"13 MacBook - Air or Pro?

Vtec9k

Vtec9k

Vtec9k

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Looking to replace my old 17" 2008 macbook pro with something a little lighter and more up to date. I can't really decide between the pro or waiting for a retina air to be released.

I'm think the CPU on the air might be a little weak and an upgraded air (1.7Ghz, 8GB, 256SSD) is about the same price as a pro. I assume the retina one might be a bit more expensive and rumoured that it might only be 12" screen.

It would be used for a mix of home/work. Run a couple of lightweight VM's and a little coding but nothing too graphical or heavy.

Any advice from our apple experts here?
 
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If its your main machine I would go with the 13"rMBP, the screen is amazing and the extra horsepower is always nice.
 
Don't buy a 13" Air over a Retina Pro.

If the fabled 12" Retina Air ever makes an appearance then that will be God's Own Laptop, but until then it's the 13" rMBP.
 
I have had both and I prefer the rMBP. The air is amazingly light and portable but the rMBP is still nice and light and the extra power, ports and display outputs are very useful. The screen is also amazing.

I traded a 13" Air for a 13" rMBP and I am very glad I did.
 
There is hardly any difference speed wise between the current model Pros and Airs. The CPU is slightly faster but it's still a dual core and SSD and RAM are basically the same.

Really it boils down to whether a higher resolution screen or slightly smaller/lighter form factor is more important.

If the 13" Pro was a 15" Pro without the GFX card (and in a smaller package) then it would be a no brainer, but it's not unfortunately...
 
I'd say go with the Air, I bought a rMBP to replace a 2013 Air and ended up sending it back. The Air 'feels' nicer to use for me personally, and the form is better for transporting around, albeit not that much in it with respect to weight.

A large portion of me sending it back however was that the 13" rMBP was laggy on Mavericks, when Mavericks was first released. I've no idea if those issues have been resolved in the past 9 months or so, but the Air i'm using was considerably smoother in Mountain Lion.
 
Ended up picking up a rMBP. It was the screen that swung it, it really is fantastic and the extra .4kg is hardly noticeable.
 
I had the same decision to make. After seeing them in the flesh it was quite easy, the 13" rMBP is a very similar size and only slightly heavier so I went with that.
 
Ive had 15" RMP, 13" RMP and 13" air which im on now - i prefer the air out of the three, for what i do (similar) it does everything i need.

Im sure if a R-Air comes out id be all over that like stink on a dog.
 
13" MBA here, and no issues. Compared to my very expensive Dell Monitors and Dell Precision laptop (which cost about £5000!) the screen isn't up to the same standard but then, why would you expect it to at 1/5th the price and a different market area. However it is ultra-portable, has 8GB RAM, i7 CPU and 256GB SSD... I don't think there are any competitor products in the price bracket here that can compete.

The rMBP has downsides in cost and hard-drive, and the retina technology seems a bit flaky at times with ghosting and graphical glitches. It will improve, but not a chance i'm willing to take just yet.
 
rMBP... definitely...

The airs have rather annoying trackpad lag... use them side-by-side and you will never be able to go back to using an air!
 
A slight hijack of thread, but I've been thinking about this very similar question. Air v Pro but I plan to use it mainly for some vlogging, "amateur" music production, some Aperture use and work (mainly typing documents). I currently have an old macbook (white one) which has done me well but is just seriously struggling now.

I like the idea of the air because of its portability, size and battery life so I can work on the go. I'm just slightly worried about the horsepower in it that or it will heat up like a oven when tasked slightly. The pro obviously the screen is one of the biggest attractions along with the more horsepower.

Thoughts ?
 
Simple - unless you reall really need the lightness of the Air or really really need to be able to work for 10 hour+ without access to power then get the Air.

Otherwise the pro every. single. time.
 
In that case, I would definitely go for the Air especially if your going to be taking it back and forth to work etc. I have the Air and it's perfect for me..
 
uniQ said:
I had a 2012 MBA, now have a rMBP and never noticed any trackpad lag on the air.
Click to expand...

Use them side by side and you will... multiple units too, so it's not like I was using a broken air ;)

I don't think the CPU/GPU is quite up to the task that's asked of it... even at that low resolution.

It is instantly noticeable now and it's frustrating when trying to use an air.

Most laptops have trackpad lag, to be fair, rMBP is one of the best (lowest) for it.

If you don't notice it / it doesn't bother you... good for you... for both me and the wife, it's very noticeable... in fact, she is the one who drew my attention to it when we were looking... because I was trying to get an air for her ;)
 
Adsta said:
A slight hijack of thread, but I've been thinking about this very similar question. Air v Pro but I plan to use it mainly for some vlogging, "amateur" music production, some Aperture use and work (mainly typing documents). I currently have an old macbook (white one) which has done me well but is just seriously struggling now.

I like the idea of the air because of its portability, size and battery life so I can work on the go. I'm just slightly worried about the horsepower in it that or it will heat up like a oven when tasked slightly. The pro obviously the screen is one of the biggest attractions along with the more horsepower.

Thoughts ?
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I went with the pro over air... that extra horsepower makes a big difference... even when using something like serato dj to simply analyse tracks... the rMBP takes 1/2 to 1/3 of the time of an air to load the track fully.

Let alone encoding... get the quad core 15, you will notice the difference.

AtticusFinch said:
Simple - unless you reall really need the lightness of the Air or really really need to be able to work for 10 hour+ without access to power then get the Air.

Otherwise the pro every. single. time.
Click to expand...

The long battery life only really occurs under certain usage scenarios though... music production isn't really one of them ;)

A day at the office... my 15" 2.3 quad i7 with gtx750 lasts the whole day with 20-30% remaining... using general office documents, wifi on all the time, remote desktop, some simple use of design software, no standby.

Switch on vmware or music/dj apps and that falls to 4-6 hours usually.

Use the CPU fully and it gets about 2.5 hours, with the likes of encoding or image conversions.

The 13/15 rMBP won't fall far behind the air in general use and you have the extra horsepower when you need it, wonderful life from these laptops.
 
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