MacBook Air Anyone?


 
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The Lounge What is on Your Mind? MacBook Air Anyone?
# 1  
Old 03-30-2011
MacBook Air Anyone?

I am thinking to purchase a new MacBook Air, 13 inch.

Anyone have a MacBook Air? What do you think about it? Seems expensive, a bit. Is it worth it?
# 2  
Old 03-30-2011
I was toying between that and an MBP 15", and went for the MBP in the end.

Main reasons where
  • Extra oomph of the quad core i7, extra memory and Radeon 1GB GPU
  • More ports and internal optical drive
  • Larger storage
  • Larger screen
  • Thought it would handle better under load
  • Bang for your buck

My friend, however (an Oracle DBA) went for the 13" Air and says it's great. Incredibly snappy and responsive (think he says it boots in 12 seconds, and has a great battery life). He's got VM Fusion installed, has Linux (CentOS or Mint, I don't recall) and will install Oracle in it. I wait to see his impressions of how "snappy" it is when all that's running!

The Air is expensive. The base model comes with only 2 GB, and the optical drive is extra. But it is really light - great for travelling, and the display is better than the 13" MBP.

It's a gorgeous little thing, and had I not needed the extra "oomph" I absolutely would have gone for one of them.
# 3  
Old 03-30-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottn
He's got VM Fusion installed, has Linux (CentOS or Mint, I don't recall) and will install Oracle in it.
Duel booting MacOS and Linux or just running Linux (wiped MacOS)?
# 4  
Old 04-02-2011
Neither. Linux running Oracle in a VM.

The 4GB Air handles it pretty well, but under heavy load I would imagine the MBP would deliver better performance.

The Air is a great machine - if overpriced, but it depends what you want to use it for. If you need the extra grunt I'd go for the Pro.
# 5  
Old 04-02-2011
Thanks.

I ended up ordering the MBA with upgraded RAM and CPU from the Apple Store. Will pick up next week while on a trip to Singapore.
# 6  
Old 04-02-2011
You won't regret it Smilie

I was babbling on about needing "oomph" and "grunt", and just though to myself the only things I've really used so far are Evernote, Dropbox and Safari, which don't need either Smilie
# 7  
Old 04-03-2011
I am happy because my big iMac is one of the old PPC ones, so it will be great to be on Intel architecture. I might even install the Andriod SDK now and try my hand some simple Andriod App Smilie

It is impressive how light the 13 inch MBA is.... thanks again for helping me in the decision making process!
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