I've been using a 13" MBA as my main computer for the past year, and the 4GB max is really limiting for virtualization. The laptop can choke with with all of my usual tools open (Virtualbox/Photoshop/Chrome/Terminal).
Yup, I know I can get away with 4GB if I'm careful because that's what my current 2007 MBP has. But will I still be able to use the Air for work when it's that old? I suspect 4GB will be comically small in 2015.
The modern SSDs in the new Airs makes a colossal difference when swapping. I've never had any problems with only having 4GB RAM on my previous gen 11" MBA, and I'm regularly running a host of apps and doing active app development with Xcode.
Swapping at 2-400MB/s is far less painful than swapping at ~15MB/s.
More precisely, they switched all minis to the "mini server" case (server was introduced in late 2009 and did not have a DVD drive, replacing it with a second HDD instead)
It'll be interesting to see from the upcoming tear-downs if they all have the hardware/cabling to support two internal drives. The $799 one gets the nice graphics and an i7 option but no dual drive option--will someone be able to max it out with a second drive aftermarket?
last year i stepped away from the apple brand. just much happier going the FOSS route.
i now have a thinkpad x220 running gentoo with the following options: IPS display, 2.7GHz core i7, 8GB 10666 RAM, 160GB intel SSD, bluetooth3, usb3, 3 usb ports (one always on), sdhc, express slot, displayport, vga, and a 15 hour battery. size is 12.5" and weight is about 3.5 pounds.
i also got a docking station for it (oh i missed those when i was a mac user), which is connected to a 2560x1440 27" display via a display port. the intelHD3000 graphics card is the same one used on the airs and for the integrated graphics on the pros so video performance is similar, while other hardware performance is much better.
i got a reasonably good deal on all of it and i likely wouldn't go back to apple with this setup. the only [minor] annoyance is that the 12.5" screen is only 1366x768. it could be a little better, but it's workable and as i wanted an ultraportable, it's not bad. the IPS option really makes for a beautiful screen.
if i connect a monitor directly to the displayport of the x220, the monitor realised the computer put doesn't display anything. if i do so with the vga-port all works fine!
did you ever connect a monitor to the displayport a get it work? if so, can you give me some help?
Gosh, I seem to remember brand new Airs being released recently (at which point I bought an 11"). Hasn't it only been since last Fall that they've refreshed the lineup?
And new Mac Minis (Whose pages are also currently broken...)