2011 Macbook Pro i7 w/SSD vs 2011 Macbook Air i7?

[shanimal]

I bought a 15" Macbook witha i7 2.2ghz processor and upgraded to 8gb, but i still have a 500GB 7200 rpm HDD. I have seen many comparisons with the MBP w/SSD vs MBA, while the MBP is worlds faster than its HDD counterpart, i was wondering why it doesnt beat the MBA? it has a faster processor and better graphics card. It doesnt make sense to me. also, if i get a SSD in my MBP, will i have the "instant boot" and the 30 day sleep time like the MBA?

Thanks, and sorry if this was posted somewhere else. Gotta go out and i wanted to get this posted before i forgot.

 

[shanimal]

bump, anyone?

 

[ayeying]

Instant Boot; No
30 Day; Probably not

There's much more going on in the background then just what's on paper you know.

 

[thundersteele]

The MBA is designed differently since it can only ever have SSD storage (and no optical drive). The design of the MBP is such that it can live with both HDDs and SSDs.

As a consequence, the MBP doesn't get instant on and 30 day standby, even if you replace the HDD with a SSD. One could probably try to hack the MBPs firmware to enable these features, but I don't know how and I would recommend against trying

 

[shardey]

The SSD is the biggest factor in terms of load speeds. My early 11 17" has an intel 320 ssd that normally boots 12-14 seconds.

 

[g-boac]

having owned both an MBP and a 2011 MBA, both with SSDs:

The MBP has a slightly but noticeably quicker boot time for OS X 10.7. Same thing for waking up. The MBA boot time is very, very respectable, but just slightly slower than an MBP with an SSD.

There is NO "instant boot" - Steve Jobs did refer to "instant on" in the 2010 MBA product launch. This referred to when you woke the MBA from sleep by either pressing a key or opening the lid. However, this capability has been broken for both 2010 and 2011 MBAs running Lion. So both a 2011 MBP and a 2011 MBA will wake up from sleep within a couple of seconds, but neither will have "instant on".