Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

TheSandman2236

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2008
255
0
Atlanta, GA
For sure, man. MBA is a great machine.

I'm using my maxed out 11" as my sole computer for web-dev (work with Photoshop, Browsers, Eclipse, mysql+php+nginx+sphinx+mongodb, Skype, Powerpoint, etc). It's absolutely perfect for that. Sometimes I notice that I forgot about what applications I have open.

Do you do any light gaming on it?
 

notgls

macrumors newbie
May 23, 2009
3
0
MBA moved from backup to main machine for me in a few days

I was concerned like you before I bought my air. I wanted to wait until the new MBP's came out but needed something sooner and the form factor of the Air was really attractive. I bought one maxed out in terms of options and thought it would be a good second machine (I have an older MBP) and could hold me over till the new MBP's came out. Boy was I wrong. The Air has turned out to be the best computer I have ever owned. I use it at a home office connected to a 22 inch external monitor and a bluetooth mouse/keyboard, then when I travel, I disconnect it and slide it into my bag and away I go. Now I don't use anything else. All my work as well as my personal stuff has migrated onto the Air. It was amazing to me how fast the Air became my main computer.
Maybe if you were doing a lot of gaming you might not like the Air so much, but who buys an Air for gaming? For a normal business machine, its lightening fast, very light, very attractive and a pleasure to work with. Even with multiple heavy applications open, I don't notice any slow down. The instant on (and it is from sleep mode and almost is from a dead stop) is really amazing and would have been enough alone to convince me to buy one. And with the great battery life I get if I am traveling for just a day I don't even bother to take the charger. Really a brilliant computer.
 

KohPhiPhi

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 9, 2011
763
194
I am the original poster of this thread. I got my MBA 13" Ultimate this morning, and after having been pounding at it for the whole day, here's my opinion: this thing rocks!

It runs Photoshop, DreamWeaver, FTP, video and everything a web admin (my job) might need flawlessly. It's fast, super quiet and cool, no noticeable heat or fan noise whatsoever, battery lasted 6 hours of real WIFI use (internet browsing and email), and it's crazy light (perfect for couch surfing). The superior screen resolution (1440x900) helps a lot bringing more real state to the table. And the SSD is blistering fast!

This is simply the best laptop I've ever had. I cannot believe how well it runs my applications despite the "theoretically inferior" C2D processor.

So, to answer my own question at the beginning of the thread: Yes, the MBA 13" Ultimate can indeed be used as my sole computer :)
 

hilarystone

macrumors newbie
Mar 9, 2011
8
0
Bristol, UK
I've had a MBA Ultimate since the end of November - it performs quite superbly. Like previous Apple laptops I keep it on the whole time - just sleeping it when I am not using it but on average its probably being used 8–10 hours every day. I do find it needs restarting every now and again depending on what I am doing. Photoshopping and joining eight or so images from a Canon 7D makes restarting a more frequent operation and Bridge occasionally crashes – but – this is a big but is far more reliable and quicker than any other Apple laptop I've run.

And occasionally both Firefox and Camino appear to run out of memory...

But overall am I pleased? Yes most definitely.
 

sam67uk

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2010
81
15
Northern Ireland
Congratulations!!!

Welcome to the MBA Ultimate Club. Glad you are enjoying your new machine and don't forget to get that Apple Cinema Display ordered :D
 

duggram

macrumors 6502
Apr 17, 2008
391
11
Yes, the MBA 13" Ultimate can indeed be used as my sole computer :)

I share your enthusiasm. I got my MBA 13" ultimate back in November. I do programming and sometimes have to work in Windows. So I run Win7 in a Bootcamp partition through Fusion. This way I can use Visual Studio and SQL Server. At the same time I run iTunes and the Kindle app on the mac side. I keep all my windows activity in one space and use the other 5 for all my mac apps. It works so good it really is a stunner.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.