Which Mac laptop?

MagicBoy said:
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.
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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.

jkkc313 said:
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.
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Shame I could buy one and Apple announce a new one in a week.

lamboman said:
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.
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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.....

iamtheoneneo said:
I think going second hand is a nice way of getting into macs providing your prepared to upgrade it a little (ram/ssd)
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Budget is not an issue, I'll be buying new.
 
The next laptop I get will definitely be an Air. I like portability. Atm, I'm using a 2010 15" MBP and it does what I want, but ideally I would have an iMac as my main computer at home and then an Air to take to work everyday. My MBP just sits at home pretty much everyday so I never move it. In which case I may as well have the bigger screen and more power of a desktop Mac, and the Air which I won't even notice in my bag!

When I bought my MBP, it was actually with the intention of being my 'desktop replacement' and all in one device. However, I find it bothersome to take to work in my bag, so I stopped doing that and leave it at home while I take my iPad.

Altough if my circumstances were different and I do a lot of work on the go at different places and drive around, then I would be happy to stick with my MBP.

I've just upgraded my MBP to 8GB RAM and an SSD, and imo the SSD made more difference. Now I just can't go back to using normal hard drives cos it loads stuff significantly slower. 8GB RAM was also worth it though because it only cost me £35 :)
 
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Peerzy said:
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?
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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.
 
Amp34 said:
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.
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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.
 
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 said:
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?
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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
 
POB said:
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
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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?
 
Tbh getting all that stuff kinda begs the question... Why are you getting the Air over the pro (or other 13" incher)?

Do you really need a cd drive and network port (no wireless?)?
 
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.
 
With the superdrive you could just get any external drive for about £25, the cheaper drive will have faster write speeds.
 
POB said:
With the superdrive you could just get any external drive for about £25, the cheaper drive will have faster write speeds.
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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.....
 
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?
 
Run Boot Camp Assistant. It downloads the latest driver pack from Apple to either USB or burns an optical disk then re-partitions the HDD. Shove Windows 7 disk in and reboot then install it as per normal. Once into Windows 7 install the Boot Camp drivers. Job done.
 
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