Upgrading Apple products, serious advice needed!

[ryan.apham]

I need serious pieces of advice from you MacRumors Folks ! Thanks in advance .

Well, I've just graduated from high school, and because of my good results, my parents are going to give me some rewards . I'm planning to upgrade my Apple babies. Currently, these are in my possession:
1. MBA 13" 2011 128GB SSD
2. iPhone 4S Black 16 GB
3. iPad 2 Black Wi-Fi 32 GB (scratched and dented a lot, wi-fi chip is broken, so nearly unusable...)

I'm going to have a gap year next year (from this December until I start my undergrad course, which is in September), so I'd like to spend a lot of time playing games. I'm not a really heavy gamer, some casual games or heavy games (like Skyrim, Diablo 3) but run in medium settings will do .

I don't expect my parents to give me the budget to upgrade all 3, so I can have 2 options:
1. Upgrade MBA to retina MBP (better video card, CPU, RAM, and more SSD capacity)
2. Upgrade iPhone 4S to iPhone 5 and iPad 2 to iPad 3.

If you were in my case, what option would you choose ?

[boomhower]

That's easy, #2. The 13" Air is the perfect notebook for a college student. A 15" notebook will get tiring lugging around campus all day. Get a new phone and the iPad 4, having a common charging cable will also make your life a little easier. If you want to game spend $200 on an Xbox or PS3.

[darster]

The MBA should last you at least a few more years, if not your entire college studies. Get the iphone 5. Option 2.

[ejin222]

Originally Posted by boomhower

That's easy, #2. The 13" Air is the perfect notebook for a college student. A 15" notebook will get tiring lugging around campus all day. Get a new phone and the iPad 4, having a common charging cable will also make your life a little easier. If you want to game spend $200 on an Xbox or PS3.

Agreed

[paulbennett95]

Your parents buy you stuff? Lucky bastard...

I'd 100% go with option #2.

[bowlerman625]

Originally Posted by paulbennett95

Your parents buy you stuff? Lucky bastard...

I'd 100% go with option #2.

This one!

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by paulbennett95

Your parents buy you stuff? Lucky bastard...

I'd 100% go with option #2.

Haha, I guess it's the difference between the Eastern and the Western culture. Well, an average Asian (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc.) man can get the support from his parents even when he's 30 and has a job; the links between family members are just incredibly strong.

We Asians don't usually work part-time until we graduate university, unless our family can't support us. So, we tend to depend on our families a lot .

Rewarding children is a way that Asian families often do to keep their motivation up. But the parents' expectations, as a result, are high as well :P.

Well, what I've written so far does not apply to all Asian families, this is just my depiction of the typical Asian culture. And thanks all for your pieces of advice .

[mac00l]

Originally Posted by ryan.apham

I need serious pieces of advice from you MacRumors Folks ! Thanks in advance .

Well, I've just graduated from high school, and because of my good results, my parents are going to give me some rewards . I'm planning to upgrade my Apple babies. Currently, these are in my possession:
1. MBA 13" 2011 128GB SSD
2. iPhone 4S Black 16 GB
3. iPad 2 Black Wi-Fi 32 GB (scratched and dented a lot, wi-fi chip is broken, so nearly unusable...)

I'm going to have a gap year next year (from this December until I start my undergrad course, which is in September), so I'd like to spend a lot of time playing games. I'm not a really heavy gamer, some casual games or heavy games (like Skyrim, Diablo 3) but run in medium settings will do .

I don't expect my parents to give me the budget to upgrade all 3, so I can have 2 options:
1. Upgrade MBA to retina MBP (better video card, CPU, RAM, and more SSD capacity)
2. Upgrade iPhone 4S to iPhone 5 and iPad 2 to iPad 3.

If you were in my case, what option would you choose ?

iPhones and iPads are trivial.

I would get a 15" MB Retina. As per your signature I believe you already did.

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by mac00l

iPhones and iPads are trivial.

I would get a 15" MB Retina. As per your signature I believe you already did.

Quick observations there, but that was long, long time ago. MacBook Pro 2008 to be exact .

[stonyboys]

srs advice = choosing which apple device to upgrade

The recent recession could have been avoided if we all took the serious advice from our advisors and upgraded our apple devices.

[macness]

#2

[AbyssImpact]

Why do you need a gap year to play games?

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by AbyssImpact

Why do you need a gap year to play games?

Come to Singapore and see for yourself . Even the highschoolers don't have time for family interaction, yet time for gaming. Hectic timetable + exams/tests after tests + clubs like maths, chess clubs etc. + sports + charity work will consume much of you time. I still remember my football (soccer, not American football) took up 5-6 trainings a week, each training 3-4 hours a day, before and during our season. And that is after I finish classes at 3 o'clock. When I reach home at 8 PM, dinner + shower + homework = 12 AM, sometimes, 2AM. Sleep, 6 AM wake up, and repeat what I did the day earlier.

Singapore's still better than China, Japan and South Korea though. A lot of highschoolers commit suicide annually there because of the school stress.

I've always wanted to go to the UK, USA, Aus, Can, NZ for undergrad education (less stress people say ), but heck, the school fees will be much more expensive. I would rather buy myself Apple products and enjoy expensive overseas travels than pay the difference in tuition fees.

Additionally Singaporeans all have gap years. This is because the highschool calendar is from Jan - Nov, whilst the college first term starts in late August. Those who need to go for national service (army) enjoy 2 gap years instead of 1. Plenty of resting time imo .

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by stonyboys

srs advice = choosing which apple device to upgrade

The recent recession could have been avoided if we all took the serious advice from our advisors and upgraded our apple devices.

Politics has nothing to do with me. To me, this is a serious matter. I don't want to spend the next 6-12 months regretting about my earlier decision, crying 'mama, papa, I should have bought the MBP, the iPhone 5 sucks'.

Maybe for you, and millions of other other people, this matter is not serious, but what applies to you and other people out there does not mean it must apply to me. In the end, I'm just a 19 year-old young adult who has just finished his high school programme and has not yet earned a job. Spending over 1k, using parents' money, on a luxury good needs careful thoughts, and hence, I need serious advice from people.

You're older than me (I assume so, because I'm just 19), so I expect a more mature, well-thought out comment from you. If you think I and my post are not serious, why did you waste time and comment on my post anyway?

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by ericagodwin

The recent recession could have been avoided if we all took the serious advice from our advisors and upgraded our apple devices.Image

Please, read my post above you. I'm wondering if you two are mature adults who should give advice to youngsters like me, or just some 13 year old teenagers/Internet trolls/no-life keyboard warriors.

[McreativeH]

iPhone 5 and iPad 3 definitely the MBP will not do a whole lot of good if you want to game as there are not an abundance of ganes for Mac OS X if your looking to game either get a PC (fairly decent one) an XBOX or a PS3

[rocoloco]

I feel your sexy dilemma, whatever you do, you gonna be satisfied.. I have the same mba and it is still awesome. #2

[superslows2k]

This might not sound like what you want to do but why not just upgrade to a 5 without upgrading the ipad? Unless I totally missed something it seem to be a point of getting a faster computer to play games.

I mean you don't have to save your parents money, just saying

[Nevzorus]

Do you use your iPhone and iPad the most or your macbook?

[stonyboys]

Originally Posted by ryan.apham

Politics has nothing to do with me. To me, this is a serious matter. I don't want to spend the next 6-12 months regretting about my earlier decision, crying 'mama, papa, I should have bought the MBP, the iPhone 5 sucks'.

Maybe for you, and millions of other other people, this matter is not serious, but what applies to you and other people out there does not mean it must apply to me. In the end, I'm just a 19 year-old young adult who has just finished his high school programme and has not yet earned a job. Spending over 1k, using parents' money, on a luxury good needs careful thoughts, and hence, I need serious advice from people.

You're older than me (I assume so, because I'm just 19), so I expect a more mature, well-thought out comment from you. If you think I and my post are not serious, why did you waste time and comment on my post anyway?

I'm 18, first year uni. And I'm still smart and mature enough to know that making the right yearly technology upgrades isn't what you should be worried about.

[nburwell]

As long as your MBA is working fine (which I imagine it is), I would hands down go with option 2.

[nepalisherpa]

I say Option #3: Save the money for later!

Originally Posted by ryan.apham

I need serious pieces of advice from you MacRumors Folks ! Thanks in advance .

.........

I don't expect my parents to give me the budget to upgrade all 3, so I can have 2 options:
1. Upgrade MBA to retina MBP (better video card, CPU, RAM, and more SSD capacity)
2. Upgrade iPhone 4S to iPhone 5 and iPad 2 to iPad 3.

If you were in my case, what option would you choose ?

[chambone]

That's easy. I'd spend 30 bucks to fix the ipad, keep the phone and the laptop, and put the rest of the money in the bank.

[ryan.apham]

Originally Posted by chambone

That's easy. I'd spend 30 bucks to fix the ipad, keep the phone and the laptop, and put the rest of the money in the bank.

This is kind of a reward from my parents . Not my own money. There's no need to save them .

[VandyChem2009]

I've always found it kind of funny when parents reward their kids for good grades/anything else in general. At the end of the day it is for your own benefit. I mean what happens when you are in the real world and the rewards stop? Do you stop working? Do you stop trying? Hmm this system seems flawed. However, I guess a paycheck is kind of a reward for work. Hmmm.