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Is the MacBook Air suitable for PS/LR work?

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wklee

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There's going to be a Back to the Mac event on Oct 20th and the rumor is that OS X Lion (10.7) will be previewed and there will be a new MacBook Air. with an 11.5" screen. I'm wondering if I should run Photoshop and/or Lightroom on it.

I'm also unsure if I can get used to a glossy screen.

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Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
 
The current MacBook Air has 2 GB of RAM (non-expandable), which may be marginal for heavy Photoshop and Lightroom work. I'd suggest waiting to see if there is a new Air that can take 4 or 8 GB of RAM.
 
The MacBook Air has a pretty low powered CPU and not much RAM. I use it for a traveling computer to feed Lightroom until I get back to my Mac Pro. Its OK for photo sorting and some simple image adjustments, but its not really a good solution. You would be happier with a MacBook Pro 15" and the upgraded video card.

--
Bob
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Bob Rockefeller
Richmond Hill, Georgia
 
wklee said:
There's going to be a Back to the Mac event on Oct 20th and the rumor is that OS X Lion (10.7) will be previewed and there will be a new MacBook Air. with an 11.5" screen. I'm wondering if I should run Photoshop and/or Lightroom on it.
Click to expand...
My thought as well, but I will not even try, until I have heard feedback from other people with hands on. I fear the screen will be too small - perhaps too few pixels, the RAM too limited and the "harddisk" too small to handle much RAW files. Besides the graphic card may be too slow.

I have been eyeing the Macbook Air since it came out, and I have the cash ready to pay for one, once the specs get up to a decent level, but it has not yet happened.

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I would think a new release of the MBAir would have 4GB RAM we will know on Wednesday. I had the 1st gen MBAir it wasn't ideal for photoshop it would run it, I'm considering getting one for travel doing light PS and LR work.
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see my profile/plan for more info
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The current MacBook Air is certainly capable of being used for Photoshop - it is more powerful than my early Macbook Pro (2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, GeForce 9400M compared to 2.0Ghz Core Duo, 2Gb RAM, ATI x1600) which runs it OK.

That said, it is not an ideal machine as you'd really want a bigger screen, but you can always hook up an external monitor. If there is an 11" MBA released, then that would be worse, depending upon the resolution.

Steve
 
with the same money, I will go for a macbook 13", the air is only good for web stuff, I just bought a macbook pro i7, the speed is amazing, even with non native programs like cs1 I feel that I can fly, I just tried the aperture 3 triad version, the speed of converting d300 raw files are so fast.
wklee said:
There's going to be a Back to the Mac event on Oct 20th and the rumor is that OS X Lion (10.7) will be previewed and there will be a new MacBook Air. with an 11.5" screen. I'm wondering if I should run Photoshop and/or Lightroom on it.

I'm also unsure if I can get used to a glossy screen.

--
Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
Click to expand...
 
For travel it's good to have as light and small a computer as possible. The idea of the MacBook Air is as a road warrior machine usually as a secondary computer.

Looking at current ultralight PC laptops (non-netbooks, $600+ category) specs for these include 4GB RAM and 1366 x 768 screen resolution. I think Apple will take the next step with the 11.6 MBAir, 256 video RAM and SSD only drive option i5 and 17 options. My hope is for $1000-$1500 price point. We'll know Wednesday.

Cult of Mac says today:
  • Battery life rumored to be 8-10 hours, up from 5 in the current MacBook Air.
  • Thinner and lighter form factor with fewer curves.
  • Two USB ports, SD card slot, straight-style MagSafe, Mini DisplayPort.
  • Base model with 2 GB of RAM, but upgradeable. SSD also upgradeable.
  • NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics.
  • Unconfirmed CPU claims of 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz options, but no claim of a specific processor family is offered.
  • Suggestion of $999 for 11.6-inch model and $1100 for the 13.3-inch model, but Cult of Mac believes something like $1100/$1400 to be more likely.
--
see my profile/plan for more info
http://lisaostaphoto.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/losta
 
One cheaper laptop for culling and another for work. I need to replace a few aging Macs and PCs at home and at work.

--
Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
 
If the rumored MB Air has USB 3.0 ports which I heard it might then it could be worth it.
--
Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
 
wklee said:
If the rumored MB Air has USB 3.0 ports which I heard it might then it could be worth it.
--
Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
Click to expand...
I doubt it will have, all the substantial rumor sources haven't mentioned it.

You could argue that this new MBA is 2.0.
 
wklee said:
If the rumored MB Air has USB 3.0 ports which I heard it might then it could be worth it.
Click to expand...
There are some form factor issues with support for USB 3. The current MacBook Air can only accommodate 1/8" drives, like the ones in the iPods. Not the 2.5" in most laptops, and certainly not the very fast 3.5" desktop drives.

If the new MacBook Air is, as is rumored, even thinner and lighter, it probably will still use 1.8" drives. If a buyer buys it with the hard drive option, there may be some question as to whether a USB 3 port would provide any real benefit also given the RAM and CPU constraints of the machine. With the SSD option there might be a benefit.
 
New MB Airs are out today. There are 11" and 13" models. Both have high-resolution (for their size) displays, and can take 4 GB of RAM. The 11" one comes wtih 64 or 128 GB of flash; the 13" one with 128 or 256 GB. There are no HD options. Weights are 2.3 lbs and 2.9 lbs for the 11" and 13" models, respectively.

Ports appear to be the same as on the old MBA (no FireWire, no USB 3, no wired Ethernet), except that the 13" model picked up a SD card slot.
 
Maybe, but given that these are using flash rather than conventional drives, I'm not sure how that specs out in real life. It will be interesting to see once people start using them.
 
I just ordered the 11.6" MacBook Air with 4 gb ram 128 flash mem and 1.6 processor. I thought the price was quite reasonable and similar in price to a 12" lenovo with a conventional HD.

For the size it should be good for light LR and PS on the road. I ado have 13 &15 MBPros and a Mac Pro so this is for the road. This is just what I was hoping for. It should arrive early next week.
--
see my profile/plan for more info
http://lisaostaphoto.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/losta
 
In Singapore, untested products like the new MB Air usually take about 6 weeks for regulatory approval and for it to reach the stores. CTO items take about 2 -3 weeks after approval.

Anyone use FaceTime?

I'd be interest in your opinions on the MB Air and FaceTime.

--
Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
 
all my external drives are firewire so I wanted a laptop with firewire. I think you can use usb or firewire, not sure thought, I hooked them all up so long ago. But if it's not my main computer do I really need firewire? These look pretty good for the price. The other option for me is a Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo at $1019.00. What do you think???? My other option was just an refurb ipad at $449.00
Katz
Tom_N said:
New MB Airs are out today. There are 11" and 13" models. Both have high-resolution (for their size) displays, and can take 4 GB of RAM. The 11" one comes wtih 64 or 128 GB of flash; the 13" one with 128 or 256 GB. There are no HD options. Weights are 2.3 lbs and 2.9 lbs for the 11" and 13" models, respectively.

Ports appear to be the same as on the old MBA (no FireWire, no USB 3, no wired Ethernet), except that the 13" model picked up a SD card slot.
Click to expand...
--



Money can buy you a pretty good dog,
but it can't buy the wag of his tail...
Josh
Billings
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