New Macbook Air with i5 & i7

Is the difference betwenn the i5 and i7 really worth the money? Here in Germany they even want you to pay 150€ for the upgrade, which I find crazy. How can that be that it's a 100$ in the US and 150€ which is over 200$ in the EU. As much as I want to get the new Mac Book Air, I totally dislike Apples Sales politics...If I wasn't sure that the upgrade could be worth it, I would order it right now with the i5 and 256Gb. So please, I need some advice, fast!

 

Just bought mine. 13" w/ 128 gb and i5.

Inquired about why the U.S. could get the i7 on all the models and the associate told me they couldn't and then proceeded to go to the U.S. website and lo and behold you could only get the i7 on the 256gb 13".

So either she pulled some magic on me or it's the same in Canada and the U.S.

 

Except some differences in architecture, I don't think there is much difference in i5 or i7 dual cores. It all gets technical after that if you go deeper.

 

I got the i3 if that's any indication of what I think.

 

Just came across this article. 2011 13" Air Geekbench score of 5860, faster than last year's 17" MBP. I know Geekbench only tests CPU and RAM, but I want to know how the new 13" Air with its ULV CPU can score roughly the same as this year's 13" MBP..

I did just pick one up, the new 13" Air I wasn't sure if they would let me, I brought my wife's university ID, and they did let me get the educational discount ($50 off MBA plus the $100 app store card), so I just *had* to do it

2011 MacBook Air benchmarked; outperforms all 2010 MacBook Pros – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

MacBook Pro Benchmarks (Early 2011)

 

What I want to know is, how does the new MBA compare to the 2010 model in terms of performance. I'm more worried about losing the dedicated GPU more than anything.

 

you did not lose a dedicated GPU. the 320m was integrated in the chipset... the low voltage i5 and i7 used in there have a slower Intel HD 3000, so yes, the 320m machine can get higher GPU benchmarks.

 

This is the config I was thinking of, but then I realized its only $50 less than the equivalent 13". That $50 gets me the larger screen, SD Slot and 2 more hours of battery life. So now i'm really debating if I need the i7 or not.

 

If anyone wants the raw techncial difference between the three processors, here's the proper compare link from Intel's site:

Compare Intel® Products

 

I'm almost sure that I'll be going with the 11", maxed out but still not sure about whether to go i5 or i7. My concern is not cost, but rather heat, noise and battery life. May have to wait for user reviews to start flowing in.

 

I bought the 11" Ultimate and would say its on par graphically with last years version. If you are going to be doing heavy number crunching on a daily basis, and I mean daily, get the i7.

If not, the i5 is good enough. This thing does not do well with games, like anything else with an integrated GPU. So, if its web surfing, iMovie, iPhoto and EMU's, the i5 is good enough.

On another note, the Mac Mini has a dedicated GPU now! I hope this means we will finally see a dedicated chip in the next MBP 13" revision.

 

Yeah, that's the only thing that's upsetting me is the lack of SD card slot on the 11". I have 15" Core i5 MBP and I may be getting rid of it in favor of the 11" but I do use the SD card slot a lot. I wonder if it just wasn't possible for Apple to shoehorn an SD lot in the 11" or did they decide against it as a way for customers to buy the 13" instead?

 

Only thing I miss from it is the 320M GPU :\

I really dont like Apple but an 11 inch super thin netbook type thing that I saw running Crysis at a playable framerate was just surprising.

Now the poor little beast sold out and went "integrated" (I know the 320M IS technicly integrated, but it was a champ)

Also in terms of the old MBA as I saw you guys asking, its already refurbished and on the Apple Outlet
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC505LL/A?mco=MjA2NTk3NzA

EDIT: And heres why I liked the old MBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-bqbFRsgcI&feature=related

 

So what of that faster SSD rumor, can someone benchmark it?

 

Any reviews with a comparison of the previous generation in all aspect out yet?

 

Turbo-boost! Meaning that this performance level can't be sustained across both cores for that long.

 

Got tired of my hot and noisy desktop replacement hp in addition to breaking my collarbone and therefor needing something to do so I thought I would purchase the new 13" i5 air. I have had zero experience with macs and didn't really know what to expect. All of my computers have ssd's and clean windows 7 installs and I had been content.

When I first connected the power cord I was surprised and delighted by the quick magnetic snap connection and from that point forward I knew I was dealing with something special.
Navigating with the track pad is simply awesome.
I also really like os x lion, didn't take much time to get settled in... very intuitive

Just from my experiences from playing around with the previous gen in the stores... it's much snappier

Very happy with my purchase, very impressed, beautiful laptop

 

That's not the answer - both of the laptops have turbo boost. I believe this is due to the fact that the 2010 MPB used the last generation of intel CPUs (Arrandale) and the MBP is using this year's Sandy Bridge CPU. I guess the improvement from Arrandale to SB is that much that a ULV SB can keep up with a full power Arrandale.