Air '18 vs MBP nTB '17 performance

[0014]

Does anyone know how the new Air would compare to my old Macbook Pro 2011? in terms of specs? i'm guessing the new Air would be a lot faster.

It depends what you're doing to be honest.

But the easy way to say this is that anything that wasn't a struggle for you on the MBP won't be on the MBA. It will be smoother, faster at loading most apps due to the SSD performance etc.

It will only be if you start taxing it with huge excel spreadsheets, editing loads of photo's or rendering 4K video that you will run into issues. But anything that you struggled with on the MBP may well still struggle on the MBA. But it will either be less of a struggle (quicker in other words at doing a task(s)) or it will actually handle it well due to the 7yr processor gap.
[doublepost=1541676251][/doublepost]Just to add further to my last. I've been on and off the wagon over buying this MBA. It will be no faster than my current 13" MBP which is a early 2015 2.9I5 with 8GB Ram and a 512SSD (of which about 60gb is in use)

I don't struggle with anything now and I don't think I will struggle with anything in the next 2-3yrs (which is normally how long a keep a laptop for).

If I do start to struggle then I will just upgrade to a MBP (hopefully they will remove that ***** Touch Bar as that was one of the appeals of the MBA) and hand the MBA to my wife.

I will most likely get the 128/16 as storage wise I have a 5TB external and 2TB iCloud Drive.

 

[Dave245]

It depends what you're doing to be honest.

But the easy way to say this is that anything that wasn't a struggle for you on the MBP won't be on the MBA. It will be smoother, faster at loading most apps due to the SSD performance etc.

It will only be if you start taxing it with huge excel spreadsheets, editing loads of photo's or rendering 4K video that you will run into issues. But anything that you struggled with on the MBP may well still struggle on the MBA. But it will either be less of a struggle (quicker in other words at doing a task(s)) or it will actually handle it well due to the 7yr processor gap.

Thank you for the reply that makes sense! i'm not very techie when it comes to specs, all i know is that i had a 2011 Macbook Pro and i loved it, until it died on me a couple of months ago

most of the tasks that i do were still great on my 2011 Macbook Pro, most of what i do is writing for long sessions (it's my career) which does involve research, i may have a few tabs open in Safari (i only use Safari) and Final Draft, i don't have much else open at the same time. While i'm writing i won't have iTunes or Youtube open as i will only get distracted (procrastination can be a nightmare )

during down time i do watch Netflix, Youtube videos and so on, other than that the only other thing that i do is edit photos on Pixelmator Pro, it's only a hobby and they are not big files, mostly ones taken on my iPhone X. It's nothing essential tho as i do also use my 2017 iPad Pro to editing photos in Pixelmator as well.

What attracted me to the Air in the first place is the battery life that Apple stated (12 hours web, 13 hours video playback) however i have read some reviews of people saying they do not get Apple's stated battery life

The other thing is portability, being able to take the Air around the house, to a friends house when collaborating and to a business meeting would be great

 

[0014]

Thank you for the reply that makes sense! i'm not very techie when it comes to specs, all i know is that i had a 2011 Macbook Pro and i loved it, until it died on me a couple of months ago

most of the tasks that i do were still great on my 2011 Macbook Pro, most of what i do is writing for long sessions (it's my career) which does involve research, i may have a few tabs open in Safari (i only use Safari) and Final Draft, i don't have much else open at the same time. While i'm writing i won't have iTunes or Youtube open as i will only get distracted (procrastination can be a nightmare )

during down time i do watch Netflix, Youtube videos and so on, other than that the only other thing that i do is edit photos on Pixelmator Pro, it's only a hobby and they are not big files, mostly ones taken on my iPhone X. It's nothing essential tho as i do also use my 2017 iPad Pro to editing photos in Pixelmator as well.

What attracted me to the Air in the first place is the battery life that Apple stated (12 hours web, 13 hours video playback) however i have read some reviews of people saying they do not get Apple's stated battery life

The other thing is portability, being able to take the Air around the house, to a friends house when collaborating and to a business meeting would be great

This post is currently putting me off as it's slower than my current MBP. Whilst my usage is also fairly light (reports from work, the odd presentation and watching the odd TED Talk). I am concerned that when I have to do more research and have a load of safari tabs open as well as pages or keynote that things may get sluggish. They shouldn't do but looking at the scores and his other post it could do.

MacBook Air 2018

For reference this is my score.

 

[Dave245]

This post is currently putting me off as it's slower than my current MBP. Whilst my usage is also fairly light (reports from work, the odd presentation and watching the odd TED Talk). I am concerned that when I have to do more research and have a load of safari tabs open as well as pages or keynote that things may get sluggish. They shouldn't do but looking at the scores and his other post it could do.

MacBook Air 2018

For reference this is my score.

View attachment 802372

That is a little worrying, I would of thought that for the new Air it would of at least been able to do the most simple of tasks.

I’m leaving it a couple of weeks before deciding, that way all the reviews will be out along with people’s thoughts and a more balanced opinion can be made. Also it will be Black Friday in a couple of weeks and Apple are likely to give away free gift cards with Mac purchases (just like last year).

 

[Peter_M]

Could the slowdowns be software/driver related? I just ordered a MacBook Air myself. Working with my MacBook from 2016, everything feels responsive during regular light use, so I'm surprised that this should be an issue.

 

[0014]

Could the slowdowns be software/driver related? I just ordered a MacBook Air myself. Working with my MacBook from 2016, everything feels responsive during regular light use, so I'm surprised that this should be an issue.

I'm also wondering that. But I don't see how it could be as the software (macOS) is ok, granted I'm running 10.14.2 beta. But don't think that would make much of a difference so it should be already optimised for the MBA.

It could possibly be a processor throttling issue similar to what people saw with the 6 core 15" MBP recently. But surely apple wouldn't make the same mistake twice...........