alphaod

Been using one for about two weeks now.

I did buy the Dell XPS 13 first, but mine had this annoying fan buzz the whole time and it was driving me nuts. When I called them, they said they could fix it for me, but couldn't guarantee I didn't get anymore buzzing.

Then my MacBook came and I returned the Dell. It's been wonderful. The silence has been amazing. I don't mind the lack of the missing ports, but it was quite annoying trying to transfer media to it. I have a bunch of Thunderbolt drives I store movies on and so far I've need to use an intermediary to do it. Not fun, but neither the end of the world.

Recently bought a skin for it because I wanted it to be grippier (without adding bulk). I think I might have messed up the thermals since it's been running hotter, so that may go. Still waiting on the USB-C AV adapter from Apple, but in the meantime I bought one on Taobao that said it was official... I'll get the official-official Apple one when it comes out.

JClishe

That sucks about the fan noise. I have an XPS13 and it's silent, I love that machine.

DYKWIA

I had a play with one yesterday (they've now arrived in the UK!). It seemed OK, but the screen seemed a little flimsy (it rocked about).

I'm now leaning towards a Surface 3, which is about half the price (including a keyboard). I also played around with a display model yesterday (not available to buy yet though).

I'm looking for something that I can just throw in my bag, and do a bit of surfing, emailing and the odd bit of work if necessary. A minimum of £1000 for the MacBook is just too much to justify.

deniah

i use coconutbattery which provides some neat metrics about battery life, but also provides warning if the battery overheats (hasnt).

whats also nice is the chassis seems extremely solid. ive had 2 mba11 that starts to develpp a little creaking on the palm rest (and the torx screws start to get lose)... compared to MBP which feel monolithic

S c 0 TT y

I've tried one in-store too, thought it was quite good (especially the gold one). I was expecting worse with all the negativity around the keyboard, lack of ports and pricing.

That said - I wouldn't spend that kind of money on the new Macbooks. The keyboard was fine for me although the ports, the spec and pricing just don't do justice. I picked up the previous gen MBA from the Apple refurb store for £550 and couldn't be happier.

lensman

I'm thinking of ordering mine. Which CPU did you get and what size SSD? And why? I'm definitely getting the 512GB but I'm not sure about springing the extra $150 to upgrade from the 1.2GHz/2.6GHz to the 1.3/2.9GHz CPU. Seems like a very minor upgrade but $150 isn't that much money to me.

skofarrell

Finding the 1.3 to be a lot snappier than the 1.1. Can't comment on the 1.2

Dubai Stu

I find the 12 inch MacBook a nice incremental improvment and a pretty good travel machine (see my link to the MacSparky review below), but am not sure that my travel machine will remain Mac at this point.

I am a Mac guy, but am seriously thinking about going back to Windows for my mobile device. I don't want to carry a seperate tablet and notebook. These are not my 9-5 work machines, they are my travel machines and I don't need as much on the road. Microsoft is working real hard to bring iOS and Android apps to the Windows platform and it is a real struggle to create documents on the road or electronically file them away on an iPad.

I had prayed that the iPad Pro would run a basic version of OS/X and it doesn't appear that it will. As a lawyer, the documents I work with are often too complex for the basic wordprocessors. I can edit them sure and even start them, but the number of steps needed to take them from an iPad to my company portal or to Adobe EchoSign are surprising.

I love laying on a couch and doing research or reviewing docs on iPad, but four years into an iPad there are still too many things I can't do. As things stand today, Microsoft's tablet mode isn't great and Apple doesn't seem to want to cut into its MacBook sales by giving too many computer features too the iPad.

I spent last night watching Windows 10 keynotes on the two projects that Microsoft has to port iOS and Android apps to Windows was impressed, but reading things carefully it will be a while before these apps flow to the Intel side of the the processor divide. Microsoft's plan to make your smartphone flow into a computer screen, keyboard, and mouse were also impressive

This review on the new MacBook is written by a friend and I think pretty helpful:

http://macsparky.com/blog/2015/4/the-new-macbook-review
I've looked briefly at the Android tablets that could function sort of like a computer and ran into the same concerns that I did for the iPad and the Microsoft Office apps for Android semeed inferior.

My instincts are to buy a cheap Microsoft (HP or ASUS) convertible with a crap screen, long battery life knowing that this duct tape and bandaids. In a year or 18 months, I will be replacing this disposable laptop.

I have a 2012 Air and love the way she feels. She is not going to the scrap heep soon. I played with a 12 inch unit in Australia last week and loved the feel.

nkedel

You might take a look at the refurb deals on the Dell Venue 11. It's a short-term, flawed, machine, but with the i5 models going on sale for $400 refurbs it's by far the cheapest full-power Windows convertible out there and going to substantially outperform Atom-powered models.

Of the lower-powered Atom ones, the Surface 3 seems head and shoulders above ... well, less bad than... anything else on the Windows side, although that's a low bar.

Dubai Stu

Interesting thought. I will look into it and the price point isn't that different.

One thing I liked about the el cheapos was the battery life. You could go literally all day on the HP Atom unit. It also had USB charging. Obviously the machines were anemic, but sometimes weak is good. Apple certainly made this same compromise to get the extraordinary battery life on 12 inch MacBook.

nkedel

Yes, that is not going to be a win on the Venue 11; of that set, albeit a bit pricier than some other options, I still like the Surface 3. The new generation of quad-core Atoms are not completely horrible, speed-wise, and I can't say that much better of the Core M or the Y-model i3/i5.

dulcamara

I'm typing this in the Tapas Bar at the Kowloon Shangri-La on a 2012 MBA11. This machine has over 250K miles on it and things (battery life, the keyboard, the hinges ...) are showing their age/mileage. I have a new 12" MB (maxed out) on order.

I use my travel computer for writing (math papers/books), reading (ditto + regular books), video ( on-line courses, operas, cute movies of my nephews going in/out of jail ...), and wasting time on FT. I do not do 3D chemically reacting flow simulations or electronic structure computations on my roadie laptop, so amazing horsepower is not the objective. I watch video, but do not create or edit video.

I'm saving a little weight, getting a major battery life boost, and the extra screen resolution makes the letters much sharper when I read/write. The price is a bit steep, but nothing really out of bounds for something I'll carry on my back for 100K + miles/year.

Of course, if the 2016 MB Air comes in carbon fiber composite and weighs .5 Kgm, I'll get that suckah too.

deniah

Its somewhere between an ipad charger and the smaller macbook brick. With the usbc charging cord pluggable into the brick.

Presumably with the right usbc female to usb male adapter you could plug it into any under-current usb block for a trickle or atleast sustaining charge. The oem is only 5v/2.4A or 14v/2a afterall

nkedel

FWIW, I just ordered one on the latest sale. $400 even, i5-4300Y/8gb/256, plus $112 for the "mobile" keyboard base [which has another battery] on Amazon (plus sales tax in both cases, shipping was free.)

Won't have it until Weds, so no review yet.

aster

I'm not worried about the price, but rather whether the Surface 3 is worth giving a try for my wife now that her Air seems to be living out its last moments. Just wondering whether to stick to the same ol' same ol' or jump ship to something different.

Is it going to be a software-shock (in terms of OS) to move to the new machine? 99.9% of the time she will only be using a browser to check the web and write emails, so something with a decent screen yet portable and comfortable to type on (as decent as the Air at least) will be perfect. A touchscreen that is detachable seems like a bonus when typing isn't necessary...