Anyone have a new Ivy Bridge Macbook Air? Impressions?

grambo

[H]ard|Gawd
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I know not a lot has changed on the new Airs, but I'm curious if anyone has bought one yet and what their impressions are?

Planning on replacing my wife's 2007 Dell Inspiron 1520 beast (the thing is massive and ugly) with a new Air (13 inch, 1.8GHz CPU, 8GB DDR3, 256GB SSD), should be plenty for her needs for the next few years. Thought about Applecare but instead I'll use my VISA's automatic warranty doubling and get 2 years warranty for free versus paying $199 for 3 year Applecare.

I read a review (at Ars I think, or Anandtech) that showed improved battery life and slightly better performance from the IB CPU. Mostly wondering if there have been any first run issues noted yet or not?
 
The Apple care I think is worth it, in the sense that you can simply walk into an Apple store and get it taken care of, rather than having to deal with phones, and mailing and all that stuff. Not to mention the customer service is excellent (consistently rated as the highest in the industry,) but if that won't convince you, nothing will.

There are quite a few articles on the new Air put out by various sources. Despite what looks like only minor improvements, they are actually quite substantial. Such as the ability to drive two external displays in addition to the one on the air (via thunderbolt daisy chaining.) 8GB of ram compared to 4 is also a big deal. Both the CPU and Graphics updates are substantial for a machine so diminutive (reported 60% faster graphics as an example,) and the system performs well.

If all your wife does is surf and write documents, it should be more than sufficient to destroy everything she does. Heck the older 2009 C2D model with SSD probably would.
 
I am trying to decide between a Air and a MBP right now for a 13" myself... I currently have a MBP 15" to go with my hackintosh but want portability over power due to the driving issues.
 
I am trying to decide between a Air and a MBP right now for a 13" myself... I currently have a MBP 15" to go with my hackintosh but want portability over power due to the driving issues.

Between the 13-inch MBA and MBP I would get the Air. Speed is about the same, Air has higher res and weighs a good bit less.
 
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