do you guys think the backlit keyboard will return in a future mba? kind of a deal breaker for me at this point. I would get an old refurb but those are OLD
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Your thoughts on new MBA?
- Thread starter DannyNguyener
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I never would've purchased the previous MacBook Air. Now I'm thinking about getting the 11.6" - I love the smaller form factor.
Upgrade from MB Air 1.6 Core Duo?
I am happy to see that they are offering 4 gb of memory as an option.
i currently own a MB Air that is 1.6 Core Duo and 128 GB SSD with 2 GB Ram. I am wondering if there is enough of an improvement in the new Air to go ahead and purchse. Most likely, I would go with the 1.86, 4 BG Ram, and 256 GB SSD. Will the upgraded graphics be a lot faster? Will the Air be instant on like an Ipad. It does not seem like much of a processor upgrade - 1.6 core duo to 1.86 core duo. I don't think I could afford the 2.13 option and the 4 GB ram.
The 11 inch MB Air interest me - but I think I would need to go to 4 GB Ram. 1.6 processor and 128 GB SSD. That price is only $10 cheaper than the 13.3 with 4 gb ram and 1.86 processor (plus 6mb cache vs 3 mb).
I could save $90 by staying with the 1.4 processor, but I worry about lack of speed. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.
I am happy to see that they are offering 4 gb of memory as an option.
i currently own a MB Air that is 1.6 Core Duo and 128 GB SSD with 2 GB Ram. I am wondering if there is enough of an improvement in the new Air to go ahead and purchse. Most likely, I would go with the 1.86, 4 BG Ram, and 256 GB SSD. Will the upgraded graphics be a lot faster? Will the Air be instant on like an Ipad. It does not seem like much of a processor upgrade - 1.6 core duo to 1.86 core duo. I don't think I could afford the 2.13 option and the 4 GB ram.
The 11 inch MB Air interest me - but I think I would need to go to 4 GB Ram. 1.6 processor and 128 GB SSD. That price is only $10 cheaper than the 13.3 with 4 gb ram and 1.86 processor (plus 6mb cache vs 3 mb).
I could save $90 by staying with the 1.4 processor, but I worry about lack of speed. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.
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)
Hey rogeraggie, I understand your boat. I sold my MBA 2.13ghz rev C. Two weeks ago in hope for an October announcement. I did order the 11.6 inch cause I wanted a small footprint but it's hard to think in my head that I gave away a 2.13ghz for a 1.6ghz bto. I am getting better video card and more ram but it feels weird losing the extee CPU strength. To be honest, I didn't think apple would offer something lower than 2.13. The first MacBooks with c2d came with 2ghz about 4 yrs ago and here I am buying something that seems worse by spec.
Anyhow, no regrets so far unless the machine turns out to be extremely slow when surfing flash videos or doing stuff like Photoshop or minimal video editing... We'll hope that the rest speeds up the less.
Hey rogeraggie, I understand your boat. I sold my MBA 2.13ghz rev C. Two weeks ago in hope for an October announcement. I did order the 11.6 inch cause I wanted a small footprint but it's hard to think in my head that I gave away a 2.13ghz for a 1.6ghz bto. I am getting better video card and more ram but it feels weird losing the extee CPU strength. To be honest, I didn't think apple would offer something lower than 2.13. The first MacBooks with c2d came with 2ghz about 4 yrs ago and here I am buying something that seems worse by spec.
Anyhow, no regrets so far unless the machine turns out to be extremely slow when surfing flash videos or doing stuff like Photoshop or minimal video editing... We'll hope that the rest speeds up the less.
i7 quad cores do not have an integrated GPU. Also, anybody can put a dedicated nvidia card on a laptop, but it will have to be in addition to the Intel IGP. Apple could fit a card on the 15 and 17 but not on the 13 and air.
I came to the forums today looking for a speculation on why Apple decided to stick with the same processor on their new machines. And look at who's explaining here, the same old Scottsdale who've been providing great information on MacBook Air for ages. You have my gratitude, again.
I think it's a nice upgrade but I won't upgrade mine (1.6 core Duo as well) cuz of the no illuminated keyboard. My old Air is still working fine for my purposes.
I think I am good for now with my Rev C 2.13 128ssd. No back lit keyboard is a deal breaker and I don't see enough improvement to get me to upgrade. While 4 gigs of RAM would be nice, I'm not a power user with my Air. It's plenty snappy with the SSD.
JTMav
JTMav
I honestly don't see the point in a super small and thin portable laptop when it gets mediocre battery life.
I'm not trying to sound snotty because I am actually considering the Air vs. the Lenovo X201, but something has to give. 5 hours (Probably 3.5-4.5 hours realistically) is pretty damn pathetic for an ultraportable nowadays. I realize that it's running specs that are pretty damn good for it's size, but I just don't see the point in having such a small laptop if you need to carry a power adapter along, how is that being portable?
I realize the X201 gets 10 hours of realistic battery life because of it's huge 9-cell battery, but with it's 6-cell battery that doesn't stick out it still gets ~6.5 hours realistic battery life.
I was really hoping the 13" would get 10 hours (7-8 realistically) of battery life and the 11" would get 7 hours (6.5 hours realistically).
Besides that, the 11" really interests me... The keyboard seems fantastic, the screen quality, the thinness, everything else looks sweet. I think I am probably going to go the X201 route just because I need the extra battery life.
I'm not trying to sound snotty because I am actually considering the Air vs. the Lenovo X201, but something has to give. 5 hours (Probably 3.5-4.5 hours realistically) is pretty damn pathetic for an ultraportable nowadays. I realize that it's running specs that are pretty damn good for it's size, but I just don't see the point in having such a small laptop if you need to carry a power adapter along, how is that being portable?
I realize the X201 gets 10 hours of realistic battery life because of it's huge 9-cell battery, but with it's 6-cell battery that doesn't stick out it still gets ~6.5 hours realistic battery life.
I was really hoping the 13" would get 10 hours (7-8 realistically) of battery life and the 11" would get 7 hours (6.5 hours realistically).
Besides that, the 11" really interests me... The keyboard seems fantastic, the screen quality, the thinness, everything else looks sweet. I think I am probably going to go the X201 route just because I need the extra battery life.