Which Mac laptop?

[Peerzy]

Had a 2011 13" MPB from work for a while and really liked it, have everything I need Windows covered so a nice Apple laptop would be great.

Any reason to not buy one in the next 2-3 months (are they being replaced).

Macbook Pro or Macbook Air?

I've no need for a DVD drive (and would buy a portable DVDRW anyway), won't be using the laptop for massive storage so no need for big HDD and surely the MBA is quicker due to the SSD?

I was considering the 13" MBA with 4GB RAM and the 128GB SSD.

What are peoples thoughts and opinions?

No budget set at all, if there is something much better out there for £500 more I'm willing to pay providing I'll use the features.

17" MBP is far too big, I want something small and sleek and easy to move about.

Laptop will be used for general duties, office work, emailing, internet, photoshop, Football Manager and probably streaming videos to a TV. Battery life important.

13" is as small as I want, not usre if the one inbetween the 13" and 17" is still as portable (15" I guess)?

No idea if it matters but I don't have an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or anything Apple apart from a 64GB new iTouch. Never owned a Mac before but know how to use them well, will be sticking with Andriod for my phone and do all my office work etc... on Google Apps, Google Calender etc.....

Many thanks

 

[Peerzy]

Reading what you've said I've got two options:

1) MBA 13", 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, buy portable DVDRW
2) MBP 13", Upgrade to 8GB Ram, Upgrade to 240GB~ SSD

Is the MBA screen much better and the resolution massively better?

What would people go for out of those two?

Most of the time it'll be used around the house, but it'll come with me in my car to client meetings etc and work but carrying it from my car to a building for 30 seconds is not an issue.

 

[Peerzy]

More or less the best 2 options. The with the air it would be sensible to head for the 256gig upgrade if that's the sort of space you would consider for the pro and apple do the "super drive" to cover your dvd needs (it's a nice looking portable dvdrw).

The airs screen is a better resolution but both are good little screens at that size (FM is the only thing iv noticed wanting the extra res on because I like playing it windowed) but its really down to your preference, maybe have a look at them both side by side as they both seem fairly similar to your other needs.

By the sounds of it portable means the carry it about the house and occasionally in the car portable (opposed to the trek it about in my back back portable) which the 15" is also very good at (if you feel the extra speed is needed). If you want power, get one of the pro's as they can take more ram and the processors are faster (the air has one thats held back more for the thermal constraints of the size) but if power isn't essential then head for the air because the air provides the most options for mobility.

The choice between them is really just down to how you think you'll most use it

My GF has a 15" laptop and it just feels too chunky (it is a cheapy Dell tho). I hate the look of the 17" MBP's because the keyboard is so small and the rest of the base looks like wasted space and I'd never need a screen that big.

Wasn't aware they did a 256gb SSD upgrade with the Air.

I play FM on windowed mode as well, doubt I'll ever demand more power. Laptop will be used for internets, FM and a bit of Photoshop.

Portability - you got spot on, minimal actual carrying it.

OK I'm not trolling, but thought I would put out another option.

I am torn between the Macbook Air and the new Dell Ultrabook:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/t...xps13_teaser?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

I love the Macbook Air, but the Dell has a few neat features.

I really can't decide at the moment

I've got a really decent Windows PC (i7, 8GB Ram, some £250~ motherboard and £400~ graphics card. Custom build with the best parts about 10 months ago) so simply don't want or need another Windows OS.

When I had my work MBP I always found myself reaching for it when I just wanted to surf the net or do a few quick jobs.

I'm usually as anti Apple as you get but the Mac OS was nice to use and the MBP/MBA seem very good (if pretty expensive, but as I've not set a budget for this laptop that's not a bother).

 

[Peerzy]

A lot to think about I guess.

What will hold it's value well? No doubt one of these will be in MM in 18-24 months time.

I notice the 15" MBP is about £1600~ which is a fair wack for any laptop.

I take it none of these are up for replacement anytime soon?

 

[Peerzy]

They are all sort of due for a replacement. But they are waiting for Intel with Ivy Bridge.

Then it could be also a delay for Mountain Lion, so it could be summer before you see anything.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Pro

The link provides historical statistics on the update dates.

Interesting that Macrumors almost advises against buying anything Apple as they all look to be getting replaced soon - and half of them are not even a year old!

Out of interest what new Apple stuff will be out by the time I come to purchase this laptop (April).

There will be a refresh like always at some point for ivybridge (os updates have been silent refreshes recently) but chances are that could be a bit of a wait.

As for holding value they tend to hold their value a fair bit more than the actual hardware does (by comparison anway), so on the MM someone sold the original 13" macbook pro (c2d 2.4ghz, 2gig or ram I think and 9400m) at £325 which is a good price for one but for a 3 year old laptop is quite a lot of money!

My 09 refresh 15" pro valued in at something like £600 at the end of last year (also core 2) which is very impressive price retention for computer components (realistically they hold a fair bit of value for the presentation over the speed, and the legal running of osx), so there will be a loss come trying to sell it on but no where near as bad as say trying to sell a 3 year old dell version of a similar laptop.

Pretty much what I expected.

 

[Peerzy]

April is the latest I can wait, I need to have something by April - have Apple confirmed anything?

 

[Peerzy]

For what reason would I need 8GB of RAM on a Mac? My MBP with 4GB didn't lag or was slow in anyway?

Any real world differences in 4GB and 8GB on a Mac?

 

[Peerzy]

Running Lion? Yeah.

In general use on a current model 15" MBP I lasted about a month before putting 8GB of RAM in it. I got annoyed with the beachballs when it started paging to the (mechanical) HDD. Snow Leopard on my previous machine was typically using about 2.2GB for the same usage. I was getting better productivity from a 2008 MacBook than the new machine, so the £35 for the upgrade was a no-brainer.

Paging may well be less of an issue with an SSD installed, but non-upgradability of MBA RAM would put me right off. It's an excellent ultraportable, but it's no MBP.

The 13" MBP is a cracking little machine. I had the original C2D equivalent and it was excellent.

Interesting, if I go for a MBP it would be 'top of the line', so SSD and 8GB
of RAM, although my work one was standard and I never found that low at all.

i think the MBP are due to a refresh soon, i guess it will come in line with the ivy bridges. so if you can, i will wait as that is what im doing atm too.

Shame I could buy one and Apple announce a new one in a week.

To the OP, as I'd say to anyone, go into your local shop and have a look.

While the MacBook Air has a higher resolution display, its colour gamut is far smaller. After having a look at both, I went with the Pro; I found the Air extremely difficult to look at, and when you take the full-screen mode into consideration, the difference is much smaller than you'd expect. I am currently deciding on getting an SSD for it, but that isn't a definite yet. Do take a look at both though.

As for memory and Lion, 4GB for heavy office use is sufficient. That is, numerous tabs open, Word or Pages, PDFs, Mail, and more. If you're getting lots of page outs (Activity Monitor), that's when you know you need more memory. Photoshop might require a bit more, but that isn't an expensive upgrade. Come to think of it, the Pro would be a better option because of the colour gamut for Photoshop...!

Finally, resale value of Macs are generally higher than that of a comparable Windows machine, however you do pay more initially...to be honest I doubt that there is really a huge difference.

The geek in me wants a MBP with SSD and 8GB of RAM, the normal user in me realises this is a laptop to use the net on, do some office work and look good - and my work MBP never felt slow.

At the moment it could go either way.....

I think going second hand is a nice way of getting into macs providing your prepared to upgrade it a little (ram/ssd)

Budget is not an issue, I'll be buying new.

 

[Peerzy]

When playing around with large photoshop files? When keeping a laptop for more than a couple of years? Just like any laptop.

Just because you don't doesn't mean everyone doesn't.

Sorry - you've taken what I said wrongly.

I've got 8GB of Ram in my Windows machine and would normally go for it - I was saying I didn't think I needed it in this laptop, not that other people don't.

I'm leaning towards the Air, 7 hour battery life seems very good, I've got a state of the art Windows desktop for anything really heavy duty and the higher screen res and the size make it a winner I think.

 

[Peerzy]

7 hours is a only when u use the laptop with really light loads.....

Like internet browsing and basic light use - which I will be doing.

 

[Peerzy]

Am I right in saying the Air only has thunderbolt or does it have a mini display port? I'd want to get a VGA or DVI adaptor and something so I can plug a network cable into.


I take it that it has USB and an SD card reader?

 

[Peerzy]

http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/

And because Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort technology, the video standard for high-resolution displays, any Mini DisplayPort display plugs right into the Thunderbolt port. To connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA display, just use an existing adapter.

Thunderport = Displayport.

13" had card reader, 11" does not.

Air currently has 2 USB ports, but they are not USB 3.0

Makes sense, so a mini display port to DVI adaptor will work in a MBA via the thunderbolt port?

I'm thinking of grabbing the following:

Apple Macbook Air 13" 256GB SSD
Mac Superdrive
Mac USB to NIC
Mac MDP to VGA
Mac MDP to DVI
Time Capsule 2TB
and some sort of carry case

Anything else I'm missing?

 

[Peerzy]

No but it's useful to have just encase.

99% of the time I'll never use it so having the portability of the Air will be better.

 

[Peerzy]

With the superdrive you could just get any external drive for about £25, the cheaper drive will have faster write speeds.

Yeah would probably do that anyway, unlikely to really use it but having a USB DVDRW is dead useful especially as I deal with a fair few PCs with no DVD drive.

I take it with one of those MDP to DVI/VGA adapters I can connect the MBA up to a TV without any issue.

What about HDMI as that's how my desktop is connected to my TV and I like that as it's only one cable for audio and visual.

The MBA would probably spend some time connected to my TV streaming videos etc.....

 

[Peerzy]

How viable is it to have a MBA (256gb SSD) with OSX on 1 partition (128GB) and Windows 7 (128GB) on the other. Duel bootable?

 

[Peerzy]

Easy.

Just pop the Win7 disc in or what do I need to use? Assume drivers and everything are fine and it functions like a normal ultrabook?

Why expensive? I have a legit Win7 Pro retail disc + CD Key I can use.