Sold my mba and going back to mbp

sahni130 said:

Hey guys,
it's been a while since I've posted here and i don't really know how to say it.....but i don't like my mba anymore. I mean sure it's super gorgeous and ultra portable but I find it to be too limiting. SSD's are still very expensive for me to upgrade to a higher capacity and the 11 incher is too small for my personal tastes and I foud myself going back to my iMac a lot because of that.

Well, long story short, I listed the Air on ebay and ordered myself a 13.3 inch MBP, again. I had the 2010 version but I sold that because I wanted to play around with the Airs. I know the extra 2 pounds or so on the Pro will definitely be noticeable, I'm looking forward to being able to store all of my media on my notebook and sort of, see things easier.

I do apologize for my poor grammar skills....I'm an econ major and just too lazy.

What do you guys think? Good decision?

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It always depends on your needs. Personaly if I were you, I would've opted for a 512GB Macbook Air 13.3 inch but if you feel that the MBP is better bet for you, there is nothing wrong with that.

I swapped my 2010 13" MBP for a 2011 11" Air, and I wouldn't go back. The screen on the 13" Pro isn't good enough (the 13" Air and rMPB are better), and my iTunes library is now 1.4TB and growing, so I couldn't hold all my stuff on it anyway.

sahni130 said:

To be honest, that was priced a little out of my comfort zone and call me crazy... but I actually kind of like the screen on the mbp better?

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In that case, MBP is right for you!

512 SSD... and you need the extra space for...?

I can probably quote u a study where people tend to access 10% of the information day-in day-out and the rest just sit there for occasionals.

If the rest of that stuff you don't need to take it with you wherever you go and it's OK for them to be at home, a home file server is my thing, where you can have data storage only limited by your budget, and readily accessible via WIFI.

sahni130 said:

I know the Core i5 in the Pro is a theoretically a lot faster than the ULV i% in the Air....but will the lack of SSD slow it down enough for me to notice or will it feel faster in everyday tasks?

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You will notice the speed, it is much slower. However, the MBP is very easy to upgrade. You can put in an SSD when you can afford one. If you don't find yourself using the DVD drive much you can buy a drive caddy for $10-15 and put a traditional hard drive in the DVD slot so you can have the speed of an SSD and the storage space of a traditional hard drive.

I debated for a few weeks over what Mac laptop I wanted. I waited until the 13" rMBP was unveiled so I had that as an option, but the 128 GB SSD with no other storage is just too small, and the price is too high. It's a gorgeous Mac, but not right for me. So I ordered a stock 13" MBP, upgraded the RAM to 16 GB for $90 (you can find better deals than that), installed an old SSD I had lying around (you can buy a 128 GB SSD for around $100 these days, sometimes even lower), and spent the $15 on the drive caddy and moved the stock HD to the optical bay. I bought the MBP from Amazon for $1099 with no tax, so with all the other upgrades, even if I had to buy an SSD, that's about $1300-50 to max it out. It's not as light as a MBA, but it's not a sled either, and it's very fast. The best part is you can upgrade as you can afford it, you don't have to do it all at once.

If you do decide to install an SSD, your best choices for brands are Samsung 830's, Crucial M4's, or OWC. Stay away from OCZ SSD's, the failure rate is catastrophic.

If 11" is a problem, why not get 13" MBA? I think external drives are just better for storing things though, as a lot of the information just sits there, like a previous post mentioned..

I don't think you are crazy about the MBP screen though. I've heard that the MBP screens have a greater colour gamut and other technical screen things I don't understand making it superior to the MBA screen. The MBA screen is just higher resolution..

yinz said:

If 11" is a problem, why not get 13" MBA? I think external drives are just better for storing things though, as a lot of the information just sits there, like a previous post mentioned..

I don't think you are crazy about the MBP screen though. I've heard that the MBP screens have a greater colour gamut and other technical screen things I don't understand making it superior to the MBA screen. The MBA screen is just higher resolution..

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Yep, I have a 2009 MBP and a 2012 MBA and the color gamut is FAR superior on the MBP. After using the MBA for a while, I've gotten used to it and generally am willing to overlook this one issue due to the far more portable size and the increased resolution but every once in a while when I use my MBP, the difference in colors is stunning. Hopefully future versions of the MBA will be able to adopt the same color gamut as on the MBPs.

Mrbobb said:

512 SSD... and you need the extra space for...?

I can probably quote u a study where people tend to access 10% of the information day-in day-out and the rest just sit there for occasionals.

If the rest of that stuff you don't need to take it with you wherever you go and it's OK for them to be at home, a home file server is my thing, where you can have data storage only limited by your budget, and readily accessible via WIFI.

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Yeah but a 512GB SSD costs a packet and a half...

sahni130 said:

Well, i have a lot of pictures and lossless audio, and I like to do minor photo and video editing and it's just nice to not have to worry about space, i guess.

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If you have the lossless files purely for listening (and not backup/editing etc), I'd save space and get high bitrate mp3/AAC. In a blind test, you won't hear any difference.

different folks different strokes. I went from the 13" MBP i7 to a MBA i7 8GB 256GB and I would never go back

The MBP is just too heavy. I understand why people like the Superdrive for DVDs or for putting in another hard drive, but to me 128GB+ is more than enough.

The MBP is way to heavy and thick for me. Also I hated how the MBP got so hot compared to the MBA

I never felt comfortable bringing the MBP 13" anywhere.

In the end a ULV i7 is no full fledged i7 dual but it's not like I need that extra horsepower. I enjoy the SSD much more compared to the regular 750GB HD.

If your picky I guess the MBA doesn't have an Ethernet or firewire port, but big whoop

I just find the MBP 13" to the odd man out now with better MBA and the new Retinas

sahni130 said:

You all have excellent points.
Yes, the fact that the mbp can be upgraded when I'm ready is a huge factor in my decision. I do plan on upgrading the ram and going the optibay route very soon.
The reasons above and the fact that the Airs can get quite expensive when you want to upgrade ram, ssd..... are why I like the mbp. And yes, I do think the color gamut is better on the pros.

But darn, I'm gonna miss the portability of this little guy. But hey, guess I have to just suck it up as i have plenty of room in my bag and being a young male... no reason to complain about carrying 2 extra pounds, right?

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I too would recommend you look at the 13" mba, as apposed to the 13" mbp. Forget about upgradability, unless you're one who knows you'll upgrade. My wife uses a work-provided 13" mbp and she'll sneak to using my work provided (my own company, so I'm lucky I can pick) 13" mba for all sorts of reason, first and foremost, the speed. She might have on paper a faster processor, but the dang slow hdd kills the experience, once you've gotten a taste of the ssd. If you get an ssd on the 13" pro, then I'd say it's comparable, except for the weight and the screen. Yes, color gamut is lacking on the mba's, but it's also sharper than the 13" "pro" and I'll take sharpness over gamut given I'm not using it for photo or video work.

It's obviously your decision, so good luck with whatever you choose.

I had a 2010 MacBook Pro and my sis has a 2010 Air, I found myself using her's over mine most of the time because of the palm rest. The 13" MBP edge can be very hard on my wrists, painfull at times...

I'm now very happy with my 2011 Air, I wouldn's switch back to a MBP (plus SSD) just because of the palm rest.

I'd like to have the chance to type a very long document on a flight with a rMPB 13" (I had no issues with the standard 15" palm rest) to see if I can stand that, but it's still too thick I'm afraid...

if it works for you it's great...

jmazzamj said:

I had a 2010 MacBook Pro and my sis has a 2010 Air, I found myself using her's over mine most of the time because of the palm rest. The 13" MBP edge can be very hard on my wrists, painfull at times...

I'm now very happy with my 2011 Air, I wouldn's switch back to a MBP (plus SSD) just because of the palm rest.

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I have pretty big hands and I find the sloped palm rest/keyboard on the Air is one of its major pluses.

(Big hands is also one reason I could never use an 11" Air as my main machine. The palm rest is way too small for me. Half my hand hangs over the edge.)

sahni130 said:

Well guys, i did end up seeling the Air and got the MBP. I actually really love the Pro, brings back good memories. The screen is great....I dont have to keep making the text bigger, the colors look great, and the battery life is great! I do notice that the apps take a little longer to launch and the computer is a little hazier, but hey, life is a bunch of trade-offs when all youve got to spend is $1200.

-jay

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Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase. And you're completely right about there still being tradeoffs between the MBA and MBP. It just depends on which stuff you're willing to compromise on. In an ideal world, I would have both.

Agent-P said:

Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase. And you're completely right about there still being tradeoffs between the MBA and MBP. It just depends on which stuff you're willing to compromise on. In an ideal world, I would have both.

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I was thinking about using my 2010 MBP 15" as my "desktop" and buy a MBA 11" for when I'm on campus / at work and then eventually upgrade my MBP to an iMac -- Ideally, I would have the money

sahni130 said:

The 11 incher...battery life was not that great in my personal experience, I always carried the charger along with it because I often mound myself running out of juice...this sort of defeated the purpose of portability.

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^^^ this. 4 hours really isn't good enough so you end up needing the charger, which ultimately takes the carrying weight up to that of the 13" anyway. That was the main reason I opted for the 13".

sahni130 said:

Ill see how the lack of SSD impacts performance in my everyday tasks on the pro.

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I have to say, once you have worked on machines running SSD, you will find it frustrating to go back. I can't help feeling, given you did not once mention computational power, you are not a 'power' user so the need for a Pro machine just for storage is an overkill in my opinion. Your best solution would have been 13" MBA with an external hard drive, which with USB 3 now would be lightning fast for your music etc. $80 gets you a good 1TB external hard drive.

I've had every revision of the Air - with the exception of the original.
I always rationalised that form, weight and 13" is sufficient screen real estate as being is the criteria.
recently I went with a 15" rMBP - wow!

I'll never go back to an Air.
not that I don't like them, but the quality and power of this Mac is so far above the Air that there really is no longer any comparison.
(in my humble opinion)

halledise said:

I've had every revision of the Air - with the exception of the original.
I always rationalised that form, weight and 13" is sufficient screen real estate as being is the criteria.
recently I went with a 15" rMBP - wow!

I'll never go back to an Air.
not that I don't like them, but the quality and power of this Mac is so far above the Air that there really is no longer any comparison.
(in my humble opinion)

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Dude, IF I had the money to spend I'd go for the rMBP every time, but until that price tag drops a good 1/4 I'm stuck with the lower end of the aluminium food chain (and have been my last 3 Apple computers). Sporting a 13" Late 2011 MBP now but when it's sold I may save for a few months to get that sexy mofo instead!