OK, I bit the bullet and finally ordered my MBA!

[nph]

Just ordered my MBA on Amazon, rev B SSD!
Have been really thinking hard and debating with myself for several months.

Reason I went with MBA:
- Weight, of course, just pick up and go.
- No heat to speak of
- Fast and hopefully future proof for years to come since I got the SSD and 1.8
- Perfect second computer for travel and with great wifi (I have an imac for the heavy stuff even though it is getting old)
- Great screen, glossy but still not glass and great contrast (Oh please no lines...!)
- Keyboard ok, really preferred the old one on the MBP pre uni
- Trackpad with button, yes I know everyone loves the glass track pad and although surface is great I hate the clicking of the pad itself!
Call me old fashioned but I want a button!
- Battery life for surfing seems quite ok with at least 4 hours, maybe more with screen turned down
- If I watch video I will attach the charger and it still doesn't get hot, did I mention I hate the heat of the MBPs?
- Best screen in the Apple Laptop family, provided I am lucky and avoid the line issue!
- One last reason is that due to size and weight I can bring it in addition to my work pc on my business trips so I can have a real computer instead of a Vista machine which I only use because I have to (due to proprietary sw)

Now I just hope I get a perfect machine with no lines or other issue!
If I do get a bad MBA I will send it back and then just get the last gen MBP with a glossy screen from Macmall...
That would absolutely be my second choice. Really don't like the new MB and MBP.

I hope to get it by next weekend and once I get it I will write a comprehensive review. I find that reviews of rev B are sorely lacking, mostly just negative ones related to rev A.

Thanks to everyone who helped me make a decision by answering my questions I have posted over the last few months.

I had some coupons and promotional certificates at Amazon and with no tax and $99 of the list price it didn't turn out as bad, less than 2k for a great laptop I hope I can use for years to come, especially for travel and around the house, outside, at coffee shops etc.

Here's hoping I made the right decision...
Will finish my wine now.

 

[Carl Abudephane]

.

 

[Scottsdale]

You are going to love and be amazed by your rev B MBA with SSD.

I use one as my primary computer. It is ultra portable, yet extremely powerful, with the Penryn CPU, Nvidia Graphics, Mini Display Port (capable of driving a 30" display), SATA drive controller, and etc.

I hope you enjoy your MBA as much as I enjoy mine. I think you will be blown away from the whole experience. Please, take the time to write a review a few weeks after you receive it. I have loved every minute with my rev B MBA, and I enjoy hearing about other experiences.

Best wishes.

 

[Eyedn]

Congratulations, keep us posted on how you are finding it.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Has it arrived?

 

[mikey28]

Congratulations!! I ordered my MBA 128/SSD through Amazon. They had a better price than the Apple store. Yet I can still take my MBA to the Apple store if I need to.

My MBA came perfect. NO lines or other issues. Yours will too!!!

 

[nph]

Thanks, I sure hope so...!

 

[steve31]

hey congrats....I had a MBA rev a with ssd and loved it. But sold it and bought a uni MB. I have been tempted to buy the new one many times. But I need a larger hard drive. It was one of my favorites.

 

[tubbymac]

Hope you get one without lines. Otherwise it's a great machine.

 

[stoconnell]

I just took the plunge as well

After much hemming and hawing and lurking on this forum, I took the plunge and picked up MacBook Air (1.86/SSD) on Friday (motivated by pending changes in sales tax). I didn't want to mail order due to concerns over lines and other flaws that have been mentioned. Mine doesn't appear to have lines to me, which I suppose is all that really matters It is much lighter, quieter and cooler than my work machine (2.16 GHz 15" MacBook Pro -- 1st gen, which I look forward to not carrying back and forth ), but no great shocks there. My one big concern is I do a lot of work/coding with a laptop in my lap, so I have to be a bit careful about the way I hold it to not cover the vents (will miss the bonus lap warming from the work machine). The next trick will be maintaing that position with a cat on top of me (he pushes his way and wedges himself between the edge of the laptop and my torso.

So far so good. I have been slowly easing into using it. I haven't decided whether or not to wipe and re-install route .. there was roughly 18Gi of the 113Gi (df -h). I have added about 10Gi of my iTunes library. My disk needs are fairly modest, so this should be sufficient for quite a while. The one thing I do notice are fonts look a little blockier, and I kind of miss the 1440x900 resolution. I sure wish they'd go with this resolution on a 13" screen. It would be awesome for coding.

I didn't buy any of the accessories on the grounds that I'd play with the machine as is and see what I am really need.

To address the routine questions:

Serial # is W8910 == week 10 2009
Screen: 9c90 manufacture is c2486d00

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6
P .00 6
B133EW03 V2
Color LCD

I have changed the profile to a 2.2 gamma and played around with bumping the contrast up a bit (ctrl+alt+cmd+.) and I have enabled all the tap to click goodies.

 

[GadgetGeek407]

heck check out my post about MBA vs TT i saw you use or used one...gimi your feedback please

hey congrats....I had a MBA rev a with ssd and loved it. But sold it and bought a uni MB. I have been tempted to buy the new one many times. But I need a larger hard drive. It was one of my favorites.

 

[applecultvictim]

The next trick will be maintaing that position with a cat on top of me (he pushes his way and wedges himself between the edge of the laptop and my torso.

Hahahaha, rings a bell here too!!!

 

[stoconnell]

Mine doesn't appear to have lines to me, which I suppose is all that really matters

I didn't buy any of the accessories on the grounds that I'd play with the machine as is and see what I am really need.

To address the routine questions:

Serial # is W8910 == week 10 2009
Screen: 9c90 manufacture is c2486d00

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6
P .00 6
B133EW03 V2
Color LCD

I have changed the profile to a 2.2 gamma and played around with bumping the contrast up a bit (ctrl+alt+cmd+.) and I have enabled all the tap to click goodies.

This is just a quick follow up on my original post having had the machine for a little while now:

0) All the good things still apply. I love the form factor, feature set, key board, and most importantly it feels like it is not there when I have it in my backpack (versus the macbook pro).
1) Mine does suffer from the lines I have not decided whether or not they annoy me enough to try the return/replace/repair roulette.
2) On the accessory front, I have purchased the USB->ethernet dongle. I am almost 100% sure that I will go the monoprice.com route for the video adapters considering you can get both the mini-displayport to dvi ($15.20) and vga ($18.85) adapters for slightly more than apple charges for either one ($29.00).

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=mini+displayport&x=0&y=0
Not sure about a sleeve or case. Right now I am putting it in the sleeve I used to use with MBP (so it floats -- pun intended -- around in it) but does afford some extra level of protection while in my backpack.
3) I can hear a little bit of low frequency noise from the fan (even at 2500 RPM) but only if I am right on top of it.