Macbook Air 2013 vs Macbook Pro 2011

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

Right now I have a Macbook Pro Early 2011 model with 2.3 Ghz Core i5, 16GB RAM and a 1TB 5400RPM hard Drive connected to a 27 Thunderbolt display and I do web development work (Coda 2, CSS Edit) light Photoshop works, Email, iPhoto, light iMovie editing for iPhone videos etc.

I've ordered a 11'' Air i5, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD and I'll be selling the Macbook Pro and Thunderbolt Display.

My goal is to wait for the iMac refresh with the new processor and wifi ac chip and have the iMac as my main power computer to do the heavy tasks, encoding videos, handbrake, work, video editing etc and the 11'' for mobility and on the road, around the house, customer support on forums, etc.

My question is...as the iMac refresh is nowhere to be seen yet and as I'll be selling my Macbook Pro next week as soon as my 11'' arrives, I'll be waiting for the iMac refresh with just the 11'' MBA, is this 11' attached to the Thunderbolt....is this setup going to be fast enough for the kind of work that I'm doing? I guess new processor and the SSD will be faster in the 11'' than my old Macbook Pro but I never had an Air before and I'm not sure about this.

As soon as I can get the iMac I'll be a happy camper with the desktop and 11' laptop.

fenderbass146 · Jun 13, 2013

curtoise said:
Right now I have a Macbook Pro Early 2011 model with 2.3 Ghz Core i5, 16GB RAM and a 1TB 5400RPM hard Drive connected to a 27 Thunderbolt display and I do web development work (Coda 2, CSS Edit) light Photoshop works, Email, iPhoto, light iMovie editing for iPhone videos etc.

I've ordered a 11'' Air i5, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD and I'll be selling the Macbook Pro and Thunderbolt Display.

My goal is to wait for the iMac refresh with the new processor and wifi ac chip and have the iMac as my main power computer to do the heavy tasks, encoding videos, handbrake, work, video editing etc and the 11'' for mobility and on the road, around the house, customer support on forums, etc.

My question is...as the iMac refresh is nowhere to be seen yet and as I'll be selling my Macbook Pro next week as soon as my 11'' arrives, I'll be waiting for the iMac refresh with just the 11'' MBA, is this 11' attached to the Thunderbolt....is this setup going to be fast enough for the kind of work that I'm doing? I guess new processor and the SSD will be faster in the 11'' than my old Macbook Pro but I never had an Air before and I'm not sure about this.

As soon as I can get the iMac I'll be a happy camper with the desktop and 11' laptop.

Proccessor wise and data speed wise it will blow that one away, the only thing in question is which graphics you had on your macbook pro, if you had 13" pro the air will blow it out of the water in every aspect besides storage capacity, even if you had a 15" or 17" with dedicated, you will still be pretty decent as the new airs have the intel 5000 which is great for intergrated and I believe is even better then the 330m that came in the 2010 macbook pros

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

fenderbass146 said:
Proccessor wise and data speed wise it will blow that one away, the only thing in question is which graphics you had on your macbook pro, if you had 13" pro the air will blow it out of the water in every aspect besides storage capacity, even if you had a 15" or 17" with dedicated, you will still be pretty decent as the new airs have the intel 5000 which is great for intergrated and I believe is even better then the 330m that came in the 2010 macbook pros

The 2011 Macbook Pro that I still have (it will on ebay on Monday) come with Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

So for what you are saying the 11' air will be pretty good as a backup machine even if the processor is not as powerful ? and probably better than my 2011 Macbook Pro while I wait for the iMac refries..

fenderbass146 · Jun 13, 2013

curtoise said:
The 2011 Macbook Pro that I still have (it will on ebay on Monday) come with Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

So for what you are saying the 11' air will be pretty good as a backup machine even if the processor is not as powerful ? and probably better than my 2011 Macbook Pro while I wait for the iMac refries..

Its more powerful in every aspect then your macbook pro that you had. So yes it will be fine.

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

fenderbass146 said:
Its more powerful in every aspect then your macbook pro that you had. So yes it will be fine.

Thanks for your answer, do you think the i5 instead of the i7 on the Air will be also more powerful than the i5 in the MBP 2011?

Neeyul · Jun 13, 2013

Absolutely. Although the base operating frequency is lower, afaik Haswell can perform more operations per clock cycle. The benchmarks put the processor speed alone above Ivy Bridge (late 2011) and way past Sandy Bridge (early 2011).

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

Neeyul said:
Absolutely. Although the base operating frequency is lower, afaik Haswell can perform more operations per clock cycle. The benchmarks put the processor speed alone above Ivy Bridge (late 2011) and way past Sandy Bridge (early 2011).

Mine is Sandy Bridge, thanks for the reply it looks like I'll be much better with the air while I wait for the iMac refresh.

11' or 13' will be my only dilemma now, to be the primary machine 11' is too small but I will attach this to a 27 Display and when I get the iMac the 11' will be ultraportable...but... for ultraportable the 13' will have 12 hours of battery too...choices...choices.

fenderbass146 · Jun 13, 2013

curtoise said:
Mine is Sandy Bridge, thanks for the reply it looks like I'll be much better with the air while I wait for the iMac refresh.

11' or 13' will be my only dilemma now, to be the primary machine 11' is too small but I will attach this to a 27 Display and when I get the iMac the 11' will be ultraportable...but... for ultraportable the 13' will have 12 hours of battery too...choices...choices.

I personally recommend going with the 13", but that is just preference, I couldn't manage on a screen that small, I also hate 16:9 ratio screens, the 16:10 makes so much more since for pretty much everything other then movies.

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

fenderbass146 said:
I personally recommend going with the 13", but that is just preference, I couldn't manage on a screen that small, I also hate 16:9 ratio screens, the 16:10 makes so much more since for pretty much everything other then movies.

Yes I'm debating about this and I went to the Apple store to test them out, the 13' feels right as I'm using all MBP 13'' for over 4 years and the 13' Air feels right at home.

The problem with selecting a bigger screen is that after a couple of weeks it will be sitting in my desk playing the desktop-laptop tasks as it will be not as portable as the 11'.

I'm not too convinced about the 11' screen but I believe I'll take it out on the road with more frequency than the 13'

I'll be getting a 27' iMac before the end of the year so this notebook will be exclusively for when I'm on the road or any place around my house that is not my office.

I guess I'll have to test the 11' but right now I feel more comfortable on the 13', oh well...it's been "Preparing for shipment" for 2 days already.

Neeyul · Jun 13, 2013

Good choice on the 13, some recent videos suggest that the SDD on the 11" models have slightly slower write speeds.

curtoise · Jun 13, 2013

Neeyul said:
Good choice on the 13, some recent videos suggest that the SDD on the 11" models have slightly slower write speeds.

It looks like only the 128SSD in the 11 is slow(er) other Video tests with the 256SSD are screaming fast at 700 read/write.

I wonder if the 13' 128SSD will be also slower like in the 11'

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