MBA Rev A Questions

[liketom]

Just bought a refurb Rev A for £750 from Apple and have some questions;

Heat- cold to the touch or mega hot ?
Speed - what's your take , fast slow or middle of road
Knocks and bumps - can the Rev A take a beating in a rucksack and come out un scratched and dented ?
Battery Life !! - i know what apple say about the time but what is the real score - 2 Hours - 3 hours ?

I've always run my Mac's on and sleep mode - and never turn off unless i'm out and about for a long while - how does the Air handle this ?

Any route for a Ram upgrade later down the road ? will this thing take 4GB ?

Cracking open the case and upgrading yourself ? i've done many 15" PB and 17" MBP's for Ram and HDD is the Air Harder or simple

Apple Care - Apple UK want a silly amount - any better options to look at ? ebay have some around £100 - these any good ?


Since i'm moving from a 17" MBP to the 13.3 Air i'm expecting to miss my Screen size so External Monitor's , easy as before or fussy about the connctions ?

Software i'm planning on using on the Air :

iLife 09
iWork 09
Rapidweaver 4.2
Handbrake ( for ripping from Apple's external Superdrive )
iTunes ( music on Hdd - Movies TV shows on NAS Drive streaming over Wireless N )


any one have any issues with Software above


Thanks for any advice!

 

[NATO]

Heat- cold to the touch or mega hot ?
Speed - what's your take , fast slow or middle of road
Knocks and bumps - can the Rev A take a beating in a rucksack and come out un scratched and dented ?
Battery Life !! - i know what apple say about the time but what is the real score - 2 Hours - 3 hours ?

I've always run my Mac's on and sleep mode - and never turn off unless i'm out and about for a long while - how does the Air handle this ?

Any route for a Ram upgrade later down the road ? will this thing take 4GB ?

Cracking open the case and upgrading yourself ? i've done many 15" PB and 17" MBP's for Ram and HDD is the Air Harder or simple

Apple Care - Apple UK want a silly amount - any better options to look at ? ebay have some around £100 - these any good ?


Since i'm moving from a 17" MBP to the 13.3 Air i'm expecting to miss my Screen size so External Monitor's , easy as before or fussy about the connctions ?

Software i'm planning on using on the Air :

iLife 09
iWork 09
Rapidweaver 4.2
Handbrake ( for ripping from Apple's external Superdrive )
iTunes ( music on Hdd - Movies TV shows on NAS Drive streaming over Wireless N )

any one have any issues with Software above

Heat - Mine runs fairly cool, only heats up when the CPU is quite busy, and even then it's fairly warm, but definitely not hot

Speed - I think it runs very well considering the spec, the only time I've noticed anything is loading apps or anything HDD intensive, but it's just a few seconds extra when launching an app, not a deal breaker.

Knocks and Bumps - I think it's very robust, I could see it taking a real beating, it's very sturdy and doesn't feel like it could bend easily.

Battery Life - With WiFi on, bluetooth off, very light use and screen brightness down about half, you're talking about 4 hours or so, but you'll need to calibrate your battery and get a few charge cycles going before you'll see your peak battery capacity

Sleep Mode - use it as you always have, it goes into and out of sleep mode just as you would expect any Mac to.

Upgrades - There isn't really anything you can upgrade. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard, the HDD/SDD uses a very unusual connector (not the usual PATA connection you might expect) and the battery isn't an off-the-shelf part. It's a sealed unit for all intents and purposes.

Applecare - I've heard quite a lot of good things about Applecare bought from eBay, I'd give it a go if the seller has good rep, might as well save yourself some cash

External Displays - Same as all Macs really, especially as it's not mini DisplayPort, you'll still be able to hook it up to just about anything.

Apps - I don't really see any problem with the apps you've listed. iLife might be a bit slow if you're using any of the apps which demand a lot of HDD activity, although I doubt it'll be a deal breaker, you'll just find it'll take a little longer.

Given the trade-offs to make the MacBook Air what it is, you just need to take account of the slower HDD speed compared to other laptops, but it's a very capable machine. I'd happily sacrifice HDD speed on the move for such a small and light computer

 

[liketom]

Excellent ! thanks for your reply

the heat one was my main worry - all of my past Mac's have been very hot runners - 12"PB 15"PB - 17"MBP and the Rev A Macbook all was very hot

Shame about the Ram - but 2Gb should do me until my next replacment in about 18 Months.


Now just waiting for the delivery man to drop it off Tuesday

 

[andreab35]

Excellent ! thanks for your reply

the heat one was my main worry - all of my past Mac's have been very hot runners - 12"PB 15"PB - 17"MBP and the Rev A Macbook all was very hot

Shame about the Ram - but 2Gb should do me until my next replacment in about 18 Months.


Now just waiting for the delivery man to drop it off Tuesday

Yep... you should be alright with your Rev. A.
I have a Rev. B and it runs perfectly. It's speedy, durable, and not to mention beautiful!

Good luck!