Hardware Questions about the Macbook Air.

[guitarheroknight]

So Im thinking on buying a 13" Macbook Air - probably the latest one due to the CPU.
I was wondering what are the failure rates of Macbooks and whats their lifetime? My GF has a 11 model but its too small for me so if anyone has any info I would really appreciate it.

 

[InsaneNutter]

OSX Yosemite (Latest version of OSX) is compatible with Macbook Air's sold in Late 2008 and onwards, so basically every model released to date except the very first one.

Thats currently 6+ years of updates and OS upgrades, which are now all free, so its safe to say any MacBook Air purchased today will be supported for a long time to come.

I have a 13" MacBook Air from late 2012 and think its fantastic, 13" is the perfect size for a laptop. I have a mate with the 11" 2012 model and its just a bit too small for my liking, i'd take the 13" any day.

The gestures on the trackpad are fantastic (as you probably know) and virtual desktops combined with them makes working and multitasking really nice.

 

[guitarheroknight]

Thanks for your quick reply, I'm thinking of getting the latest one due to the haswell architecture and longer battery life. By lifetime I meant are they good quality laptops? I mean I would hate to spend 1k on it and in a year see it die or something like that.

 

[aofelix]

Wait.

A new macbook air revision will be released soon IMO, probably with a retina screen.

Also I'd much rather get a 13'' MBP than a 13'' MBA. The size difference is minuscule but the spec difference is pretty huge. Go to an apple store and check them out.






If money isn't an issue, I'd get a 15 inch because the spec boost from the 13'' base to 15'' base is huge (double ram, double cores on processor).

 

[InsaneNutter]

Yes their very good and reliable, my colleague has a MacBook which he's used daily since 2008 and it's still working great today.

 

[guitarheroknight]

Wait.

A new macbook air revision will be released soon IMO, probably with a retina screen.

Also I'd much rather get a 13'' MBP than a 13'' MBA. The size difference is minuscule but the spec difference is pretty huge. Go to an apple store and check them out.






If money isn't an issue, I'd get a 15 inch because the spec boost from the 13'' base to 15'' base is huge (double ram, double cores on processor).

The only reason I would buy the Pro is for its Retina display, other than that the Air wins in every category on my checklist - it has very good battery life, its not heavy and as far as multimedia goes it does the job quite well.

 

[aofelix]

Every category?

Air has better battery life, better reflective coating marginally on screen, cheaper and is marginally lighter.

The Retina MBP has better colours on screen, better resolution, heck better display in every way apart from glare (which has still been reduced from previous iterations), a quad core processor, more storage, more ports for future connectivity, more RAM for multi tasking etc.etc.

I'm a fan of the air but paying that much for such a poor screen is really annoying. Can't wait for the retina airs to launch.

 

[BenRK]

Am I the only one who had a bad experience with a Macbook? Keys fell out, charger broke multiple times, battery stopped taking a charge after a few months of use, and it was brand new! To be fair it was from about 5 years ago and I probably just got VERY unlucky... But all my friends with Apple products have issues with them too. An iPad in need of repair, iPod Touch just refusing to power on, and so on, so I have a feeling SOMETHING must be up...

I say go with an Ultrabook. Same overpriced crap, can do more, etc.

 

[guitarheroknight]

Every category?

Air has better battery life, better reflective coating marginally on screen, cheaper and is marginally lighter.

The Retina MBP has better colours on screen, better resolution, heck better display in every way apart from glare (which has still been reduced from previous iterations), a quad core processor, more storage, more ports for future connectivity, more RAM for multi tasking etc.etc.

I'm a fan of the air but paying that much for such a poor screen is really annoying. Can't wait for the retina airs to launch.

I get your point but I don't need it to do anything special. Just go on the Internet, play some movies and some basic Gaming like pvz or bejeweled when I get bored. I have a good Gaming pc at home so things like photoshop and other heavy duty things are of no concern to me. But I'll sure take a look even though I prefer battery life and portability over horse power.

Am I the only one who had a bad experience with a Macbook? Keys fell out, charger broke multiple times, battery stopped taking a charge after a few months of use, and it was brand new! To be fair it was from about 5 years ago and I probably just got VERY unlucky... But all my friends with Apple products have issues with them too. An iPad in need of repair, iPod Touch just refusing to power on, and so on, so I have a feeling SOMETHING must be up...

I say go with an Ultrabook. Same overpriced crap, can do more, etc.

Wow, that sounds bad! I've had a couple of i devices in the past like the iPhone 5c and a bunch of ipod touches and even a ipad mini - not once have they failed!

 

[aofelix]

My family MacBooks have all been rock solid.

I gave my dad my old macbook from about 5 years ago and apart from an SSD replace, its basically the same and performs excellently well.

The only advice I'd give is keep an eye out and OS upgrades. Apples recently OS X upgrades increase performance but in 2010/2011 they made the jump to OS's requiring more juice and it did cripple a few older systems if they upgraded (although they could just downgrade).


I have had 2 MacBooks, none broken. I have had 4 windows laptops, all started showing their age within a year and all broke eventually. Build quality etc sucked.

Its all about apples trackpad.. a think of beauty.

Oooh fair enough. I have a gaming rig too and one fact which made me get the MBP was the fact I had a gaming PC so I could play a few steam games on the fly using my MBP with good performance (Civ 5, FM 2015)

 

[Originality]

Just to throw this out there, the average failure rate for laptops within 3 years is 20% regardless of brand. I think apple was a lil lower at around 15%. This has little to do with the brand and just entropy between all the different parts of a laptop (Apple assemble laptops, not make them).

That said, I had a MacBook Air (2011 model) come to my shop today and noticed the cable shielding wasn't too good - got zapped (static discharge) twice in the 10 minutes I handled it. Just my 5 cents.

 

[aofelix]

I think another factor in my liking for apple is their customer service.

I spilt vodka and lemonade on my friends macbook. They examined it, figured out what had happened but said they'll repair it this once despite it not falling under the criteria for apple care repairs.

My sister replaces her iPhone every 6 months or so, usually complaining of some minor fault and they're happy to just replace it.


And actually I just realised, my macbook Pro I gave to my dad did develop a problem. The battery started to swell. However, a quick visit to the apple store and they repaired it, even though it was out of the warranty period.

 

[guitarheroknight]

So I guess a Mac is the way to go! Thanks guys!

 

[BenRK]

If all you're using it for is internet and games such as Plants Vs Zombies, then I suggest just getting a Chromebook honestly. Soooo cheaper and can do just that.

 

[endoverend]

I bought mine about a year and a half ago and actually had a major water damage problem about 6 months ago, however as of now it is functioning perfectly. You should be able to get at least 4 years out of a macbook if you take care of it properly.

 

[BORTZ]

I think another factor in my liking for apple is their customer service.

I spilt vodka and lemonade on my friends macbook. They examined it, figured out what had happened but said they'll repair it this once despite it not falling under the criteria for apple care repairs.

My sister replaces her iPhone every 6 months or so, usually complaining of some minor fault and they're happy to just replace it.


And actually I just realised, my macbook Pro I gave to my dad did develop a problem. The battery started to swell. However, a quick visit to the apple store and they repaired it, even though it was out of the warranty period.

The 2008 MacBook Pro is notorious for that. I have had to replace 3 of mine. But Apple doesnt carry those anymore, and if anyone has one, its like 300 bucks. If anyone has this problem again, or battery problems, I suggest Anker brand stuff.

 

[Gallito]

I've always had good luck with used MacBooks. The only reason I'm replacing the 2007 black MacBook I'm typing this post with is I can't upgrade my OS past 10.6. That and I wouldn't mind playing some League of Legends again... Check out macofalltrades.com for some good deals. Good customer service as well.

 

[BORTZ]

I've always had good luck with used MacBooks. The only reason I'm replacing the 2007 black MacBook I'm typing this post with is I can't upgrade my OS past 10.6. That and I wouldn't mind playing some League of Legends again... Check out macofalltrades.com for some good deals. Good customer service as well.

I will never upgrade past 10.6. Its like the XP of Mac.