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Chedd

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 22, 2012
52
0
Hi guys! I came to this forum about two weeks ago for some help, and since my first post I have both learned quite a bit and had a lot more to think about. I am still not sure I have all the information I need to make a decision, so I'm coming to this MBA board for your recommendations.

to summarize my original post, I am a college majoring in advertising and a part time wedding photographer for my own business. I work with Lightroom4, Illustrator, and Safari daily. My current MBP is a mid 2009 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB memory and a 320GB HDD. I am looking for something faster/better, and not absolutely the best. My first two options were a MBA 13" 2.0i7/8GB/256GB and a MBP 13" 2.9i7/8GB/256GB SSD. I, and others, have since come to the conclusion that the MBP isn't the answer for me. So here's what I am at now.

13" MBA (2012 Ultimate)
2.0GHz Intel Dual-Core i7
8GB SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage

vs.

15" rMBP
2.6GHz Quad-Core i7
8GB SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage

vs.

15" rMBP
2.3GHz Quad-Core i7
16GB SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage

My main concern, and reason for over looking the rMBP option originally, is that as a photographer/designer for both digital and physical works (think web, photos, and marketing advert) the retina pixel doubling aspect gives me a headache... and not in the sense that the screen is that bright or hypnotizing, but more in the sense that its a graphical nightmare; i.e. designing for web in 1:1 scale but having my own computer display it at 1:2 scale. I could be completely wrong about that stuff, but hey I don't mind learning something here.

Anyway, thank you!

My Original Post: Here (for additional reference)
 

Moneymiike420

macrumors regular
Jul 18, 2012
189
63
Sounds like you should go for the i9 32gb ram 5 tb sdd MBA retina ,it's a little sluggish but it handles multitasking meagerly
 

puke

macrumors 6502
Dec 30, 2007
343
68
Sweden
Hello!

When the new Retina MBP got release, I bought it and got 2 replacements during the course of 2 months and all three of them were lagging while using Safari... The Graphics can't handle the pictures on the internet (all websites except for Apples own).

I returned it for my money back and purchased an Ultimate 13" MBA and i'm about to recieve during the course of next week. (I've tried my friends Ultimate MBA and decided pretty quickly). I'm using similar programs that you do, PS and Illustrator among others, and it's flawless. It even seems faster then the rMBP in usual tasks like opening programs.

My two cents: Get the ultimate MBA (maybe not with 512gb SSD) but with 256gb SSD, 2.0 ghz i7 and 8gb of ram and you'll be a happy user!

//Johan
 

fleawannabe

macrumors regular
Dec 16, 2011
163
0
Why isn't the MBP 13 for you? Also there are a few threads about the i7 MBA getting really hot.
 

m00min

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2012
419
90
I've got an i7 Air (11 inch), I run Photoshop, Illustrator, Parallels for web design/dev all at the same time, it only gets warm. The only time my Air gets hot is running COD4 :)

I agree about the pixel doubling headache. Also I'm sure I've read somewhere that CS6 isn't optimised for the retina display, not really read up on it though as it doesn't apply to me.
 

iAppl3Fan

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2011
796
23
I would suggestion your option 3 for rmbp; however, if you're worried about pixel doubling, go with the MBA like the one in my signature.
 

Chedd

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 22, 2012
52
0
Why isn't the MBP 13 for you? Also there are a few threads about the i7 MBA getting really hot.

The resolution is less than the screen resolutions in both my options and current 15" MBP (1440x900), so that's quite a downgrade there.

I returned it for my money back and purchased an Ultimate 13" MBA and i'm about to recieve during the course of next week. (I've tried my friends Ultimate MBA and decided pretty quickly). I'm using similar programs that you do, PS and Illustrator among others, and it's flawless. It even seems faster then the rMBP in usual tasks like opening programs.
//Johan

Sorry about your experience with the rMBP, I have heard that from quite a few people. That screen is massive so it takes a lot to power it seems. I've tried to see if I could get that laggyness to happen in store but I was probably doing it wrong.

I've got an i7 Air (11 inch), I run Photoshop, Illustrator, Parallels for web design/dev all at the same time, it only gets warm. The only time my Air gets hot is running COD4 :)

I agree about the pixel doubling headache. Also I'm sure I've read somewhere that CS6 isn't optimised for the retina display, not really read up on it though as it doesn't apply to me.

Well this is good to hear! Do you ever find the 11" too small? Seriously, I've been reading a lot about the rMBP screen from photographers and designers. They seem to love it's clarity and color-reproduction, but they skip over or mention in passing, when and where it (the new pixel density) has an effect on their editing/designing workflow.
 

SuperRob

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2011
253
4
Pixel-doubling should not be an issue with the right apps. A properly-coded retina display app can display menus and other elements at retina resolution, and leave other elements at their original resolutions (shown as if you were viewing on a 2560x1800 display). For example, when editing a photograph, you would have the UI of the app at retina resolution, but the photo you were working on would be displayed normally. So I would think this would be a temporary issue at best.

Given that it sounds like you do a lot of design work, go with the MBPR with the base amount of storage. Whether or not you should get a RAM or CPU increase is up to you, but I don't think it would be entirely necessary.
 

m00min

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2012
419
90
Well this is good to hear! Do you ever find the 11" too small? Seriously, I've been reading a lot about the rMBP screen from photographers and designers. They seem to love it's clarity and color-reproduction, but they skip over or mention in passing, when and where it (the new pixel density) has an effect on their editing/designing workflow.

It's fine for smaller dimensioned stuff, icons and such. If I'm designing a whole page layout I'll usually end up using my MBP as it's hooked up to an external display. The shallowness of the screen is the only thing holding it back in that regard, but the trade-off is the excellent portability.
 

stchman

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2012
671
2
St. Louis, MO
IMO, the upgrade from a 256GB SSD to the 512GB SSD is not worth the additional $500. Get the 8GB RAM and the i7 if you really need it.

If you need more storage, get a portable USB3 hdd.
 

polotska

macrumors 6502
Sep 23, 2007
257
1
IMO, the upgrade from a 256GB SSD to the 512GB SSD is not worth the additional $500. Get the 8GB RAM and the i7 if you really need it.

If you need more storage, get a portable USB3 hdd.

Agreed about the storage. Can’t wait for SSD prices to come down.
 
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