Would you buy a MacBook Air and if so which one?

[Grateful11]

My wife wants a MacBook Air. On the Refurb page they start at $999.
Looks like the main options are processor speed(of course) and HD
options. As far as HD option they have: 80GB 4200-rpm PATA hard drive,
120GB SATA hard drive, 64GB solid-state drive, and 128GB solid-state drive.
Would like to stay under $1200 so that would get one with a 64GB SSHD.
I'd like to make sure it has the 9400M graphics, I noticed at least one
has Intel GMA X3100. Is the Air due an update, I don't keep up with
them myself.
Thanks!

BTW: What's the difference between the PATA and SATA drives and is the
SSD going to give a decent speed boost?

Also I could use one of my sons educational discounts and save $100
on a new one.

[C(-)ris]

Nope, no way. The 13" MacBook Pro is so much more of a computer and isn't that much heavier.

[bik]

I wouldn't get one with a 4200 rpm hard drive. Way slower than normal, 2.5-inch hard drives. I'd get one with an SSD.

If there is any chance of wanting to play games, get the 9400M graphics. If gaming is out, I would count the SSD as more valuable than the graphics.

[microchip]

Depends.
I wound up going with the MBP and while it's great and powerful, lugging around a 4.5LB computer along with a few textbooks(or even my wide assortment of spiral notebooks) is too heavy for me.

The big reason I went with the Pro was the battery life. It's to each their own. I'd recommend the Pro and something else. I'm waiting on the Vaio X with it's 1.5LB awesomeness.

[Black]

At one point I would have said "yes", but my netbook does anything I would have wanted an AIR for. I don't use a laptop for serious computing though.

[RAMd®d]

I need some sleep.

[jdc]

has she felt it compared to a new 13" MBP?

[RAMd®d]

I like the Air, but it's still a little pricey for the mileage I'd get out of it.

Since the display is the same size as my MB, it will be a 13" MBP for me.

I would go with a faster HD than the 4200. If the HD is easy to swap out, I'd get a SATA compatible Air. You can always upgrade to a bigger HD or an SSD later.

I don't remember what the minimum graphics card is to take advantage of all Snow Leopard goodness (OpenGL and GSD) but I'd want that in the Air, if it's available. The 9400M is needed for QuickTime H.264 acceleration. Such a graphics card would allow Snow to had of some of the computing to the graphics chip, helping out the CPU. This might help the Air run cooler, as some people complained about it getting hot and slowing down considerably.

PATA drives top out at 320G and I think the SSDs are SATA. PATA HDs are so last week. Some light reading about PATA vs SATA.

The Air just had a refresh when the 13" MPBs were introduced, so I don't see an update coming anytime soon.

Regardless, you don't want a 4200rpm HD, so PATA is out anyway.

If your wife is happy with computing-lite, the Air with a 64GB SSD looks to be a good move. While it *is* a computer, it's forte is being a very lightweight "Internet device" . Surfing, email, syncing your 'Phone, etc. I'm sure it will run Excel, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, PowerPoint, and Word but again- computing-lite.

[Speedy]

The 64 GB SSD can be pretty tight so I would go with the larger SSD.

My elderly mother-in-law in Mexico City has my sister-in-laws and brother-in-law stay on alternate nights. She wanted them to have a laptop and asked me to bring one. They are all Winblows users so naturally I brought Macs. Used 17" and 15" MacBook Pros, a white MacBook and a MacBook Air.

My BIL stays the most nights so he got to choose. It took him all of 10 seconds to choose the Air (1.8 GHZ, 64 MB SSD.) I tried to talk him out of it because the computer won't be leaving the MIL's home. Nope, the Air was it (with XP installed via Fusion). He isn't particularly computer savvy so my SIL's husband (who is an engineer and uses at least three Winblows laptops) went over to install appropriate Winblows software and now he also wants an Air to use when he travels.

[Doc]

I don't know anyone who is happy with their Air after the first few weeks.

It's very light, but it's painfully slow, the lack of an optical drive cripples it and the lack of connectivity options is painful and expensive (buying USB adapters) to deal with.

Sneaker-net and flash drives help ease the pain.