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MacBook air or MacBook pro???

S

shahrezsyed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 1, 2011
167
9
Stony Brook, New York
Hi guys. I wanted help in decoding between
MacBook air 13" i7 or MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.2 GHz i7
I really love the form factor and the solid state speed of the air. But I want something that would last me at least till 2014 and the sheer power of the GPU and CPU of the pro fills that requirement.
I don't use the optical drive much and I'm sure I won't miss it and I don't play games maybe something like angry birds and I edit video beyond iMovie.
I'm inclined to buying the air but the extra storage and the fact that the pro is about 2x powerful and is quad core makes me wanna rethink my decision.
Any suggestions?
 
shahrezsyed said:
Hi guys. I wanted help in decoding between
MacBook air 13" i7 or MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.2 GHz i7
I really love the form factor and the solid state speed of the air. But I want something that would last me at least till 2014 and the sheer power of the GPU and CPU of the pro fills that requirement.
I don't use the optical drive much and I'm sure I won't miss it and I don't play games maybe something like angry birds and I edit video beyond iMovie.
I'm inclined to buying the air but the extra storage and the fact that the pro is about 2x powerful and is quad core makes me wanna rethink my decision.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I have both an choose the Air every time. I've tried sticking with the MBP's because I do like a larger 15/17" screen but the Air is my favorite go to machine by far.

It's such a pleasure to use anywhere and everywhere.
 
What are you using it for? If it is web browsing, word processing, YouTube, and Facebook, I would go with the Air and an external HDD.
 
I have both Air & Pro (2.4) late 2011, the Air came first and I was initially seduced by the blistering performance the Air offers thanks to the SSD, having moved from an Early 2008 MacBook Pro (4.1 2.4Ghz C2D). What I observed was that for intensive work the Air rapidly heats up and albeit much faster than the old C2D MBP simply does not offer the tremendous processing power of the MacBook Pro with the i7 Quad Core.

The Air is what it is, an ultraportable and as capable as it is not a desktop replacement, the MacBook Pro can cut this, it`s a very personal choice and you really need some time with the systems to see the benefits. SSD`s are without a doubt the future of storage, however they are still in their infancy and developing, the hard drive is now the "bottleneck" yet they are still the better option for maximum capacity, combined with maximum reliability.

If I had to limit myself to one Mac it would be the 15" high end MacBook Pro, the size is not overwhelming and the performance is highly impressive, upgrade path to SSD or SSD/HD combo, additional RAM is relatively easy. A MBP with 16Gb of RAM would require few if any programs to be completely shutdown allowing for extremely rapid access
 
@the previous poster
Keepin in mind that I don't do any heavy editing or gaming? I had the same thoughts before but I thought I don't really do anything that'll use all that power.
 
shahrezsyed said:
@the previous poster
Keepin in mind that I don't do any heavy editing or gaming? I had the same thoughts before but I thought I don't really do anything that'll use all that power.
Click to expand...

As I say it is a very personal choice, and there are many variables, usage expected longevity, you will get a longer lifecycle from the Pro versus the Air, simply due to the upgrade path. Dont get me wrong the new iCore Air`s are tremendous performers given the form factor. The MacBook Pro`s are simply more by several magnitudes; performance, display, quality, upgradeability, presence, and also cost. Like all in life you get what you pay for ;)
 
I would go for the Pro with SSD. But that's just me.

The only potential issue with the Air is the 4 GB memory limit. It's hard to estimate at what point this will be insufficient for everyday tasks. I've noticed that with a SSD, swapping doesn't slow down the system so much, so running out of memory is not such a big problem anymore.
 
I was recently trying to make the same decision. I ended up buying a refurbished MacBook Pro 15". I love it!

My husband, a longtime MacBook Pro 17" user, recommended the Pro. I know I don't use the disc drive that often, but it is convenient to have it. (And the Pro is still thinner than the iBook I had before.) I wanted to be able to upgrade easily (and, in fact, when I bought my MBP, I had some extra RAM added.) I tend to keep my computer until it's just really outdated (can't run new OS or other new software).

I love the display (both size and resolution) on my new MBP. Great for watching movies! I also wanted a bigger hard drive than I'd be able to afford on the MBA.

MacGeek
 
MacBook Pro is better in the long run/ The air starts faster and loads a few things fast. But it doesn't have a hard drive. The Pro has a good hard drive pretty fast and with your choices, it's bigger! MacBook Pro is the better choice!
 
Like Queen6, I have both a MBA (13") and a MBP (17"). I love my MBA and probably make use of it 70% of the time. But I think, if I were going to pair it down to just one laptop, I would trade the two I have in for a 15" MBP, blending some of the best qualities of both. But that is just me and my needs.

If I were in a position where I knew my needs would all be met by the MBA alone, I would easily choose the MBA. It is thin, light, and fast, and why it is still the "go to" laptop for me in most cases. The MBP travels much more infrequently.
 
Personally, I would go for the Pro, especially if this is going to be your only/primary computer. The Airs are great ultraportable laptops, but they have nowhere close to the power of a MBP. According to Geekbench, the low-end 15" MBP has very nearly double the power of the high-end 13" Air. Granted, benchmarks aren't everything. The Air will have the snappiness of the SSD, the Pro will be SO much faster at everything else.

I love the form factor of the Air, and would choose one if my primary computer was an iMac or Mac Pro (or Hackintosh :cool:). However, you're going to miss out on the power of the MBP. With a MBP, you can put an SSD in it later if you want, no problem there.

My recommendation: assuming this is going to be your primary/only computer, get the MBP. The Air is NOT designed to be a primary computer. It has too few ports as well. Yes, it has Thunderbolt, but what can you do with that right now? Apart from Apple's displays and some of the RAID setups out there, not much.

Get the MBP.
 
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