There's a bit of sleight of hand on their Thunderbolt Display page [1]. The first image is of a MacBook Air hooked up to one of the new displays, but when they talk about "The ultimate docking station" they show a MacBook Pro.
This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going to make it a lot less elegant.
I don't think it's misleading. The first image on the page shows a Macbook Air with Thunderbolt going to one side & power to the other. That image is just the first in a slide show of Macs connected to displays, and the page isn't about the Macbook Air, it's about the display.
That or they wanted to save time and just take one picture, which is probably their go-to picture whenever talking about "the ultimate docking station."
I suspect it's because Apple are generally seen as sticklers for perfection when it comes to presentation and people think it's unlike that they've cut corners on something like this for a new product launch.
i have a current gen MBP with a core i7 Quad-Core 2.2Ghz and while attached to an external display the fans get noisy pretty fast. I basically gave up working on GPU intensive stuff on the MBP because the fans annoy me.
I'm going to be purchasing the 13" MBA, and I'm trying to decide between the baseline version and the maxed out version. I would pay the $100 to upgrade to the i7, but one can only do so by also paying $300 for the 256GB of memory.
Honestly, the 256GB memory vs 128GB isn't important to me (most of my stuff is small files or in the cloud), so I'm finding it hard to justify $400 for the better processor.
Any advice from those with MBA in the wild? This is replacing a 3 year old MB I use as my primary machine, and my laptops tend to last me at least 2 years.
For regular computer stuff, my 2nd-gen Macbook Air works like a dream, and in day-to-day use it's the SSD that makes it so much faster than my work computer with a normal HD.
In the SSD era, if you don't use videogames or do video rendering, I don't think processor speed matters that much anymore. (Cue mobs with torches...)
The pragmatist in me realizes I don't need a core i7 to edit text files and run unicorn_rails in the background...but the geek in me punched the pragmatist in the face and said "yes you do".
I have a 13" MBA of the previous (Core2) generation - very happy with it. I bike commute so the small size & weight were important, and the OSX development environment for Ruby is fairly well evolved. Jeff Atwood has already flogged the benefits of SSD, and I'm a big fan as well - but whatever size suits your data makes sense, I wouldn't over-buy just for the i7 option. The difference between i5 and i7 usually only shows up in very specific workloads that take advantage of the i7's hyperthreading or clock bump. For general development work you won't see a difference, although both i5 and i7 are substantially faster than the Core2.
here's how I justified it. Say you use your new air for 2-3 years. Say you spend around 20% of your days using it. That is about 5000 hours. Say you get 10% speedup using 1.8ghz i7 vs 1.7ghz i5. That saves you about 500 hours of time. 500$ more for 500 hours time back. ;)
I don't think you were being totally serious, but I don't think this justification works (even assuming you got all the hour numbers right) because for the vast majority of the tasks you're going to be doing on the machine (e.g., web browsing, coding, etc.), the speed differential between the i7 and i5 will save you 0 time.
Exactly. I think the grandparent is missing that only in very special circumstances does the i7 make a difference, probably less than 1% of your time.
Lets assume its 10%. 3 years * 52 weeks *40 hours per week= 6,240 hours working.
Lets assume that for 10% of that day you're using your computer in a way that the i7 is able to make faster. Assuming you get 10% speedup, that saves you 62.4 hours, the equivalent of paying yourself $8.01/hr.
But frankly, assuming your computer spends 10% of your workday performing i7 optimized tasks seems high. 1% is more likely (if not still unreasonable). And at that rate, you're paying yourself $80.13 per hour.
And keep in mind that you are paying yourself to sit there for an extra couple microseconds between computer operations.
Not that you shouldn't get the i7. Just don't dream that its somehow paying for itself!
I think this has been discussed a number of times, both on and off HN, and the final word on this is that the difference is made up of VAT and various importation taxes levied by the UK government. So, blame Her Majesty, not Apple...
The UK HMRC charges no customs duty or import duty on imports of computers, but does levy 20% VAT (sales tax).
Using today's exchange rate of 1.6149, here are the UK like-for-like premiums for several Apple products in the UK:
7.6% - ipad 2
13.4% - ipod touch
14.4% - mac air 11 64gb
12.1% - mac air 11 128gb
13.9% - mac air 13 128gb
13.5% - mac air 13 256gb
12.1% - mbp 13
21.1% - thunderbolt display
Note: these premiums compare the US price excluding sales tax to the UK price excluding the UK 20% VAT sales tax.
Therefore, the UK premium is much larger when you consider that in some US states there is no sales tax, but the entire UK is subject to 20% sales tax.
Also note that VAT is only a sales tax on items for personal use. Business users do not have to pay the VAT (they reclaim it).
Here therefore are the premiums comparing US states with zero sales tax to the UK:
29.1% - ipad 2
36.1% - ipod touch
37.2% - mac air 11 64gb
34.6% - mac air 11 128gb
36.6% - mac air 13 128gb
36.2% - mac air 13 256gb
34.6% - mbp 13
45.3% - thunderbolt display
Lesson: go on holiday to the US, buy your Mac in a state without sales tax, and you're still ahead when you pay 20% tax on the import when you arrive back in the UK.
The Thunderbolt display is somewhat different - I believe HMRC count displays with digital inputs as 'video displays' instead of 'monitors' and subsequently levy a 14% customs duty:
I think Apple are actually being far too greedy, one of the reasons I don't buy Macs is the premium you have to pay...I don't like being ripped off quite so explicitly.
The UK is known in the industry as "Treasure Island" because they know that they can charge more here and get away with it.
E.g. Bose QC15 noise cancelling headphones: 25.2% premium excluding sales tax, 50.2% premium including sales tax comparing a zero sales tax US state to the UK.
True, to be honest I had a spell of checking the difference for products before buying them and if it was too high I'd give the product a bad review on Amazon. Felt good :P
Out of interest are you aware of a site that does this sort of comparison?
Is VAT tax built-in to the £999 price point? Or is that added on at checkout (like sales tax is in the US)? If it's built in, that would explain at least part of the difference.
Yeah it sucks, buying Apple products in NZ puts you in the same situation.
11 inch MacBook Air (64GB) = US$999 (which should convert to NZ$1,169.46 using the current exchange rate).
In NZ we've got a 15% GST (sales) tax, but that should only bring the price up to about NZ$1,345. Instead the entry level MacBook Air costs us NZ$1,549.00.
So that's a NZ$204 mark up for what??? Wish we could just buy them directly off the US Apple website!
I've also been coding and working on an Air for months and had no issues other than being spoiled by its lightness and speed. I run virtual machines on it with no problem. It does everything a Macbook Pro does only faster, quieter, and without a DVD drive which I don't miss. You can also trade in your shoulder bag for a neoprene sleeve and reminisce about what life was like before computers were the size of clipboards.
I agree completely. I've been spoiled rotten, and now realize I can never go back to any other laptop. They just seem like heavy, slow relics from a previous decade. Damn you, Apple!
I also run virtual copies of Windows, and it all runs like a dream.
The new(-est) Macbook Pros have an option to upgrade to a 128G SSD for $200, which next to the base price of a higher end model is pretty appealing (unless you need tons of space).
For example try this at an Apple store: stand at a Macbook and open several apps at once, close them, then reopen them, then do the same exercise on an Air.
I have the fully-loaded 13" from the previous iteration. It replaced a $3000+ Macbook Pro from 2008 and on paper, was less impressive in almost every regard except for the SSD.
I thought I would keep the MBP around just as a desk station but after using the Air, I just can't stand the slowness - perceived or real - of the MBP. I've stopped playing computer games, but as a coder and photographer (processing RAW with Adobe products), I've been incredibly happy with the Air. It seemed like a luxury purchase at the time but it's had a big effect on productivity in terms of my personal projects. I live in NYC and I tend to carry my laptop (with my fullsize DSLR) everywhere...I used to do that with the MBP, but many times would not just because it was too heavy of a combo. I pretty much take the Air anywhere I go where it's acceptable to have a messenger bag.
Also, I had thought about getting the iPad2...but, besides the fact that the ipad2's feature set wasn't that impressive, I found myself using the Air for a lot of portable leisure computing and using the iPad a lot less these days.
He might need virtualization, which is essential for any web dev who wants to target the mainstream. You might have multiple VMs up so you can test different versions of IE (no IE 6 on Windows Vista or 7). When you add in Photoshop, Firefox with Firebug, and Apache, you really start pushing the limits of 4 GB.
I suppose it depends on what exactly you're doing with the virtualization, but if it's just IE testing, I've found 4GB to be plenty -- performance is fine with small amounts of memory in the virtual machines, which I assume is because their usage of virtual disk-based memory is quite fast due to the SSD.
Can't speak for the GP, but I frequently work with multiple Windows VMs (think large Oracle and SQL Server databases), and 4GB starts to feel a bit small.
My ideal machine would have more than 4GB RAM. It could even come at the expense of a smaller internal storage, because I'd use an external Thunderbolt drive to store client stuff.
So I might be sticking with the MBP for that reason..
I use Windows, but just yesterday I noticed I was using 5.47GB and I didn't even have any VMs opened. Just VS with Silverlight, sql server management, couple of browsers with the silverlight plugin opened.. 6GB of RAM payed of I guess
All good OS's try to use all the RAM availible (within certain limits of course). My RAM is almost always at 80% usage and above even with just a couple of lightweight applications running.
I was talking about "Commit charge" which is the memory actually used by the processes. You can see it by enabling the Commit size column in task manager. Which doesn't even include all the memory process actually uses. Check this for details on Windows if you're interested
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/1...
As suggested, I use VMs fairly often, but just Firefox + Aptana + random other stuff can bump into 4GB on occasion. I could probably make do with 4GB, but I'm hoping the next iteration will go to 8.
I use the maxed out 11" as my primary computer. My usage is about 60% at desk, plugged into external, keyboard, closed clamshell, and 40% portable. The only complaint is the smaller 128 ssd, but it just forced me to get rid of stuff I really didn't need. The less glossy screen is great and the smaller size when I'm portable forces me to focus more. My typical software usage is Photoshop, Illustrator, TextMate, Terminal, iTunes, Chrome, and VMWare Fusion. It only really gets hot if I'm viewing flash content. Battery life isn't bad, but it's not amazing, 4 to 5 hours of mixed use.
The portable size is amazing. From time to time you'll catch me caressing it and whispering sweet nothings to it. I can bring it everywhere with me and I don't need a huge bag to lug it around. I use a protective sleeve, which offers a bit more protection than the other types of sleeves. http://www.hardcandycases.com/bubble-sleeve-macbook-air-case...
re: Flash content: I was playing with an last-gen 11" MBA in the Apple Store a couple months ago, and saw that it wasn't capable of playing the YouTube video of All of the Lights <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfFfqiYLp0>; at 1080p without dropping frames. Obviously this is completely arbitrary because the MBA can't display 1080p, but I was a little concerned about it.
No problems. I actually have an HDMI to display port adapter from monoprice and I use it to watch Netflix on my LCD TV every now and then. Plays it fine with no stutter or dropping frames. The fans do kick on though.
I'm using the 2010 11" as my primary computer, and have been really happy with it. But then again, I mostly hack CoffeeScript and PHP with vim on Linux, so how much power do I need ;-)
Just built-in, and no external mouse or keyboard either. I want my working environment to be the same regardless of whether I'm at the office or in an airplane
The savings in space and weight are significant when you're moving around. The 11" really isn't much bigger than an iPad. I have some pockets it can fit in.
The tradeoff is a smaller screen when you're on the road. The small screen has high-res and is quite usable but I'd rather dock to something for long-term coding work. But external monitors are cheap, so unless your work pattern involves constantly moving from new desk to new desk it's not hard to just park a monitor at every one of your desks.
Echoing the sentiments of the other 11" owners, I love my 11" MBA. It's not perfect but it's close enough for the time being.
I just bought a brand new 11" with a bigger SSD and the i7 and the only thing I wish was different was the amount of RAM. If it had 8GB RAM, then it would easily be the best computer I've ever owned.
Agreed. I have a 2nd-gen 11" MBA, and I've been really happy with it as a primary (and only) machine. I can even do Android dev on it, thought Eclipse tends to stretch it a bit thin sometimes.
The new ones are so close to perfect. I share your disappointment in the lack of an 8GB RAM option. I'm also a little worried about the Intel graphics, though I hear the HD 3000 is comparable to the nvidia 310M, which presumably is only a slight step back from the 320M in the 2nd-gen Air.
The battery life is 40% longer on the 13", which to me is enough to swing the balance. The size is only about an inch different in two dimensions and 1/2 pound.
I have a previous generation 13" and I find I use the SD port often, which is missing on the 11".
I think he was referring to 4GB as being too little. If you are doing anything involving photos/video/audio editing, you are probably going to want at least 8GB.
From the article: "The new port is backward compatible so it can still be used to connect to DisplayPort devices; however, only the new port can be used to connect to Thunderbolt devices."
It looks like the external superdrive from the MBA will fit neatly on top of/underneath the mac mini, if you have a nostalgic attachment to pieces of spinning plastic. ;)
Win! Spoke to Apple, they are going to refund and take away my 16 day old MacBook Air so that I can order the new one :) Excellent customer service once again.
It's a win unless you don't care about the downgrade in graphics performance (nVidia > Intel GMA) and power consumption (Core2 > i7). In these regards the latest model looks like a downgrade, at least on paper.
I'm appalled that noone seems to notice or care about those things, especially power consumption.
Despite the shrinking of the electronics Apple even had to raise weight a little in the latest model, to accomodate a battery large enough to provide the same "5-7" hours of runtime. That's when you are mostly idling or browsing; I'm sure the new Air will run hotter and shorter if you utilize your CPU closer to 100%. Well, customers want an "upgrade", and there are no better parts available; what else can you do?
This is surely a nice update. But I _really_ miss configuration options.
The only option seems to be
1.7GHz i5 -> 1.8GHz i7
No choice of flash no choice of ram :/
I love my current air. It's a really nice piece of engineering but even
4GB of ram are sometimes full. With an more powerful CPU more RAM would
be a nice choice...
TB, Backlit KB and a faster CPU are very nice though.
Does anyone use an Air for a lot of Photoshop work? My wife does photography on the side and is looking for a laptop to go with her iMac. Seems like the screen would be too small?
Unless the Macbook Air screens have changed, they're far worse than Macbook Pro screens for displaying color. I've used a 13" MBP and a 13" MBA and it's easy totell the difference. You can go to a store and see for yourself: the colors on the MBP are more vibrant than the MBA.
While I'm sure this is nice, I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade from my existing MBA (and I really wanted to!). I'd have loved to have seen 8GB RAM as an option.
If you are doing any computationally intensive stuff, it may be worth the upgrade (I had postponed the purchase of a MBA for this reason, and I am definitely going to buy this one).
Yeah, I have a 2010 11" MBA, and I'm thinking about the upgrade. I really wish they'd bumped the max RAM up to 8GB; Eclipse for Android development is cramped in 4GB with other stuff running. I'm a little worried about the Intel graphics as well.
The upgrade is also a little more expensive, too. I think I paid $1500 for the maxed-out 11" last year, but maxing out the new 11" costs $1650.
But the Core i7 and 256GB SSD are very tempting. I dual-boot OSX and Linux, and 128GB is starting to feel a bit cramped. I was looking around at aftermarket SSD upgrades for my existing Air, and an off-the-shelf upgrade to 240GB would cost me $520, which is a third of the cost of the laptop! I could probably sell my current one for $800-$1k, and get the new one for $1650 without breaking the bank.
There's a big difference between the MBA glossy display and the macbook pro glass display. I use the MBA daily but when I got a chance to play around with a friend's 17" MBP glossy... it was terribly unusable.
I recently bought a $200 samsung netbook that is perfectly usable in bright sunlight with sun-glasses on. Try it in a store with a sunny corner if you don't believe me, it's the NF310 and I'm not making it up.
I haven't seen the latest MBA yet, but the prev generation turns into a perfect mirror under the same lighting conditions.
Is it just because of the screen size or is the material different somehow? I'm actually toying with the idea of buying one to take with me on the road where the 15" colossus is just impractical...
This is one of the few things holding me back as well. I have a couple gen back 15" mpb with matte finish, and have tried to like the glossies, but after extended use they really make my eyes ache. Not so with the matte.
I keep hearing the mba glossy isn't too bad. I will have to wander down to a mac store and fiddle with one in person.
Wow. I am genuinely shocked that they decided to kill off the white MacBook. All the development costs were already recouped, and I was under the impression that white MacBooks were the majority of laptops sold. It takes a very brave company to kill off a cash machine like that.(The $70B in the bank probably helps.)
Space constraints or not, the 4GB limitation is annoying. I'm using a two month old 13" MBA, which will go to replace the wife's 2007 white MacBook once I get to the Apple Store, and the dashed hope of getting 8GB has dampened my enthusiasm. But not cancelled it completely ;)
A maxed out 11" MBA (which unfortunately comes to a mere $50 less than the comparable 13") with a 27" Cinema Display sounds like my dream rig - complete flexibility between portability and comfort/expandability (when connected to the spacious and port-packed display).
Almost? If you live and die by external design and feel (trackpad, keyboard, sturdiness) than most everything but a Macbook will seem inferior, but overall if you're an equal-opportunity platform user and want the thinnest and lightest complete desktop replacement like me, I don't think it's remotely close.
I'm typing this on a year-old Z11, which you can pick up used now for about the cost of a MBA, with:
* Core i5 520m
* 8GB RAM
* 256GB SSD
* DVD+RW
* Switchable graphics w/ GeForce GT 330M (1GB)
* 1600x900 13" matte display
* HDMI out
* VGA out
* Gigabit ethernet
* 3 USB 2.0 ports
* Fingerprint reader
* Expresscard 34
* 3 lbs
* swappable 4 hr standard battery, 7 hr extended battery
If you need everything in a thin-and-light, the last generation of Sony Z was pretty unbeatable. I heartily recommend a used model to devs I meet. Even still, I was seriously considering getting the new MBA, as the Sony is flimsy with so much crammed into it, the trackpad is tiny, much of my dev work targets *nix, and I'd like to get into some iOS projects. But 4GB max? If they'd offered 8GB RAM, I might have pulled the trigger.
D'oh. We just received three new MacBook Airs on Monday that we ordered last week. We haven't even deployed them yet. I wonder if Apple offers any ability to ship these back and get the new faster ones.
If they aren't custom configured I think it's easy to send them back for new ones. I thought Apple typically let you exchange without fees if you bought within 30 days of a refresh.
I just bought the maxed out 13 inch air in October, and it's been a great dev machine (rails, ios) someone please talk me out getting the newest shiniest for no good reason
I'm having trouble resisting as well. On used Mac sites, the maxed out 11" 2nd-gen is going for around $1150 (maybe lower in some places?). The maxed out 11" 3rd-gen costs $1650. I could upgrade for $500+tax. (Or $400+less-tax if I'm willing to wait for my sister to buy it for me with her edu discount in a lower-tax state and mail it to me...)
So difficult. I'm worried about the Intel graphics, but I bet they're much better supported under Linux than the 320M is.
Any good recommendations for a sleeve or messenger bag that is good for the 13" MBA and is form fitting so it doesn't slide around inside the bag/sleeve?
It will swap much faster than a MB Pro with no SSD. For me at least, this alleviates the RAM concerns. If you really really need 8GB RAM, you probably need a Pro or a desktop anyway.
I had a 2GB 11" Air that was swapping out around 350Mb with my workload and it was noticeable although not a deal breaker - think slight switching delays and rare mouse freezes for split second - obviously much better than if the swap was on 5400RPM rotating disk.
I ended up returning it anyway - 2GB isn't nearly enough for anything other than just browsing.
The last part isn't true. I've got the bottom priced 11" and being an entrepreneur I use it heavily for design. My only issue is the memory. After CS5 and a couple other programs I was down to 10gb.I'm 80% in front of a big cinema display but even working on the go its great. Photoshop too. My usual is itunes, mail, 5-10 safari windows, Photoshop, Illustrator and no spinning wheel of death. My experience of Apple is nearly 10 years and came from a 15" MBP that died.
If you're questioning it, go for it...
Are you sure you do that all at once without slowing down on a MBA with 2GB RAM? I just tried my regular use case - Mail, Firefox, MS Word and Excel plus Adium and it was 350Mb into swap and switching apps wasn't all that instantaneous.
What does your swap usage show (Activity Monitor - page outs with all that workload?
However with 4GB it shouldn't be that much of an issue for this workload. So I might just bite the bullet given the Sandy Bridge and TB upgrades!
I have for the last 12 days, and this was after using an iMac from years back which processed everything excessively. Right now my swap usage is 640 MB. Worth mentioning, I am returning it tomorrow to get the latest offering. Probably in the same setup.
I am about to embark on a 18-month long data mining project, where I'll be developing Python NLP software for recognizing patterns in textual data.
Will the MBA be a good machine for this? Ideally I should get something with more horsepower, but if the MBA suffices, then I feel its portability will really increase my productivity.
I could use all the RAM available. Ideally I would need 8 GB. But my thinking is that with the high I/O throughput of the SSD in the Air, swapping from disk won't lead to a perceptible performance drop.
I will occasionally have access to a server for particularly intensive tasks. But I would like to be able to code from my bed, in a coffee shop, library, bus, etc. Hence my fascination for the Air.
What kind of stuff do you do that uses up 32 GB RAM? Is your data set huge, or are your algorithms RAM intensive?
I'm gathering statistics on words, phrases and a few other things from a medium-sized (about a terabyte) corpus. There are several billion that aren't hapaxes. That's just the initial feature collection pass. Next, I'm looking for correlations among these features. It's a challenge to make it fit in 32GB. A lot of effort goes into bit-twiddling to make things fit and into algorithms that try to be intelligent about what to keep and what to discard.
Great specs to go along with the great looks. I'm still disappointed that the smaller model uses a squished 16:9 ratio screen, it's useless for writing anything longer than a tweet.
Also, I hope the now backlit keyboards see some improvement in tactile feel, I thought these were a weak point on the previous generation.
The Intel HD3000 can only support one 2560x1600 display and the built-in. It's safe to say it can't do multiples. And the TB->DVI adapter only has one DVI interface so you can't even try 2 lower resolution monitors.
We'll find out in the teardowns how much space they're taking up, but I suspect volume is the limiting factor - RAM and flash chips are only so dense (at least at a certain price point). The RAM is already built into the motherboard to save space, and it was rumored that they would do the same with the SSD this generation.
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This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going to make it a lot less elegant.
[1] http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/