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MBA vs. MBP 13 inch screen resolution

M

Mike84

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 23, 2010
818
135
hello,

I have been debating between the standard MBP 13 and the MBA 128GB with 4gb ram. I have been leaning to the MBA because I just love it, but the MBP seems like the better choice and I would definitely pick it up if it wasn't for the screen resolution.

So, I would like some feedback from people who currently own a MBP 13 on how happy they are with the 1280X800 resolution. This is the only thing that is deterring me from getting one and I cannot make up my mind.
 
I was in the same boat as you. My "perfect" laptop was a 13" MBP with higher res. When the new MBA's hit, I decided to grab one. Love it. The extra screen resolution just makes everything feel more professional, more producitive.

I originally wanted a MBP as I still wanted the optical drive to watch DVD's. But after living with my MBA for the past two months, I don't even miss it. (I did buy an external super drive but rarely use it). I cannot imagine ever going back to a computer with an optical drive or with a slow non SSD.

I originally thought that in 3 years we'd see all MBP's look like the MBA. Now, it honestly would not surprise me to see Jobs come out with MBP's next April that basically are MBA's. Maybe with a BTO for non SSD people needing huge storage.
 
phil123 said:
I was in the same boat as you. My "perfect" laptop was a 13" MBP with higher res. When the new MBA's hit, I decided to grab one. Love it. The extra screen resolution just makes everything feel more professional, more producitive.

I originally wanted a MBP as I still wanted the optical drive to watch DVD's. But after living with my MBA for the past two months, I don't even miss it. (I did buy an external super drive but rarely use it). I cannot imagine ever going back to a computer with an optical drive or with a slow non SSD.

I originally thought that in 3 years we'd see all MBP's look like the MBA. Now, it honestly would not surprise me to see Jobs come out with MBP's next April that basically are MBA's. Maybe with a BTO for non SSD people needing huge storage.
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Thanks for replying. I am really feeling the MBA, but I am so afraid of getting one and regretting it. For me the resolution is the issue here in deciding between the two. Also, I have been visiting the forums on here and on apple and I feel there are a lot of issues with the new MBAs (screen flickering, not waking up from sleep, turning off,creaking, etc) but I am not sure if that is a minority or if that is the case with many of the MBAs.
 
Mike84 said:
Thanks for replying. I am really feeling the MBA, but I am so afraid of getting one and regretting it. For me the resolution is the issue here in deciding between the two. Also, I have been visiting the forums on here and on apple and I feel there are a lot of issues with the new MBAs (screen flickering, not waking up from sleep, turning off,creaking, etc) but I am not sure if that is a minority or if that is the case with many of the MBAs.
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IMO new MBAs have been the most trouble-free Macs for long time. Flickering and waking up from sleep was fixed with an update. Creaking still seems to be an issue but MBPs suffers from that as well.

You are just scaring yourself by visiting all these forums. There will always be people with issues and they often come to forums to tell about their issues in order to get them fixed. People don't come and make a thread about how perfect their MBA is.

I love my 13" MBA. The resolution was one reason I got it but in the end, I can't see what MBP offers for me that MBA doesn't. 4GB is plenty of RAM and the SSD is upgradeable.
 
Hellhammer said:
IMO new MBAs have been the most trouble-free Macs for long time. Flickering and waking up from sleep was fixed with an update. Creaking still seems to be an issue but MBPs suffers from that as well.

You are just scaring yourself by visiting all these forums. There will always be people with issues and they often come to forums to tell about their issues in order to get them fixed. People don't come and make a thread about how perfect their MBA is.

I love my 13" MBA. The resolution was one reason I got it but in the end, I can't see what MBP offers for me that MBA doesn't. 4GB is plenty of RAM and the SSD is upgradeable.
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Thanks for the reply. I absolutely agree with you, and that is what I have been thinking as well. Do you miss the backlit keyboard?
 
Mike84 said:
Thanks for the reply. I absolutely agree with you, and that is what I have been thinking as well. Do you miss the backlit keyboard?
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I can't miss it because I've never had it :p Seriously, I don't see it as that big issue. It would be a nice addition but I can live without it. Maybe it's because I rarely need to look at the keyboard ;)
 
I struggled with the same question in November as I prepared to jump into the Mac world from the PC world. Previous computer was a Lenovo T400 with 1440x900 on 14.1 screen. Since it would be my primary (personal) computer and I had experience with 1280x800 on a 15.4" screen (work computer), I felt it wouldn't be a big deal to drop to 1280x800 on 13.3

After two and a half weeks I'm happy to say that I've had no issues with the screen resolution. Outlook and the rest of Mac Office 2011 works fine and can make the text plenty small enough to use the 13.3 screen effectively. Same for the Chrome browser once I stepped the zoom down one step (Command -). Lightroom is the only program I wish I had 1440x900 for, but its not a big deal since I also have a 24" 1080p monitor to plug into when I need more screen real estate.

The reality is that the MBA13 was a non-starter since I'd need to go with the 4GB/256GB upgrades bringing it to more than $700 over the cost of an MBP13 ($1639 edu price on MBA13 vs $900 for openbox base MBP13 from Microcenter). Even factoring $450 for a 240GB SSD if I buy one, the MBP was $300 cheaper.

With that said, I also felt firewire and the ability to upgrade to 8GB RAM were things I wanted/needed since I need FW to pull video from my old DV camcorder and I need to run stuff in Parallels at times as well.

If the MBP13 is updated in 11Q1 or 11Q2 to a 1440x900 screen I may well sell mine and upgrade. Depends on what other changes happen as well. I'll probably wait for Lion in any event.
 
I'm not well read on how the MBA and MBP compares, but a thing that makes a huge difference is the quality of the screen, the color gammut and so forth. For me that makes more difference than the resolution and I'm very pleased with the quality of my MBP and I think you should take into consideration before you decide.
 
This thread is why I feel there will be confusion in the 13" world of Apple. There's just too many of them now.

Apple needs to provide a compelling reason for people to fork over that extra $700 on a suitably equipped Air vs. the MBP. (As best as possible anyway).

It will take more than "thin and light" to sway me though. I'm getting fat and need the exercise.
 
The MBA's higher resolution is quite welcome, but also the fact that they didn't go with the all-glass screen cover. The MBA's screen is much less reflective than the 13" MBP's screen. I sold my 15" MBP to get the ultimate 13" MBA and have no regrets.
 
xpovos said:
The MBA's higher resolution is quite welcome, but also the fact that they didn't go with the all-glass screen cover. The MBA's screen is much less reflective than the 13" MBP's screen. I sold my 15" MBP to get the ultimate 13" MBA and have no regrets.
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The ultimate is the one with the bigger hard drive as well?
 
Richard1028 said:
This thread is why I feel there will be confusion in the 13" world of Apple. There's just too many of them now.

Apple needs to provide a compelling reason for people to fork over that extra $700 on a suitably equipped Air vs. the MBP. (As best as possible anyway).

It will take more than "thin and light" to sway me though. I'm getting fat and need the exercise.
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I don't understand why people are saying there are too many of them. Before there were two MBAs as well, both 13". The MBA update did not add any new 13" models. Sure, Apple made MBA a lot more attractive but is that a bad thing?

700$ is not fair since MBA has an SSD which is much more expensive than a normal HD used in MBP. Of course MBA will still cost more when you add SSD to MBP as said above but MBA is an ultraportable, thus it should not compete with regular laptops in every category. Plenty of people seem to be happy to pay that extra for MBA.

You shouldn't complain about too many options as there can never be too many. Or do you want Apple to squeeze all their laptops into a one model?
 
Hellhammer said:
The MBA update did not add any new 13" models. Sure, Apple made MBA a lot more attractive but is that a bad thing?
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Bingo. This is my whole point. And by making it more attractive they have endangered the 13" MBP.

You shouldn't complain about too many options as there can never be too many. Or do you want Apple to squeeze all their laptops into a one model?
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I'm not complaining about too much variety. I'm just suggesting that Apple may find all this variety entirely counter productive to their profit structure.
 
Richard1028 said:
Bingo. This is my whole point. And by making it more attractive they have endangered the 13" MBP.

I'm not complaining about too much variety. I'm just suggesting that Apple may find all this variety entirely counter productive to their profit structure.
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Just wait for the update and 13" MBP will be as hot as it used to be before the new MBA. We don't know about Apple's profits so you're just speculating. May be that MBAs have a lot better profits. Apple wouldn't have released the MBA if it had poor profits. They could have priced it differently as people would still buy it even if it was 100$ or 200$ more.

I'm sure Apple knows what they are doing and every computer they sell makes them a good amount of money. No matter is it MBA, MBP, MB or any other Mac.
 
Richard1028 said:
This thread is why I feel there will be confusion in the 13" world of Apple. There's just too many of them now.

Apple needs to provide a compelling reason for people to fork over that extra $700 on a suitably equipped Air vs. the MBP. (As best as possible anyway).

It will take more than "thin and light" to sway me though. I'm getting fat and need the exercise.
Click to expand...

You would really compare the 13" MBP vs. 11" MBA and 15" MBP vs. 13" MBA. In each case you have the same or very comparable number of pixels, but the MBA has the smaller screen (putting the pixels into less space) and obviously much less weight. And the 13" MBA compares very well to the 15" MBP unless you need HUGE hard drive space.
 
Well, just wanted to let you guys know that I pulled the trigger and purchased the MBA. The reason for this was mainly because I need a light and portable computer, but primarily because of the screen resolution. Granted, the next MBPs are going to more than likely have the 1440 screen res on the 13 inch, because I doubt apple would stick with 1280 (that would be an insult), but I can live with that.
 
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