Is a 2011 MacBook Air/Pro still fast?

I've been thinking about getting a 2011 MacBook Air or Pro since they're in my price range. Are they still pretty fast? There's not much that I really do on the computer except for some web browsing really. Will these hold up well?

stevemawyer wrote:
What version of OS X do you use? I've heard that Yosemite can be slower.
I run Lion (10.7.5) on my 2011 MBP. The 2010 is partitioned with Snow leopard, Lion and Mt. Lion installed. That is used as a test platform most of the time.
Ciao.

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Mid-2011 MacBook Air EFI still messed up 8-9-14

Ok, so now my MacBook Air reboots itself while the clamshell is shut. Last time it had been shut for a couple of hours when I heard the OS X reboot noise. Now, I'm getting a Sleep Error...

Ok, so now my MacBook Air reboots itself while the clamshell is shut. Last time it had been shut for a couple of hours when I heard the OS X reboot noise. Now, I'm getting a Sleep Error...

Can mid 2011 macbook air use early 2011 macbook pro's RAM?

I just upgraded my macbook pro's ram from 4gb to 8gb.
Can I put my stock early 2011 mbp's ram into a mid 2011 macbook air?

No. The MacBook Air's RAM isn't upgradable, except when configuring a model in the online Apple Store.
(69186)

I've got a power cable from my 2011 macbook air which I would like to use as a spare cable for my new 2013 macbook pro, but the design has changed. Is there an adapter available so that I can use it?

I've got a power cable from my 2011 macbook air which I would like to use as a spare cable for my new 2013 macbook pro, but the design has changed. Is there an adapter available so that I can use it?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Use the MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter > http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD504ZM/A/magsafe-to-magsafe-2-converter?fnode =51 However, note that the MacBook Air doesn't provide enough energy to charge the MacBook Pro with Retina display, so it could not work

Will a macbook pro 2011 charger end fit a 2011 macbook air

qill a macbook 2011 pro charger fit the macbook air 2011

Early and Late 2011 MacBooks Pro and the Mid 2011 MacBook Air use the same MagSafe port, so you can use the MacBook Pro charger with your MacBook Air

Mid-2011 Macbook Air with very slow wifi yet with OSX 10.9.1

Yes, I am opening yet another topic on this pretty old issue because I am too confused with all that I have read so far (as also have not found a recent case similar to mine).
I have a mid-2011 Macbook Air i5 13'.
My home wireless network works just fine and smooth with a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo and a humble Acer Aspire One D270 netbook.
With my Macbook Air, connection is useless. If I want to search something on Google, I'd better off buying myself an air ticket and visiting their HQs to ask them personally to do the search.
I have tried some "workarounds" with no success. Sometimes the internet seems to get a bit better (I said *a bit*), but nothing even slightly near what I get with my other two computers.
Where should I begin from?

Please take all the following steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved. Back up all data before making any changes.
Step 1
Take the applicable steps in this support article. The Wireless Diagnostics program generates a large file of information about your system, which would be used by Apple Engineering in case of a support incident. Don't post the contents here.
Step 2
Run Software Update and install all available updates for OS X or your computer's firmware.
Step 3
If you're not using a wireless keyboard or trackpad, disable Bluetooth by selecting Turn Bluetooth Off from the menu with the Bluetooth icon. If you don't have that menu, open the Bluetooth preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked Show Bluetooth in menu bar. Test. Continue if you find that Wi-Fi is faster with Bluetooth disabled.
From that same menu, select Open Bluetooth Preferences. If the box labeled Discoverable is checked, uncheck it. Click the Advanced button, and in the sheet that opens, uncheck the top three boxes, if any are checked. Click OK. Enable Bluetooth and test again.
If the application called "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" is running, quit it (not applicable to OS X 10.9 or later.)
Step 4
Open the Network pane in System Preferences and make a note of your settings in the Wi-Fi service. It may be helpful to take screenshots of the various tabs in the preference pane. If the preference pane is locked, unlock it by clicking the padlock icon and entering your administrator password. Delete Wi-Fi from the service list on the left by selecting it and clicking the minus-sign button at the bottom. Then recreate the service by clicking the plus-sign button and following the prompts.
Step 5
Reset the System Management Controller.
Step 6
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service center.

Which Microphone for New Mid 2011 Macbook Air 13"

Please recommend a few USB condensor microphones for voice/vocal recordings that is sure to work with the New Mid 2011 Macbook Air.
My 3.5mm to USB adapters that work on my 2009 Macbook Pro with Leopard OS, no longer works with Lion OS
Ill be using this with GarageBand, iMovie & Audacity. Previously I'd use my Azden SMX-10 with the adapter. (the Azden is also used with my Canon DSLR).
Thanks in advance.

It is entirely possible, as many have known from day one (as ifixit's first teardown revealed). Unlike the unupgradeable memory, the SSD is a discrete expansion card that is removeable with just one screw, after removing the case cover. It is however debateable as to whether such an expansion is worth the possible risk of making demonstrable changes to the MBA whilst still under warranty. So you may want to stave off consideration for a while.
I made the upgrade recently on my older 2010 MBA, and it was easier than upgrading the HDD on my old MacBook Pro.
Here OWC/Mac Sales has kits and instruction videos.

No AirPlay icon on mid 2011 macbook air with a new Apple TV

Hi. I just bought a brand new Apple TV. I own a mid 2011 macbook air on which I've installed mountain lion OS X. both the apple TV and my macbook air are connected to the same wireless network, yet i dont have the AirPlay icon on my macbook. I'm able to play music from my mac's iTunes library, and even tough the homesharing on iTunes is on, I dont have the airplay icon so I can't stream movies\videos\pictures which are not in my iTunes library.

About AirPlay and Airplay Mirroring
AirPlay Mirroring requires a second-generation Apple TV or later, and is supported on the following Mac models: iMac (Mid 2011 or newer), Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer), MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer), and MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer). For non-qualifying Macs you can try using Air Parrot.
Several Apple Articles Regarding AirPlay
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd gen)- How to use AirPlay Mirroring
How to set up and configure AirPort Express for AirPlay and iTunes
iTunes- Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring
iTunes- Using AirPlay
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd gen)- Understanding AirPlay settings
About AirPlay Mirroring in OS X Mountain Lion
iTunes 10- About playing music with AirPlay
Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring
Using AirPlay
Thanks to the $15 Beamer, AirPlay streaming is still possible on Macs that do not support Airplay and mirroring.
Other solutions are the Air Parrot, StreamToMe, and AirServer.

Why can't my mid-2011 macbook air detect thunderbolt 1.2.1 update

I'm using a 13 inches mid-2011 macbook air with OS X 10.7.4
on 12 June, I found the update of Thunderbolt 1.2 in the system update center and I patched it.
Luckliy, this patch didn't kill my kernel as it did to many other machines. But I'm still a bit worried when I learned that this updates messed up a lot of users' machines.
Now applle announces the newer version of thunderbolt 1.2.1 to correct what was wrong. But no matter how hard I try to check system updates, I don't have it.
I know I could try to download it on the website, but is there any valid reason that I don't get this patch? Will install in creating new problems?

Yes this should be the case but still I'm troubled.
It is the patch that I'm using (Thunderbolt 1.2) that actually causes the problem of kernel.
It doesn't happen on my machine but it did influence a lot of others.
I feel this version could be problematic, becuase the release note of Thunderbolt 1.2.1 says clearly (if I remember correctly) even if you have already installed 1.2 but haven't experienced any problem, you should still upgrade to the version 1.2.1.
But this version is not in the updating center and according to other users' reports, it is not compatible with the new Retina macbook pro... That brings even more doubt...
All in all, I just don't want my machine to stop working suddenly...

I got a mid 2011 macbook air 13 with 128gb ssd is it possible to upgrade my storage?

i got a mid 2011 macbook air 13 with 128gb ssd is it possible to upgrade my storage?

It is entirely possible, as many have known from day one (as ifixit's first teardown revealed). Unlike the unupgradeable memory, the SSD is a discrete expansion card that is removeable with just one screw, after removing the case cover. It is however debateable as to whether such an expansion is worth the possible risk of making demonstrable changes to the MBA whilst still under warranty. So you may want to stave off consideration for a while.
I made the upgrade recently on my older 2010 MBA, and it was easier than upgrading the HDD on my old MacBook Pro.
Here OWC/Mac Sales has kits and instruction videos.

Best External hard drive for 2011 macbook air

i recently recieved a 2011 macbook air and heard that it is easier on the computer to use an external hard drive
if this is true what would be the best reasonably priced one to buy?
thanks

http://www.hgst.com/external-drives/mobile/touro-mobile-pro
This I have found is a very good "bang for the buck" drive. 7200 RPM drive, and USB 3.0, if later you can advantage of it. If you want anything faster, you will have to raise your budget quite a bit going with a Thunderbolt drive, in which case I would recommend the Seagate GoFlex.
You may also want to consider a LaCie's Rugged Triple in 500 GB 7200 RPM configuration, and use the $29.00 Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter.
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10553

Endless Boot loop on the new 2011 MacBook Air

Has anyone experienced the Endless Boot loop syndrome on the new 2011 MacBook Air?
Mine is the 13" 4/128 model.
Tried the SMC reset but to no avail!
Am I the first one on earth?
Please help, Apple world!

It's not a hard core gaming rig, but it plays all the FPS games I like, quite well. It handles hi-def video, just fine. I use it for Photoshop, and it is quite fast. For web browsing, it has no equal. The 2010 maxed out 11" would do it all, except for some hi-def video (1080P), which it would stutter. But my new 2011 maxed 13", is perfect for video (1080P=no problem).
I really don't think a MBP will give you as much, on a daily basis. It (the MBP) has only a few advantages, and except for the built in optical drive (which you can still go external, if need be), none of the advantages you will miss even slightly.
I think the MBP would only serve me, if it spent most of the time deskbound, but I would still need an SSD. Once you have had an SSD, you can't go back. Then, you would have a really pricey MBP.

Mid 2011 Macbook Air Painfully slow.

Mid 2011 Macbook Air Painfully slow.
Hey everyone. I am writing about my 13 inch Mid 2011 Macbook Air.
Recently it has been extremely slow and on occasion has not started up.
I have reset the PRAM and SMC already, yet it is still very slow. I have a couple theories about what might have caused it, are they plausible?
Theory 1: It’s a software problem. I tried to upgrade to 10.8.2 but halfway through the upgrade the computer restarted and somehow I was still on 10.8.1. For fear of a big issue happening I didn’t try to upgrade again. Perhaps it is a flaw in Apple’s software update?
The important thing to note about this update is that I tried to install 10.8.2 around a month or two weeks BEFORE I started having problems. So if these issues were due to 10.8.2’s failed update then it certainly was a delayed reaction.
I would of course like to update to 10.8.2 BUT as my computer is acting EXTREMELY slow and having trouble turning on occasionally I am worried the software update will completely brick the machine. Is that possible? Should I actually finish through with the software update?
Theory 2: It was an electricity problem.
The computer died when I was sitting at a café plugged into their wall sockets. A few days later when I came back to the same spot with my old macbook which is now being used in lieu of the Air it suddenly turned black for a little while. Sensing it might be an electricity surge or something with their system I unplugged the cable. I am not sure if that was paranoia though.
Can an electricity surge or a bad outlet fry a computer? Can it fry the ram so the computer is extremely slow? Does that theory hold any water?
Thanks for your help diagnosing this problem.
All the best.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Copy or drag — do not type — the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.) You can omit the final line ending in “$”.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}'
This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'
Step 4
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null
Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

My 2011 MacBook Air suddenly takes a long time to shutdown!

My 13-inch Mid 2011 MacBook Air running OS X 10.7.2 used to take less than 2 seconds to shut down. Recently it's been taking a lot longer time to shut down. Usually it takes 15-20 seconds, but occassionally never shuts down even after waiting for over 10+ hours. I just see the loading wheel keep on spinning. I've checked the disk permissions, ran ONYX to clean up everything, reset PRAM, and read through the system logs. I couldn't find any reason why it's taking so long to shut down.. I'm trying to avoid the last resort of reinstalling OSX 10.7.2.
Does anyone have any ideas on what's slowing down the shut down process?
Thank you!!

I had a similar "problem". Before the issue, my MBA would literally take less than 2 seconds to completely shutdown. Then after installing some 3rd party software, shutdown time increased to 10-15 seconds (the screen would go white and then I'd get the whirling activity symbol). Really not a huge deal but it kind of bothered me and I thought it could be some inefficient process going on.
Short answer: There must be some software process that is taking longer to release the resources that it is using before the computer can shut down. (I'm no expert, so I don't know if I described that accurately)
It's likely some 3rd party software that you may have installed or some setting in a program. In my case, I installed 3rd party software that was a user-written driver for the Xbox 360 controller. I mounted the .dmg and intiated the Installer, then chose "Show Files" from the Files menu of Installer to see exactly where the files were being installed. Deleted all the files and was still getting longer shutdown times.
Went into Activity Monitor and chose "All Processes" from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner instead of just "My Processes" and I noticed one process that had a name that was related to the 3rd party driver I had installed, found its location and deleted it. Apparently, I missed a file location in the Startup Items folder of the current user's Library folder. After deleting that file, shutdown now takes literally less than 2 seconds as before.

My mid-2011 MacBook Air bricks itself after 10.7.2 update

I have a new MacBook Air (11") that was working just great, until today. Today, I used Software Update to install the updates, which included 10.7.2 as well as the recue partition update.
I did everything you're supposed to do, and when it rebooted, the gray screen comes up, and it shows the spinny doohickey on the bottom showing that it's working. Then, suddenly, up pops a big "no" icon (the circle with the slash through it) after about 60 seconds.
It simply doesn't do anything after that.
Hard-power-off, wait, power-on, repeat, same thing.
So I reboot with cmd-R to get the rescue partition. It works fine; I ask it to re-install Mac OS X, which then takes about 45 minutes (argh). Finally, Mac OS X is back, the machine is nicely booted up, all my files are there, everything is good.. But of course, the reinstall took me back to 10.7.1.
All I want to do is upgrade my fricking iPhone to IOS 5.0, but I can't do that without knowing I can sync which requires iCloud which of course requires 10.7.2. So I *have* to re-do the upgrade.
Back to Software Update, back to installing 10.7.2. And .. 20 minutes later .. back to bricked MacBook Air.
What a waste of my time. What a failure, Apple. I'm very very very very very unhappy that I've wasted so much time just to update my damned iPhone to IOS 5. I'm still without an update. Now I'm trying to figure out how to move my iTunes to another machine -- not nearly as obvious as it should be. ARGH. I'm going to throw this MacBook Air off the balcony in about 10 minutes. :-(
Thanks for listening.
Steve

Wow, you're right -- I can't believe it. I just really can't believe they would screw up so badly, yet when I search for "10.7.2 filevault" I don't find more than a couple of articles about it on the web (including this thread). Why on earth wouldn't Apple have put up some kind of warning about this? I can't believe it, really. It's insane.
On my newly-functional 10.7.2 MBA, I wanted to test your theory and so I turned on filevault 2 and encrypted the main disk again. It of course wanted me to reboot. So I rebooted. And *blammy* -- same error / boot failure. Wow. Also, interestingly, even on a working 10.7.2 system, you can't mount a USB drive that was encrypted using Filevault 2 encryption (in Disk Utility, e.g., as a "Mac OS X, journalled, encrypted" volume that was encrypted with DiskUtility on Lion 10.7.1). I still have a 10.7.1 machine that I will not upgrade until I can at least decrypt the disk -- but right now, Disk Utility tells me it fails decrypting the external USB disk so I'm hosed!!! ARGH.
Now, going back to the booting problem after upgrade -- for anyone's reference who's still keeping score -- you can easily recover from the booting problem with upgrading a Filevault 2 root drive: Power-cycle the machine and then hold down cmd-r to bring up the Lion Recovery application. Within Lion Recovery, choose "Disk Utility", and then click on the (as yet unmounted, still encrypted) root hard drive to select it. Then go to the File menu, and choose "Turn off encryption" for this disk. It then prompts you for the password, and if you enter it, *blammy* you're back up and running again.
In my case, the disk had only just begun encrypting so the action was instant, and then once it confirmed the disk was now decrypted, I simply chose "Restart" from the Apple menu, and I was back in business (no hairy re-installs to deal with). If this is an already-encrypted volume, presumably it'll take you a bit longer (the normal 45-minutes to 2 hours) to decrypt it. But at least no more installing software -- it'll "just work".
Maybe I'll go post a simpler version of these instructinos on the other threads, but this is the simplest fix -- just turn off filevault 2 from within Lion Recovery, basically, and that fixes the boot problems.
Apple, if you're listening, you really really really need to say something to your users so they know. Many many many MBA users are likely to have still not upgraded. You can prevent them from hating you and your products by making sure they don't screw the pooch here. Short version: Mid-2011 MacBook Airs running Filevault 2 WILL NOT BOOT after 10.7.2 update; so users should turn off Filevault2 before upgrading.
Steve

Is a 2011 MacBook Air/Pro still fast?

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