Maxed out 13, early thoughts

[nukztar]

So ive been using my shiny new maxed out 13inch air for a week now. Here are my thoughts so far.

- Im not a big fan of the keyboard. Granted, im coming off a macbook pro early 2008 (silver keyboard, not unibody) which had a nice feel to it.. This one isnt bad but its not as good as the older style keyboard. Perhaps this is the same on all the new pro's too, but i dont like it all that much.

- Whats with the caps lock key? seriously? why do i need to push it two or three times for it to register? Is it just me or does this affect all of you too? I tap on and tap off the caps lock key quite often and its annoying that its not as responsive as it should be.

- I experience some strange screen jitter/freezing issues at times. Say i do an image search on google, using the flick scrolling on the page to view all the images, the screen tents to jitter and distort the images. Perhaps one of you can try this to see if you can replicate it.

- Flash is a real killer for battery life. I use safari for non-flash browsing and firefox when i need to browse any flash related pages.

- Intermittant wireless drop outs. Ok im not sure if its the router or the mac, but every couple of hours, the wireless signal drops and then re-establishes a couple of mins later. Doesnt happen on my windows work machine. weird.

Positives..

- Seriously cool and light machine, cant put it down. its a great user experience for sure. The restarts are ridiculously fast.

- For those using any Cisco emulators such as GNS,Dynamips, this thing heats up but still handles 8 routers without any issue.

- Backlit keyboard really not an issue. I cant believe people are whinging about this so much. Take this opportunity to learn how to touch type! i think more people miss the "fancy" light effect than the actual use of a backlit keyboard. I use this on a plane without any issue whatsoever...

- Fantastic screen. Really impressed with the screen quality and resolution. Compared to my old macbook pro glossy, this thing reflects far less.

Very happy with my purchase!

 

[bcaslis]

The caps lock is the same on all the keyboards like this. It's time based to avoid accidential hits. Holding it for a second and it will come on, that's the way it's designed. Once you do that it will work every time.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

- Im not a big fan of the keyboard. Granted, im coming off a macbook pro early 2008 (silver keyboard, not unibody) which had a nice feel to it.. This one isnt bad but its not as good as the older style keyboard. Perhaps this is the same on all the new pro's too, but i dont like it all that much.

I find its actually far better than my silver keyboard on my older non-Unibody MBP. It isn't quite as good as that on my 2010 MBP, however....the key travel distance is shorter making it seem like its a bit more 'chiclet-y' and it makes it sound that way as well.

- Whats with the caps lock key? seriously? why do i need to push it two or three times for it to register? Is it just me or does this affect all of you too? I tap on and tap off the caps lock key quite often and its annoying that its not as responsive as it should be.

Its a feature, not a bug: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/in-the-its-a-feature-department-caps-lock-keys/1458

- I experience some strange screen jitter/freezing issues at times. Say i do an image search on google, using the flick scrolling on the page to view all the images, the screen tents to jitter and distort the images. Perhaps one of you can try this to see if you can replicate it.

Nope, just tried what you asked...no issues.

- Flash is a real killer for battery life. I use safari for non-flash browsing and firefox when i need to browse any flash related pages.

No more of a battery killer on my 13" MBA than it is on my 15" MBP from what I can tell. Flash does burn more juice, but not at any higher rate than with my other Macs.

- Intermittant wireless drop outs. Ok im not sure if its the router or the mac, but every couple of hours, the wireless signal drops and then re-establishes a couple of mins later. Doesnt happen on my windows work machine. weird.

No issues. My iPad, on the other hand...now there's a WiFi Dropout queen if there ever was one.

 

[Durious]

Positives..

- Backlit keyboard really not an issue. I cant believe people are whinging about this so much. Take this opportunity to learn how to touch type! i think more people miss the "fancy" light effect than the actual use of a backlit keyboard. I use this on a plane without any issue whatsoever...

How is not having a feature a positive??

Also not everyone uses the backlit keyboard for alphanumerical writing my personal use of it extends beyond regular typing (i.e. I can still type 80+ wpm in the dark) but in relation to the function keys. When I am listening to music I often change songs or cycle through volume strengths depending on what is playing and these keys are not typical for my regular typing and as well much smaller than it's counter-parts.

I realize this does not impact you but we all share different needs.

 

[pfjellman]

no screen jitter/distortion issues for me on my 13" MBA. the caps lock key is designed to have a timed delay, this is the case for all (the ones i've tried anyway) mac keyboards. i don't too much mind it, just have to get used to it.

backlit keyboard (or lack thereof) doesn't bother me in the slightest, but i've been writing code for 15+ years so touch typing with perfect accuracy is definitely something engraved in my brain! i love the keyboard style and can type very fast and comfortably on it.

no drop outs ever on WiFi for me (my iPhones and iPad never drop signal either). i do have an airport extreme base station. before i had a cisco wireless n router (the black one) and it was TERRIBLE. all my devices would drop connections all day every day off and on, and manual restarts of the router were required almost daily. yuck! it's most likely your router.

 

[macbook123]

What display model do you have in your 13"?

 

[shootingrubber]

Whats with the caps lock key? seriously? why do i need to push it two or three times for it to register? Is it just me or does this affect all of you too? I tap on and tap off the caps lock key quite often and its annoying that its not as responsive as it should be.

That's how all Apple keyboards are designed. You are supposed to have to hold the caps lock key for a second or two for it to register. This is to avoid accidental clicks.

 

[nukztar]

Thanks for the responses on the caps lock key. If it is a feature, how do i turn it off! Im so used to an immediate response with the caps lock key, especially when working with router/switch cli's and scripts etc.

Your right, the backlit keyboard isnt a positive, but I was just stating that to me it wasnt an issue as what it was built up to be on the forum. Again, each to their own.

I feel the wifi drop out issue im facing could be related to the router. Im currently staying in a serviced apartment. Will have to see if this continues when im back at home.

One more small annoyance is the fact that an SD card doesnt click all the way in. I havent owned any of the new unibody pro's either so im not sure if this is the same. But I like the fact i can keep an SD card inside the laptop without it jutting out. I like the insert and click system where once inserted, the SD card doesnt jut out.

 

[sunchase]

what about the fan in tasks like websurfing, chattin and itunes? does it often turn up or only when i use more cpu intensive tasks?

 

[nukztar]

what about the fan in tasks like websurfing, chattin and itunes? does it often turn up or only when i use more cpu intensive tasks?

web surfing, chatting and itunes is not an issue at all.. runs quiet and cool.

Things that seem to heat it up and get the fans going..

- Flash video streaming or multiple flash web pages running.
- Dynamips gets the thing going,, but it gets all laptops going

havent tried any intensive games or started up vmware fusion with win 7 yet. will see how it goes.

 

[jeznav]

- Intermittant wireless drop outs. Ok im not sure if its the router or the mac, but every couple of hours, the wireless signal drops and then re-establishes a couple of mins later. Doesnt happen on my windows work machine. weird.

Are you using DHCP? I use DHCP reservation for all my networked devices to pair the specific IP address with a MAC address. That way new devices don't steal each others IP.

Also, it could be that your DHCP lease time is set too low. Try increasing it from hours to days.

 

[macbook123]

OP, what display model do you have, 9CF0 or 9CDF?

 

[BENJMNS]

OP, what display model do you have, 9CF0 or 9CDF?

my 9cf0 works perfectly (beautiful)

 

[GodlessGeek]

How long does your 256GB take to boot into OSX? Mine (also a maxed out 13") takes 24 seconds. Kind of disappointing because my maxed out 11" 128GB takes only 14 seconds. Still not bad but not as great as the 11".

 

[JasonR]

For those with the 128GB drive, are you finding that's enough space if it IS NOT your primary machine?

 

[BENJMNS]

How long does your 256GB take to boot into OSX? Mine (also a maxed out 13") takes 24 seconds. Kind of disappointing because my maxed out 11" 128GB takes only 14 seconds. Still not bad but not as great as the 11".

for me ~15 seconds. i've only got chrome and office 2011 loaded however.

my thoughts after 3-4 days of ownership on my 13 max:

-this is not my first mac, but my first mac that i know i'll keep around for longer than a couple of weeks. i had the mpb 17, 15 a couple of years ago and most recently the 13 mbp... got rid of them all as i found the OS to be not too intuitive and lots of incompatibilities at that time with enterprise apps that i need to do my job. and at that time the mpb was like one of the thinner, more mobile laptops on the market.

-screen/display tightness is awesome. makes everything else i have look like crap (9cf0 dude)

-the lightness and instant on makes it a no brainer to use. before i'd kinda put things off cuz i knew it'd take forever to boot or it was just too heavy/bulky to remove from the briefcase. now it's all good cuz i want to touch it.

-the fan is audible in a dead silent room sometimes. no fan would be awesome.

-i haven't done any battery drain tests yet (prob never will cuz i don't care that much), but it seems to drain a little quicker than the 13 mbp (stats support this)

-this is more a PC to Mac hardware thing, but the new trackpad makes a mouse obsolete so i shouldn't have bought the magic mouse for $70. i really love the two finger scroll and three finger drag. i do NOT like the actual physical click on the touchpad, however. stupid and awkward.

-i don't see what all the hoopla is about osx v win7. they're both intuitive and ez to use in their own way. in fact, i wish osx would feature some of the snap to actions of windows that win7 has. it's so handy.

overall, i've finally found a laptop that i can enjoy using. a true pleasure. it's a holistic thing this. you can't isolate just one aspect of it ... it must be measured as a complete package. well done APPL.

and thx to you guys for convincing me to check out the mba. i dismissed it early on.

 

[Jaro65]

How long does your 256GB take to boot into OSX? Mine (also a maxed out 13") takes 24 seconds. Kind of disappointing because my maxed out 11" 128GB takes only 14 seconds. Still not bad but not as great as the 11".

Why would you really care?

 

[darngooddesign]

How long does your 256GB take to boot into OSX? Mine (also a maxed out 13") takes 24 seconds. Kind of disappointing because my maxed out 11" 128GB takes only 14 seconds. Still not bad but not as great as the 11".

Why would you really care?

Because if it takes significantly longer then something is not right.

Try being helpful next time.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

How is not having a feature a positive??

I tend to have my return flights booked late at night, thus the plane is dark, quiet and peaceful. Not having a backlit keyboard like the one on my MBP, is a really nice "feature".

In addition, I've never been fond of the illuminated keyboard on my MBP because I touch type and rarely ever look at the keys. Therefore it's a waste and can be a distraction.

That said, I respect others love of it, and obviously a lot of people do, since it gets talked about so much.

Cheers..

 

[teski]

I tend to have my return flights booked late at night, thus the plane is dark, quiet and peaceful. Not having a backlit keyboard like the one on my MBP, is a really nice "feature".

In addition, I've never been fond of the illuminated keyboard on my MBP because I touch type and rarely ever look at the keys. Therefore it's a waste and can be a distraction.

That said, I respect others love of it, and obviously a lot of people do, since it gets talked about so much.

Cheers..

But for people like you, you can turn it off in prefs.

 

[silverblack]

- Flash is a real killer for battery life. I use safari for non-flash browsing and firefox when i need to browse any flash related pages.

To OP, or anyone has the answer. How can you use safari for non-flash browsing and firefox for flash browsing, when the flash plug-in for Mac works on both safari and firefox? Did you install 'click-to-flash' in safari to stop flash? or did you find a version of flash plug-in that works on firefox only?

 

[niceguyeddie]

OP, what display model do you have, 9CF0 or 9CDF?

How do you check this?

*EDIT* Don't worry. Just found it.

 

[WardC]

I have a question for you...I also have the 13" ultimate and I don't like the keyboard either. Is your spacebar noisy/squeaky?

Have a listen to this:

http://www.wardcurry.com/spacebar.m4a

My spacebar makes this "squak" sound and it is really starting to get on my nerves. It's really squaky and really loud. I might return this machine just because I hate the keyboard so much. But the screen is gorgeous!

 

[Jaro65]

Because if it takes significantly longer then something is not right.

Try being helpful next time.

Ok, I understand that from the perspective of making sure that the machine is ok and is booting. I'm just trying to understand why would I want to stand in front of my MBP or MBA with a stopwatch and be concerned whether the boot up process is taking 30 seconds vs 15. Given how infrequently I reboot, it is simply one parameter that to me is of very little value.

 

[nukztar]

How do you check this?

*EDIT* Don't worry. Just found it.

Hmm.. I havent found a way to check this? care to share? is it somewhere in system profiler?