MacBook Air: the best computer for traveling.

[andygabriel]

I use the MBA as my main (and only) machine now. For most of us, it is more then enough. The nice thing is, it can be used as a netbook too, but with full size screen, dual core CPU and full keyboard. I used to have a laptop and netbook. Now I just have the MBA and it does all I need.

I'm thinking about getting a macbook air as my main and only machine as well. I'm an average user, mainly web browsing, Email, iLife 09 and Itunes. I don't use photoshop. I sometimes use iMovie and iDVD but rarely.

Do you think the macbook air 2.13GHZ is fast and reliable enough for my needs. I'm also willing to wait for the next revision hoping for 4GB ram and bigger HD.

Right now i my main and only machine is a early 2008 White Macbook 2.4GHZ(C2D penryn) 4GB Ram(667mhz DDR2), 320 hd, L2 cache 3mb. It's very fast for my needs but i need something more portable and lighter. The fan on my macbook revs up pretty hard as well when i watch flash movies.

I checked out the spec of the High end Rev C Air and it seems faster than my Macbook. Since it has L2 cache 6mb, and 1066mhz DDR3 Ram and SSD.

Do you guys think it is faster than my macbook?

Should i buy Rev C or wait for Rev D? (I'm very patient and my macbook is fine at the moment and i can wait if i can have a faster one)

Would you choose my white macbook over macbook air Rev C (money not an issue)?

If you use the Air as you main and only machine please tell me how it runs for average use like i stated above.

Thanks in advance

 

[jimboutilier]

I'm thinking about getting a macbook air as my main and only machine as well. I'm an average user, mainly web browsing, Email, iLife 09 and Itunes. I don't use photoshop. I sometimes use iMovie and iDVD but rarely.

Do you think the macbook air 2.13GHZ is fast and reliable enough for my needs. I'm also willing to wait for the next revision hoping for 4GB ram and bigger HD.

Right now i my main and only machine is a early 2008 White Macbook 2.4GHZ(C2D penryn) 4GB Ram(667mhz DDR2), 320 hd, L2 cache 3mb. It's very fast for my needs but i need something more portable and lighter. The fan on my macbook revs up pretty hard as well when i watch flash movies.

I checked out the spec of the High end Rev C Air and it seems faster than my Macbook. Since it has L2 cache 6mb, and 1066mhz DDR3 Ram and SSD.

Do you guys think it is faster than my macbook?

Should i buy Rev C or wait for Rev D? (I'm very patient and my macbook is fine at the moment and i can wait if i can have a faster one)

Would you choose my white macbook over macbook air Rev C (money not an issue)?

If you use the Air as you main and only machine please tell me how it runs for average use like i stated above.

Thanks in advance

With respect to speed and power the RevC MBA would be fine for the uses you mention and with an SSD would feel considerably faster than your current Macbook.

I used a RevA as my primary machine as a traveling IT consultant for almost a year. I was never unhappy with its performance but eventually had issues withs its 80gb HD capacity. I now have a RevC with 128gb SSD and it seems much faster than my 2008 uMB 2.4/4/7K320 and its great.

The only compromises I had to make were
a) switching from Carbonite online backup to Mozy. Carbonite uses a lot of cpu pretty regularly and causes battery life and fan issues on the MBA. Mozy is unnoticeable.
b) optimizing my windows and linux virtual machines to take as little memory and disk space as possible and only running one at a time.

So if you can live in 2gb of RAM (and most casual users can) and are ok with 128gb of SSD space, the RevC is a terrific machine. I too was hoping for a RevD w 4gb RAM and 256gb SSD but missed out on most of a year of MBA goodness when the Rev B or C would have been fine for me.

I recently broke down and got a RevC and my only regret is not doing it sooner.

 

[andygabriel]

Thx Jim Boutillier for the reply! Now i feel more confident to get a Rev C. I was a bit worried because most people on macrumors gave negative comments on the macbook Air but i guess they are more heavy users bcoz they do a lot of photo editing(photoshop etc..)

I don't play games at all and i only have like 16gb of music. But i like to connect my laptop to my LCD TV to watch free movies online.

Does anyone think this would be a problem with the Rev C? I use my white macbook to do this with no problem. I use mini Dvi to Dvi and a Dvi to HDMI to connect to my TV and have speakers for sound from my laptop. It's really nice coz it's like i have a media center. And when my friends come over they use cover flow(itunes) on the big screen to browse through my album and choose songs. I have a wireless apple keyboard and mighty mouse. I enjoy just sitting on my couch and watching movies or browse itunes on my Big TV. My friends think it's awesome too.

I also use Ichat and Skype on my TV to do video chat i.e i see my friends on the big screen while im just sitting on my couch. Has anyone tried this?

If anyone has any advice for the Rev C please help me to decide. Will i be able to do the same thing on the Rev c or will it be even better?

 

[jimboutilier]

Thx Jim Boutillier for the reply! Now i feel more confident to get a Rev C. I was a bit worried because most people on macrumors gave negative comments on the macbook Air but i guess they are more heavy users bcoz they do a lot of photo editing(photoshop etc..)

I don't play games at all and i only have like 16gb of music. But i like to connect my laptop to my LCD TV to watch free movies online.

Does anyone think this would be a problem with the Rev C? I use my white macbook to do this with no problem. I use mini Dvi to Dvi and a Dvi to HDMI to connect to my TV and have speakers for sound from my laptop. It's really nice coz it's like i have a media center. And when my friends come over they use cover flow(itunes) on the big screen to browse through my album and choose songs. I have a wireless apple keyboard and mighty mouse. I enjoy just sitting on my couch and watching movies or browse itunes on my Big TV. My friends think it's awesome too.

I also use Ichat and Skype on my TV to do video chat i.e i see my friends on the big screen while im just sitting on my couch. Has anyone tried this? Bluetooth keyboard and Mouse are not an issue either.

If anyone has any advice for the Rev C please help me to decide. Will i be able to do the same thing on the Rev c or will it be even better?

I run an external 24" 1920x1080 DVI monitor quite a lot but have not used an HDMI adapter. You'll have to buy a mini-display-port to DVI adapter for your chain or invest in apples rather expensive HDMI adapter. I often use iChat and Skype without issue although video calls will get your fans running some. Music is not an issue but any video activity will get your fans going - not that it doesn't with a uMB to some extent but more so with the Air.

 

[flynz4]

I have a MBA and a 15" MBP. I use the MBA about 10X as often as my MBP.

/Jim

 

[antonioanmar]

Really it is Flash which cause mostly the increase on the temperature and the fans speed goes up. But not all the video or music playing, because i use much Megavideo playing streaming of films and series with no unusual fans speed or noise.

 

[andygabriel]

Let's wait and see the next update to the macbook air. I bet it's going to be much better and will surely be a capable main and only machine for average users.

Hope they fix the overheating issues and give us more RAM!

But according to articles that i read there might be some problem with the next processor( Arrandale). Apple don't want them. I just hope apple don't opt for the Intel integrated graphics for the Air.

Hopefully a 256GB or 320 GB SSD(high end).

Then it'll be definitely the best computer for travel and many other things.
It'd be a better option that the 13" Macbook Pro for a lot of average users to whom portability is very important as well.

I so want a macbook air! I'm tired of my white 2008 macbook. It's feeling heavier since i take it everywhere with me and i think a macbook air is as capable if not better than my White 2.4ghz macbook! But PC people still look at my white macbook and they think it looks cool!

 

[colourfastt]

I have a MBA and a 15" MBP. I use the MBA about 10X as often as my MBP.

/Jim

I also have a MBA and a 15" MBP; the MBP now only gets used when I'm sitting in the living room watching TV .. the MBA is my mobile laptop now.

 

[entatlrg]

macbook air: as powerful as the asus eee but 10x the price. brilliant.

that's an example of 'not getting' what the MBA is.

it's 100x the machine the asus eee is, LOL

 

[RSW]

I bought my Air for travel, but before I did I checked out the netbooks. However, the small keyboard and small screen did not work for me. I bought my wife a netbook for mothers day, but I can't type on it. Also I can't stand the windows OS. The Air is a perfect computer for when I fly, and fits well on the airline's trays.

 

[feflower]

I recently bought a MBP 13" about 4 months ago. I really enjoy it and it is a good complement to my Mac Pro which is a 2006 model.

Now I wish had bought the MBA; and I think I will be eyeing that as my next portable.

I feared the small HD space would be a problem but right now I'm only hovering around 50gigs of usage and I use my MacPro as my "mothership" where I have all my large files. I only transfer stuff to my MBP when needed.

Just a few questions:

I took a look at it the other day and I see it does not have the same touchpad as the MBP. Is this true?

The other thing is I do some field recording of instruments and music performances, and some recording with my ensemble for compositions. I'm a music scholar, and not a recording engineer so I don't need the heavy power for things like Logic. Anybody else use it for this? And how has your experience been?

Thanks

 

[stoconnell]

Just a few questions:

I took a look at it the other day and I see it does not have the same touchpad as the MBP. Is this true?

The other thing is I do some field recording of instruments and music performances, and some recording with my ensemble for compositions. I'm a music scholar, and not a recording engineer so I don't need the heavy power for things like Logic. Anybody else use it for this? And how has your experience been?

The touchpad is not the glass one that is on the MBP. It has a discrete button, but supports the full gamut of gestures.

There were some threads on using recording software with an MBA within the last year or so. I do not do any recordings (alas, no musical aptitude). The MBA doesn't have a "line in" like the MBP (just a mic), so you'd need to use the USB interface for input.

 

[Max(IT)]

macbook air: as powerful as the asus eee but 10x the price. brilliant.

never really seen a Macbook Air, Am I correct ?

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I'm a big fan of the Dell Mini 9.

 

[ctrack52]

Netbooks

I'm a big fan of the Dell Mini 9.

Before I purchased my MBA I used the Acer One for about a year. While it's a nice computer for email and minor websurfing it's major draw back is it's screen size. I took the Acer on vacation because of it's portability and quickly realized that I couldn't really review photos or perform any of the processing tasks efficiently. Something I am used to on my MACBOOK. That is when I started seriously looking at the MBA. I still like the netbook, but it won't be my vacation computer again. Again, everything has a role.

 

[bowlerman625]

I had 2 netbooks before my MBA. The Asus EEE pc and Acer Aspire One. Both are decent machines, but once you have had the MBA (first a rev A, then recently a C with the SSD) and think about the netbooks, there is absolutely no way I would go back. Even with the price difference, there is no way I could go back to a netbook type pc.