The "I just bought/ordered/got/shipped my new/refurb MBA" thread, [Merged]

[limesmoothie]

Its here! *runs around excitedly*

Typing on it now. Love it to bits. Installed all my main apps and got > 40GB left on the 64GB SSD. 4Gb RAM seems to be fine too, I've got a ton of stuff open and 1.07GB free.

My new favourite computer...

 

[MacPat333]

argh*****

After 3.5 weeks I went to the store where I ordered a MBA to check on the delivery (which was promised to take max. 4 weeks ).

me: Hi, I am here to check on my delivery!
sales: Hello Mr. ....., we checked and it would take min. 2 weeks more than we thought!
me: Thank you very much, prepare the refund of the downpayment, I will not wait anymore.
sales: Apologies...
me: Just prepare the money in cash, I will come back tomorrow to collect it!

***** store! Wasted nearly 4 weeks. Ordered there as I was getting a US $ 35.00 discount.


So, I called Apple call center, spoke to a very nice guy, gave my specs and apple ID, placed the order and it will ship from Europe within the next 8 days (expected delivery 11-13 December), custom build with 8Gb RAM and intl. english keyboard.

The best thing, they gave me a discount even without me asking of US $ 70.00, which is more than this ***** store was offering me! If I would have known I would have ordered directly with them!

Is this common that apple is giving discounts for first time purchases? (my first mac)

Thanks!

 

[krravi]

Just ordered an refurbished MBA 13" with Core i7 2.0 Ghz, 8GB Ram and 512 GB SSD. I really don't need 512 GB but the price difference between a new 256 GB and refurb 512 GB was not that much. Plus I could use 250 GB for Windows 7 in Bootcamp.

I have spent the last few days contemplating a MBP or an MBA and was in so much conflict deciding between the two that I finally calmed down and made a note of the following factors

1) Are you going to be doing intensive graphics work or gaming? No
2) Are you tired of lugging around heavy/full sized laptops? yes
3) Will the MBA complement your iPad or make it redundant, and hence the MBP would be a better buy for the price? Don't know yet. But being able to use it as a full blown regular computer is nice.
4)You need a laptop while traveling that can do all that a computer can do and yet keep it light and powerful? yes.

So after much thought I looked around and saw that the refurb store had the config above and I ordered it.

My only reservation at this point is for the money I could have bought a powerful 15" MBP but having owned a couple in the past and having gotten rid of them I didn't see the point in doing the same again. I have an iMac now which is powerful to do the heavy duty stuff. I just needed a computer where I could remote login to my work desktop or get some work done if needed.

I will post updates once i get it on how it is and what my thoughts are about it.

Hopefully will get a good unit, lets see.

 

[stretch80]

Just got a new MBA 13" 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 yesterday. I'm brand new to the MBA laptops but i have to say I absolutely love it!


MBA 13" mid 2012, iPad mini 16gb, iMac 21.5 mid 2010, iPhone 5 16gb

 

[krravi]

Just received my refurb MBA. This came from some Apple division in PA and not CA. They probable have some refurbishing division over there.First time receiving a product from that location...

The unit was like fresh from the factory as I could smell the "Electronics smell"...

Checked the unit all over to make sure there were no scratches or dings or dents as some have posted and it was brand new and no issues.

After reading so much about MBA's in these forums prior to making the purchase, I fell for it and did the *infamous* LCD check.

Got a Samsung SSD and a LG LCD Panel.

I did notice a slight washed out color. So went to calibrate it and I couldn't. Got a message saying "LCD profile doesn't exist" or something like that. So downloaded the tweaked LCD profile that I got from these forums and not much of a difference, at least to me. Then did an update to 10.8.2 + other updates and now I got the calibration tool working. Calibrated it and a world of difference. Rich colors, nice gradients and am happy with it.

Out of curiosity did all the LCD tests and no flickering when the screen is static but I get flickering when scrolling. It behaves the same way in my iMac 27" as well.

Initially my eyes were aching a little but I got used to the small screen and high resolution now. Plus I recently changed eye glasses and thats not helping either.

My personal experience so far is that the LCD panel issue has been overblown beyond proportion. Sure some folks might have gotten a bad bunch or have issues with screen flicker but this unit was great and I don't see any reason for wanting a Samsung panel. On that thought, the *best* looking LCD screen I have had on a laptop was a SONY Vaio with its trubrite screen years ago. Nothing comes close to that.

Now have to do bootcamp and stuff.

Still doing updates and stuff. Can't believe this thing is so light and thin and I wonder if this is a real computer or some toy. Will know in the coming days.

It was pretty expensive but I guess the price comes with the portability which is why I bought this in the first place.

I have bought many laptops in the past and except a few SONY Vaio's, nothing has given me the joy of holding and marveling at its design and power.

Awesome little computer.

 

[53x12]

Ordered refurb 2011 11"" MBA 1.6GHz i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SDD. Got it for $799. Being prepared for shipment.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

Ordered yesterday

Did a ton of research on specs, and read through most of this thread last week. Didn't get EXACTLY what I wanted (upgraded CPU to 2.0GHz) but close enough.

2012 build, 1.8GHz i5, 13" MBA with 4gb mem,256gb hd for $1099. I have a 2006 MBP 15" 2 Core Duo that finally gave me a reason to replace it. The OWC replacement battery (5 months old) melted itself into place (won't eject), got tired of the weight on my trips, and can't upgrade the OS any more.

Bet noone can beat my "local store pick up" distance traveled. No military stores (AAFES for Army/AF) in Asia have the MBA, and Qatar is the closest. So, when I go on holidays back to North America, I'm flying Afghanistan to Dubai, to Heathrow, and stopping for a few hours in Dallas. Gonna pick it from an Apple store on my layover.

 

[krravi]

Did a ton of research on specs, and read through most of this thread last week. Didn't get EXACTLY what I wanted (upgraded CPU to 2.0GHz) but close enough.

2012 build, 1.8GHz i5, 13" MBA with 4gb mem,256gb hd for $1099. I have a 2006 MBP 15" 2 Core Duo that finally gave me a reason to replace it. The OWC replacement battery (5 months old) melted itself into place (won't eject), got tired of the weight on my trips, and can't upgrade the OS any more.

Bet noone can beat my "local store pick up" distance traveled. No military stores (AAFES for Army/AF) in Asia have the MBA, and Qatar is the closest. So, when I go on holidays back to North America, I'm flying Afghanistan to Dubai, to Heathrow, and stopping for a few hours in Dallas. Gonna pick it from an Apple store on my layover.

Thats one hell of a store pickup. Looks like you are the ideal user for the MBA with all that travel.

 

[krravi]

I returned my MBA 2.0 Ghz, Core i7, 8GB, 512 GB 2012.

Nothing was wrong with it. I couldn't find a 256 GB earlier as 512 GB is too much for me.

Today I found one in the refurb store with the same config as above but 256 GB.

I immediately ordered that one. Talked to Apple and they said I could take the one I have to the nearest Apple store and return it.

The reason I am doing this? There was a $500.00 price difference and that's a lot of money in my opinion for an extra 256 GB.

Hope I get the LG LCD Panel and Samsung SSD this time as well as I was very happy with it.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

The reason I am doing this? There was a $500.00 price difference and that's a lot of money in my opinion for an extra 256 GB.

Hope I get the LG LCD Panel and Samsung SSD this time as well as I was very happy with it.

Yep. The extra big SSD was just too much $ in my opinion. I figured the 256Gb would be good and if I need extra drive space, I'll just grab one of my USB drives. Fortunately, I spent the extra $ on the OWC external drive case for my old Mac Mini's drive and got it in USB 3 (even though at the time, none of my Mac's had a compatible port).

 

[MacPat333]

argh*****

After 3.5 weeks I went to the store where I ordered a MBA to check on the delivery (which was promised to take max. 4 weeks ).

me: Hi, I am here to check on my delivery!
sales: Hello Mr. ....., we checked and it would take min. 2 weeks more than we thought!
me: Thank you very much, prepare the refund of the downpayment, I will not wait anymore.
sales: Apologies...
me: Just prepare the money in cash, I will come back tomorrow to collect it!

***** store! Wasted nearly 4 weeks. Ordered there as I was getting a US $ 35.00 discount.


So, I called Apple call center, spoke to a very nice guy, gave my specs and apple ID, placed the order and it will ship from Europe within the next 8 days (expected delivery 11-13 December), custom build with 8Gb RAM and intl. english keyboard.

The best thing, they gave me a discount even without me asking of US $ 70.00, which is more than this ***** store was offering me! If I would have known I would have ordered directly with them!

Is this common that apple is giving discounts for first time purchases? (my first mac)

Thanks!

05.12.12 ordered BTO
08.12.12 left Shanghai and arrived in East China
09.12.12 clearance
10.12.12 processed and left for HK
11.12.12 arrived in HK, cleared, processed, departed, left for Dubai, arrived in Dubai

I called DHL and if everything works out I hopefully will hold my new MBA in my hands today evening! I can't wait!

 

[krravi]

Yep. The extra big SSD was just too much $ in my opinion. I figured the 256Gb would be good and if I need extra drive space, I'll just grab one of my USB drives. Fortunately, I spent the extra $ on the OWC external drive case for my old Mac Mini's drive and got it in USB 3 (even though at the time, none of my Mac's had a compatible port).

Now as I am installing all my stuff I see its eating up disk space.... Grrr.. And I also love this little thing that I hate to part with it ! Maybe I should keep this one.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

Now as I am installing all my stuff I see its eating up disk space.... Grrr.. And I also love this little thing that I hate to part with it ! Maybe I should keep this one.

Depending upon your technical skill/motivation, you could also upgrade the smaller (newer to you) with OWC. They can sell you an upgrade (to install yourself), and I believe they also install them for you (which means you're out the MBA for a few days). I've done all my own upgrades, but I know not everyone enjoys cracking open their Apply toys

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't understand how in the age of the cloud, and not to mention a plethora of external storage options, you guys could ever realistically need the expensive storage upgrades. Yeah 128 GB is annoying but I really don't have to have absolutely everything on my MBA at once. An external does the job just fine. And now with micro SD cards and micro USB sticks it's easier than ever to find extra storage. Plus it's smarter not to have everything stored in one location.

 

[Andeavor]

I don't understand how in the age of the cloud, and not to mention a plethora of external storage options, you guys could ever realistically need the expensive storage upgrades. Yeah 128 GB is annoying but I really don't have to have absolutely everything on my MBA at once. An external does the job just fine. And now with micro SD cards and micro USB sticks it's easier than ever to find extra storage. Plus it's smarter not to have everything stored in one location.

Clouds are not all that safe, and what if there's no internet connection? Some people use programs or games that eat up to several GB of storage space, let alone downloading a film (for later viewing) in HD can eat up nearly 2 GB alone, so forget watching a whole season of your favorite show on your next business trip. The same goes for music collection that can be anywhere between 20 and 60 GB depending your taste and interest - I have them on my laptop as well as on the cloud for safe-keeping.

All in all I find it a bit counter-productive to enlarging files and media while at the same time reducing storage space to a fraction of what we've grown accustomed to. I also don't want to lug around any external drives, I have a full portable computer for that.

 

[krravi]

Depending upon your technical skill/motivation, you could also upgrade the smaller (newer to you) with OWC. They can sell you an upgrade (to install yourself), and I believe they also install them for you (which means you're out the MBA for a few days). I've done all my own upgrades, but I know not everyone enjoys cracking open their Apply toys

I am seriously looking into the Buffalo 1 TB portable thunderbolt/USB 3.0 drive.

Seems to be the best quality drive for the price and performance. Its a shame no one is making just empty TB enclosures so we can put our own SSD's.

People have done it on the Buffalo but you have to rip the casing apart which is glued and I am not sure I can put it back without losing its finish.

The OWC upgrades don't seem that cheaper compared to Apple and not to mention wonder what SSD's they use. Would like something like Toshiba or Samsung.


----------

Clouds are not all that safe, and what if there's no internet connection? Some people use programs or games that eat up to several GB of storage space, let alone downloading a film (for later viewing) in HD can eat up nearly 2 GB alone, so forget watching a whole season of your favorite show on your next business trip. The same goes for music collection that can be anywhere between 20 and 60 GB depending your taste and interest - I have them on my laptop as well as on the cloud for safe-keeping.

All in all I find it a bit counter-productive to enlarging files and media while at the same time reducing storage space to a fraction of what we've grown accustomed to. I also don't want to lug around any external drives, I have a full portable computer for that.

Macaroony you nailed it.

My Virtual Machines alone take up 100 GB space. Yes I am going to use this for work as well and not purely pleasure.

So I did some calculations last night..

VM's - 100 GB and can grow a little
iPhoto/iTunes - 60 GB
Misc software - 20 GB

So in all I will be using 180 - 200 GB for sure that leaves me with just 40 GB, if I go for a 256 Gb disk.

Now if I buy a buffalo 1 TB Thunderbolt drive then I can move the VM's and others off to it which will give me back 200 GB.

Now the price difference between a 256 and 512 is around $450.00. Add the cost of the portable Buffalo device which is around $200.00 and I end up saving $250.00. Which is a not bad.

But is it worth lugging around an external portable drive thus defeating the purpose of the very thin and light laptop for which I paid a huge price?

I got the 256 Gb today, haven't touched it yet as I am at work....

And regarding Cloud, its over marketed for what it's worth. I can't dump 200 GB of stuff on the cloud and get assurance that I can access it anytime I want. If you travel you know airports in Europe charge around $10.00 for 30 mins of WI-FI. Forget cellular data, its even ridiculous. And internet access is not guaranteed everywhere you go.

 

[53x12]

Clouds are not all that safe, and what if there's no internet connection? Some people use programs or games that eat up to several GB of storage space, let alone downloading a film (for later viewing) in HD can eat up nearly 2 GB alone, so forget watching a whole season of your favorite show on your next business trip. The same goes for music collection that can be anywhere between 20 and 60 GB depending your taste and interest - I have them on my laptop as well as on the cloud for safe-keeping.

All in all I find it a bit counter-productive to enlarging files and media while at the same time reducing storage space to a fraction of what we've grown accustomed to. I also don't want to lug around any external drives, I have a full portable computer for that.

You can get a 1TB USB 3 portable hard drive for movies, shows and music. Easy as that.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

You can get a 1TB USB 3 portable hard drive for movies, shows and music. Easy as that.

Right, and to address the cloud comment, I don't always have access to it. I am deployed and travel around Afghanistan, as well as Asia/Middle East. An external drive will get beat up slightly more than the MBA (I'm thinking of buying a Pelican case for it, but it defeats the reason I got an MBA over MBP). Also, we're often behind firewalls that will allow (often) iTunes, but the cloud is blocked (quite often). There are local Afghan cell networks offering 3G data (at 2G speeds) but I'd prefer not going that route all the time.

 

[53x12]

An external drive will get beat up slightly more than the MBA (I'm thinking of buying a Pelican case for it, but it defeats the reason I got an MBA over MBP).

External drive gets best up? Sounds like you don't take care of your equipment. I travel often for work and still take care of my laptop, iPad, iPhone. Isn't that hard when it is your mindset to take care of your electronics. What do you do, throw your external drive out the window of your vehicle when you reach your destination? No reason for the external drive not to last with a lot of traveling. Keep it in your carry on wrapped in a shirt.

Also it doesn't defeat the purpose of a MBA. You still need to bring a charger with you, don't you? Might as well throw the charger away because it is too big and heavy. You can have a 1TB drive that fits nicely in an outstretched hand. That isn't big at all.

 

[krravi]

External drive gets best up? Sounds like you don't take care of your equipment. I travel often for work and still take care of my laptop, iPad, iPhone. Isn't that hard when it is your mindset to take care of your electronics. What do you do, throw your external drive out the window of your vehicle when you reach your destination? No reason for the external drive not to last with a lot of traveling. Keep it in your carry on wrapped in a shirt.

Also it doesn't defeat the purpose of a MBA. You still need to bring a charger with you, don't you? Might as well throw the charger away because it is too big and heavy. You can have a 1TB drive that fits nicely in an outstretched hand. That isn't big at all.

I think what he means is that you tend to just throw the drive in a bag which might have other things like keys,pens or what not. Unlike a laptop where you safely put it in it's sleeve or case.

 

[beigelightning]

11" Macbook Air i5 w/Tosh drive and AUO screen

Checked it out, a little bummed (not really, just heard about this now) but got a third provider of the screen, an outfit called AUO. I've been quite happy with it, I'll look forward to hearing from some others to see what results people are having.

Outside of that I LOVE THIS MAC, favorite laptop one for sure, have had Macbooks (white) and iBooks before. Running two additional monitors, one via Thunderbolt to HDMI and another via an Aluratek USB to DVI. Loving that I have plenty of room to work with the multiple screens at home, but this thing fits perfectly on the airplane tray table when I travel.

 

[JohnnyComeLatly]

External drive gets best up? Sounds like you don't take care of your equipment. I travel often for work and still take care of my laptop, iPad, iPhone. Isn't that hard when it is your mindset to take care of your electronics. What do you do, throw your external drive out the window of your vehicle when you reach your destination? No reason for the external drive not to last with a lot of traveling. Keep it in your carry on wrapped in a shirt.

Also it doesn't defeat the purpose of a MBA. You still need to bring a charger with you, don't you? Might as well throw the charger away because it is too big and heavy. You can have a 1TB drive that fits nicely in an outstretched hand. That isn't big at all.

KRRAVI got it, but I think you missed earlier part where I mentioned I fly around Afghanistan with this laptop. I'm jumping (literally) in and out of military/civilian helo's, C-130s, C-150s (military cargo planes, no tray tables in sight ), etc. A laptop is well cushioned in my tactical backpack, because it has a slot specifically for a laptop. I can wrap an external HD in socks or something soft, but having been deployed for going over 3 years total now, I know from experience it just tends to get beat up more. My laptop is nearly spotless in contrast.

A pelican case is a tactical, military grade case that is exceptionally heavy, but a gorilla can throw it anywhere without the internals getting crushed. So, that's why I made the tongue in cheek reference that putting a MBA in a Pelican defeats the reason for getting a MBA over an MBP (weight, in my case, pardon the pun). I would hazard a guess that I put my laptop and other electronics through more stress/shock/temperature swings/dust/electrical surges/etc in a month and than most put theirs through in a couple years

 

[Dr Charter]

I bough my first refurb Mac (2011 13 inch base Air). I had heard good things about refurbs and I was not disappointed. This thing looks and feels like a brand new computer. Not a scratch on it. I know that might not always be the case but what a great way to save a few bucks and still get a top notch computer. Well done Apple.

 

[krravi]

Just received my refurb 256 GB MBA. First thing I noticed is that the plastic cover was very very dusty. Black specks of dust inside and out. Removed the cover and there was fine dust on the mac as well. Wiped it off with a micro fiber cloth an turned it on.

Thought I would get lucky and get a 512..LOL

But it was a 256 alright. Then the LCD check came out the same as my 512 GB model. LG LCD and Samsung SSD. The colors are washed out for sure. Doing a update to get the calibration tool so I can tweak it and see how it looks. The keyboard does seem a little noisy compared to my 512 GB.

Lets see how it works in the next few days ....

Update :

The computer didn't feel right. The keyboard was making a lot of noise compared to my existing one and very dusty as well.

So as I was calibrating the screen which for the life of me I just could never get it right I noticed that the "U" key had popped out. I did suspect the keyboard feeling a little odd.

Have taken a pic have to post it here after i upload it somewhere.

So anyways, I decided to return it and just keep my 512 GB.

 

[3GEE]

I just picked up a new 13" MBA for my wife as a Christmas present, our first MacBook. It's all I can do to keep from firing that puppy up. Honestly, I don't think I can wait 10 more days to play with it.