New OWNERS! Who's wow'd by their MBA? ... "The positive feedback thread" ...

[entatlrg]

It's nice to read all the positive posts and threads on the new MB Air's.

Although they're often littered with many posts by people who don't own one slamming it for c2d components, no blacklit keyboard and whatever ....

So this thread is for those who BOUGHT, OWN and ENJOY their new MBA:

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?
- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?
- What tasks will you use it for?
- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?

Ours should be here late Wednesday ... comments to follow a few days later. Here's to hoping the 13" will become my new main computer!

 

[ImperialX]

This guy certainly is.

Anyway, I'll receive it soon. Still waiting for my BTO one to ship. I'll post thoughts after I get it.

 

[wingnut8]

Played with one at Best Buy. It was super snappy. I'll be getting one within the week.

 

[iKennett]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?
- It has replaced my MacBook Alu (1st Gen) which is now used as an iTunes server for my Apple TV and a back up systems. It means I can use my 1TB NAS for other things and not TM. Also have iPhone 4 and iPad which go with it nicely. iPad it now more of a little over kill but still love it.

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?
- Main Machine, I only surf the net, research and some witting.

- What tasks will you use it for?
- As above

- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?
- 8 (2GB of RAM does concern me but I was far two impatient and impulsive to go waiting for anything -1 there, also gets -1 for no black light keyboard.

 

[kriskay]

Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?

MBA replaced 2.4 E2010 MBP. Its quicker, the screen res it better, the footprint is awesome

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?
This is now my machine

- What tasks will you use it for?
Using logic for pre-production, outperforms my MBP easily
You Tube, handles this fine despite what people say, fans do not kick in
Live Djing Traktor and Albeton, very zippy

- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?
Defianley a stong 8.5, 10 woudl be perfect and i dont class anything as perfect.

 

[mattpreston11]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?

Had an ipad and an old 12'' pc, sold them both in place of this.

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?

It's my second machine, although I've been using it far more than my iMac

- What tasks will you use it for?

University stuff, web browsing, ichat/facetime,

- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?

10

 

[elwood58]

I bought the 11.6 MBA as a travel companion to my Ipad 3G. Previously, I traveled with my 15" MBP. The MBP is also my main office desktop, connected to a triple monitor setup. It was a real pain to unhook everything for a road trip, not to mention the travel weight of the setup. After acquiring the iPad, the number of times I needed to bring out the laptop were diminished, which really got me thinking about reducing the load.

I ran VMs on my MBP for doing things that had to be done in Windows environments. With the limited system resources on the MBA, I decided to go the Bootcamp route. With flash storage, switching OS is a breeze, and fast enough to not be a bother.

I have never carried much media, other than work related files, on my Notebooks, so the limited flash storage works out pretty well. IPad is still my media consumption device of choice, although the display on the MBA makes it very tempting.

 

[Fanboyofnothing]

My 13 replaced a 15 inch MBP from last 2008 and an iPad. My Internet experience is no longer controlled by Steve Jobs and is no longer gimped. I absolutely LOVE the Air.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

This guy certainly is.

Anyway, I'll receive it soon. Still waiting for my BTO one to ship. I'll post thoughts after I get it.

Sort of feel the same way as this guy does so far.

I may end up selling my 2009 MBP 13" in the end, or my 2008 iMac.

As a photographer of sorts, I can see my MBA 13" doing what I want when I travel better than I thought the iPad would be in that roll. Still on the fence about keeping the iPad since I have an iPhone 4 as well.

 

[amjbrown]

My 13" BTO (2.13GHz, 4gb RAM) has shipped. I am delighted by the reviews, although not surprised - I thought the wailing and gnashing of teeth at launch was nuts.

It will replace my super portable MBA (first edition) and my powerful 15" MBP. No longer will I have to choose which I take on a trip. I travel for business, use Office etc. for presentations, and use Aperture on vacation.

My 24" iMac will remain the mothership. I can't wait to see how my usage of that old faithful is going to change.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Sort of feel the same way as this guy does so far.

I may end up selling my 2009 MBP 13" in the end, or my 2008 iMac.

As a photographer of sorts, I can see my MBA 13" doing what I want when I travel better than I thought the iPad would be in that roll. Still on the fence about keeping the iPad since I have an iPhone 4 as well.

I have the last 15" MBP with EC/34 slot and may sell it now that I picked up the base model 13" last night.

 

[M87]

Just got my BTO 13, my first Air, and I was blown away by how thin and light it is. Especially because I've been using a 17" MBP for more than a year. I know someone complained about creaking and funnily enough, that's one of the first things I noticed about it, but it only did it once or twice and now I can't get it to do it anymore.

 

[drbob20]

I picked up a stock 13" MBA 128 with 2gb, this was in addition to the MPB 13" I recently purchased for my wife. My MBA definitely get's a thumbs up, it's light fast and does exactly what I need it to do and does it extremely well. I have it networked with my Imac so if I need to grab a movie, music or a document i can do it quickly and effectively. Side note, more than enough light from screen to manipulate the keyboard so while a back lit keyboard would be nice it certainly is not a big deal, IMO.

 

[bamloki]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?

I sold my iPad and my old Macbook white for the new MBA (256gb 13 inch)


- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?

It's my main machine, I'm not using cpu-intensive tasks that often.


- What tasks will you use it for?

I am using it for iPhoto, Office, iWork, Web, Mail and Minecraft - That's all.


- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?

9

 

[mac jones]

I like the 'positive' part of the thread heading.

there's a bit of stress with these rollouts

Anyway, both of these models are really nice.

I bought the 11 inch. Love it to death.

My iPad is jealous AS HECK. Poor thing

 

[kdoug]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?

Had an ipad and an old 12'' pc, sold them both in place of this.

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?

It's my second machine, although I've been using it far more than my iMac

- What tasks will you use it for?

University stuff, web browsing, ichat/facetime,

- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?

10

I pretty much did the same thing. The iPad had a few too many limitations so I sold it on eBay. I was streaming a netflix movie last night on the MBA and was thinking how much more convenient and comfortable it was versus the iPad.

 

[judethat]

Loving the 11.6 Air and finding that I prefer it to the iPad, so that is going on eBay as well as my MacBook Pro. Finding that this thing is so easy to use and very accessible with the instant on and you are not so loathe to carry it around with you because of the weight. I wish I could just find a bag to put it in, but nowhere seems to stock them. Proof that its not a netbook as none of the three netbook covers I bought and tried have fitted properly. Its very snappy even with just 2G of RAM. I really do think this is the way forward.

 

[ingramLee]

Can't wait to contribute in a few days <3

 

[kurzz]

My 11.6" Air is replacing my 13" MBP. The SSD really makes it feel twice as fast as my MBP. I don't think my future computer purchases will have a regular hard drive anymore.

I have an iMac so it's going to my secondary/mobile computer. The iMac has a 1TB hard drive and I barely use a third of that space as it is.

I think these large capacity hard drives are best used in server/file storage environments instead of personal computers. It's like the difference between tape drives and hard drives of decades ago.

 

[Cyroceon]

After receiving, setting up, and now using, my new MBA 11" with 4GB Ram, I can only say that I am extremely satisfied. I replaced my MBP 13" which was a Spring 2010 revision, and I could not be happier. This feels (I know it isn't) just as powerful, but it's lighter, smaller, and more comfortable to use/carry. I am in love with this machine and what I gained from this machine is exactly what I would have liked to gain from the iPad, but couldn't. I wanted something lighter, thinner, and still capable of doing work, but fun at the same time. The iPad was good, but not good enough. I ended up buying it, selling it, buying it again, and selling it again. With this however, I believe Apple has created my niche product.

Cliffnotes: I couldn't be happier, given the situation.

 

[M87]

Battery life on the 13 seems fantastic so far.

 

[bossxii]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?


My 13" MBA (1.8/2gig/256) replaced an 08 Mini + monitor and my 32gig Wifi Ipad.

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?

This is and will be my main machine as it will meet my current needs for work and personal use. My traveling days for work have been limited due to slower economy but still a very nice machine when I'm on the go. I have my main media storage on a external accessible via my Airport Extreme via Wifi, and as of last night I transferred over 125gigs of data to my MBA in 8 hours via Wifi, easy to do when sleeping and zero issues. All setup with more media than i need to carry and still have 80gigs free on the 256gig drive.

- What tasks will you use it for?

VPN to work, Hulu, Netflix, tech forums such as MR, creating sales presentations, showing video's in the field to customers on certain products. As well as the usual email, iWork/office suite and iPhoto as well as light video stuff in iMovie.

At home it gives me the freedom to use a computer away from a desk, as the mini did not.

If the iPad had iPhoto and iMovie and was more of a "stand alone" machine not dependent on another computer to sync it would have been a tougher decision, but this is more of a complete package for me.


- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?

Overall build quality this far, I'd have to say a 9.

Overall "feel" of performance = 8 (4gigs ram should have been the base imo)

Overall "spec sheet" = 8 (Always room to get a bit closer to the most modern CPU/GPU combo's)

Bottom line I would give the 13" MBA as I have it with 2gigs an 8. IMO with 4gigs it may very well impress me more so to up the rating to a 9. We will see.

I used a Best Buy credit to purchase and as they do not have the 4gig, I may end up selling this and order a BTO unit from Apple. It deals with multitasking well but I've stated in several posts over the past few years here and on others sites if the MBA ever has a glass trackpad, better hinge and 4gigs I'm all in... so far I have 2 out of 3 improvements and very impressed, I think I need to take the final step so I won't even think twice about my decision.

 

[Kaidan]

13" right here, replacing a 2.4GHz 9400 equipped 4GB ram Alu MacBook. So far extremely impressed especially the snappiness of everything and the battery life. Been doing mainly web browsing and some light gaming ; Wow and L4D2 which has been quite impressive.

The screen is fantastic and comparing with the older MacBook it's obvious the increased res. Shame about the backlit keyboard missing but not a deal breaker for me.

Still loving my iPad. It really is a just pull out of your bag and browse device when commuting on buses and trains. It's the size, battery life, built in 3G and the fact its so much more discrete than any laptop or "netbook". I just take it out my bag put it on my newspaper and off I go... covert browsing, even standing up on a packed tube.

Heavy lifting- Gaming, video editing and encoding all handled on the iMac.

These new air's are lovely reduced bulk machines but no replacement for my iPad when I'm out and about on the move.

13" highly recommended.

 

[arun21]

Just picked up my decked out 2.1ghz, 4gb ram 13" MBA last night from the Apple Store in nyc.

Needless to say, I am very impressed so far. Everything seems snappier. I sold my mid-2009 MBP 13" with 2.2ghz, 4gb ram and 320gb hdd. The MBA loads everything faster. Also, download Office 2011. It loads INSANELY fast compared to older versions.

Yes the lack of backlit keyboard and lack of ambient light sensor aren't great but the weight, battery life and speed more than make up for it.

The SSD is much faster than my previous 5400rpm drive and that alone is a reason to go for the Air. I was always bitter that I still had a DVD drive in my laptop. I can't remember the last time that I used a physical disk and I knew that it was just taking up needless space and weight. The MBA is so much more streamlined than any of the other current macbooks.

I haven't had enough time to play with it too much more than just loading my previous apps and data from my old machine. I'll chime in later again with more info.

 

[ender21]

- Did your new MBA replace another computer or iPad, if so what kind?
It's replacing a dying HP AMDX2 space heater. For what it was it ran Win7 admirably, but it's old, slow, heavy, hot as hades, and on its last leg.

- How will you use it; main machine, desktop replacement, travel only or ?
I suppose it'll be my main machine. Since I got an i7 Desktop my old Sony Vaio, which *was* my main machine, has been the odd man out. At some point I'll probably part ways with it, though it's still snappy with SSD and serviceable for most tasks.

- What tasks will you use it for?
iTunes, iTunes Server for ATV, e-mail, web, light photo/video work for smaller projects, oh and due to form factor, travel.

- How would you rate it, scale of 1-10?
8. Would love it to be upgradeable to more than 4GB RAM, have higher screen res, and though it probably couldn't work in this form factor, wish it could have greater than C2D 2.13. But it's definitely a great little machine for 90% of my needs.