Rev. A Macbook Air

Hi there to all. I have been a long time reader of the forums but this is my first time posting.

My situation is that I am going to buy a 13in Macbook Air with 4gb of RAM.

BUT the main problem is, should I order and buy it now OR wait? I don't want to buy the rev. A of the MBA because of all the problems I've been reading about (flickering screen, colours and all that). Is there any way of knowing whether apple has fixed the hardware/software of the MBA? Any way of knowing the MBAs shipping now are rev. B and what not?

Thanks to all who respond and give help

 

I don't think everyone is having problems with their Rev. A MBA's. If you have lots of problems you can get it replaced of course. If you don't need one soon, I'd would wait for Rev. B before buying. But, you can't go too wrong with a Rev. A.

 

There is no such thing as 'Rev B" with Apple.

Their idea of "Rev B" is to keep selling same product for the full planned sales lifecycle, and simply accept returns from anyone who complains hard enough. Then they at end of product lifecycle, they bring out a new version with the fixes - and a higher price.

So if you want to wait until these issues disappear, then you basically need to wait until the product is replaced by a new model.

 

To the joker, yeah i guess not everyone is experiencing problems with it. Im just worried because my country does not have a physical apple store, just an online store. So if anything were to happen I would have to mail it all the way to Singapore which is our closest apple distributor. The apple resellers here won't give a damm if my mac fails, they would send it to Singapore too. BTW, how can we find out if its Rev. B?

To skagen, I guess officially there are no Rev. B with apple. But I have an iPhone4 with no grip-of-death problems while all my other mates have it, and I bought mine like 4 months after its launch compared to my mates who bought earlier. So its either that my iPhone is a Rev. B model (which they have coated the rims) or I'm just lucky I got a Rev. A with no problems. And wouldn't waiting for a new model bring new unique problems with it?

Thanks for the replies!

 

Buy it now, as stated above 'Rev.B' will just be the new iteration of the item, which wont be around for a while now.

I received my iPhone just after launch - I have no problems with it in regards to reception issues etc either.

 

thanks ifti.

if that's the case then I will place my order soon. Probably will order a mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector too!

 

Make sure you get a HDMI adaptor that passes audio through as well - many of them do not!
Im also looking to buy one and will probably go for the following - its cheaper and it passes audio through HDMI as well as video

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/15825946/Fisual-Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI-Adapter-For-New-Apple-Mac-Macbook-iMac/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0&source=9593&_$ja=tsid:11853%7Cprd:78888

 

Ah man, price looks nice and all but i don't think they ship it to Malaysia. No worries, I'll search online at a few other places. Worse comes to worse I will just order it from the Apple Store (yeah I know it's pricey there)

 

Ahhh hell noo! Just as I was psyching myself to order the MBA this thing appears on the net.

ASUS announces ultraportable U36 laptop (updated with specs and price) -- Engadget

 

At ~$1000.

Impressive computing power for such a small size if correct. The 1x USB port is worrying, and I would have to wonder about battery life and heat output. I would never buy an ultraportable without an SSD though, so it would be interesting as to how much that upgrade would be.

Otherwise, pretty competitive to the Air, although the air does have a better screen and touchpad (I can't say for sure... but I have yet to see a non-Mac laptop with a touchpad even near the quality of Apple's -- and that's coming from a Windows fanboy [I still prefer windows - on desktops at least]).

 

It has 3 USB ports total. 1 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0

 

The asus has a lesser resolution screen and maybe just a regular touchpad, but for the storage department I think it can be replaced with an aftermarket SSD?

That would kick it up a notch, bam!

 

ASUS says 10 hours of battery life, so if numbers from the U and UL series hold close it should get about 8 in everyday applications.

adding an SSD is not an issue.

touchpad will be just average as well as the included screen, but again I bet you can DIY panel swap with a higher res and better 13.3" as many have done it with the UL30A and U30JT which are similar units.

nice find askilla.

 

Oh wait... it's 3.7 pounds. I take back anything I said about it competing with the MacBook Air. You can't really say anything more than ~3 pounds "competes" with the Air because it's in a completely different weight category. 3 pounds is the tipping point for ULTRA-portable laptops, IMO anyway.

A Toshiba R700 is lighter than this, and cheaper. It also claims ~8 hours of batter life, but as with most all Windows laptops, you should half this to get a more realistic estimate (as reviews of it show). So unless I'm missing something, this Asus laptop is nothing new.

I still think the current generation of MacBook Air is unrivaled... if not because of the superior screen, keyboard, and touchpad (the most used parts of any laptop), then because it's pretty much the lightest laptop with decent power that runs icy cool & silent (no matter what surface it's on also).

(I just wish Windows had better drivers for MacBooks)

 

I wish Apple had better drivers/support for Windows..

Then I could have the best of both worlds.

 

I get 5 hours in Windows 7 with my Macbook Pro 13.

 

What about the support drivers for the touchpad and others (wifi, bluetooth, backlit keyboard and what not)? Does it work well?

 

Not all the multi-touch stuff works, but 2 finder scrolling does. Overall it works great, I'm in Windows 7 now, on battery 68%, charging my iPhone I'm getting 2.5 hours.