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Upgrading from Macbook Pro 13 to Macbook Air 13

L

lightweight

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2013
9
0
I'm a current college student and I've decided that my Macbook Pro is too much laptop for me to fully utilize. I'm looking for a lighter, slimmer laptop that still covers everything I need it to do.

My uses are pretty similar to a typical student: a lot of word processing, a huge amount of internet browsing (20+ tabs at once), occasional movie viewing, music and potentially some photo editing in the future and some coding.

Right now I have the mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro with the 2.5 Ghz i5 and 4GB RAM, and I'm looking at moving to a 13" Macbook Air with a 1.7 Ghz i5, 4GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD.

Is it a good idea for me to make the switch? Also how do I move over everything from my MBP to my new MBA if I decide to do it, like programs, media and settings?
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
The MBA you chose would definitely handle your needs, but I probably would get the model with 8 GB RAM, since future OS X versions will more than probably need more RAM than nowadays.

As for migrating your stuff:

Migration Assistant / Setup Assistant information:
 
KylePowers

KylePowers

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2011
1,688
197
Well, in terms of performance, I would say you're actually upgrading. The processors are relatively the same in performance (in relation to your current uses, at least), 4GB of RAM is 4GB of RAM, but the SSD in the MBA will make your computing experience exponentially superior.

Additionally, and this is what I always favor, the MBA has a larger resolution, which means more screen real estate! This is why I chose an MBA over an MBP. Much better at handling windows side-by-side, etc. The screen quality (color gamut, etc) is superior in the MBP, however.

The MBA would be fine for your needs and if you can swing it, going to 8GB of RAM will always be useful, though not necessary (granted, you can't upgrade it yourself like you can in the MBP, so plan accordingly).

What's your price limit? You could alternatively go for a used/refurb/open-box 13in rMBP for the same price as a new MBA + 8GB of RAM. The rMBP can scale its resolution to higher than the MBA and cMBP and its footprint is actually smaller than the MBA (width wise, at least.. I think). It's only ~half a pound heavier than the MBA as well.
 
L

lightweight

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2013
9
0
I'm looking at a mid-2012 MBA 13" on Craigslist right now. It's an 1.8 GHz i5, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, still under original warranty and the seller is asking for $1000 hard.

Is this a good deal or am I better off waiting?
 
dlimes13

dlimes13

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2011
744
13
Perrysburg, OH
lightweight said:
I'm looking at a mid-2012 MBA 13" on Craigslist right now. It's an 1.8 GHz i5, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, still under original warranty and the seller is asking for $1000 hard.

Is this a good deal or am I better off waiting?
Click to expand...

As long as it's in good shape, I'd say it's a decent deal, especially with the 8 GB RAM.
 
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