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What to buy Air or Pro

N

nickm55

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 28, 2010
12
0
UK
Need some thoughts on either of these macs to buy. I also have University discount, which is the stated price that I have written, which gives me three years of hardware warranty. I thought I'd use the Uni discount in my final year.

Macbook Pro 13 inch i5, 4Gb RAM and throw in my Samsung 840 250GB SSD - £850 (after discount) or:

Macbook Air 13 inch i5 8GB RAM, 256 SSD for £1088 (after discount).

I can sell my current Black macbook for £2-300 and the current SSD for about £100 to a friend.

Really can't decide on the Air or the Pro, but the Pro is more upgradeable in the future. Using it for basic stuff, most intensive use if for Serato (DJ software). Any thoughts would be helpful.
 
velocityg4

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,329
4,717
Georgia
Unless you need a slightly thinner and lighter computer I would go with the MBP. Since it has a faster CPU and is more upgradeable.
 
Apple2

Apple2

macrumors member
Feb 28, 2010
94
0
Providence, RI
I'd get the pro and upgrade the RAM to 8gb at crucial.com. It'll probably be cheaper than buying the memory from apple, and you'll get more computer for less money. Plus, you can get a larger hard drive and upgradability.
 
SnowLeopard2008

SnowLeopard2008

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2008
6,772
17
Silicon Valley
You can only upgrade two things, hard drive and memory. Unless you think that sometime in the future you will need more than 8GB of memory (the max in a MBA today), it's kind of moot. Same goes for hard drive. You don't upgrade hard drives like you drink water. I'd go with the MacBook Air unless your DJing needs requires FireWire or CD/DVD drive.
 
KylePowers

KylePowers

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2011
1,688
197
I'd go MBA for one reason, and one reason only - 1440x900 vs 1280x800.

Honestly, all things relatively equal (8GB RAM, ~256GB SSD, Ivy Bridge CPU), you're not going to notice a difference in performance. But you will notice a difference in display resolution.

Additionally, I prefer thinner laptops, but that's my opinion :)

Good luck!
 
H

hkim1983

macrumors 6502
Feb 5, 2009
354
9
KylePowers said:
I'd go MBA for one reason, and one reason only - 1440x900 vs 1280x800.

Honestly, all things relatively equal (8GB RAM, ~256GB SSD, Ivy Bridge CPU), you're not going to notice a difference in performance. But you will notice a difference in display resolution.

Additionally, I prefer thinner laptops, but that's my opinion :)

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Unless you are the most casual of users, those extra horizontal (and vertical) lines of resolution are quite handy, at least, if you use any applications that are productive.

That being said, aside from i/o differences, there are some other things to consider between the two models that aren't as obvious:

-The Pro has the superior keyboard, and actually, I'll say that the keyboard on the Pros are superior to the ones on the Retina too (imo).
-The Pro's display offers slightly wider color gamut, which may or may not be relevant (honestly, the resolution bump is more important).
-The Air does make a good cake cutter, the Pro not so much.
 
designs216

designs216

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2009
1,046
21
Down the rabbit hole
Sell the other hardware and apply the proceeds against the cost of a 13" Air -- it's more than sufficient for your needs and should last at least through graduation. The 8GB/256GB is the sweet spot to this end. Compare the prices of refurb, Amazon, New Egg, B&H, etc. Also, AppleCare would be a good idea.
 
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