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What are the problems with the latest MBA's?

D

DPB17

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
252
0
Ireland, unfortunately.
Hi, I was drooling over the MBA on apple.com and was just wondering what are the biggest issues affecting the current MBA's? I also need an excuse to buy one as I already have a 2.4 AluMacbook and can't find any good reason to justify buying a MBA, so if anyone has a good enough reason to buy one so I can buy one of the damn things.

Thanks
 
Some people are turned off by the single USB port ... but the Rev B's are widely seen as a much more capable machine that the Rev A's.
 
DPB17 said:
Thanks for the reply, but I was wondering about hardware/software issues such as overheating and such.
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no more overheating issues with rev B...... nevertheless I do not see the point of getting an MBA since you already own an Alubook (apart from the weight and/or "WOW" effect....):cool:
 
faxao said:
no more overheating issues with rev B...... nevertheless I do not see the point of getting an MBA since you already own an Alubook (apart from the weight and/or "WOW" effect....):cool:
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Well it's either a new MBA or a new Nikon camera, neither of which I need but I'm too much of nerd not to get at least one of them.
 
DPB17 said:
Well it's either a new MBA or a new Nikon camera, neither of which I need but I'm too much of nerd not to get at least one of them.
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Or a nice 24'' Led screen to go with your Macbook.
 
I had a MacBook Air for a short while.

There were absolutely no thermal issues. It ran very cool and quiet, I was mighty impressed. I have a 3 year old MacBook as my only machine and it gets quite hot and rowdy. Just didn't happen with the Air. Hardly heard the fans and when I did they were whisper quiet.

I had a 1.6GHz SSD model. Whether it was that, or the juicy 6MB L2 cache, or the DDR 3 RAM, or the Nvida graphics, or a combination of all four it certainly performed extremely well.

The build quality is stunning, lid closed it feels like a cool pebble to touch. The tapering around the edges really exaggerates the form factor. Compared to my MacBook which has cracks around the palm rest it was leagues apart.

The screen was amazingly bright as well. It had one huge flaw though — thin grey lines running across. It gave light coloured backgrounds a textured look — like linen or paper. This doesn't affect every machine, so I fail to see how it is a characteristic like Apple claim.

So I sent it back.

Almost perfect in every other way though. I will be buying one as soon as Apple's engineers have got to the bottom of the screen fault.
 
DPB17 said:
Well it's either a new MBA or a new Nikon camera, neither of which I need but I'm too much of nerd not to get at least one of them.
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I have an idea! Since you're fortunate enough to be able to throw your money away on frivolous luxuries you don't really need, why not give at least some of it to the charity of your choice? There are clearly people in this world who need that money far more than you do, and for some it could literally mean the difference between life and death. :eek:
 
Ping Guo said:
I have an idea! Since you're fortunate enough to be able to throw your money away on frivolous luxuries you don't really need, why not give at least some of it to the charity of your choice? There are clearly people in this world who need that money far more than you do, and for some it could literally mean the difference between life and death. :eek:
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OK I'm 18 and have been working damn hard for the past 2 years every weekend to buy my stuff and I didn't mean to come across as a douche. I also ran a marathon last year for a cancer support group last year and raised close to €8000 so don't try and be an arse.:)
 
elppa said:
I had a MacBook Air for a short while.

There were absolutely no thermal issues. It ran very cool and quiet, I was mighty impressed. I have a 3 year old MacBook as my only machine and it gets quite hot and rowdy. Just didn't happen with the Air. Hardly heard the fans and when I did they were whisper quiet.

I had a 1.6GHz SSD model. Whether it was that, or the juicy 6MB L2 cache, or the DDR 3 RAM, or the Nvida graphics, or a combination of all four it certainly performed extremely well.

The build quality is stunning, lid closed it feels like a cool pebble to touch. The tapering around the edges really exaggerates the form factor. Compared to my MacBook which has cracks around the palm rest it was leagues apart.

The screen was amazingly bright as well. It had one huge flaw though — thin grey lines running across. It gave light coloured backgrounds a textured look — like linen or paper. This doesn't affect every machine, so I fail to see how it is a characteristic like Apple claim.

So I sent it back.

Almost perfect in every other way though. I will be buying one as soon as Apple's engineers have got to the bottom of the screen fault.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info.
 
DPB17 said:
OK I'm 18 and have been working damn hard for the past 2 years every weekend to buy my stuff and I didn't mean to come across as a douche. I also ran a marathon last year for a cancer support group last year and raised close to €8000 so don't try and be an arse.:)
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Fair enough, congratulations on completing that marathon.;)
 
I actually agree with the post above that says buy the 24" LED Display, the MBA is amazing, I use it as my sole computer. But if you already have a MB then you don't need it. Sell the MB and buy the MBA and/or the LED screen.
 
dubhe said:
I actually agree with the post above that says buy the 24" LED Display, the MBA is amazing, I use it as my sole computer. But if you already have a MB then you don't need it. Sell the MB and buy the MBA and/or the LED screen.
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I would sell the AluBook but wouldn't the drop of processor speed be a bit too noticeable going from 2.4 to 1.6 or 1.8?

And I really don't have much of a need for an external display.
 
DPB17 said:
I would sell the AluBook but wouldn't the drop of processor speed be a bit too noticeable going from 2.4 to 1.6 or 1.8?

And I really don't have much of a need for an external display.
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You don't have much need for a MBA but you still want one!

I went from a 2.4 GHz BlackBook (the last of the previous generation) to my 1.6 GHz HDD Rev.B MBA and I think it is just as fast, must be the faster memory, GPU etc. It is also because I don't do that much in the way of intensive tasks. As a day to day, web surfing, spreadsheet crunching, video watching, iTunes organising tool it is perfect for the job. If you are a into gaming or video encoding you will of course need more.
 
dubhe said:
You don't have much need for a MBA but you still want one!

I went from a 2.4 GHz BlackBook (the last of the previous generation) to my 1.6 GHz HDD Rev.B MBA and I think it is just as fast, must be the faster memory, GPU etc. It is also because I don't do that much in the way of intensive tasks. As a day to day, web surfing, spreadsheet crunching, video watching, iTunes organising tool it is perfect for the job. If you are a into gaming or video encoding you will of course need more.
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I don't know what I'm going to do.
 
Ok, buy the MBA, use it, try to make it your sole computer. If after a month or so you are happy then you can sell your MB (if it is still in warranty it will hold its value well).

If not, then you can try living with two computers, but I don't believe this will work. I had a PowerBook 12", a Mac mini and my BlackBook. The mini and MB had to go, they just weren't being used, and I got 90% of their original values for both on eBay. The PowerBook will probably never go, I like it too much, but that's another thread...
 
dubhe said:
Ok, buy the MBA, use it, try to make it your sole computer. If after a month or so you are happy then you can sell your MB (if it is still in warranty it will hold its value well).

If not, then you can try living with two computers, but I don't believe this will work. I had a PowerBook 12", a Mac mini and my BlackBook. The mini and MB had to go, they just weren't being used, and I got 90% of their original values for both on eBay. The PowerBook will probably never go, I like it too much, but that's another thread...
Click to expand...

I think a trip to the apple store is needed.
 
DPB17 said:
Hhmm I think I'll take that previous guys advise and give it all to charity so I won't be able to waste it on a needless computer to satisfy my technolust.:rolleyes:
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Yea right, how many threads have you read on here about people regretting buying the MacBook Air, just do it, enjoy it and be a selfish technophile :D
 
I thoroughly recommend the 1.6 HDD, it is 25% cheaper but only a little bit slower. You will of course be impressed by the load times etc with the SSD, but once the apps are running it isn't that big a deal.
 
If your only using this a secondary machine for it's lust factor I would go with the Rev A. It looks just as cool and you probably won't notice much difference in performance and most of the over heating issues have been smoothed out with software updates.
 
I have a rev B MBA, and I use it as my primary Mac computer. I absolutely love everything about it. The display is perfect. Some complain about displays with lines, but I would assume the vast majority are line free.

Mine is very fast. It never overheats. It is amazingly light and small for portability, yet when plugged into a new 24" LED ACD, it seems just like a Mac Pro. The SSD is definitely making mine seem really really fast.

I would advise you stay away from the original. I owned one and it was the worst Mac I had ever purchased. It overheated non stop. It had multiple problems due to the component selection by Apple. Amazingly, Apple changed every major component in the new MBA. Obviously Apple learned its lesson.

From my own experience, I don't know how anyone could use an original MBA as their primary computer, while MOST could use a rev B MBA as their primary computer.

I definitely think if you can afford it, that you will see the most speed from the SSD model.

Best wishes whichever route you go.
 
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