Who really bought the Air for the lightness?

[wirelessmacuser]

To the question, the weight was _one_ primary factor in my purchase decision. Nearly every other consideration was around the issue of portability as well.

Even though I purchased the larger heavier 13" due to my preference for a larger display, it's very thin and light as compared to my 15" mid 2010 Core i7 MBP. The MBP is perfect, I carry it to the office and other places daily. Yet I also travel internationally, therefore the MBA is perfect of use in the plane and in the airports during layovers.

At the end of the day, I also find the styling even nicer than my original MBA. I'm very happy that Apple did not abandon this model.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

I travel 3 days a week for my business, with a wide variety of travel options once I get to my host city for the week. I also spend a fair amount of time working with my clients over lunch/dinner where having a small form factor on the tabletop is critical. When I'm not on the road, I'm working out of my home office or my downtown office. For my downtown office visits, I take the train to/from my home and once there walk 10 city blocks each way to/from my office and the train station.

I carry a backpack that has my 15" MBP in it, my iPad, power supplies plus assorted cables, a moleskine notebook, umbrella, water bottle, assorted crap, etc. All in, I have about 15lbs with the bag fully loaded. While thats not much for my frame/build, it is noticeable.

Anything smaller, but still useful, is a godsend. Its why I struggled to use my Dell Mini for the past year. I really wanted the smaller form factor but despised how cheap and plastic-y the thing looked. I meet with high-end venture, equity and finance firms all week long and to them image is everything. I'm hoping my new 13" MBA Netbook will help that image somewhat. Both in form factor and in presentation.

 

[Velin]

I'm curious on who really bought the Air because of the weight. . . .
I FEEL it is just bragging rights . . .

myTravel:
House to Car
Parking Garage to Work with one elevator then length of floor.
Not once have I ever thought "gee, i wish someone else could carry my bag."

Only way it gets heavy is if I'm carrying a TON of other crap and my laptop is NEVER the first to be compromised."

First, continue to use all-caps. The use of all-caps makes your arguments MUCH more persuasive. Consider using bold, too: forum readers are too stupid to understand which words in your sentences are important. Readers thank you for using all-caps to educate them.

Second, what you wrote can hardly be considered "travel." Write again when you regularly fly around and about the country, going from taxis and town cars, through congested airport security lines and jammed airplane cabins, hotels and elevators with computer case and suitcase in tow.

After a couple years of that, opine on whether cutting laptop size and weight in half isn't about function or utility -- but instead merely is about "bragging."

Postscript: the poll is worthless.

 

[bolsen78]

Take care of your shoulders now, don't want to end up like me. I can barely get a fork to my mouth to eat and I'm only 43 yoa.

Wow so sorry about that!! It is also good for people with bad backs. I broke my back twice and this has been so much easier on my back than having to carry my MB around.

 

[coelacanth]

I live in SF, work in SF. No car. Bus/subway, bicycle and motorcycle only.

Bought 11" Air not only for the light weight, but also for smaller than 13" foot print. That enables me to take my XS Man-Purse sized Timbuk2 to work instead of Small one (good for 13").

I often work from cafes and clients' offices. Love the idea of carrying full OS X enabled machine with me all the time instead of dragging my 13" MBP or opting for the not-work-capable iPad when I'm not sure if I need a laptop or not.

 

[ssb333]

Lightness is fine but it would have been better IMO
with a larger battery , SD and HDMI,
even at the expense of some added weight.

I agree. It's too thin. I would've sacrificed how thin it is for a bigger battery life any day!

I travel a lot twice a month. The 11.6 air is great for me. I Needed a laptop smaller than 12 inches but bigger than 8 inches Apple didn't have anything like that except for the iPad (which is not a computer), so this is perfect for me (minus the battery life).

 

[jamespa66]

I agree. It's too thin. I would've sacrificed how thin it is for a bigger battery life any day!

I travel a lot twice a month. The 11.6 air is great for me. I Needed a laptop smaller than 12 inches but bigger than 8 inches Apple didn't have anything like that except for the iPad (which is not a computer), so this is perfect for me (minus the battery life).

I got the 13" and the battery life is fantastic. I last charged it on Friday night and have used it about 11 hrs and still have 15% left.

 

[M87]

I got it because I'd been wanting to move to a 13 MBP from a 17 for a while and the new MBA has some improvements I like, such as (cheap) solid state storage, with negligible downsides. The only thing that worries me at all is the cpu, but even my old 2ghz core duo (no, I do not mean core 2 duo) can handle what I need.

 

[patrickdunn]

I got the air for my 40+ weeks of travel per year. Got rid of my 13" MBP 2.5 pounds over all those trips will add up.

 

[bossxii]

Not hating on the Air, I really love the how thin it is and the design by Apple.

I'm curious on who really bought the Air because of the weight.
I FEEL it is just bragging rights, and you prob ONLY do email and web (FB) for work.
I know there are many factors and I would like to hear them. Also on ur daily travel/commute with your laptop.

I have a MBP 15" and a messenger bag.
In my bag: MBP / JumpDrive / iPhone sometimes / 2 folders perhaps / moleskine
I weigh 180 lbs and athletic build............This weight feels like nothing to me, and I feel im not the only one.

myTravel:
House to Car
Parking Garage to Work with one elevator then length of floor.
Not once have I ever thought "gee, i wish someone else could carry my bag."

Only way it gets heavy is if I'm carrying a TON of other crap and my laptop is NEVER the first to be compromised.
----------------
Understandable for travel reasons tho, but who can't walk 2 miles with a backback?

This calls for a poll I feel.......

As with houses, cars, boats and TONS of other luxury type items. People like shiney things. Fact. 4 walls and a door can serve as a house, so asking these types of questions seems just as silly as asking why someone would spend money buying a huge house, or Porsche, BMW, Audi, Ferrari etc... Because they can and want to.

Not really sure why this concept of choice is so difficult for people to understand.

 

[urkel]

I'm curious on who really bought the Air because of the weight.
I FEEL it is just bragging rights, and you prob ONLY do email and web (FB) for work.

I have to agree with you. This is a sexy product where aesthetics seems to blind people from its shortcomings. People just arent honest enough to say "This is too slow" and instead will say "It's not slow because it's a super lightweight and thin blah blah blah". And as someone who was back and forth on getting one for my wife then I find this sort of excuse making annoying because I'm trying hard to find honest opinions but mostly get reasoning for why we SHOULD be happy with C2D's in 2011 or lower battery life in systems that are meant purely for travel.

That said, I jsut came from Best Buy and bought one for the wife. Its sitting in the packaging as I scour the internet for an honest review about its speed.

 

[happyslayer]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Yeah, the poll needs a few more choices. I am a computer consultant that carries a backpack to all my clients. I always have my tools - front pocket, paperwork & receipt books - mid pocket and laptop with power brick, NIC adapter and cables in the back padded pocket. For me every little bit of weight savings helps. 2.3 lb laptop with very small power brick is excellent!

Can't wait till it gets here on Wednesday morning!

 

[jamespa66]

That said, I jsut came from Best Buy and bought one for the wife. Its sitting in the packaging as I scour the internet for an honest review about its speed.

You bought it before researching what you where getting? There have been numerous very good honest reviews since Apples keynote announcing the MBA.
Personally I would never buy a product then research it after I got home, I generally do it first saving myself the trouble of having to return something that wouldn't suit my needs. But that's me...

 

[chrono1081]

I bought mine because I travel in and out not-so-friendly countries and these countries usually have really tight weight limits on what you can carry on planes.

 

[flynz4]

The responses are shocking me.

I think the advantages of using an MBA has little to nothing to do with "carry weight". It just doesn't make that much of a difference.

It has a huge difference on "usability weight"... which is how it feels as you move it around from side to side... from your lap to the coffee table... to the arm on the couch... etc. I almost always use just one hand to move my MBA... and it is almost always be holding it in the front right corner.

I was 99.9% that I would be replacing my Rev C 2.13 SSD with the new 13.3" model. After I went to the Apple store and tried both side by side... I realized that the 11.6" has a huge advantage over the 13.3" regarding "usability weight". There are two components to this:

a) 2.3 vs. 2.9 lbs
b) The lower "moment" (ie: lever effect)... because the center of gravity is much closer to where I hold the laptop when moving it around.

Of the two... I think b) affects the "usable weight" more than the actual lightness. For me the difference is huge.

/Jim

 

[jamespa66]

The responses are shocking me.

I do not think having a MBA has little to nothing to do with "carry weight". It just doesn't make that much of a difference.

It has a huge difference on "usability weight"... which is how it feels as you move it around from side to side... from your lap to the coffee table... to the arm on the couch... etc. I almost always use just one hand to move my MBA... and it is almost always be holding it in the front left corner.

I was 99.9% that I would be replacing my Rev C 2.13 SSD with the new 13.3" model. After I went to the Apple store and tried both side by side... I realized that the 11.6" is a huge advantage over the 13.3" regarding "usability weight". There are two components to this:

a) 2.3 vs. 2.9 lbs
b) The lower "moment" (ie: lever effect)... because the center of gravity is much closer to where I hold the laptop when moving it around.

Of the two... I think b) affects the "usable weight" more than the actually lightness. For me the difference is huge.

/Jim

I'm more concerned about the carry weight, mine doesn't go from living room to kitchen, it goes from site to site, across several bldg's, up and down several flights of stairs and from one meeting to another. I didn't get mine for home use I'm using it as my primary work machine. It's by my side all day long.

 

[Jiten]

Nothing wrong enjoying some bragging rights. If people bought the Air because they mainly want to show off I don't see anything wrong with that - after all it is their hard earned cash. Also OP you are underestimating the power of the C2D line. If you check geekbench the slowest Air is roughly the equivalent processing power of a G5 Xserve:

http://isource.com/2010/10/23/how-slow-is-the-new-macbook-air/

Just look at it from a historical perspective, just a few years ago people were using Macs with G5 processors for very cpu heavy stuff like Photoshop, Final Cut and other media editing program and the Air is technically as fast as these older machines.

However, the price is another topic altogether...

 

[gks]

I have a G4 PowerBook (15") and it weighs about 5.9lbs. I lugged it around from class to class with books. Not fun. If it was the only thing I was carrying that would've been fine. But there's no way I'm going to carry extra weight if I don't have to.

The Air will fit my needs at either size. I bought the 13" so as to not gimp on performance that much.

 

[entatlrg]

You don't really have an option for this in your poll ...

but I bought mine because I simply prefer to use a small and light computer ... it's the most comfortable to use everywhere and anywhere.

Even if I have no travel plans for months and am working from my home office I'll tend to grab small notebook and use it all over the house, kitchen table, den, living room, office.

 

[SamTheeGeek]

I for myself love the look and style of it + i really need the mobility and lightness it provides and ofcourse it looks freakin' sweet without a doubt, who doesn't wanna have it hehe

 

[KPOM]

My work PC is a typical 6lb midrange Windows notebook. What's nice about the Air is that I can carry it in the inner front pocket of the carrying case for my Windows PC.

 

[drjsway]

You don't need to travel to want lightness. I am hardly stationary while using my laptop. I am walking around the house, moving from bedroom to living room to bathroom. I step outside with my MBA to smoke.

I need a laptop that I can comfortably hold with one hand because I use it while walking around for extended periods of time. That said, my ideal weight is probably 1.5lbs. I would get a Vaio X if it weren't for the crap Atom CPU/GPU. Hopefully, one day, the MBA can get down to that weight.

 

[Fanboyofnothing]

I'm not ashamed to say the weight played a major factor in me selling my MBP today and getting a 13 inch Air. The 15 inch MBP in my backpack on days I travelled was HEAVY. Real heavy. This Air weighs about as much as my iPad in the backpack and packs way more functionality. Well worth it to me.

 

[ks-man]

Don't forget that weight doesn't only apply to carrying it around the country/world, it also comes down to carrying it around the house. My wife and I like to take our computer from the kitchen, to the family room, to the basement and upstairs to the bedroom. A light computer is more pleasant to carry around the home than a heavy one. What is the point of carrying those extra pounds if you don't need the power of the MBP? If the laptop were to be stationary at a desk, then it is serving as a desktop replacement. A mobile computer implies that it is light and easy to carry around (and place on your lap) and for this the new MBA and also the iPad really fit the bill.

 

[fizzwinkus]

Size and weight were primary in my buying an 11 inch air. Mainly because it will be used for maintenance and troubleshooting computers / network issues where i work and the mac pro was a bit too heavy to carry.