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The "I just bought/ordered/got/shipped my new/refurb MBA" thread, [Merged]
- Thread starter kfscoll
- Start date
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Anyone order a 13" i7 MBA from MacMall?
I ordered the 13" MBA with i7 upgrade and 256GB SSD on August 11th from MacMall and according to them they have yet to receive any of these to ship. Every time I talk to them they have a new expected stock date (so far 8/12, 8/19, 8/31 and now 9/30).
Question is will I have my hands on the MBA or the new iPhone first? My money is on the iPhone.
I ordered the 13" MBA with i7 upgrade and 256GB SSD on August 11th from MacMall and according to them they have yet to receive any of these to ship. Every time I talk to them they have a new expected stock date (so far 8/12, 8/19, 8/31 and now 9/30).
Question is will I have my hands on the MBA or the new iPhone first? My money is on the iPhone.
Bought my new MBA 13" base model yesterday. Had an issue with the lid at first and had to replace straight away (made another topic in here on that) but it's perfect.
One point I'd like to say is there's no gradient issue at all. Where as on the one I got first (faulty lid) did have the gradient.
I also have a MBP 13" 2010, but that's going to my gf. The Air is so much better!
Only worry is I have just 128gb, well around 110gb when you look at it. Also not really future proof but I do light web design only so I doubt I will need to push it past the 4gb in next 3 years.
Awesome awesome laptop. So much more portable. Very fast at everyday tasks too!
One point I'd like to say is there's no gradient issue at all. Where as on the one I got first (faulty lid) did have the gradient.
I also have a MBP 13" 2010, but that's going to my gf. The Air is so much better!
Only worry is I have just 128gb, well around 110gb when you look at it. Also not really future proof but I do light web design only so I doubt I will need to push it past the 4gb in next 3 years.
Awesome awesome laptop. So much more portable. Very fast at everyday tasks too!
New 2011 11" Ultimate first few hours experience
First off let me say I'm loving it
I'm laying in bed and my GF is sleeping beside me and I point this out because it really is a quiet machine, she'd hit me if it was otherwise
So here are my comments good and bad in no order other than out of my head.
Firstly unboxing it was a normal process with no surprises but I was kinda surprised by the weight, not sure why but I was expecting a slightly different feeling when holding it. Again nothing bad as it feels solid as a rock but I guess I've grown use to my Sony TZ with it's plastic case.
Case. What else but it is a thing of beauty.
Keyboard is superb! Excellent travel, no harsh clicking but a comforting seating which gives a good tactile response.
Backlighting is superb also! I have it set to just one bar in my unlit room and it is giving more than ample lighting. Why they ever dropped this feature I'll never understand. Once you have it you never want to loose it!
Screen (LG). Equally as good as my Sony TZ but not awesome. I think I had expected more but to be honest it is definitely high quality. The gradient effect at the bottom is extremely small on mine so it isn't distracting at all. Running on 1 bar and comfortably bright enough. In living room with lights on the highest setting I used was 6 off max so daylight use should be no problem.
Screen. I have found that the screen feels larger than 11.6" more like 13" but even so I wonder why the bezel needs to be so large. Seems to me that a 12.5" LCD could have fit comfortably.
Touchpad. Out of the box the travel is to slow so I've cranked it to the second top setting and now it is good. Click sound is a bit loud and harsh I feel though I prefer a thud sound to a harsh click.
SSD (Samsung). Seems as responsive as my 2011 iMac Samsung 256GB SSD, not sure what differences there are between them but currently feels very good. Why are they both only running at 3Gbps?
CPU (i7 1.8). Since this machine will be doing a bit of VM work and large n-dimensional graphing I opted to upgrade. First 3 hours of use the underside of the machine was a bit warm but ever since then it is barely noticeable at all. They must have fixed some of the heating issues and indexing times.
RAM (4GB). Seems fine a few things loaded and still have almost 2GB free. Hmm shared VRAM......
GPU. No lag or issues at all. Will give details on how well it runs my Thunderbolt display when it gets here. Though if I get motivated I might test my Dell 30" with it, need to buy a Dual-DVI lead though.
Battery. Was 70% charged when opened and I ran it for 2.5 hours on battery from first boot and it still had 30% charge. Light web browsing and app installation. Could still need calibration but it has now fully charged and says 6:31 which would be nice but we shall see how it really goes next week at work.
No ODD. Who cares! Get rid of them all I say. USB thumb drives are much better.
Powerbrick. Is not hot at all even when charging. I was concerned to hear someone on the forums complain of the MBA brick getting really hot but no issue here.
Lion. As a new-to-Mac convert I loved SL and found the learning curve quickly changed to 'why didn't i have these features on my win7 box'. No ability to have Spaces seems a step backwards IMHO, I have my SL 2011 27" iMac configured just the way I want it with Spaces so this might annoy me.
Lion. Fullscreen apps are great, really do make all of the screen usable! And the gestures to move between them is simply great. Would be awesome if I had Spaces though
Lion. Natural scrolling. Yeah well I turned that off straight away and only wanted it when I was in LaunchPad but I think that was only due to the IOS look.
Lion. LaunchPad. Great idea but not sure how much I'll use it once I have my apps loaded and just switching between them.
Overall. The best laptop I've ever had. Though I'm going to still have to say the Sony TZ for its time was definitely a better machine compared to its competition of the day, though it was double the price of this MBA 11" Ultimate.
I work in Medical Education and this machine will be getting a good amount of use with various things so I'll post any of my findings which seem good or bad to this thread.
Again I must say this is an awesome machine. Will it last 3 years without becoming a dog to use? I'm thinking this could be my second laptop to stand the test of warranty duration
Anyone want to buy a Sony TZ?
First off let me say I'm loving it
I'm laying in bed and my GF is sleeping beside me and I point this out because it really is a quiet machine, she'd hit me if it was otherwise
So here are my comments good and bad in no order other than out of my head.
Firstly unboxing it was a normal process with no surprises but I was kinda surprised by the weight, not sure why but I was expecting a slightly different feeling when holding it. Again nothing bad as it feels solid as a rock but I guess I've grown use to my Sony TZ with it's plastic case.
Case. What else but it is a thing of beauty.
Keyboard is superb! Excellent travel, no harsh clicking but a comforting seating which gives a good tactile response.
Backlighting is superb also! I have it set to just one bar in my unlit room and it is giving more than ample lighting. Why they ever dropped this feature I'll never understand. Once you have it you never want to loose it!
Screen (LG). Equally as good as my Sony TZ but not awesome. I think I had expected more but to be honest it is definitely high quality. The gradient effect at the bottom is extremely small on mine so it isn't distracting at all. Running on 1 bar and comfortably bright enough. In living room with lights on the highest setting I used was 6 off max so daylight use should be no problem.
Screen. I have found that the screen feels larger than 11.6" more like 13" but even so I wonder why the bezel needs to be so large. Seems to me that a 12.5" LCD could have fit comfortably.
Touchpad. Out of the box the travel is to slow so I've cranked it to the second top setting and now it is good. Click sound is a bit loud and harsh I feel though I prefer a thud sound to a harsh click.
SSD (Samsung). Seems as responsive as my 2011 iMac Samsung 256GB SSD, not sure what differences there are between them but currently feels very good. Why are they both only running at 3Gbps?
CPU (i7 1.8). Since this machine will be doing a bit of VM work and large n-dimensional graphing I opted to upgrade. First 3 hours of use the underside of the machine was a bit warm but ever since then it is barely noticeable at all. They must have fixed some of the heating issues and indexing times.
RAM (4GB). Seems fine a few things loaded and still have almost 2GB free. Hmm shared VRAM......
GPU. No lag or issues at all. Will give details on how well it runs my Thunderbolt display when it gets here. Though if I get motivated I might test my Dell 30" with it, need to buy a Dual-DVI lead though.
Battery. Was 70% charged when opened and I ran it for 2.5 hours on battery from first boot and it still had 30% charge. Light web browsing and app installation. Could still need calibration but it has now fully charged and says 6:31 which would be nice but we shall see how it really goes next week at work.
No ODD. Who cares! Get rid of them all I say. USB thumb drives are much better.
Powerbrick. Is not hot at all even when charging. I was concerned to hear someone on the forums complain of the MBA brick getting really hot but no issue here.
Lion. As a new-to-Mac convert I loved SL and found the learning curve quickly changed to 'why didn't i have these features on my win7 box'. No ability to have Spaces seems a step backwards IMHO, I have my SL 2011 27" iMac configured just the way I want it with Spaces so this might annoy me.
Lion. Fullscreen apps are great, really do make all of the screen usable! And the gestures to move between them is simply great. Would be awesome if I had Spaces though
Lion. Natural scrolling. Yeah well I turned that off straight away and only wanted it when I was in LaunchPad but I think that was only due to the IOS look.
Lion. LaunchPad. Great idea but not sure how much I'll use it once I have my apps loaded and just switching between them.
Overall. The best laptop I've ever had. Though I'm going to still have to say the Sony TZ for its time was definitely a better machine compared to its competition of the day, though it was double the price of this MBA 11" Ultimate.
I work in Medical Education and this machine will be getting a good amount of use with various things so I'll post any of my findings which seem good or bad to this thread.
Again I must say this is an awesome machine. Will it last 3 years without becoming a dog to use? I'm thinking this could be my second laptop to stand the test of warranty duration
Anyone want to buy a Sony TZ?
sweet, congrats. It is definitely the best laptop I have ever owned. The trackpad gets quitter with time, but if you enable "tap to click" you don't even have to press it down. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine!
First off let me say I'm loving it
I'm laying in bed and my GF is sleeping beside me and I point this out because it really is a quiet machine, she'd hit me if it was otherwise
So here are my comments good and bad in no order other than out of my head.
Firstly unboxing it was a normal process with no surprises but I was kinda surprised by the weight, not sure why but I was expecting a slightly different feeling when holding it. Again nothing bad as it feels solid as a rock but I guess I've grown use to my Sony TZ with it's plastic case.
Case. What else but it is a thing of beauty.
Keyboard is superb! Excellent travel, no harsh clicking but a comforting seating which gives a good tactile response.
Backlighting is superb also! I have it set to just one bar in my unlit room and it is giving more than ample lighting. Why they ever dropped this feature I'll never understand. Once you have it you never want to loose it!
Screen (LG). Equally as good as my Sony TZ but not awesome. I think I had expected more but to be honest it is definitely high quality. The gradient effect at the bottom is extremely small on mine so it isn't distracting at all. Running on 1 bar and comfortably bright enough. In living room with lights on the highest setting I used was 6 off max so daylight use should be no problem.
Screen. I have found that the screen feels larger than 11.6" more like 13" but even so I wonder why the bezel needs to be so large. Seems to me that a 12.5" LCD could have fit comfortably.
Touchpad. Out of the box the travel is to slow so I've cranked it to the second top setting and now it is good. Click sound is a bit loud and harsh I feel though I prefer a thud sound to a harsh click.
SSD (Samsung). Seems as responsive as my 2011 iMac Samsung 256GB SSD, not sure what differences there are between them but currently feels very good. Why are they both only running at 3Gbps?
CPU (i7 1.8). Since this machine will be doing a bit of VM work and large n-dimensional graphing I opted to upgrade. First 3 hours of use the underside of the machine was a bit warm but ever since then it is barely noticeable at all. They must have fixed some of the heating issues and indexing times.
RAM (4GB). Seems fine a few things loaded and still have almost 2GB free. Hmm shared VRAM......
GPU. No lag or issues at all. Will give details on how well it runs my Thunderbolt display when it gets here. Though if I get motivated I might test my Dell 30" with it, need to buy a Dual-DVI lead though.
Battery. Was 70% charged when opened and I ran it for 2.5 hours on battery from first boot and it still had 30% charge. Light web browsing and app installation. Could still need calibration but it has now fully charged and says 6:31 which would be nice but we shall see how it really goes next week at work.
No ODD. Who cares! Get rid of them all I say. USB thumb drives are much better.
Powerbrick. Is not hot at all even when charging. I was concerned to hear someone on the forums complain of the MBA brick getting really hot but no issue here.
Lion. As a new-to-Mac convert I loved SL and found the learning curve quickly changed to 'why didn't i have these features on my win7 box'. No ability to have Spaces seems a step backwards IMHO, I have my SL 2011 27" iMac configured just the way I want it with Spaces so this might annoy me.
Lion. Fullscreen apps are great, really do make all of the screen usable! And the gestures to move between them is simply great. Would be awesome if I had Spaces though
Lion. Natural scrolling. Yeah well I turned that off straight away and only wanted it when I was in LaunchPad but I think that was only due to the IOS look.
Lion. LaunchPad. Great idea but not sure how much I'll use it once I have my apps loaded and just switching between them.
Overall. The best laptop I've ever had. Though I'm going to still have to say the Sony TZ for its time was definitely a better machine compared to its competition of the day, though it was double the price of this MBA 11" Ultimate.
I work in Medical Education and this machine will be getting a good amount of use with various things so I'll post any of my findings which seem good or bad to this thread.
Again I must say this is an awesome machine. Will it last 3 years without becoming a dog to use? I'm thinking this could be my second laptop to stand the test of warranty duration
Anyone want to buy a Sony TZ?
You covered just about everything there dude- nice write up.
Great review!
I too enabled Tap to Click, the MBA itself is a very quiet machine, and clicking the trackpad didn't seem to suit it.
I used Windows all my life, so to make things a bit more convenient, I assigned the bottom left corner as a Hot Corner for Launchpad.
I too enabled Tap to Click, the MBA itself is a very quiet machine, and clicking the trackpad didn't seem to suit it.
I used Windows all my life, so to make things a bit more convenient, I assigned the bottom left corner as a Hot Corner for Launchpad.
I've had my base 13" for a little less than a month. Been too busy enjoying it to post, and I just wanted to get a really good feel for it before I joined in on the conversation.
I bought a Macbook Air 13' i5 with 256GB SSD from 5th avenue when i was in NY! Awesome machine!
Its a pitty that the glass entrance was not completed when i was there! Sure I will pop over again when its done!
Its a pitty that the glass entrance was not completed when i was there! Sure I will pop over again when its done!
One day down
Second day of use was very brief as I was travelling to a Wings and Wheels show. One little Dodge Viper looked the trick!
A couple of things which worked well was the backlight in daylight. Perhaps it could have been a bit brighter but the reality is I'd really not use it under these conditions.
Wearing polarised sunglasses made things not so great to look at the screen, but again something which I would not expect to be doing.
Purchased a little 3G Wifi/Mifi device which worked first go which was great, OSX options make life easy.
Battery indicator (time) is very erratic still so better leave it to a good weeks worth of use before giving any real feedback.
Still got no heating issues at all. If I said it gets warm with normal use then that would be an overstatement as it doesn't. In between cool and warm Not really scientific but you could get that from some lab-based review.
Also the tap-to-click option is working well for me.
Still love this keyboard! Excellent machine. And no pics of the GF, I like my balls attached
Second day of use was very brief as I was travelling to a Wings and Wheels show. One little Dodge Viper looked the trick!
A couple of things which worked well was the backlight in daylight. Perhaps it could have been a bit brighter but the reality is I'd really not use it under these conditions.
Wearing polarised sunglasses made things not so great to look at the screen, but again something which I would not expect to be doing.
Purchased a little 3G Wifi/Mifi device which worked first go which was great, OSX options make life easy.
Battery indicator (time) is very erratic still so better leave it to a good weeks worth of use before giving any real feedback.
Still got no heating issues at all. If I said it gets warm with normal use then that would be an overstatement as it doesn't. In between cool and warm
Not really scientific but you could get that from some lab-based review.Also the tap-to-click option is working well for me.
Still love this keyboard! Excellent machine. And no pics of the GF, I like my balls attached
I ordered the higher end 11" model on Thursday, due to be delivered tomorrow but looking unlikely because they still haven't dispatched it despite saying it dispatches within 24hrs, its now been 72hrs and still nothing. The tracking site has been up and down like a yoyo all day but it hasn't been progress to preparing for dispatch - it still lets me cancel the order.
Yeah, although I didn't pay for the 2011 MBP, it started off as a 2008 MacBook Alu, then Apple replaced it a few months ago because the logic board failed twice.
Order still hasn't been dispatched and Apple can't find out why as the order status system is down for maintenance.
My view of mba
I bought an open box 2010 mba 11 inch base model at best buy for $750 and a free apple tv but returned it because i found myself looking at it and admiring it but not using it mainly because my ipad2 did alll i needed for entertainment and my mac mini handled my work. I work ay home and mainly use word. A couple of observations during the 12 days i had the mba with very little use. It seemed very delicate and vulnerable to daily use. It definitely creaked in a number of places and if i had kept it i would have taken it to the genius bar. For my eyes the screen was too small tho i dont have that problem whatsoever with the ipad. If i bought another mba i'd go for the 13 inch. But i think a mbp would be better for me though i love the lightness of othe mba. Lastly, i HATED the mba keyboard. HATED. I cant believe people here rave about it. My view is that it felt mushy and had no tactile feedback -- nothing like the great apple bluetooth keyboard that i use with my mini and emven the keyboard in my old macbook that since been sold. The future really is the tablet. In the recent firesale i picked up an hp touchpad 32 gb for $149 and the hp bluetooth keyboard for $39. Before the hp firesale they sold together for over $500. In any case thd touchpad has quickoffice -- word compatible -- and so does my ipad. The ipad and the touchpad bith become laptops when needed with thd keyboards - either the apple kb or the hp kb. Anyway, thats the way i see it.
I bought an open box 2010 mba 11 inch base model at best buy for $750 and a free apple tv but returned it because i found myself looking at it and admiring it but not using it mainly because my ipad2 did alll i needed for entertainment and my mac mini handled my work. I work ay home and mainly use word. A couple of observations during the 12 days i had the mba with very little use. It seemed very delicate and vulnerable to daily use. It definitely creaked in a number of places and if i had kept it i would have taken it to the genius bar. For my eyes the screen was too small tho i dont have that problem whatsoever with the ipad. If i bought another mba i'd go for the 13 inch. But i think a mbp would be better for me though i love the lightness of othe mba. Lastly, i HATED the mba keyboard. HATED. I cant believe people here rave about it. My view is that it felt mushy and had no tactile feedback -- nothing like the great apple bluetooth keyboard that i use with my mini and emven the keyboard in my old macbook that since been sold. The future really is the tablet. In the recent firesale i picked up an hp touchpad 32 gb for $149 and the hp bluetooth keyboard for $39. Before the hp firesale they sold together for over $500. In any case thd touchpad has quickoffice -- word compatible -- and so does my ipad. The ipad and the touchpad bith become laptops when needed with thd keyboards - either the apple kb or the hp kb. Anyway, thats the way i see it.
More info
Ok well a few updates.
Full-screen apps - I'm feeling like these are a bit hit and miss. Perhaps I'm missing something but the lack of a default wrapper for all apps seems somewhat lacking. If anyone has a real solution let me know cause it is a bit crap as it stands.
Heat - Still at best slightly warm after watching some videos. Definitely must have been a very small number of the first batch which had the issue.
Battery - Seems I've gotten a bit of a gem here as I managed more than 6 hours today of real use on wifi. I like how coconut says I have more than 100% capacity
Open Office seems to run sweet but seriously why no Spaces or Fullscreen!!!
This is going to really get annoying I think......
Ok well a few updates.
Full-screen apps - I'm feeling like these are a bit hit and miss. Perhaps I'm missing something but the lack of a default wrapper for all apps seems somewhat lacking. If anyone has a real solution let me know cause it is a bit crap as it stands.
Heat - Still at best slightly warm after watching some videos. Definitely must have been a very small number of the first batch which had the issue.
Battery - Seems I've gotten a bit of a gem here as I managed more than 6 hours today of real use on wifi. I like how coconut says I have more than 100% capacity
Open Office seems to run sweet but seriously why no Spaces or Fullscreen!!!
This is going to really get annoying I think......
It's been down for quite a while now, very annoying. This morning (UTC +1) I ordered mine (base 13") and haven't been able to check whether they've received my payment or not
It's been down for quite a while now, very annoying. This morning (UTC +1) I ordered mine (base 13") and haven't been able to check whether they've received my payment or not
Yeah it is hopeless, I was told when I phoned this morning that my order would be escalated and I would hear by the end of the business day why it had been delayed and when it will ship. Waited until the end of the day and nothing, so phoned again and got told it actually takes 24hrs after it gets escalated to hear back. Sick of being lied to by Apple customer care, this isn't the first time.
Apparently the order status page will be fixed in the next 24hrs too, but I think they just make it up as they go along.
Hmm, glad to hear they will fix it soon - their ordering / status system has not been working well across the globe. The Apple Online Store couldnt log into their own system this morning - so I cant reschedule the MBA delivery to my work address (and of course UPS doesn't want to / can't help me). Kind of annoying (travelling on Thursday and would be great to have my MBA13)
Yeah I'm still having problems, people from Apple customer care don't get back to me when they say they will. Surely they should have backup processes in place to still be able to dispatch orders when they do system updates or at least warn customers of the issue before they order.