My god, after spending a week and more time investigating at the retail stores both early 2015 MBA and 2015 MacBook Pro 13 models, I was so ambivalent between the MBA or the MacBook Pro 13-inch that I finally was able to decide!
The probably was how sexy the MBA 13 was in comparison to the MacBook Pro 13. Sure the weight was a mere 1/2lb overweight on the mbp but the weight between the two are so close you almost cannot tell the difference. The nice thing about the MacBook Pro 13 is that it has a smaller footprint than the MBA 13. It's small.
The turning point was at an apple store seeing both screens. I knew coming in the MBA sucked because of the low res 2010 TN panel. But I didn't mind and at the distance I'm at from my laptop now, I don't think it's that big of a deal - at least I wasn't thinking it thru.
I work with images and I also work with video. I don't necessarily need the MBA to process video work because I have a desktop with ample power to do these tasks. I needed a personal device to take with me everywhere and have access to all my stuff. The iPad AIR 2 I have is just great but it's a chore to do compared to what I can do on a full OS X system. I finally decided to give up the iPad air 2 and buy a laptop 13-inch in size. Trouble was figuring out which.
I knew the 5th gen i7 cpu's rocked in a 15w package, it not only has low heat but can hang with the rMBP as well. But then for the price I was at in this configuration: i7 2.2GHz/8GB/256GB, the price after taxes was around $1500. Now I can get the 28w i5 2.7/8GB/(amazing 2x PCIe SSD)256GB for about the same price.
I've never owned an rMBP before so I've been hearing about the iGPU being too weak in previous gen causing UI lag issues, etc. Even a thread brought up lag and stuttering (which is true) when using expose in Yosemite. So I went in the stores each day and gave each laptop a thorough run thru.
To sum it up, I left with the rMBP 13! Reasons are just too easy: #1 and foremost, the retina screen is just too amazing to not go with. Especially when I need to see if my images are in focus and inspecting my 1080p videos. You can't do this with the low quality (by 2015 standards) TN panel on the MBA. I was so reluctant to believe this was the case but today I was on the apple.com page and when i scrolled to the very bottom of the page where there are subtext disclaimer info - without zooming in on the page, I could not make out the letters and words. It's quite sad if I am to pay $1500+ for a nearly maxxed out MBA, I expect to be able to sit there and read text just fine. But amazingly, somehow I missed this investigation and today I just saw it for myself and the text was just too blurry to make out.
The retina screen shows text and images and videos so superbly, there is not a solid reason to stick with the MBA - the battery life may be longer on the MBA but I cannot fathom sitting in front of the LCD and looking at 2010 TN display paying upwards of $1500. It's almost like telling myself it is ok to pay for 1Mb/s internet for $70 a month when I can get 50Mb/s for same price. It would be foolish and the rMBP 13 would fit my needs so much better.
Also, the touch pad is amazing. Sure I was trying it at the store but after having been home with it and working on it like normal, it is just amazing how easy and fluid the touchpad is. The response of the pad is just superior to my older 2011 MacBook Pro and now this touchpad even supports touch sensitive/pressure sensitive drawing capabilities!
Overall, I'm so please with this early 2015 2.7GHz rMBP - I'm so glad I went with the rMBP and if you are like myself contemplating between the two, definitely try the rMBP 13 - it's just amazing how it can hold its own in battery performance and the 28w broad well cpu can sustain longer turbo boost thus if you were to compare the i7 2.2GHz in the MBA, it would not match it in real life use. But of course we're talking a few seconds here and there when encoding video or anything cpu intensive.
As for the stuttering when I was at the stores, I opened up all the apps and just swiped up to see all the apps - and yes it did stutter a bit on the rMBP but then it was not a deal breaker because it really didn't bother me. If you switch between apps, there is no UI lag, no stuttering, all 100% fluid. It's really a killer laptop right now and I can say without a doubt, it is the best laptop bang for your buck right now.
That's if you don't need heavy encoding cpu work done on it or 3D applications. It's such a nice little laptop and the weight is so close to the MBA, you really shouldn't use it as a deal breaker to buy an MBA. The MBA is actually LARGER footprint than the rMBP 13. I'm so satisfied with this laptop - I hope this will help persuade you to see 2015 technology!
Thanks for listening...
PS - the laptop is ultra quiet -I swear it doesn't even have a fan on. While web surfing, editing images, even a video it's quiet. The only thing I don't like too much is the squeaky delete key - maybe needs a bit of a break in. Overall, the laptop doesn't even get warm on the bottom - only when you stress out both cores at max for a few minutes then the fans kick in but the entire laptop cools back down very quickly!
The probably was how sexy the MBA 13 was in comparison to the MacBook Pro 13. Sure the weight was a mere 1/2lb overweight on the mbp but the weight between the two are so close you almost cannot tell the difference. The nice thing about the MacBook Pro 13 is that it has a smaller footprint than the MBA 13. It's small.
The turning point was at an apple store seeing both screens. I knew coming in the MBA sucked because of the low res 2010 TN panel. But I didn't mind and at the distance I'm at from my laptop now, I don't think it's that big of a deal - at least I wasn't thinking it thru.
I work with images and I also work with video. I don't necessarily need the MBA to process video work because I have a desktop with ample power to do these tasks. I needed a personal device to take with me everywhere and have access to all my stuff. The iPad AIR 2 I have is just great but it's a chore to do compared to what I can do on a full OS X system. I finally decided to give up the iPad air 2 and buy a laptop 13-inch in size. Trouble was figuring out which.
I knew the 5th gen i7 cpu's rocked in a 15w package, it not only has low heat but can hang with the rMBP as well. But then for the price I was at in this configuration: i7 2.2GHz/8GB/256GB, the price after taxes was around $1500. Now I can get the 28w i5 2.7/8GB/(amazing 2x PCIe SSD)256GB for about the same price.
I've never owned an rMBP before so I've been hearing about the iGPU being too weak in previous gen causing UI lag issues, etc. Even a thread brought up lag and stuttering (which is true) when using expose in Yosemite. So I went in the stores each day and gave each laptop a thorough run thru.
To sum it up, I left with the rMBP 13! Reasons are just too easy: #1 and foremost, the retina screen is just too amazing to not go with. Especially when I need to see if my images are in focus and inspecting my 1080p videos. You can't do this with the low quality (by 2015 standards) TN panel on the MBA. I was so reluctant to believe this was the case but today I was on the apple.com page and when i scrolled to the very bottom of the page where there are subtext disclaimer info - without zooming in on the page, I could not make out the letters and words. It's quite sad if I am to pay $1500+ for a nearly maxxed out MBA, I expect to be able to sit there and read text just fine. But amazingly, somehow I missed this investigation and today I just saw it for myself and the text was just too blurry to make out.
The retina screen shows text and images and videos so superbly, there is not a solid reason to stick with the MBA - the battery life may be longer on the MBA but I cannot fathom sitting in front of the LCD and looking at 2010 TN display paying upwards of $1500. It's almost like telling myself it is ok to pay for 1Mb/s internet for $70 a month when I can get 50Mb/s for same price. It would be foolish and the rMBP 13 would fit my needs so much better.
Also, the touch pad is amazing. Sure I was trying it at the store but after having been home with it and working on it like normal, it is just amazing how easy and fluid the touchpad is. The response of the pad is just superior to my older 2011 MacBook Pro and now this touchpad even supports touch sensitive/pressure sensitive drawing capabilities!
Overall, I'm so please with this early 2015 2.7GHz rMBP - I'm so glad I went with the rMBP and if you are like myself contemplating between the two, definitely try the rMBP 13 - it's just amazing how it can hold its own in battery performance and the 28w broad well cpu can sustain longer turbo boost thus if you were to compare the i7 2.2GHz in the MBA, it would not match it in real life use. But of course we're talking a few seconds here and there when encoding video or anything cpu intensive.
As for the stuttering when I was at the stores, I opened up all the apps and just swiped up to see all the apps - and yes it did stutter a bit on the rMBP but then it was not a deal breaker because it really didn't bother me. If you switch between apps, there is no UI lag, no stuttering, all 100% fluid. It's really a killer laptop right now and I can say without a doubt, it is the best laptop bang for your buck right now.
That's if you don't need heavy encoding cpu work done on it or 3D applications. It's such a nice little laptop and the weight is so close to the MBA, you really shouldn't use it as a deal breaker to buy an MBA. The MBA is actually LARGER footprint than the rMBP 13. I'm so satisfied with this laptop - I hope this will help persuade you to see 2015 technology!
Thanks for listening...
PS - the laptop is ultra quiet -I swear it doesn't even have a fan on. While web surfing, editing images, even a video it's quiet. The only thing I don't like too much is the squeaky delete key - maybe needs a bit of a break in. Overall, the laptop doesn't even get warm on the bottom - only when you stress out both cores at max for a few minutes then the fans kick in but the entire laptop cools back down very quickly!
