----
Here is information about my screen that has not been affected by lines or flickering. Screen is crystal clear and beautiful.
Serial number: indicates Week 50
Manufacturer: 00000610
Model #: 00009C9A
----
Well... it's been a little bit less than a day with the HDD MacBook Air- and it is absolutely wonderful.
I'm currently still downloading and installing updates. I'm over a WiFi connection, so I took your advice mhnajjar and hooked it up to an Ethernet connection by USB. Stupid me, as I was trying to update everything and typing this out, my hand slid over and accidently shut down the laptop! lol.
But anyways, things aren't going to bad at the moment with the MBA.
- Heat hasn't been a big issue... yet. With iStat on my Dashboard, the CPU is at 117 degrees (F) running software update, two Safari tabs, Finder, and two large downloads. Fans are quiet at 2499 rpm. I have to say though, that I hate the location of the vent on the bottom. On my lap, my legs block almost the whole vent! But I do have a laptop fan cooler, so that aids a big help to keep this baby a bit on the cooler side. Right now with the laptop cooling fan, I've got the CPU down to about 114 degrees (F)
- Alrighty guys, this laptop is a week 50 here. I am extremely blind, but I don't see any lines or defects with the screen. It's simply bright and beautiful. I even asked other people and looked directly at a white background. Nope- nothing... just beauty!
- I have not tested out a video quite yet, on YouTube or Hulu. I will be doing that once my updates are finished.
- Opening programs are in my opinion, snappy. Safari for me takes 2-4 seconds to open. For mail, 2-3 seconds. Dashboard, of course instantly- no hesitations. iChat in 3 seconds. iTunes took 6 seconds. iMovie and other iLife applications took about 6-7 seconds to open. I have nothing to compare to an SSD model, but I'm guessing SSD is much speedier in opening applications at this moment.
- The battery likes to dwindle down a bit quickly... but I believe that's because I'm doing a lot of downloading at the moment and that I like my screen and keyboard nice and bright. I have taken note for now: In one hour while charging, the battery percentage has jumped from 79% to 92%. So, battery charging takes a while- but it doesn't bother me much.
- Oakie doke guys! YouTube for me runs quite alright. After watching about 7 "get a mac" commercials, the CPU temp was around 137 degrees (F). I tried watching Family Guy on Hulu- but that didn't work out too well. Tons of stuttering... It could be possible that it's stuttering a lot because I'm over a wireless connection. But anywho... all is good, except Hulu. No core shut downs, no intense overheating. Since I'm done typing this paragraph, CPU temperature is down to 121 degrees (F)!
- If you are not a big port user, say thank you to the MacBook Air. I'm not missing any ports... I barely use them. One pain in the butt I'm trying to deal with is the port location. For sticking a USB in the port, I always have to tip over my MBA and fiddle around with it. But... it takes practice I'm guessing!
- Ok... here's something odd that I don't get... According to iStat... for only having the MacBook Air for 4 days and only having 5 cycles, my health for my battery is down to 95%.
- As requested by justit, the poster was wondering how long it took for this MBA to duplicate the utilities folder. Timed with the iPhone stopwatch, it took 3 minutes and 22.3 seconds.
And remember guys, if you have any sort of questions, feel free to ask!
----
Well, it's been about 5 days with this baby. I can't say anything really bad about it!
I know a lot of people like to be power users and look for their laptops/desktops to do extensive work, but for me, I don't do that. I do my simple music things, internet and email, presentations, etc. But, although this laptop can be considered the "low end" at the moment on Apple's laptop line, it sure is a speedy little thing. It gets what I want done in a quick and efficient way.
It's thinness and lightweight composition is wonderful. I am surprised that this thing is not lighter, but that's quite alright. It's better than carrying a 1 inch, 4-5 pound laptop, right? It fits perfectly in your hands, and is perfect, absolutely perfect for traveling. I took it to Barnes & Noble at Starbucks to sit down with it and do some work. (I had to have some books next to me teaching me about Mac OS X!) Let me tell you, this thing is an eye catcher. I got a lot of "wows" and "awesomes" from some people who walked by. I even talked to some people who were in the market for a portable laptop, and I told them my experience.
Anyways, one feature I could not live without now is the light up keyboard. It's so beautiful in the dark, and makes typing so much easier than squinting and trying to see the keys from a monitor's source of light. Since I am hard of seeing anyway, the keyboard is a very satisfying and helpful feature for me, and can be for you too!
Battery life has not been an absolute favor for me. Although my old Gateway M275 drained faster, this little thing likes to eat my battery. I could have the keyboard lighting shut off, the monitor brightness down to the lowest of my comfortability, energy savings at reasonable levels, airport turned off- it just loves battery. Plus, it takes a while to charge... I've been here for about... 20 minutes and the battery has only charged about 4%. So if you are looking for a quick charge or a replaceable battery for a laptop (I don't need these things)... try to think again before considering the MBA. But don't let this part get you down!
Applications are flawless and run fabulous. Safari now loads in a bounce. iLife programs run nicely with no problem. iWork (still getting used to this!) is a great office suite. It's a little confusing for me since I've been a Microsoft Office user, but I remember the guy at the Apple Store telling me how wonderful iWork is, and so that's why I downloaded the trail. I'm getting to really like it, and I have realized it can create some awesome projects. Additionally, I downloaded XCode also, which runs very well. I am interested in learning about software development, so I'm in the process of slowly learning.
My screen is absolutely beautiful. The first thing when I opened my MBA out of the box, I prayed, "Please no lines, please no lines..." and I am one of the fortunate ones without the distorted, liney MBA. The screen is bright, crystal clear, and for when I tested out a screen comparison in the Apple Store against the MB and MBPs, my MBA kicked butt (in my opinion) in screen quality.
Guys, I have totally gotten used to just having 3 ports. I had several on my old laptop, and barely used them. Barely having any ports on the MBA suites me perfectly. I don't need no Firewire, or ten thousand USB ports... one USB port suites me perfect. If I ever need another USB port for some reason, I can always plug in my little USB hub.
Heat? Eh, that's for everyone else to find out how much heat they can take. I watched about 7 YouTube videos, and the CPU got up to around 137 degrees (F). When I attempted to watch Hulu, I got a lot of stuttering, hence I am over a wireless connection. This morning, I let is stream an episode of the Simpsons for a bit, just up to 2:30, and it only stuttered twice. Heat wasn't that bad... only 139 degrees (F). Lol- after I closed the tab in Hulu, CPU is down to 122 degrees (F). But for heat, I highly recommend a laptop fan. It just plugs into your USB port or by AC adapter and your laptop can sit on the fan. It's an ideal thing to have on when you are sitting with your laptop on your lap, so you don't heat your legs up too much. It's also just a little boost to keep this baby running a bit cooler.
Well... I don't know what else to say. I could not be happier with this laptop... and the fact that I am now using it as my main system. I do have another laptop in the house, and a desktop if I need it, but I bought this to be my primary system, and the MacBook Air does great playing that role I have given it.
Feel free to test it out at the Apple Store. You'll be blown away.
And for me to say, now every laptop I look at, I think it looks bulky and fat!
---------
GEEKBENCH BENCHMARKS
Here you go guys... not sure if this is what you guys are looking for... but here's my best. I really don't understand the mumbo jumbo... lol
-----
XBENCH SCORES
Here is information about my screen that has not been affected by lines or flickering. Screen is crystal clear and beautiful.
Serial number: indicates Week 50
Manufacturer: 00000610
Model #: 00009C9A
----
Well... it's been a little bit less than a day with the HDD MacBook Air- and it is absolutely wonderful.
I'm currently still downloading and installing updates. I'm over a WiFi connection, so I took your advice mhnajjar and hooked it up to an Ethernet connection by USB. Stupid me, as I was trying to update everything and typing this out, my hand slid over and accidently shut down the laptop! lol.
But anyways, things aren't going to bad at the moment with the MBA.
- Heat hasn't been a big issue... yet. With iStat on my Dashboard, the CPU is at 117 degrees (F) running software update, two Safari tabs, Finder, and two large downloads. Fans are quiet at 2499 rpm. I have to say though, that I hate the location of the vent on the bottom. On my lap, my legs block almost the whole vent! But I do have a laptop fan cooler, so that aids a big help to keep this baby a bit on the cooler side. Right now with the laptop cooling fan, I've got the CPU down to about 114 degrees (F)
- Alrighty guys, this laptop is a week 50 here. I am extremely blind, but I don't see any lines or defects with the screen. It's simply bright and beautiful. I even asked other people and looked directly at a white background. Nope- nothing... just beauty!
- I have not tested out a video quite yet, on YouTube or Hulu. I will be doing that once my updates are finished.
- Opening programs are in my opinion, snappy. Safari for me takes 2-4 seconds to open. For mail, 2-3 seconds. Dashboard, of course instantly- no hesitations. iChat in 3 seconds. iTunes took 6 seconds. iMovie and other iLife applications took about 6-7 seconds to open. I have nothing to compare to an SSD model, but I'm guessing SSD is much speedier in opening applications at this moment.
- The battery likes to dwindle down a bit quickly... but I believe that's because I'm doing a lot of downloading at the moment and that I like my screen and keyboard nice and bright. I have taken note for now: In one hour while charging, the battery percentage has jumped from 79% to 92%. So, battery charging takes a while- but it doesn't bother me much.
- Oakie doke guys! YouTube for me runs quite alright. After watching about 7 "get a mac" commercials, the CPU temp was around 137 degrees (F). I tried watching Family Guy on Hulu- but that didn't work out too well. Tons of stuttering... It could be possible that it's stuttering a lot because I'm over a wireless connection. But anywho... all is good, except Hulu. No core shut downs, no intense overheating. Since I'm done typing this paragraph, CPU temperature is down to 121 degrees (F)!
- If you are not a big port user, say thank you to the MacBook Air. I'm not missing any ports... I barely use them. One pain in the butt I'm trying to deal with is the port location. For sticking a USB in the port, I always have to tip over my MBA and fiddle around with it. But... it takes practice I'm guessing!
- Ok... here's something odd that I don't get... According to iStat... for only having the MacBook Air for 4 days and only having 5 cycles, my health for my battery is down to 95%.
- As requested by justit, the poster was wondering how long it took for this MBA to duplicate the utilities folder. Timed with the iPhone stopwatch, it took 3 minutes and 22.3 seconds.
And remember guys, if you have any sort of questions, feel free to ask!
----
Well, it's been about 5 days with this baby. I can't say anything really bad about it!
I know a lot of people like to be power users and look for their laptops/desktops to do extensive work, but for me, I don't do that. I do my simple music things, internet and email, presentations, etc. But, although this laptop can be considered the "low end" at the moment on Apple's laptop line, it sure is a speedy little thing. It gets what I want done in a quick and efficient way.
It's thinness and lightweight composition is wonderful. I am surprised that this thing is not lighter, but that's quite alright. It's better than carrying a 1 inch, 4-5 pound laptop, right? It fits perfectly in your hands, and is perfect, absolutely perfect for traveling. I took it to Barnes & Noble at Starbucks to sit down with it and do some work. (I had to have some books next to me teaching me about Mac OS X!) Let me tell you, this thing is an eye catcher. I got a lot of "wows" and "awesomes" from some people who walked by. I even talked to some people who were in the market for a portable laptop, and I told them my experience.
Anyways, one feature I could not live without now is the light up keyboard. It's so beautiful in the dark, and makes typing so much easier than squinting and trying to see the keys from a monitor's source of light. Since I am hard of seeing anyway, the keyboard is a very satisfying and helpful feature for me, and can be for you too!
Battery life has not been an absolute favor for me. Although my old Gateway M275 drained faster, this little thing likes to eat my battery. I could have the keyboard lighting shut off, the monitor brightness down to the lowest of my comfortability, energy savings at reasonable levels, airport turned off- it just loves battery. Plus, it takes a while to charge... I've been here for about... 20 minutes and the battery has only charged about 4%. So if you are looking for a quick charge or a replaceable battery for a laptop (I don't need these things)... try to think again before considering the MBA. But don't let this part get you down!
Applications are flawless and run fabulous. Safari now loads in a bounce. iLife programs run nicely with no problem. iWork (still getting used to this!) is a great office suite. It's a little confusing for me since I've been a Microsoft Office user, but I remember the guy at the Apple Store telling me how wonderful iWork is, and so that's why I downloaded the trail. I'm getting to really like it, and I have realized it can create some awesome projects. Additionally, I downloaded XCode also, which runs very well. I am interested in learning about software development, so I'm in the process of slowly learning.
My screen is absolutely beautiful. The first thing when I opened my MBA out of the box, I prayed, "Please no lines, please no lines..." and I am one of the fortunate ones without the distorted, liney MBA. The screen is bright, crystal clear, and for when I tested out a screen comparison in the Apple Store against the MB and MBPs, my MBA kicked butt (in my opinion) in screen quality.
Guys, I have totally gotten used to just having 3 ports. I had several on my old laptop, and barely used them. Barely having any ports on the MBA suites me perfectly. I don't need no Firewire, or ten thousand USB ports... one USB port suites me perfect. If I ever need another USB port for some reason, I can always plug in my little USB hub.
Heat? Eh, that's for everyone else to find out how much heat they can take. I watched about 7 YouTube videos, and the CPU got up to around 137 degrees (F). When I attempted to watch Hulu, I got a lot of stuttering, hence I am over a wireless connection. This morning, I let is stream an episode of the Simpsons for a bit, just up to 2:30, and it only stuttered twice. Heat wasn't that bad... only 139 degrees (F). Lol- after I closed the tab in Hulu, CPU is down to 122 degrees (F). But for heat, I highly recommend a laptop fan. It just plugs into your USB port or by AC adapter and your laptop can sit on the fan. It's an ideal thing to have on when you are sitting with your laptop on your lap, so you don't heat your legs up too much. It's also just a little boost to keep this baby running a bit cooler.
Well... I don't know what else to say. I could not be happier with this laptop... and the fact that I am now using it as my main system. I do have another laptop in the house, and a desktop if I need it, but I bought this to be my primary system, and the MacBook Air does great playing that role I have given it.
Feel free to test it out at the Apple Store. You'll be blown away.
And for me to say, now every laptop I look at, I think it looks bulky and fat!
---------
GEEKBENCH BENCHMARKS
Here you go guys... not sure if this is what you guys are looking for... but here's my best. I really don't understand the mumbo jumbo... lol
Code:
Geekbench Score 2229
Version Geekbench 2.0.19
Platform Mac OS X x86 (32-bit)
Operating System Mac OS X 10.5.5 (Build 9F2533)
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9300 @ 1.60GHz
Model MacBookAir2,1
Memory 2.00 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Integer Score 1819
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 1303
57.3 MB/sec
Blowfish
multi-threaded scalar 2797
114.6 MB/sec
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 1239
3.97 MB/sec
Text Compress
multi-threaded scalar 2066
6.78 MB/sec
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1102
4.53 MB/sec
Text Decompress
multi-threaded scalar 2071
8.25 MB/sec
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 1128
9.33 Mpixels/sec
Image Compress
multi-threaded scalar 2174
18.3 Mpixels/sec
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 945
15.9 Mpixels/sec
Image Decompress
multi-threaded scalar 1790
29.2 Mpixels/sec
Crafty Chess
single-threaded scalar 1392
703.5 Knodes/sec
Crafty Chess
multi-threaded scalar 2363
1.15 Mnodes/sec
Lua
single-threaded scalar 1792
690.3 Knodes/sec
Lua
multi-threaded scalar 3312
1.27 Mnodes/sec
Floating Point Score 2883
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 1185
788.4 Mflops
Mandelbrot
multi-threaded scalar 2242
1.47 Gflops
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 1569
758.2 Mflops
Dot Product
multi-threaded scalar 3808
1.74 Gflops
Dot Product
single-threaded vector 1211
1.45 Gflops
Dot Product
multi-threaded vector 2476
2.58 Gflops
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 456
406.2 Mflops
LU Decomposition
multi-threaded scalar 932
817.8 Mflops
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 2257
337.1 Mflops
Primality Test
multi-threaded scalar 3190
592.1 Mflops
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 3189
7.44 Mpixels/sec
Sharpen Image
multi-threaded scalar 5955
13.7 Mpixels/sec
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 4128
3.27 Mpixels/sec
Blur Image
multi-threaded scalar 7764
6.11 Mpixels/sec
Memory Score 2130
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 2308
2.83 GB/sec
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 2415
1.65 GB/sec
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 1337
4.99 Mallocs/sec
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 2493
5.16 GB/sec
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 2097
2.16 GB/sec
Stream Score 1577
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 1530
2.09 GB/sec
Stream Copy
single-threaded vector 1924
2.50 GB/sec
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 1692
2.20 GB/sec
Stream Scale
single-threaded vector 1756
2.37 GB/sec
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 1221
1.84 GB/sec
Stream Add
single-threaded vector 1818
2.53 GB/sec
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 1348
1.86 GB/sec
Stream Triad
single-threaded vector 1328
2.49 GB/sec
System Information
Platform Mac OS X x86 (32-bit)
Compiler GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5484)
Operating System Mac OS X 10.5.5 (Build 9F2533)
Model MacBookAir2,1
Motherboard Apple Inc. Mac-F42D88C8
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9300 @ 1.60GHz
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Logical Processors 2
Physical Processors 1
Processor Frequency 1.60 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB
L2 Cache 6.00 MB
L3 Cache 0.00 B
Bus Frequency 1.06 GHz
Memory 2.00 GB
Memory Type 1067 MHz DDR3
SIMD 1
BIOS Apple Inc. MBA21.88Z.0075.B03.0811141325
Processor Model Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9300 @ 1.60GHz-----
XBENCH SCORES
Code:
Results 81.95
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.5 (9F2533)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir2,1
Drive Type SAMSUNG HS12UHE
CPU Test 105.05
GCD Loop 185.97 9.80 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 87.16 2.07 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 72.98 2.41 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 132.86 23.14 Mops/sec
Thread Test 219.22
Computation 307.79 6.24 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 170.23 7.32 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 141.89
System 161.05
Allocate 177.74 652.71 Kalloc/sec
Fill 141.23 6866.72 MB/sec
Copy 168.91 3488.83 MB/sec
Stream 126.81
Copy 139.52 2881.82 MB/sec
Scale 144.11 2977.32 MB/sec
Add 157.05 3345.41 MB/sec
Triad 90.33 1932.45 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 88.21
Line 85.07 5.66 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 95.90 28.63 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 79.04 6.44 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 89.36 2.25 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 93.84 5.87 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 72.28
Spinning Squares 72.28 91.69 frames/sec
User Interface Test 154.32
Elements 154.32 708.24 refresh/sec
Disk Test 30.64
Sequential 53.96
Uncached Write 82.42 50.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 67.36 38.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 48.63 14.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 37.62 18.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 21.39
Uncached Write 7.90 0.84 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 59.13 18.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 33.53 0.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.16 13.58 MB/sec [256K blocks]
