Macbook Pro vs Macbook Air

lolage

lolage

lolage

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Hi guys

Just wondering if you could lead me into the right direction regarding buying the right macbook for me.

It would be used mostly for taking to uni, but also to maybe hook up to a monitor at home if I felt I needed to work on my laptop at home. Would I even need my PC at home if I can just hook up a macbook to one of my monitors?

I will be using software such as photoshop, illustrator, flash, imovie, final cut pro etc. I understand that both these laptops will be able to handle these programs?

If I was to get a MBP i'd get the 15" version, and if I were to get the macbook air I'd get the 13" version. The most imprortant thing to me is that I can plug the laptop into my 24" monitor at home (which isnt an apple tv). I'm pretty sure the MBP can do this as it has a VGA/DVI port, but the macbook air doesnt but it has a thunderbolt port or something? Am I right in thinking this is only for apple monitors or could I use that port to get my monitor at home connected?

Thanks for reading, ideally I'd like the macbook air as its more portable - but if I'll be let down by performance and not being able to hook it up to a monitor at home I may have to rethink.
 
If you are going to be using those apps heavily then RAM is your best friend. Unfortunately, even though the Air has plenty of grunt, you can never have more than 4GB which I think you will find restrictive.

Much as I love my Air, if I could only have one computer it would be a MacBook Pro, not an Air.
 
MacBook pro your would get better peformance, MacBook air best for being portable. I have pro so I would think it's a better option.
 
lolage said:
I'm pretty sure the MBP can do this as it has a VGA/DVI port, but the macbook air doesnt but it has a thunderbolt port or something?
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Neither the MacBook Pro nor MacBook Air has a standard DVI/VGA port.

You'll need a miniDP -> VGA or miniDP -> DVI adapter no matter which route you go down. The official adapters are £25 each.
 
You can use the thunderbolt port like a Mini-DP port on either.

Out of curiosity, what prevents you from upgrading the ram on the MBA? Does it not use standard SO-DIMMS?
 
Will the Air definitely struggle? It has the same amount of ram as the MBP (4gb) I do however understand you can add more to the MBP and not the Air but 4gb should be plenty for use of photoshop/flash/illustrator at least? If the work gets too heavy I could always use the rig in my sig?
 
No, it won't struggle .... I have a 13" Air and it copes just fine with Lightroom and CS5.
Sure, perhaps if you were doing heavy editing with multiple apps open simultaneously then performance would suffer. The SSD in the Air gives a nice performance boost though.

In terms of portability the Air wins by a large margin over a 15" MBP ( I personally wouldn't advise getting a 13" MBP because the screen resolution is a step down in comparison to the Air and not that useful for photoediting ).
 
4GB is plenty for photo editing - 4GB is still a decent amount of ram and I'd imagine most people that have more either only have it because it's silly cheap now or because they needed it for something heavier before.

That said, the price of ram does make the MBP appealing. I paid £33 for 8GB (2x4GB) for this MBP.
 
A pro at going to uni?

It's no where near that simple.

The 15" isn't really that portable - it's quite big, and a lot larger/heavier than say a 13" MBA (and even a MBP 13" tbh) than the 2" figure would suggest.

I have a 15" MBP and I wouldn't want to cart it around too much more than I already do (between work, the car and home).
 
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Out of interest why no MBP 13?

EDIT: If it were me, and portability was necessary but with expandability, I'd get a top end MBP13 with a Henge dock, external keyboard and TFT.
 
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The screen resolution on the MBP 13" is inferior to the Air 13" - that's why. Really does make a difference as far I'm concerned.
 
Ok, fair point, I forgot about that :)

I'd still get the MBP13 though if I had somewhere to dock it for most use.
 
xaldub said:
The screen resolution on the MBP 13" is inferior to the Air 13" - that's why. Really does make a difference as far I'm concerned.
Click to expand...

But the pixel density of 15" MBP is inferior to the 13" MBP unless you spend over £100 on the high res screen?
 
The native resolution on the 15" MBP is 1440 x 900 ( or 1680 x 1050 for an £80 upgrade ). In comparison the only option you have on the 13" MBP is 1280 x 800.

True, the pixel density is marginally less on the basic 15" MBP versus the 13" MBP, but it "looks" better .... and I think most people do probably upgrade to the higher res screen ( what's £80 if you are spending all that money anyway ?? )
 
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