, 176.44 I believe.

Before you ask, yes it did heat up and the fan came on, but this was fully expected as it was the same way trying to do "real" gaming on the old version.

---

Oh yeah, side note, played a few minutes of HD -Worst Week in iTunes full screen, and it looked gorgeous. I didn't notice any fan noise, etc. at that point.

 

[Maven1975]

Not much time to post details, but...

woohoo!

Installed XP through Bootcamp and immediately loaded up Warhammer Online. Left resolution at max (1200x800) and set things to fastest framerate. Ran around Altdorf (busy crashy city area) and had consistent FPS above 20 (looked like 15-30+). Some stutter but it looked very very playable, I am thrilled. Quality was nice as well. I'm sure with further optimization I can squeeze some more performance out of it.

Drivers on the disk seem to be fairly recent for mobile users, 176.44 I believe.

Before you ask, yes it did heat up and the fan came on, but this was fully expected as it was the same way trying to do "real" gaming on the old version.

---

Oh yeah, side note, played a few minutes of HD -Worst Week in iTunes full screen, and it looked gorgeous. I didn't notice any fan noise, etc. at that point.

Did you remember to adjust XP's power settings and turn power miser off under the Nivida control panel? There are other thing you can do like change it to single display mode and adjust it from quality to performance settings.

I get better frames than that.. Have you taken these steps yet?

 

[DaveClarkOne]

I have a 1st Gen MBA with 1.6 and SSD. Love it. I'm not upgrading, as it functions as a travel computer and the 2nd Gen revisions aren't that compelling to me.

However, I would be interested in learning any improvement in battery performance. The only knock on mine is the time it takes to recharge the battery --it is slow. I imagine the new graphics card may exact a toll on the battery of the new machine, exacerbating things.

 

[iDave]

The only knock on mine is the time it takes to recharge the battery --it is slow.

Is there any harm in getting and using a 85 watt power brick with the Air so it will charge faster than the provided 45 watt brick?

 

[epicycle]

I used my Gen 2 MBA for most of the evening migrating data and getting it setup. Coming from a 17" 1.5 yr old MBP it was quite a change. In all thought I think it's an amazing machine.

I had the MBA setup driving my external 24" display and hooking into a powered USB hub that was connected to the display, a external USB 2.0 HD, and the USB ethernet dongle. During all of my data transferring I heard little a peep from the fan on the MBA. That was until TextExpander decided to ruin my day and lock the machine up telling me I had to enable a setting. Had to hardboot into safe mode (took a while) and then back in normal mode. Booting is nice fast with the SSD ... well worth it. It's crazy how much faster it logs in than the HD in my 17".

After tons of setup I had to play around a bit so I did what everyone here asked and I opened YouTube and started 3 videos and then watched the temp and cpu. It was around 40%~ CPU and the temp was only around 64-68 and the fans didn't kick in until all the videos ended, was weird ... then they kicked in for a sec and went away. This was all still while driving the 13" display of the machine and the 24" external cinema. I didn't see any cores drop out either.

On to WoW (World of Warcraft) ... launched into Ogrimar with my druid and on max settings for everything except shadows I was averaging 20 FPS with some dips lower. Lots of epic people and Halloween happenings while I was there so this was quite a test. This is at top resolution as well. The fan kicked in of course and the CPU was around 72-76 with the fan peaking rpm's. Game play was still fine though, no major stutters. This was NOT driving the external display, forgot to mention that. Anyhow I tweaked the settings down 1 notch all around and again left shadows off and managed a 20-30 FPS average in Ogrimar and even higher in non-populated areas. Dropping the resolution downed helps more as well but I like the widescreen so I'd rather leave it.

I'll post some videos tomorrow and pics to show the FPS and everything. All in all this machine rocks and is well worth the change from the 17" ... my back will be thanking me soon.

 

[Essjay]

snip

I'll post some videos tomorrow and pics to show the FPS and everything. All in all this machine rocks and is well worth the change from the 17" ... my back will be thanking me soon.

This sounds great, as I will be doing the same in the very near future. My back aches just thinking about lugging around my 17".

 

[WorldIRC]

This sounds great, as I will be doing the same in the very near future. My back aches just thinking about lugging around my 17".

I lugged my 17" around for 1.5 years...trust me, it sucks!

The MB Air weighs nothing compared to that 17". Who'd of thought the difference a couple of pounds could make!

 

[Philflow]

Is there any harm in getting and using a 85 watt power brick with the Air so it will charge faster than the provided 45 watt brick?

I think that's a good idea.

(As long as the voltages match ofcourse and the air does not exceed the powerbricks amperage.)

 

[GoCubsGo]

Three youtube clips rollin and a max screen saved mp4 movie brought it up to 83º rather quickly. Mind you I opened these up in quick succession - before the fan could catch up. Kept playing and with the fan catching up knocked it down to low-mid 70º's. Cloudy and chance of rain 40% tonight...

No dropped framed and processor stayed about 60% usage. Not really bad when compared to 1st Gen.

In doing migration, fans didn't kick on until it was about 80% finished. They ran non-stop at max. when doing the same w. Gen. one.

Still got the Gen A. Filled up the 80G hard drive so figured why not get the new one. Will probably do some comparisons tomorrow..

Didn't you give me a hard time once upon a few months ago..

Never mind... I so would pay for this Air screen in the MB.

My questions are, though may be invalid due to my lack of desire to shell out the cash for the SSD, how hot does it feel? I know how hot it gets, but can you feel it? I can warm a brownie on my PowerBook without it being plugged into external power. I liked the MB for the comfort of the coolness. Will I see that in the MB Air? In your technical opinion, does a SSD generate less heat than a regular hard drive?

I get about 3 hours of battery on my PowerBook, 4.5 under normal use would be great. Here's hoping there isn't too much difference between the SSD model and the HDD model ... but then again you get 1.86ghz with the SSD and I get 1.6 with the HDD ... iirc.

Ugh this whole thread makes me want to buy the SSD model.

 

[Lyrrad]

If anyone here was wondering, the stereo headset isn't supported like it is on the new MacBook Pros (eg as a microphone or to control iTunes).

 

[LinMac]

Ready to break bread and declare a truce.

Break the bread over the other guy's head and declare a truce. Great idea.

Absolutely!

I never carry a grudge.

Make the other guy carry your grudge for you after you beat him into submission with that bread.

Very nice impressions of the new Macbook Air. I'll be interested to see if it runs any cooler than the first generation in some "real world" testing.

 

[epicycle]

As promised I have some first impressions posted on my website:

http://www.wideasleep.com/blog/?p=127

I've posted some videos playing WoW with the MBA R2 as well as a number of other points of interest including compiling with Xcode and comparisons to my 17" MBP. I'm going to try to do some USB networking tests soon to. Enjoy!!!

 

[uelef]

Thanks epicycle for your long review of the new MacBook air - it helps me to be sure that I made the right decision having ordered one.
I'm still waiting for mine. Hope it won't take too long.

Ulf

 

[foodcoma]

As promised I have some first impressions posted on my website:

http://www.wideasleep.com/blog/?p=127

I've posted some videos playing WoW with the MBA R2 as well as a number of other points of interest including compiling with Xcode and comparisons to my 17" MBP. I'm going to try to do some USB networking tests soon to. Enjoy!!!

Very interesting and helpful review. Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, do you have parallels or VM Ware installed on your MBA?

 

[Apple addict]

Still got the Gen A. Filled up the 80G hard drive so figured why not get the new one. Will probably do some comparisons tomorrow..

Didn't you give me a hard time once upon a few months ago..

Never mind... I so would pay for this Air screen in the MB.

I am glad to hear they have not changed the screen panel on the MBA. I agree on transplanting this screen to the MB, it would be a killer upgrade.

Gary

 

[epicycle]

I run VMware version 2.0. Migrated those last night. After a few reboots for windows xp and vmware to handle the changes all was well. I was running Visual Studio and Remote Desktop again. No fans were kickin in or anything but I certainly didn't push it.

 

[phoobo]

MB screen might be better for some than MBA screen

transplanting this screen to the MB, it would be a killer upgrade.

Gary

Actually I gave the MB some time in a store yesterday. It may alleviate the headache and eyestrain problems that many users have when using OS X on laptops because of the "fuzzy" or blurry screen rendering of OS X fonts, as discussed here among other places:

http://www.atpm.com/12.01/paradigm.shtml?reload

I have returned a couple of MBAs because of the problem, but I felt less strain when using the MB yesterday for 20 minutes or so. After that amount of time on an MBA, I usually have a headache starting.

 

[Apple addict]

Actually I gave the MB some time in a store yesterday. It may alleviate the headache and eyestrain problems that many users have when using OS X on laptops because of the "fuzzy" or blurry screen rendering of OS X fonts, as discussed here among other places:

http://www.atpm.com/12.01/paradigm.shtml?reload

I have returned a couple of MBAs because of the problem, but I felt less strain when using the MB yesterday for 20 minutes or so. After that amount of time on an MBA, I usually have a headache starting.

Interesting point. I also have had issues with blurry fonts and usually turn off font smoothing for 12 pt and below, which helps me somewhat. But in this case I was referring to the need for me to change the angle of the MB screen to get a good contrast/black image. I did not have that issue withe the MBA screen.

Gary

 

[Mactagonist]

If anyone here was wondering, the stereo headset isn't supported like it is on the new MacBook Pros (eg as a microphone or to control iTunes).

Really? This sucks.

 

[Starfall]

As promised I have some first impressions posted on my website:

http://www.wideasleep.com/blog/?p=127

I've posted some videos playing WoW with the MBA R2 as well as a number of other points of interest including compiling with Xcode and comparisons to my 17" MBP. I'm going to try to do some USB networking tests soon to. Enjoy!!!

Thanks for that - very thorough and well written! Your needs seem to be very similar to my own, and you've helped convince me to get the new SSD Air.