I'm toying with the idea of replacing my girlfriends 2011 Pro with a new Air. Her pro has an SSD in it, and I upgraded the RAM. I am a little put off by the small amount of RAM in the air, is it a concern? I understand it can't be upgraded so I am half tempted to get her a Pro Retina with 8GB of RAM.
Macbook air 13" viable replacement for 2011 pro?
- Thread starter ChrisD.
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You can spec 8GB in it. My 13" air has a 256GB SSD and 8GB, it's phenomenal, I can't get enough of the battery life for general use / office work.
I presume you're talking about a 2011 13" MBP?
I made this move (2011 MBP 13" with a Crucial m4 128GB and 8GB RAM) to the MBA in my signature. Battery life, weight, size and the higher resolution display are all great upgrades if you need them, otherwise I'd hold off. Performance is virtually identical between the two machines.
I made this move (2011 MBP 13" with a Crucial m4 128GB and 8GB RAM) to the MBA in my signature. Battery life, weight, size and the higher resolution display are all great upgrades if you need them, otherwise I'd hold off. Performance is virtually identical between the two machines.
Caporegime
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I saw the 13" air and the 13" pro side by side at xmas and the screen on the pro is so much nicer I can't understand why you'd get the air.
Battery life (not sure the difference is huge in real life though), size (there is still a difference, mainly in thickness), display (1280x800 is too low for some, and running at non-divisible scaled resolutions results in blurriness which may be irritating), and of course, price (what's the point in spending £150 more if you can't attribute any value to the features you've paid extra for?).
That said, just looking at them from a technical perspective, the rMBP is the more appealing choice.
Blurriness is not an issue on the Pro, even if you want to run at 1600x1050, as there are so many pixels you can't make out the scaling effect. I honestly can't tell the difference between 'Retina' and scaled resolutions on mine.
The battery life on the Air is really good, but when you can get 9+ hours on the Pro, is the extra hours on the Air really necessary? Size and weight is also negligible because the Pro is not even half a pound heavier, and actually has a smaller overall footprint than the Air.
I would always go with the Pro on the grounds that you get a significantly more powerful machine, can run on two external monitors without messing around with USB based solutions, and get a much better screen. That said, if it's only going to be used for web browsing, email, etc, then the cheaper machine is probably more sensible.
You may not see it but that doesn't mean that others can't. At the end of the day we aren't dealing with in exactly divisible scaled resolution, therefore it isn't going to be perfect. Some see it, some don't. At native resolutions it looked great to me, however at scaled resolutions it did my eyes in. This is literally the only reason that I didn't wait for the Haswell MBP and went for the Air instead. This said, the Air is more than enough for me!
Yep, pretty much agree, though the battery life is there if you need it. Some people genuinely prefer the MBA because of the taper though, and it is a tad easier to carry if you're not going to use a bag.
Quite frankly if you want a machine that truly offers more performance a 15" rMBP is the better answer. The performance difference between the rMBP and MBA isn't colossal, but absolutely worth the premium if you want the expansion. You've summed it up nicely!
Soldato
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Just to add to kissenger I run my 13" retina at 1680*1050 and I really can't see any blurriness, I have actual tried for a long time to see if I can tell the difference. For me the retina display is easily worth the premium, and going back to anything that isn't retina just looks wrong, even my work monitors which are nice 1080p 24" panels don't look at sharp as the retina display and you can really tell.
On size and weigth, some days I get worried I forgot my laptop since my messenger bag is too damn light. This is usually with the laptop + charger + food. It really is crazy light and thin, built till feels very solid and dense, which us a good middle ground.
But if you can't notice the screen difference between retina and air then I would say it might not be worth it, but I personally think almost everyone would notice it and love it.
On size and weigth, some days I get worried I forgot my laptop since my messenger bag is too damn light. This is usually with the laptop + charger + food. It really is crazy light and thin, built till feels very solid and dense, which us a good middle ground.
But if you can't notice the screen difference between retina and air then I would say it might not be worth it, but I personally think almost everyone would notice it and love it.