i5 or i7 high end MBA, worth it?

signatus said:

I'm considering buying a high end MBA (13", 256 GB, 8MB RAM), and I wonder whether upgrading the i5 1.8 GHz Intel Core processor to an i7 2GHz processor will really make such a difference so that it's worth spending the extra 150 €.
I'm not much into image or video edition. Thanks.

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If you're not doing video editing or other processor intensive activities, paying extra for the i7 isn't necessary. That being said, there is something to having the extra power for the chance you may want/need it at some point down the line. But you have to weigh cost today vs the expected life cycle of the Air (how long will you keep it).

I've been running an '11 13" base model Air for the past year and the only time having the upgraded processor would have been nice was for the video work I did. Not that it crippled my computer, but it was slow. For the other 99% of the time, it's been perfect as is. I've never run out of ram (4gb) even when I'm not keeping track of how many apps I have open, but again, I'm not doing photo or video editing on a daily basis - mostly email, spreadsheets, docs and web browsing.

So spend the money if you have it and not worry about questioning whether you did the right thing, or save the money and just enjoy the computer - because you will enjoy it either way.

My own view is that Macbooks are too expensive to short yourself on and something you won't be upgrading yearly, like an iPhone. Therefore, the extra couple of hundred dollars is actually spread out over three or four years for most people.

Considering the price of a Macbook, most people won't miss that little bit extra and you will be getting a more powerful processor with extra features. It may be the processing power difference that means being able to wait an extra year in upgrading next time.

In that case, don't bother. Save the money and spend it on a good casing or extra software. I am not really an advocate of this 'max out on upgrades' advice.

I'd say go for it. If you already wanna buy the high-end 13", then buy the i7. I'm looking at the low-end 13" (no need for 256gb) and there's no option for i7 on this model - otherwise I'd upgraded it... Get the 8gb RAM no matter what

I got the high-end 13", with the i7, 8GB RAM, but the 250GB SSD, and I haven't looked back It is faster than my MacBook Pro from 2010, which was also the i7 version, with upgraded RAM and SSD.

I might actually sell the MBP, which is something I have never done before (I still have my 1st Gen. MBA), that's how happy I am about the new MBA. Only thing which is nagging me a bit; it does not have the Retina screen, which will probably be in the next upgrade, and I almost forgot, it only has one Thunderbolt port, and until there is a Thunderbolt hub available, I have a challenge at work; I use the Thunderbolt for the external display, but sometimes also need the port for the Ethernet dongle (bad WiFi).