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So what's is instant-on all about?

M

///M5

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 14, 2009
286
6
Mississauga, ON
I mean what's the difference between the MBA and a MBP with SSD?

I'm thinking of ordering an 11" MBA, but need to know more about the instant-on thingy.
 
///M5 said:
I mean what's the difference between the MBA and a MBP with SSD?

I'm thinking of ordering an 11" MBA, but need to know more about the instant-on thingy.
Click to expand...

They were just referring to that fact that since the new Air is all Flash memory based so its feels much faster when booting, almost "instant", its about 15sec to boot it.
 
altecXP said:
They were just referring to that fact that since the new Air is all Flash memory based so its feels much faster when booting, almost "instant", its about 15sec to boot it.
Click to expand...

Also that when returning from sleep the computer has no delay while the hard drive spins up. It operates at max speed immediately.
 
Yeah at first I was really turned on (no pun intended) by the idea of having the same "instant on" response that the iPad has on my MBA. But then I started to remember my MBA (2008 model) pretty much is instant on (from sleep) regardless; that was always one of the features I loved the most.

Now what I *hope* is that the change to Flash RAM will allow the effect of "instant on" to not only feel even faster (hard to imagine I must say) but last a really long time (up to a month standby sounds great to me). The only complaint I'd had on my old MBA was that if I unplugged it and left it sitting around, the "instant on" wouldn't hold for more than a few days without going into a deep sleep mode which took a lot of time to get out of. From what I can tell, the new MBA is going to last a lot lot longer.
 
Schtumple said:
Why not just go to an Apple store and ask for a demonstration of it?
Click to expand...

Chicago here. Went to Apple store to check out the MBA. They won't have in on display until tomorrow. Like others have said, it's not truly instant on. It's not like you'll be on your desktop in 5 seconds
 
It's not just that it instantly resumes from sleep (Any Mac laptop with a good SSD should do that. Maybe some optimization here but nothing crazy different) but also that it combines that with 30 days of standby time. From what I've read it dumps the contents of the RAM to flash memory about an hour after it goes to sleep, and after that point consumes virtually no power.
 
Stetrain said:
It's not just that it instantly resumes from sleep (Any Mac laptop with a good SSD should do that. Maybe some optimization here but nothing crazy different) but also that it combines that with 30 days of standby time. From what I've read it dumps the contents of the RAM to flash memory about an hour after it goes to sleep, and after that point consumes virtually no power.
Click to expand...

Really?

But then it's just gone from sleep to hibernate, and hibernate is not instant on.

The extended sleep mode is probably something I will have to use in the field to get a feel for it.

Sounds great though.

I think they might want to drop the instant on thing though. The iPad is instant on because it's a ROM basses OS. This is just a notebook with a SSD.
 
My MacBook Pro 15" with Intel X-25 SSD takes between 3-4 seconds to wake up from sleep. It sounds high, but it feels quite fast.

The MacBook Air though wakes up in under 1 second. If you put up the lid its already on, unlikes the MacBook Pro which takes a good 2-3 seconds before the screen comes alive. They definitely tuned something there... However when you let it sleep for over 1 hour it takes longer to wake up. That this new deep-sleep thing they have to get the standby to 30 days.
 
nexus14 said:
Chicago here. Went to Apple store to check out the MBA. They won't have in on display until tomorrow. Like others have said, it's not truly instant on. It's not like you'll be on your desktop in 5 seconds
Click to expand...

I'd still love to have a 15 second boot though... That's not something to bark at...
 
Could someone perhaps explain what instant on is all about?

I just took a video and uploaded it to youtube, of my macbook pro, coming out of sleep. It's pretty instant in my opinion, is the new air seriously faster?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tu4dZq_so

P.S. Sorry for the crappy image quality, I'm waiting for AT&T to get some Windows 7 Phones, and my current phone is about 4 years old!
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Could someone perhaps explain what instant on is all about?

I just took a video and uploaded it to youtube, of my macbook pro, coming out of sleep. It's pretty instant in my opinion, is the new air seriously faster?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tu4dZq_so

P.S. Sorry for the crappy image quality, I'm waiting for AT&T to get some Windows 7 Phones, and my current phone is about 4 years old!
Click to expand...
The Air might be slightly faster due to the SSD. But you're right, the 'instant on' is nothing new when it comes to waking up for sleep; Macs have had this for ages. And the fast boot time is due to the SSD which isn't anything Air-specific either. So the whole "instant on" is just another marketing term that doesn't really mean much.
 
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