HELP MBP or MPA for the same price? Or MBP with SSD?

Chris344 · 25 Feb 2011 at 07:53

With HE discount I can get the following;

New Pro i5 13" with 128GB SSD with a free 3 year Apple care plan for £1030

or

The MBA 13" with 128GB SSD and 4GB Ram with a free 3 year Apple care plan for £1033

I don't use the machine for heavy games or video editing and I have not used my cd drive on my windows laptop for over a year or so but may do for the installation of Win 7 on VM. I do occasionally burn/play the odd DVD.

I love the slim design of the MBA but hate the fact it is using a 4 year old CPU. I love the black around the screen of the MBP but not keen on the size...

Please help, what would you guys do?! Also the new MPA might be out in OCT but if I went for the Air I could sell it with 2.5 years Apple care left knowing I only paid £1033, maybe I'd get what I paid with the care and 4gb of memory upgrade?

I have a 1TB WD passport that I use with my wireless from my current windows laptop, will I still be able to use this with the Mac as its 50% full of data?!

What would the i5 Pro be like with SSD?

Thanks

Chris344 · 25 Feb 2011 at 10:31

Tunney said:
I'd go with the MBA just because of the higher screen resolution.

I do realise that the higher screen res will be better but will it be amazingly better than the 2011 MBP?

I do love the portability factor and iPad feel of the MBA but feel put out by spending £1033 for a discontinued Core 2 Duo outdated processor, if it feels fast with the C2D then how much better would it be with i5?

Chris344 · 25 Feb 2011 at 13:51

He let me order two machines so I ordered

MBP 13” i5 with 128gb ssd
MPA 13” with 128gb ssd and 4gb ram

Total £2063 with 3 years Apple care, the machine I am not keeping I will sell for a slight profit

Chris344 · 25 Feb 2011 at 18:47

mikeyp123 said:
He can technically make a profit if the person doesn't have HE discount ;p

Exactly, if I sold one for £1150 with the 3 year Apple care that would be good.

Chris344 · 26 Feb 2011 at 05:24

whitecrook said:
i'm interested to know which one you decide is best and why

I will try to post side by side reviews.

Both will be SSD with 4gb ram. The difference will be C2D and the i5, hopefully it may prove that Apple mask the not that great performance of the C2D CPU with SSD. I am expecting the MPB to be much much quicker especially with booting up/down.

We will this.