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Air or pro

jacksoncmc835 said:
Can't decide what to get, I like the 11in air but idk if in actual use I'd probally prefer 13 in, can't deicde if I want an air or pro... cons of pro is weight and size

What's you thoughts?
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if you want a thin lightweight laptop w/ fast flash storage than the 11 inch Air is a great choice.

if you think you'll need more storage, firewire, memory card reader slot, and easy to upgrade ram than go for the Macbook Pro, though if firewire and easy to upgrade ram don't matter much to you the 13 inch is also worth considering.
 
Coming from a user who's had a mac book pro for years (multiple models over the course of 6 years, and before that was a powerbook user..).... I'd say go for an air. The i7 Air really holds its own.. and the i5 13" really doesn't do a bad job either. I really like my 11" Air (i7) better than I liked my 15" i& macbook pro, and I promise, I'm a power user who pushes these machines a lot. The only complaint I have is the graphics card, but whatever. The intel GMA doesn't do too bad for 99% for things, and I could possibly complain about the fan noise.

So. All in all, I'd say go for an Air... unless you're really going to miss that CD drive. Which I doubt you will if I read correctly you have an iMac as well.

Hope that helps!
 
For the tasks you described, the Air seems a no-brainer to me.

Don't worry about only having 4GB of RAM. It's never been a problem for me and I "downgraded up" from a MB Pro with 6GB RAM. SSD makes for quick virtual disk swaps so you're never out of RAM.

I have iStat RAM indicator in the toolbar, it shows 1GB free at all times regardless of apps launched (e.g. heavy dogs like Photoshop with 5 files open, Lightroom and about 20 tabs in Firefox, all at the same time). This just wasn't possible before SSD.

If battery life is an issue, I would even consider a 2010 Core2Duo version, they had phenomenal battery life: reportedly up to 10 hours in user tests (13"). This one doesn't have backlit keyboard though and the processor is noticeably slower.

Also, regardless of price being a factor you could consider buying refurbished, they look new, smell new and are packed as new and come with full warranty:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_air

I don't know too many people in the design field who don't buy refurbs.

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jacksoncmc835 said:
I also have an imac 8gb ram core 2 duo, for main task
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I'll quote someone from another board…

My plan was to do the heavy lifting on my iMac 20" at home but the Core2Duo processor can't keep up with the i5 and SSD so I just use my MBA for everything.
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I had my pro for about 4 months. Heavily modded but I sold it yesterday. Reason.. it freaking heavy! Just today I got my air
 
Some people seem to believe that a MBA is a "toy" laptop that's not really able to perform well as a work horse, and that's wrong. The MBA is actually a pretty solid performer, at least for 95% of the users out there.

I would dare to say that only gamers, video producers and pro CAD designers would need more muscle. For all the rest, the MBA will not disappoint.
 
If this is a computer you want to keep for you 6 years in school than go for the MBP as I can see the 4gb of ram being an issue later on. MBP can be upgraded to 8GB of ram which will future proof it, although it's heavier and bigger. I have a 13" MBP and it's solid and I love it but I want to get an Air once they release it with 8gb of ram, I'd suggest waiting it out if you can if not than for for the MBP if you need a computer now.
 
Rideherhard said:
If this is a computer you want to keep for you 6 years in school than go for the MBP as I can see the 4gb of ram being an issue later on
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I have to disagree with that. 4GB of RAM isn't problematic at all when paired with SSD, certainly not for regular use. I'd say it is MB Pro that will look antiquated in a year or three when every laptop is going to be as light and slim as the Air. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple dropped DVD slots from most devices even as soon as in a few months.
 
As a student who is currently in college, I went for the Air. I'm a commuter and my shoulder and back thank me for the lighter but relatively powerful system. Even between classes, unless you are used to holding heavy books in your backpack get the Air your back will thank you for it later.

As far as future proofing it, I have the i7 13" version, and it certainly is the fastest computer I've ever used. The 4GB memory has never been a problem with me as I usually have many applications open at once. (Everything from Audio editing to word processing)

Computers these days aren't getting exponentially faster anymore, so it is likely the laptops will start to last longer as this trend grows. More cores don't mean anything if the software can't take advantage of them, and many applications these days still don't and it will be a while before they start to take full advantage of multicore systems. Today, it seems the trend is more toward efficient software as opposed to faster hardware (for the PC world anyway). I have an old HP laptop that I got 5 years ago, and it still works great for word processing and photoshopping. The only issue with the Air is the lack of a CD drive which I found I needed to use once for work, I bought a relatively inexpensive external DVD drive for it, so that is no longer a problem, but if connectivity is something that is important for you, then the Pro would be a better choice.

The choice here would be connectivity and expandability. If your college doesn't have wifi (which I highly doubt), and there are little to no computers on your campus, then go with the Pro. The computers on campus would be those rare occasions you may need to use a connected printer or something.
Do you have a lot of files that you need to be able to access immediately, like music, movies, photos? If so, get the Pro. So if these two points are important to you, a Pro will better serve you than an Air. The Air is certainly capable of these, but carrying dongles around isn't the greatest thing in the world. Like my external DVD drive, and my Ethernet Dongle, still I rarely carry them.

Either way both computers will last 4 years. I wish you luck on making your decision.
 
I think that it comes down to what your use will be and what you already have.

If you have a desktop then the air is the only real choice since you have 2x the processing power in a newer desktop.

If not then the Macbook Pro is a better option for more intensive work.
By intensive work I'm thinking FCPX where a ssd would be the last thing you would want (so you wouldn't break it). Also if you needed the extra storage space for cheaper.

In the end the Air will win but I would hold off for now as a refresh seems likely soon!;)
 
On the subject of ram only, I wouldn't get the bottom Air option with 2GB of ram and a tiny ssd. The reason is that if ram requirements increase past Lion, that one would not be able to run it. Also if you end up running something that requires more ram later, it won't work. Swap works for some things. Obviously fast ssd = fast swap. It doesn't work for everything. Some things still require a certain amount of real memory.
 
If I get one I'm leaning toward 11" i7 4gb ram,

I wish they had 6 or 8 ram ...

What's the rummored realise date?
 
jacksoncmc835 said:
Any one running i7 on 11in model if so is it worth the extra cash?
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Me, I got the 11 i7 and its been everything i wanted it to be, if I'm honest you can't tell that much difference but it will add a little resale value in a few years and the extra umphh is always a good thing.
 
jacksoncmc835 said:
If I get one I'm leaning toward 11" i7 4gb ram,

I wish they had 6 or 8 ram ...

What's the rummored realise date?
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CHeck Intel's roadmap for the ivy bridge processor for a potential release timeframe.

I'm looking at getting the 11" i5 4/128. I think. I don't have a desktop, but will have one by summer. I don't have a lot of on the road use, but want something similar in size to my iPad.

When do you start school? I'd wait as long as I could before buying just in case there is anything exciting for the summer back to school offer (hmmm, maybe I will revise my shopping! LOL!!), your warranty will last longer into the school time and there might be a nifty new feature.

I start school at midnight tonight, I shouldn't wait long! (pharm tech - too old to go for the whole thing!)

Good luck!

(and the battery life and ease of charging seems to be the biggest factor I have seen students mention)
 
jacksoncmc835 said:
I also have an imac 8gb ram core 2 duo, for main task
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe any mac that you purchase now will have far more muscle than a core 2 duo. The 2GB air will probably be a bit limited, but any "heavy lifting" could be handled by the i5 or i7 Sandy Bridge processor in any other mac just fine.

The iMac would be good for extra storage, or using it as a larger display for your new laptop.
 
Neolithium said:
Why do you exactly expect to need 6 or 8GB of RAM with what you've listed? OSX has always managed memory very very well, 4GB is adequate for the majority of MacBook Air users.
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I'm actually in school ATM, started 4 weeks ago

As for ram, what ever I get needs to last 4 years, asumming that thing will change that require more ram
 
jacksoncmc835 said:
I'm actually in school ATM, started 4 weeks ago

As for ram, what ever I get needs to last 4 years, asumming that thing will change that require more ram
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So do you have adequet spots to charge during the day if needed?

I feel pretty comfy the 4GB will be enough for 4 years, it might be on the ragged edge, but it should work. I'm NOT comfy with 2gb. My 5yo MBP maxes at 3, so 4 will be a step up!

The basics should work fine in 4 years, video and photo editing, along with music stuff might be beyond it - but that isn't what you are going to be doing primarily right?!

Smetimes geek bench scores help me put it into concrete terms. I look at what our mini does, what my MBP does and then what I'm looking at buying - which often far exceeds anything i own so I'm cool :cool: (I mean, the g4 emac and iBook really make you appreciate it - but both of them would work fine for writing papers today).
 
I would go for the pro because at least you can pop in an SSD and another HDD in the optibay later down the line. You can also upgrade the memory to 8/16GB too.
 
I had the same debate in November, either way I was going to buy refurb.

I ended up going the 15" Pro route because I wanted the video card, storage room and the ability to add an SSD or RAM if need be. I didn't need the portability as I used it mostly on my couch. I use my iPad for when I'm traveling for a bit.

For me it came down to wanting a full-time computer with me all the time.
 
My thoughts are you should describe what you want to use your laptop for, and learn to use the website called google..

or flip a coin.. seems like you don't want to think for your self so let destiny decide.
 
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