Newest MBA - still cr@ppy?

[texasdoc]

No major issues for me

I purchased my MBA Thursday 3/27. I've read every post I can find on this website and several others re: the overheating issues people experience. I've monitored fan speeds and CPU temperature pretty frequently and have had a generally excellent experience thus far. I just looped the Osama 1080p trailer from apple.com probably 20 times WHILE also running a full screen Youtube video. The fan hit 6200 rpm and CPU temp went to 77 C, but no stuttering, dropped frames, hitches in the sound, jerky mouse, etc. I then put Youtube in the background with the 1080p trailer still running and was able to surf fine with Safari. I let this run for 20-30 minutes and the temperature was stable with the unit sitting on a table. Within 3-4 minutes after stopping the video, the temp was back down to 52 C and fan speed at 2500 and inaudible. My fan ONLY kicks up with extended high demand video.

My conclusion: there are some good ones and some bad ones out there. As others have surmised, there is probably a very critical step in the manufacturing process (application of thermal paste) that if not done exactly right leads to overheating. The margin of error for heat dissipation in this tightly packed, thin case is very slim.

I don't believe, from what I've seen so far, it would be possible (or at least it's pretty unlikely) for me to overheat my MBA doing realistic things. When would I watch two HD videos at once while also surfing the net? Never. I think for my MBA, and probably for a lot more out there, real world uses won't pose any problem.

Having said that, I don't blame people for being pissed if their machine is crappy. If it runs the fans at full speed just surfing the net, or can't do what I just describe doing with mine, then you might want to return it. It SHOULD be able to do HD video, Youtube, etc, without choking, and if it won't then it's defective.

 

[mykoljay]

No problems here. And I got one in the first few weeks.

Just get one, if you get a defect, replace it.

 

[whitlecj]

No problems here. Very happy MBA owner.

 

[RedAbundance]

What is the problem with the bezel? Mine has been great..no issues here but there is a small bump on my bezel..where the magnet is on the top left side. Just wondering if yours is the same?

to steve31:
mine's problem is at the upper right hand side. there's a scuff or gap between the rubber and the aluminum. it's minor in all fairness, but i wasn't happy about it coz it's very noticable and i stare at it every time i look at the screen.

to snowboarder:
the store has been pretty good at exchanging macbook air in my experience. i exchanged it TWICE. first time for the mag latch not being able to keep it closed, second time for the display. they wanted to charge a 10% fee the second time but i talked them out of it, politely.

 

[jjahshik32]

I've been through rev. a mbp, mb, powerbook and including the mba 1.6/60gb (not a problem on the mba that I saw except the fan going 6000+ rpm 90% of the time which it was very easy to push the mba to its limits and the bottom back is hot as my 2.0ghz macbook core duo and runs very slow cant even handle a full 720p movie (but small 720p trailers played fine)) not too long ago and they all had some sorts of problems.


I learned my lesson and returned the mba and will gladly wait for the next rev. with a 45nm chipset which will be much better and in favor for a subnotebook that thin. And remember guys I'm just warning you because of the shrinkage of the cpu to the 45nm they will add a fw port an extra usb and move the heat exhaust to the top back of the machine rather than the current mba's exhaust at the bottom (very bad).

I really really really tried to love the mba for the first week I owned it, but the fan noise/heat/speed of the mba bothered the hell out of me for the $1800 in price.. But I would think the SSD version of the mba would be much faster and better but the price is just ridiculous... In the end I returned the mba and months later I bought the 17" hi res mbp without looking back. But sometime next year if they release a mba which the fan is a lot better, runs alot cooler and a fw port, I'll consider selling my mbp and opting for the mba.

 

[snowboarder]

...will gladly wait for the next rev. with a 45nm chipset which will be much better and in favor for a subnotebook that thin. And remember guys I'm just warning you because of the shrinkage of the cpu to the 45nm they will add a fw port an extra usb and move the heat exhaust to the top back of the machine rather than the current mba's exhaust at the bottom (very bad).

I really really really tried to love the mba for the first week I owned it, but the fan noise/heat/speed of the mba bothered the hell out of me...

I think this is my conclusion after all... I have a couple of TATL flights coming and thought
it would be cool to get a MBA, but will wait for Rev B. It should be here
in September, that's when Intel will introduce a 45nm versions of their
MBA processors. So I guess 5 or so months won't make such a difference,
will take my Macbook Pro with me now and will enjoy a better product (Rev B MBA)
later. Honestly I feel the current MBA has just some design flaws they have to fix.

 

[raremage]

I think this is my conclusion after all... I have a couple of TATL flights coming and thought
it would be cool to get a MBA, but will wait for Rev B. It should be here
in September, that's when Intel will introduce a 45nm versions of their
MBA processors. So I guess 5 or so months won't make such a difference,
will take my Macbook Pro with me now and will enjoy a better product (Rev B MBA)
later. Honestly I feel the current MBA has just some design flaws they have to fix.

Just to voice the dissenting opinion - especially since I am considering switching back to an MBP - the Air sure is nice when travelling.

I'm sitting in the Panera in Atlanta airport waiting for my connection right now, and it's awfully nice to lug around two and a half less pounds I have to say that when I am on the road I tend to forget the MBA's warts that are so clear when I am at my office.

 

[jjahshik32]

Just to voice the dissenting opinion - especially since I am considering switching back to an MBP - the Air sure is nice when travelling.

I'm sitting in the Panera in Atlanta airport waiting for my connection right now, and it's awfully nice to lug around two and a half less pounds I have to say that when I am on the road I tend to forget the MBA's warts that are so clear when I am at my office.

When I want absolute portability especially with webbrowsing, I love my iphone, just read the news and if my flight is in or I want to get something to eat just stick it in my left pocket (with nothing else of course) and just go.

 

[jjahshik32]

But I cant wait for the next rev. mba.. I love my 17" hi res mbp to death.. but sometimes using my mac pro feels like the 17" is not needed... man I'd kill for a 45nm mba with a fw port.

 

[happyslayer]

Mine really only gets hot and cranks the fan to 6200 when I am running WOW, (I just put it in to test it... the MBA is NOT a gaming machine.) and when I run large program installs. It got VERY hot - low 80's when installing Ubuntu into Parallels, but generally runs in the mid 50's to low 60's during normal Parallels use (Windows XP & Ubuntu). Also, when playing WOW in the Outdoor environments (not indoors like cities) the CPU got very hot, high 70's and one of the cores would start to trip out for a second, causing the game to hitch and stutter. Again, only in outdoor environments. Being indoors at the Auction House, it had no issues even when I was in for over 30 minutes. As I said, this is not a gaming machine and i wont actually be playing WOW on it so I do not really care.

It will definitely get warm when watching videos - high 50's to low 60's but otherwise, it is fine.

Oh, and it did get warm when i was burning a DVD data disk on my Superdrive. the fan went to 6200 after a while and stayed there until the verifying process was done. However, I rarely burn DVD's... so no big deal.

Overall, this laptop has been a lot better for me then my past Ultraportables from Sony & Dell. Definitely quicker and great battery life.

 

[jjahshik32]

The mba is definitely not a gaming machine, even the macbook isnt considered a gaming machine, lol.

If I want to game I'll use the MP or the mbp.. but if I got the mba, it would be strictly for webbrowsing,ichat,email that sorts of thing only.

 

[AlexanderTgreat]

I have a week 7 and it's a piece of crap. I am calling apple tomorrow for a return. Worthless piece of junk. I've had it.

No (Windows) PC have issues like these, ever.

this seems to be sentiment of most macbook air owners. i have a few friends that have bought them and had nothing but problems. Worse yet apple care has shockingly bad service.

 

[snowboarder]

this seems to be sentiment of most macbook air owners. i have a few friends that have bought them and had nothing but problems. Worse yet apple care has shockingly bad service.

Maybe that will force Apple to update it sooner rather than later...
They just won't have a processor ready before the 3rd quarter.

 

[jflamm]

it has issues

Yes it's a really nice machine.

Yes, the fan will crank up under certain conditions - not always. I have installed Coolbook (see other thread) and it does help somewhat, but taxing the machine will spin the fan up.

I am ashamed to admit how much of an Apple fanboy I have turned into (iPhone, MacBook Air SSD, MacBook Pro, Time Capsule), but even I have to admit sometimes it's a good thing to lay off the koolaid and be analytical: the machine has some heating and quality issues. The 45nm Penryn parts will probably help a lot as well as some other modifications.

It took Apple 4 tries on the MacBook Pro (now at version 4) to get it to a point where it doesn't run hot and/or the fans don't spin up like an airplane taking off. Now my MBP version 3 is a very nice machine and I wouldn't trade it for anything besides a MBP version 4 - but let's face it - not all laptop manufacturers have heating/fan issues.

If the fan doesn't bother - that's cool - one could reasonably argue that it's not that loud. If you are saying it never spins up - lay off the koolaid. If it stayed at 2500 rpm then there would be no reason to have a max speed of 6200.

 

[hotdamn]

this seems to be sentiment of most macbook air owners. i have a few friends that have bought them and had nothing but problems. Worse yet apple care has shockingly bad service.

in Canada, yes.
In Europe, they're brilliant.

I have a 2 page essay written about my macbook air replacement ordeal which has come to a grinding halt today, as I ordered a macbook pro and I am sending this macbook air back in for good as that arrives.
if anyone is curious to hear it, I'd be more than willing to post it here.

 

[Sandy Santra]

Go ahead!...

Please post! All information is helpful, especially for those of us like myself who are still on the fence about purchasing an MBA.

Thanks!

I have a 2 page essay written about my macbook air replacement ordeal which has come to a grinding halt today, as I ordered a macbook pro and I am sending this macbook air back in for good as that arrives.

if anyone is curious to hear it, I'd be more than willing to post it here.

 

[ceehjayem]

I get my new 1.8 next wednesday. I'll give an update to how it is then.

 

[snowboarder]

Not sure if anybody cares, but I just bought a Macbook instead.
I got a 2.4GHz model and will put 4GB of RAM and 320GB drive inside.
I know it's not as sexy as MBA but at least it works.
When MBA becomes more reliable I will update.
I still have my MBP, love it and it works too but just wanted something
smaller for traveling. With such a big drive my new MB will be perfect
for travel photography.

 

[Munich]

I think I got a good one, I put it to the test today, downloaded a 1080p trailer from Apple, went to Youtube and started playing a 47 minutes video from there. Temp got to 80 degrees, fans went crazy at 6204 rpm, temp got back to 74, no stuttering, no nothing, and I even was playing with Itunes at the same time. I can't complain...

 

[greenmeanie]

I was playing with the airs at the mac store today no problems for me.
I opened all the apps and watch youtube videos with no stuttering.

 

[Hmac]

I have a week 7 and it's a piece of crap. I am calling apple tomorrow for a return. Worthless piece of junk. I've had it.

No (Windows) PC have issues like these, ever.

 

[aussieinrome]

I got my new SSD Macbook Air a week ago and it's amazingly quiet, the battery lasts for 6 (yes SIX) hours - in fact I've been using it for an hour now and it say's I've got 5:22 remaining.

The model identifier says it's a MacBookAir1,1 - what's that mean?

 

[Mr.Green]

I got my new SSD Macbook Air a week ago and it's amazingly quiet, the battery lasts for 6 (yes SIX) hours - in fact I've been using it for an hour now and it say's I've got 5:22 remaining.

The model identifier says it's a MacBookAir1,1 - what's that mean?

Mine says that too, don't believe that means anything special. Mine is a week 2 production.

 

[Scott6666]

How about you show us how unstable your MBA is.

I can describe how it *was*. I returned it. Sometimes it was quiet for hours. Other times, it decided it was hot and the fan went at 6200. Both just doing surfing and Word(Mac). Could not really detect a pattern except that when starting from cold, it worked for a while (until the case heated up I guess). I finally returned it when I could not surf and use iTunes (Party Shuffle) at the same time (with nothing else running) without the audio skipping every 15 seconds (ps I thought the speaker was fine with the audio).

Having Parallels and Windows Word in the background often, but not always made it spin up. It all seemed to get worse over the 2 weeks I had it. Playing movies (quicktime or youtube) was just impossible. I had the second core drop out for good once but more often it would drop out for a "frame or two or three or four" at a time (as shown in the activity monitor; 1 bar = 1 frame).

I have pictures of iStat with temp at 50, 60, and 68 with 2500 and the same temps at 6200. I have pictures of the core dropping out for a few frames if anyone wants me to post.

I also thought the edge was hard on the wrists at times but that was not a deal breaker.

I returned the unit for store credit because I was 3 days after the 14 day period when the core started dropping out. I am hopeful to buy another once I think the issues are sorted out. I am disturbed by those who claim to have returned 2 or even 3 MBA's. I don't want to do cause all those returns to Apple if its a product that just not for me or just not designed to be quiet. I have looked at a MBP and they are nice but its hard to switch from the airyness of the air. I guess I am waiting for either rev B of the MBA or when I think it's fixed. I'm mentally trying to wait until Q3 but it's really hard not to have it back.

 

[HotAir]

The simple style of this notebook computer is what makes it so attractive. If you require the power of a MBP then don't waste your time trying to force the Air to do more than it is capable. Accept this and move on.

Problem lies in that you are HOOKED on the sexiness of the Air and SEX sells!!!

There. Wasn't that nice & simple?