steafler Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Hi guys, I have recently found out that there are macbook air clones on one of the famous chinese marketplaces. The specifications are roughly the same as 2012 MBA:CPU options: celeron-1037U / i3-3217U / i5-3317U RAM options: 2/4/8 GB HDD options: 64/128GB SSD 8000 mah battery 1366*768 13.3" screen I am wondering if anyone had one of these laptops matching these specs? Is it possible to install OS X on these laptops?How is the build quality? how is the battery life using osx? I wanted to discuss with you guys before ordering one of these. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Hi and Welcome to InsanelyMac forum! So, i don't see anything bad/good report or review about this machines. But if you want buy this machine your intention is would be to have a Hack with a MacBook appearance? Try searching the cost benefit. See more worth buying a machine with good settings but coming from a good manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steafler Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 Thank you for your reply. My intention for the laptop is having a portable laptop (I travel a lot and my current laptop weights around 3.5-4 kgs). These come at half the price of MacBook Airs. I currently use linux as my main operating system and would love to try os x on a stable machine to see if it suits my needs. In addition to this, having an exact replica with aluminium body running OS X will almost be the same as purchasing an actual macbook air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 This is a good explanation, and fair. With this specification above, I agree, it's a good hardware. But I (and you) do not know about the other things that are also important, such as: WiFi controller, Bluetooth etc... And as you said about their travels, most of the time you will need to use all these features, not bothering to buy USB dongles for WiFi and Bluetooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steafler Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Thanks for the reply. Yes you are right about not knowing the quality of the components. That being said, I don't use bluetooth on my laptops at all, the wifi modules are quite cheap nowadays and can be easily replaced. The only question I now have in mind is the general build quality and motherboard/battery quality of these laptops. Does the mother boards die easily? most of the laptops I had (hp, acer, toshiba) eventually failed because of overheating issues which I am not sure if somehow related to motherboards? I would love to hear yours and other forum members' thoughts on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styrian Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hello! By using the platform search in the laptop section with arguments "Chinese clone" you can find some your question matching threads. Amoung the matches is this post: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/298293-chinese-air-clone/?hl=%2Bchinese+%2Bclone&do=findComment&comment=2022831 Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VirusX Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hi, I would recommend just buying 'the real deal'. Apple selects (usually) only high quality components und you can be sure that it will 'just work'. Especially when you're traveling and/or working with it, you won't want to deal with little quirks. My MacBook air from 2011 still runs like a charm, it is silent and fast. If you don't want to spend so much money for a new one, try getting a refurbished one or last years (or even older) model. Sometimes they're still sold new. You should probably wait a few days - there are rumors that Apple might introduce a new retina MacBook air. That might drop the prices for older models even more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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