Decided To Keep New Refub'd Macbook Air

I really don't like Fedex.  But it didn't start out that way.  I think it's Fedex that doesn't like me first.  Finally, my refurbished 11.6" Macbook Air powered by 1.6Ghz Intel chip with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD got to my office.

After a night of frustration, I thought I finally came to a conviction to have this Air shipped back.  That was just how frustrated I was with Fedex.  That's another story but for now, I'm very excited about my new purchase.  Instead of the iPad 2, it's the Air.  

I know that a week or so ago, I was leaning towards the Macbook Pro but after some debating, I decided I should wait and see if Apple will change up the design more with the next revision.

And the Air serves a specific purpose that I don't need a 15" or 17" screen with the added weight for.  I'll get into that a bit more when I have some time with the Air.  

Now, you'll noticed that I got a refub unit.  I did it because I have had two other refub Macs from Apple that I was very happy with.  One was an aluminum Powerbook 1Ghz and another a Mac mini and both are still a part of my computing arsenal at home (relegated to media duties).  

On top of that, I saved about about $230 or 15% off a brand new Air with the exact same configuration.  Plus, as strange as it sounds, knowing that Apple will ship out the refub unit work, I do get a peace of mind knowing that it's been used, fixed, and tested.  The only thing that I would like is to be able to find out what went wrong with this unit in the beginning.  Kind of like a Carfax thing for Macs.

And you might ask, why now? This Air revision is already 5 months old, probably at the half-way point of its life before Apple comes out with an update. 

So being able to save $230 on a 5 month-old machine is pretty.  And I'm not all that convinced that the next Air update will be a drastically different version.  From the 2010 Macbook Pros to the 2011 versions, there was not that big of a different  On top of that, my Air has a Nvidia integrated graphics card whereas an new update months from now will use the same Intel graphics setup as the 13" Macbook Pro which some benchmarks show is not up to par.  

And I'm a pretty big battery life guy.  5 Hours is the rating Apple gave the 11.6" Air.  I don't see the next version doing much better if at all.  

All in all, after swallowing the anger stemming from having to deal with Fedex, I'm glad I kept it. Obviously, I'll know in a few days if the Air will be able to replace my late-2008 unibody Macbook