I stuff my laptop in my briefcase, so thickness is pretty important to me. I was always very careful when closing my briefcase with my 15" MBP in there. Most days it was a tight fit.
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With no MBA update today, what's your plans? Wait or buy something else?
- Thread starter entatlrg
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Totally agree with you entatlrg. Both the MBA and Vaio Z are 3 lb. machines that could be considered ultraportables. It's just that the Vaio Z is more powerful than a MacBook Pro. I would probably be extremely happy with a Vaio Z or extremely happy with an MBA, but I wouldn't be happy lugging around an MBP. The most important factor for me is getting everything done that I need to in a lightweight machine. The next important factor is the thinness. The Vaio Z is a great replacement for someone who wants a new MBA with some power but they're not willing to wait for Apple. Those same people that buy the Vaio Z will probably look back to the MBA if Apple tries to make it current and relevant again. Just because I could be happy with a Vaio Z doesn't mean the MBA was never right for me to begin with...
Whoa! What the heck, man??!! The Sony Vaio Z is $1900. 
(Whenever I see a PC over the $1200, I weigh my options on what I'd have to sacrifice to get a Mac and gain: better OS, better built, more reliability, better resale value.)
I see that price for a non Mac and I think: "I might as well buy a Mac and be happy."
A base model MBP 15" is that price. I'll take the weight, tyvm.
(Whenever I see a PC over the $1200, I weigh my options on what I'd have to sacrifice to get a Mac and gain: better OS, better built, more reliability, better resale value.)I see that price for a non Mac and I think: "I might as well buy a Mac and be happy."
A base model MBP 15" is that price. I'll take the weight, tyvm.
Scottsdale -- Your analysis matches my own. The Vaio Z is a terrific computer and for those who think that they can live without OS X, I can't think of a better choice right now. The 13 inch MBP, however, is just too heavy to qualify as an ultra lightweight -- it's not.
Despite just having bought an iPad as a stopgap after Apple didn't refresh the MBA when it updated the MBPs, I think it likely that I still will buy an MBA if Apple ups its RAM. If Apple puts two RAM slots in the refreshed MBA, so that I can bump it up to 6 or 8 Gb, I will definitely buy one. In the meantime, though, I am liking the iPad better and better, despite its limitations compared to real computers. For example, my MBP's Address book and iCal information are now synced to my iPad Contacts and Calendar.
Whoa! What the heck, man??!! The Sony Vaio Z is $1900.
I see that price for a non Mac and I think: "I might as well buy a Mac and be happy."
A base model MBP 15" is that price. I'll take the weight, tyvm.
Actually, with the Sony Vaio Z one gets a hell of an OS in Windows 7, a better built Sony Vaio Z than any of the Mac notebooks, much more reliability because they don't ship out junk systems like Apple looking to capitalize on customer service image by just swapping the junk ones out with those who dare to complain, and try telling anyone who bought an original MBA for $1799 or $3099 that their MBA held its resale value.
Try telling anyone who bought a rev B 2,1 MBA with 1.86 GHz CPU and 128 GB SSD for $2499 on June 1, 2009 that their MBA holds resale value when the next day Apple released an update to a 2.13 GHz CPU with 128 GB SSD for $1799. The bottom line is the MBA is the worst Mac I have ever seen or remembered for holding its value... surely the Vaio Z will hold its value better than any of the MBAs have... in eight months the original high-end MBA went from $3099 down to $1299. In eight months the rev B high-end MBA went from $2499 down to $1349. And the rev C high-end dropped by $700 in one day from the previous day's rev B high-end pricing. Apple has really not done its MBA customers any favors at all in terms of keeping the pricing stable as it has had to dump the MBAs.
The Apple Mac computers advantages are not that they run OS X which is no better than Windows 7 to most who have truly known of and tested both. The advantage of the Apple Mac computers is they can run both OSes. That is why I want an MBA, because I can utilize both OSes. I run Windows 7 on my MBA for any entertainment work, because Apple will not give a damn about its customers who want to run Flash. In Windows 7, on my exact same MBA I use over 70% less CPU for Flash videos. Any entertainment or graphics are so superior in Windows 7 that it's not even worth trying in OS X anymore. OS X is a joke for entertainment... in fact, the iPad is a better entertainment device than a Mac. We need Macs to get real work, creation, input done.
I actually believe Apple is caring less and less for its Mac OS X operating system. One day I believe Apple will be better off just selling Macs that run Windows 7. Especially if Apple has its entire workforce stop development of future OS X versions as it has with OS X 10.7; according to reports, everyone possible has been moved away from any OS X work to work on iPhone OS 4.0 and the iPhone OS products. The competitive advantage of the Mac isn't that it runs OS X, it's that it runs BOTH OS X and Windows 7. If I had to run only one OS anymore, it would probably be Windows 7 because I want to use my MBA for entertainment too.
I would MUCH PREFER spending $2000 on a Sony Vaio Z over any of the current MBP offerings. The Vaio Z is much more capable, beautifully built, amazingly powerful and lightweight, and a more technologically advanced computer than the MBPs.
Scottsdale,
I agree that the pricing is unfortunate, but at least for the original MBA with SSD, most people knew what they were getting into by buying a "new" technology in SSD. New technology always = more expensive in computers. Combining price drops with refurbished models somewhat exaggerates the price structure as well.
Still, I agree that for a Mac, the resale value as a percentage of original price is much worse than just about any other model after 27 months.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how much a $4k VAIO Z sells for on eBay in about 24 months. My guess would be that you'll probably get the same $600-800 that people are getting for original Airs (which, btw, seem to hover around $1k here in metro Seattle).
Also, I have nothing against Sony Computers. My first laptop was a VAIO R505GL, which still (barely) functions.
I agree that the pricing is unfortunate, but at least for the original MBA with SSD, most people knew what they were getting into by buying a "new" technology in SSD. New technology always = more expensive in computers. Combining price drops with refurbished models somewhat exaggerates the price structure as well.
Still, I agree that for a Mac, the resale value as a percentage of original price is much worse than just about any other model after 27 months.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how much a $4k VAIO Z sells for on eBay in about 24 months. My guess would be that you'll probably get the same $600-800 that people are getting for original Airs (which, btw, seem to hover around $1k here in metro Seattle).
Also, I have nothing against Sony Computers. My first laptop was a VAIO R505GL, which still (barely) functions.
Wait a minute here. The valuation drops in the MBAs happen within LESS THAN eight months. So, the value of the $3099 original MBA was $1299 less than eight months later (imagine if it was bought five months in when it was still $3099 only to see the price drop to $1299 three months later). The valuation of the rev B MBA was $2499 to $1349 in eight months. We are talking less than eight months not 24 months. Sure, the MBA held value a little better from the eight to later months, but the point is the vast majority of the cost/value is lost in eight months with the MBAs.
Any computer is going to lose a lot of value in 24 months, but the MBAs drop their value faster within eight months than any other Mac I can ever remember.
And this is exactly the reason why Apple did NOT upgrade the MBA - so they could sell more iPads. Worked obviously...
That Apple failed to refresh the MBA because it had feared doing so would hurt iPad sales is a very real possibility. I am not so sure, though. Had Apple upgraded the MBA in a way that gave it the horsepower to run all of my apps, they would have got the better part of $2,000 from me, not just $499. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have preferred that I buy an MBA. Even the current version of the MBA is significantly more capable than the the iPad but it's also exponentially (literally) more expensive than the iPad. Thus, I'm not sure how big a dent an upgraded MBA would have made in iPad sales. Whatever the real answer is, it's fun to speculate about, isn't it.
That Apple failed to refresh the MBA because it had feared doing so would hurt iPad sales is a very real possibility. I am not so sure, though. Had Apple upgraded the MBA in a way that gave it the horsepower to run all of my apps, they would have got the better part of $2,000 from me, not just $499. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have preferred that I buy an MBA. Even the current version of the MBA is significantly more capable than the the iPad but it's also exponentially (literally) more expensive than the iPad. Thus, I'm not sure how big a dent an upgraded MBA would have made in iPad sales. Whatever the real answer is, it's fun to speculate about, isn't it.
It is
. And I admit that there are probably technical and other strategic reasons as well. But taking away sals from the complete NEW thing to a somewhat updated MBA is not what Apple is after. So, I hope that there will be an updated 13' portable line when C2D dies at the end of the year (MB, MBP, MBA) with new set of processors, including a reasonable low voltage solution for the MBA with good graphic card (not integrated Intel).
I prefer Apple Mac/MBA for Windows 7 or OS X Snow Leopard. In fact, I believe Windows 7 flies around OS X on my MBA. If I want incredible results for HD playback, Flash or anything hitting the CPU/GPU, Windows 7 is stunning and OS X is stuttering crap. This should start to change as finally Apple is letting developers have low-level access to h.264 APIs.
For now, I am spending 75% of all days in Windows. I am not working so I do more entertainment and video stuff when I don't have client projects to work on. That means Windows 7 is the right OS for my MBA with those fun tasks. Sorta sad, but definitely true. If I had to have a more powerful computer than the MBA, I would definitely choose the Sony Vaio Z! Right now, I decided to give Apple until WWDC to give us an update. If WWDC comes and goes with no MBA update, I am going to give the Vaio Z a test run for two weeks.
wow that's a good chunk more than what for what I was getting ready to let go of mine. But i decided to wait it out...For now I got my wife's new i7 15" to tinker with. Funny thing is i think what made me reappreciate the MBA is the massive ammount of writing I have been doing on the go for my dissertation.
I wish that for the next MBA they can incorporate that black glass accent on the outside of the screen.
Do I assume correctly that you don't run Windows under a third party virtualization program but instead boot into a Bootcamp partition when you need Windows? If so, that's what I did at first. I soon decided that I lacked the patience to boot back and forth between OS X and Windows, so I started using the effective but memory intensive VMware Fusion virtualization program. My need for Fusion is the only thing that has kept me away from the current MBA; 2Gb of RAM just isn't enough for Fusion.
Right, I BootCamp. I cannot put up with 2 GB of RAM shared first to the Nvidia 9400m leaving 1 GB for OS X and 768 for Windows 7. That is not ideal and doesn't even meet the minimum suggested RAM. Boot Camp is the only right way to get into Windows 7 right now. With 4 GB of RAM, the MBA would be much more capable for a virtual machine option.
Thanks. After I asked my question of you here, I saw one of your posts in another thread that explained what you were doing. If Apple upgrades the MBA to only 4Gb of RAM, as you and I both think will likely be the case, I plan to hold off buying an MBA until I can get a line on what others have to say about their level of satisfaction with running Windows under Fusion in Unity mode with only 4Gb of RAM. Maybe that would work but i still have serious doubts.
I just tossed a vote in for wait; however, I don't really have any near term plans to update my MBA. For my current usage patterns, my REV B (1.86/SSD) model is sufficient. I certainly think doubling the memory could only be a good thing and better thermal management or chipset/cpu/gpu combination with lower power requirements (w/o taking performance hit).
If a new model of the MBA comes out, I will look very seriously at it. As it stands, I want to buy a notebook before August since I'm going on a long vacation, and think it would be improper to take my work laptop along if I'm not going to work.
If a new Air comes out and it's substandard, or if no upgrades happen, I'll go MacBook, MAYBE MacBook Pro 13". We'll see.
So I'm hoping they upgrade it in the next few months.
If a new Air comes out and it's substandard, or if no upgrades happen, I'll go MacBook, MAYBE MacBook Pro 13". We'll see.
So I'm hoping they upgrade it in the next few months.
I put in a quote to PowerMax for trade in on my old Macbook Pro 15 2.53 pre-uinibody (mit Applecare no less). I'll probably use the credit to buy a 2.66 MBP 13 and a Crucial 256GB SSD.
After that, I'll alternate travel and daily use between the new MBP13 and my current 2.13 MBA 128SSD. Whoever, gets shelved first goes up on eBay.
The MBA is great and I love throwing it into my bag for trips and going to work but I hate that the MBA overheats with daily use and flash video, loud fans half the time, lack of 4GB of ram for VirtualBox, no hope of ever playing games on it, about two hours of battery life, and the small-ish SSD.
After that, I'll alternate travel and daily use between the new MBP13 and my current 2.13 MBA 128SSD. Whoever, gets shelved first goes up on eBay.
The MBA is great and I love throwing it into my bag for trips and going to work but I hate that the MBA overheats with daily use and flash video, loud fans half the time, lack of 4GB of ram for VirtualBox, no hope of ever playing games on it, about two hours of battery life, and the small-ish SSD.
At least the Flash and HD video playback apps should start getting a lot better like they are in Windows as Apple finally has given h.264 API access to developers. It should stop all overheating problems.
After seeing your post, I checked out PowerMax online and was intrigued. Their trade in plan makes sense with Macs and their straight up, no trade, prices are not inflated. Have you done business with PowerMax before?
No I haven't yet, I came upon their link on barefeats.com and figured I would give them a shot. I am currently waiting on them to get back to me.