2013 MBA or wait for 2013 base MBP?

Really depends on your use. If you're just doing basic tasks (internet, email, word processing, light editing/development work, etc.) then the Air is perfect. If you are seeking portability, the Air is also perfect.

On the other hand, if you are doing hardcore graphics or photo work, the retina MBP is a better choice.

You'd probably be just fine with an Air, but it's really up to you.

Would you rather have some extra portability, or some extra power?. You may want to consider the price difference as well.

technowar said:

I'm planning on buying my first ever Macbook. Was eagerly waiting for WWDC hoping there would be an update for the MBP, or the base MBP to the least.

I tell you, HD5000 and .ac is really a huge factor for me but retina is not. The display is really really appealing but the price is not. Though I am heartbroken for MBA's TN panel.

The standard configuration for my Macbook should have at least 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

Should I wait for the base MBP's announcement, or just give MBA a shot?

Click to expand...

technowar said:

Just programming. Xcode and VM mostly.

Though light photo work that I need to process straight from my DSLR. This happens only maybe twice or thrice a year.

Click to expand...

You said "thrice." Anyway,

What's about any of these?:


1.)Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 with Retina Display $1,269
Originally released October 2012
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage

720p FaceTime HD Camera

Intel HD Graphics 4000

2.)Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Quad-core Intel i7
$1,319
Originally released October 2011
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M


3.)Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Quad-core Intel i7
$1,529
Originally released October 2011
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M

4.)$1,449
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel i7
Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution

4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory


Or even this awesome deal:

$1,599
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

Skip the MBP -- I think you'd be happy with last year's 13" Air. The 256GB/8GB model is the sweet spot. There are savings to be had by purchasing last year's model and though there has been some buzz over AC, the slow pipe coming into your home will be just as slow.

designs216 said:

Skip the MBP -- I think you'd be happy with last year's 13" Air. The 256GB/8GB model is the sweet spot. There are savings to be had by purchasing last year's model and though there has been some buzz over AC, the slow pipe coming into your home will be just as slow.

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That's true about the "slow pipe" as long as it is only being used indoors and at home. But if the OP is going to a university with a fast connection, then there will be a noticeable increase in speed. The same would be for airports and other locations that benefit from faster connection speeds.

RedCroissant said:

That's true about the "slow pipe" as long as it is only being used indoors and at home. But if the OP is going to a university with a fast connection, then there will be a noticeable increase in speed. The same would be for airports and other locations that benefit from faster connection speeds.

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I inferred that he'd be using the machine primarily for personal use since price is a big detractor. Whether or not this is the case, AC is not widespread so I would opt for savings.

The new MBA has more than just ac wifi. There's also the extra few hours of battery life and the SSD is almost twice as fast for read/write, etc.

I'd opt for the new one.

technowar said:

With maybe 3 or 4 virtual machines, will 8GB be fine? It does feel slow on my Mac mini Mid 2010 with 8GB of RAM.

Click to expand...

No. at that point, I would make sure to have 16GB. This is of course dependent on how much RAM you allot to each VM, but if you are running more modern OSes with 1-2GB each, then you should see that 8GB will not be enough at all and your battery life as well will be seriously affected. if you want to run that many VMs, then I would go with a refurb 15" MBP. you get the separate GPU, more powerful CPU, and the ability to upgrade the RAM.

technowar said:

I don't intend to 3 or 4 VM's altogether. Maybe 2 for 1GB each from time to time, but mostly just a Ubuntu Server with 512 MB RAM or none at all.

Is '12 Ivy Bridge more powerful than of '13 Haswell?

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Even if the VMs are kept to a minimum like that, I would want a lot more RAM available just in case. For example(depending on which virtualization app you are using) Windows OSes can start to drain RAM even outside the parameters you set for it within VirtualBox. I got to the point where I could no longer run XP(even on just the 1GB of RAM that I assigned it because I would notice decreases to the RAM supposedly reserved for OS X. Even with Ubuntu I noticed that eventually I would use the purge command to reclaim inactive memory.

I would assume that it is simply because Haswell is supposed to be the low-power CPU which made Apple use GPUs to compensate for the decreased power of the CPU. I could be wrong though.