Hi guys, I ask you all a ton of questions about what moves I should make in the apple world! Please let me know of what you think would be best. I need something that can move with me. Battery life isnt a huge deal. I will be doing email, word processing, and light audio editing on this machine. Just would like to have something to work on things on the go. My choices are from bestbuy they have a 13.3 cMBP with i7 2.9ghz, 8GBs of Ram, and 750GB HDD for 1299.99, or 13 MBA with i7 1.7GHz, 8GBs of ram, and 128GB SSD, Storage isnt a huge deal either, i have tons of externals. Please let me know what you think, I would like to get something locked in by the end of the week!
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2013 MBA or 2012 cMBP: Would love some help!!!
- Thread starter jboyd710
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The only main difference between those 2 are storage and battery life... So its all on the exterior design I guess. The MBA is lighter and easier to carry around with you. The cMBP is still easy to carry around, and is upgradable (in terms of HDD and RAM), has 2.9GHz vs the 1.7, but is also possible to see a refresh later this year, so you may be kicking yourself for buying it now with a (possibly) new model just around the corner.
So would performance between the 2.9 i7 and the 1.7 i7 be that great? both these are going to go in the same bag so portability would be practically the same for me.
It could, depending on what you do. But regardless of which you get, you wouldnt really notice "wow this is much slower than the other one" unless you literally did the same things side by side with both computers there. In the end they are both dual-cores. But wait and see what others have to say about it.
Also if your bestbuy has any of those models out, play with them a bit, pick them up and see if you have any physical preference of one over another. I personally dont like the tapered look/feel of the air, so if specs didnt matter, that would drive my decision. Its all personal preference.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, actually the MBA has the HD5000 graphics, over the HD4000 of the cMBP. A significant boost in graphics, not that you'd need it. But still, more of a boost for the MBA
Right the 5000 is a draw to me, I went and looked at geekbench and they seem relatively close cMBP i7 2.7ghz gets 7743 and MBA i7 1.7ghz gets 7267, so about 500 points.
Yeah, pretty close. Are you someone who has to have the latest and greatest? If so, I would say go with the MBA, it was just refreshed and has the newer internals. Speculation is the MBPs will get updates later this year, and youd regret purchasing the 2012 model at this point.
Since the MBA is newer it would have a higher resale value than the 2012 MBP, so if you wanted to get the new MBP, or even the older model at a cheaper price, you could sell the air with a minimal loss to buy a new one. I know youre looking for something this week, but it may be ideal to wait for the MBP updates before making a decision.
Also check out the Apple refurb store, you can find good bang for your buck there, the only downside is waiting for it to ship. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac You could even get a retina 13" for less than the cMBP http://store.apple.com/us/product/F...z-dual-core-intel-core-i5-with-retina-display
I can see that, is the air going to get a big boost from mavericks as well? Also a big plus would be buying it and getting the 100 dollar app store card too!
Are cMBPs going away? I know its all speculation right now, but that is kind of the way things are pointing right?
I honestly don't think you'd see much of a performance difference between these models, even though the processor speed numbers might lead you to think otherwise. The fact is unless you buy them both you'll really never know, so given how close they are, I honestly wouldn't worry so much, i.e. my guess is you will love whatever choice you make.
That said, there are other significant differences. The MBA is approx. 50% lighter. Even though you may not think you care, once you get used to the lightness+quality of an Air it's hard to go back to something else. Ditto on the improved battery life. And last but not least, always go with an SSD if you can, it's one of the best upgrades you could make for any system.
All that said it seems like an easy choice - MBA all the way.
That said, there are other significant differences. The MBA is approx. 50% lighter. Even though you may not think you care, once you get used to the lightness+quality of an Air it's hard to go back to something else. Ditto on the improved battery life. And last but not least, always go with an SSD if you can, it's one of the best upgrades you could make for any system.
All that said it seems like an easy choice - MBA all the way.
I'm leaning that way, also just noticed USB 3s are on opposite sides....I love that.
Okay, now another question. I would like to pick up a USB optical drive. Do you all have any recommendations on any? I know Apple has theirs, but it is a little pricey.
They'll bump the hardware and take the super-drives away from them, but I highly doubt they discontinue them.