Not sold on the MBA

[itanibro]

I'd like to start out by saying that I have owned nothing but Macs since 1993. I love my Macs. But...this MacBook Air thing has me a little concerned because there seems to be SO much love surrounding it. I'd like to be convinced, but I'm not...yet.

I see portability as the only legitimate argument for a MacBook Air. I mean, what are you really paying for? The solid state HD is nice I suppose, but the premium you pay is for the engineering that went into the MBA's portability, IMHO. I can buy that thought, but not for the price.

Dollar for dollar, any MacBook Pro from $1100 to $1700 is a far better deal in terms of your overall computing experience. Hell, even if I don't need all the power that comes with a MBP - you get more for your dollar. Am I off base here?

Basically, you are paying for the experience of owning a MBA. It's an experience. People will pay more...for less. Add a bunch of hype and some clever marketing and people will buy it? Don't mean to sound disgruntled, but I was actually disappointed when I first heard about the MBA's.

Cheers.

 

[ZBoater]

The same can be said about owning a Corvette. I mean, a Kia will take you from point A to point B. You buy a Corvette for other reasons.

Portability is usually synonymous with poor performance (like netbooks). The Air proved that wrong.

If you are a power user and want 8GB of RAM to run multiple VMs and the like, the Air is not for you.

If you want to look cool in your new Corvette, then the Air is for you!

 

[Icaras]

Don't knock it till you try it. I sold my Macbook Pro for the Air and haven't regretted since. Beautiful machine and for day to day general computing, the SSD is a true blessing. Remember, for the price you'll pay for an equally sized SSD, you'll be paying hundreds more for the MBP. Therein lies the value, along with the extreme portability. There's nothing like being able to carry a full-fledged notebook at under 3 lbs.

 

[FieldingMellish]

OP, do you want people to talk you into it or to defend it? Otherwise, what's the point of your post?

 

[sporadicMotion]

I'd like to start out by saying that I have owned nothing but Macs since 1993. I love my Macs. But...this MacBook Air thing has me a little concerned because there seems to be SO much love surrounding it. I'd like to be convinced, but I'm not...yet.

I see portability as the only legitimate argument for a MacBook Air. I mean, what are you really paying for? The solid state HD is nice I suppose, but the premium you pay is for the engineering that went into the MBA's portability, IMHO. I can buy that thought, but not for the price.

Dollar for dollar, any MacBook Pro from $1100 to $1700 is a far better deal in terms of your overall computing experience. Hell, even if I don't need all the power that comes with a MBP - you get more for your dollar. Am I off base here?

Basically, you are paying for the experience of owning a MBA. It's an experience. People will pay more...for less. Add a bunch of hype and some clever marketing and people will buy it? Don't mean to sound disgruntled, but I was actually disappointed when I first heard about the MBA's.

Cheers.

If you consider that the two machines are virtually identical in performance (13") and then observe the base prices... the MBP really just stops making sense unless; you need 8 gb and you need a lot of internal storage. The CPU's are just too close to ever see a difference in real world situations. I ditched my 13" i5 Pro for the Air. Add the portability factor in and the Air is a no brainer at this point.

 

[2IS]

Sooo.... Don't buy one and let the rest of us do what we want? I personally could not stand to use a MBP as my primary laptop after owning an MBA for the last 7 months. I will ALWAYS take advantage of the lightweight and portability of the MBA whereas I will rarely if ever use the additional computing power the MBP provides.

 

[bmat]

The MBA is the first notebook I've ever had that is actually a laptop; the first ones I've ever had that I can take in my bag and not feel that it is any weight burden; the first one that, compared to a netbook, feels solidly built and doesn't lag.

My MBA, unlike other notebooks, is the first one that feels comfortable for long times actually resting and working on my lap - no heat, weight, well balanced. I've had many powerbooks and MBP, and they didn't fit this criteria. So, that may be the experience I'm paying for and -- to some degree -- sacrificing certain power for. But for me it is worth it.

 

[misterneums]

I think it's safe to say that the MBA's are close to or greater than the 13" MBP's. Even this generation. If you put a 13" MBP and MBA together, you're going to have more workspace on the MBA due to the higher resolution screen. You're going to have a quicker experience due to the standard flash memory that's installed in the MBA. The only thing that the 13" MBP has on the MBA is a slight processor power advantage--as the MBP uses full power processors versus the MBA using lighter versions.

 

[pgiguere1]

Sometimes, the best computer is the one you have with you.

The point of the MacBook Air is that it's so easy to carry around that you don't even have to ask yourself every time you leave "Will the probability of me using it justify its weight/size in my backpack?".

Just put in in your bag every time, you barely feel it, and whenever you need it you'll know you have it with you.

Depending on your lifestyle, this could add more to your productivity than an added fraction of gigahertz.

 

[Samsumac]

Don;t buy one. The reasons for your post are unclear .
Yoy do not like it, you do not buy it. this is the first version of the Air that combines all the portability features with impressive horsepower.

 

[itanibro]

I want to really like the MBA. I've been reading post after post about how much people love it, with doubts in my head. Just wanted to "air-out" the doubts to see what folks thought.

Some good thoughts here, it is appreciated.

 

[El Cabong]

Not sold on the MBA

Don't buy one, then.

Cheers.

 

[Souloni]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Solid argument, but I think there's less business hype than there is actual post consumer hype; this is great.

Yes, I could get an Acer for ~$750 that performs circles around the MBA, but no amount of money I throw at it will improve its portability, build solidity, or screen quality. The value of these things are either greater or less than the value of the things you can spend that extra $500 on.

Also, a MBP 13.3" is ~$1100, but just adding a solid state drive means I lose ~$120 for a 64GB, gain an oversized lower resolution screen, and gain a lot more weight and size. Comparing a 11.6" to a 13.3" people generally give the 11 the shaft and say it isnt't THAT much smaller. Now compare a 13.3" to a 15.7" and now people are disgusted with the portability. It's all relative!

Thr MBP is a very solid machine with an everyday purpose, but can be redundant if you don't use or need all of the features (large capacity drive, CD). The MBA 11 can still be improved, but right now it is exceeding my expectations by smoking my 1 year old Asus ultra portable 3x over.

 

[Obscurelight]

With all the negative reactions from the others aside. Here is what I posted on another thread doing a comparison between the 13" MBA and MBP

Actually if you consider the MBA 13" Ultimate and MBP 13" with the same specs the macbook pro is actually $50 more factoring in the education discount for both. You aren't really getting more because you have same

Intel HD3000
4GB RAM
256GB SS
Battery Life

Then

MBA has higher screen resolution
MBA Weighs 33% less than the MBP
MBA Bluetooth 4.0 vs. MBP 2.1
MBA 33% Thinner than the MBP
MBA has 1mb more cache but MBP I5 processor clocks 500mhz faster.
MBP has optical drive

Overall I think for the convenience of the that the MBA provides compared to the MBP 13" I can't justify the 500mhz faster clock speed at the cost of $50 more, extra weight, and lower resolution. I frankly think the MBP 13" has become obsolete since you cannot even get a dedicated video card on it. MBA will probably kill off the 13" MBP unless apple finds some way to reinvent and add features that will entice buyers to get it instead of the 13" macbook air. After all apple did say Macbook Air is the next generation and the future of MacBooks :roll eyes:

So actually when you say dollar for dollar the MBA can match up quite well when you are comparing it to a similar MBP. The non education differences will probably be $80 more for the MBP than the MBA which if you really need an optical drive will pay for a MBA + Superdrive for the same price as a equally specced MBP.

 

[iExpensive]

All the 13" MBP has on the air is a bigger hard drive and more ram.
The hard drive space can be fixed with a portable usb (or thunderbolt) hdd

 

[rkahl]

Don't feed it!

 

[smeade]

It's an experience.

Enough said. You have to experience it to understand its appeal. This is one machine that you cannot be convinced to buy from paper specs. Those who have used an MBA agree, as you said, that they love them. Those who have not worked with one agree with you and do not see the appeal.

Have you worked with an MBA? Until then, I agree that you will not be sold on it.

 

[Obscurelight]

All the 13" MBP has on the air is a bigger hard drive and more ram.
The hard drive space can be fixed with a portable usb (or thunderbolt) hdd

I think hard drive safe will start being less important with implementation of iCloud. For the average user that the MBA are targeting I doubt many will need massive amounts of storage. I personally see people with ridiculous amounts of junk files on their computers that will rarely ever get used. Like that thread where people competed to see who has the biggest media library. Some guy had like 100GB of music probably takes a year of nonstop music playing to go through a library like that.

 

[jackrv]

Just out of curiosity, how do memory pagefiles work on OS X? With Thunderbolt's PCIe speeds and an external SSD using DDR3 instead of flash, that may even overcome the 4GB memory limit. There are quite a few companies that manufacture PCIe DDR disks, just not for Thunderbolt (yet)

 

[nebulos]

Basically, you are paying for the experience of owning a MBA. It's an experience. People will pay more...for less. Add a bunch of hype and some clever marketing and people will buy it? Don't mean to sound disgruntled, but I was actually disappointed when I first heard about the MBA's.

have you even compared these machines?

you concluded that the air is all hype and now you want us to sell it to you?

instead of posting a thread like this, why don't you sit down and carefully look at the specs, go play with these computers in person, and then decide who is spewing 'hype'.

the old (early) Airs, maybe. the new Airs? you don't know what you're talking about. and furthermore, you come on the MBA forum and basically tell everyone that they are the ones that don't get it, or that they're only interested in some fluffy 'experience'.

go do some research and get back to us. then many here will be happy to help you with further questions.

 

[Driver8]

How do you guys handle the 128GB hard drive? I am considering getting an air, but I checked my machine and I have about 300GB of movies, music, programs. I like not having to worry about storage and not having to plug it into an external drive. Do you guys sync or use some kind of file sharing?

 

[The Norman]

... but if this is what the Air can do, what will the next MBP do when they strip the optical drive and redesign the body?

 

[KPOM]

Dollar for dollar, any MacBook Pro from $1100 to $1700 is a far better deal in terms of your overall computing experience. Hell, even if I don't need all the power that comes with a MBP - you get more for your dollar. Am I off base here?

Basically, you are paying for the experience of owning a MBA. It's an experience. People will pay more...for less. Add a bunch of hype and some clever marketing and people will buy it? Don't mean to sound disgruntled, but I was actually disappointed when I first heard about the MBA's.

Until you have used an SSD, you really don't know what you are missing out on. I have used them since November 2008 on my Rev B MacBook Air. They speed up everything from reboots to application launches. You just don't realize how much your hard drive spins and how much it slows down your computer until you use a computer that doesn't have a hard drive.

People are paying more for the MacBook Air, but they are also getting more.

 

[Typswif2fingers]

Not withstanding that I cannot speak of previous versions of MBA, never had one, I want to say that the new MBA (I got a 13" top spec) is a bloody superb machine.

If one thinks that the new MBA is a fashion statement, a toy, "an experience", I can see why one would think so... But, this thing is a proper notebook that is kicking my mid 2009 15" MBP 2.66/320 C2D in all areas, and noticeably.

It is cooler performing same tasks, it is faster... in half a weight..

I have to admit that my notebook tasks are not as intense as the majority of the people in this forum, or so it would appear. For what I do, browsing, movies, music, word and number processing and similar, this machine has so far outperformed its slightly older and much bigger brother.

Not sure, whatever anyone thinks.. as far as I am concerned this is not a toy.

 

[adztaylor]

Shouldn't something like this belong on your blog?