Being forced to upgrade! Help

[thumb]

Hi all,

I have a pleasant problem, my office is forcing me to upgrade one of my computers. I don't know which to choose.

I currently have a MBA (1.8 core 2 duo 4GB RAM) and 2009 or so iMac.

Both are working totally fine for me, but I am required to chose one. Which would get me the most bang?

I use my MBA so much more, and battery life is my only complaint (about 3 hours of real world, heavy use). I played with the new air recently a bit, seemed pretty similar in terms of speed, etc. I mostly use web, video watching, office and productivity software, photo management.

I could also consider the 13" rmbp although I would need to add some money from elsewhere for that (not a big deal).

Or I could get the new iMac, which i probably a bigger boost performance wise (there i do my more cpu intensive work), but I just don't use it as often. I could also pay to have my MBA battery replaced. Would that see an improvement?

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[maflynn]

If you need mobility then select the MBA, if you can live without the mobile aspect the iMac is a good choice (larger screen)

 

[Brian Y]

You wont see much difference between the airs, but there will be a massive difference in the iMac (especially if you go fusion).

 

[justperry]

Who is paying for this, if it's you they can't force you and if it's them get a MBP 13 or 15 incher, heck, if they pay for it get a retina MBP

If it's fine then why they force you to update, it's not that old, only 3 years.

 

[Neodym]

Get a 15" rMBP and replace both devices at the same time. Will offer a better battery runtime than a MBA and is close in power to a new iMac. And you would not need to deal with data being on different devices (according to Murphy's law always on the one you are currently NOT using :-D

 

[KPOM]

I replaced a MacBook Air with a rMPB (13") recently and have been happy with it. The weight takes a little getting used to (I came from an 11.6" model), but it's a less significant step up from the 13" Air you have been using. Any Air or rMBP will be a significant step up from your 2010 since the Core i5 is significantly faster, and the SSDs have gotten faster, as well.

The screen on the 13" rMBP is very nice (not just the resolution, but also the color gamut and brightness), and you have the ability to scale applications to 1680x1050 if you need more real estate (the native mode is the retina equivalent of 1280x800).

 

[thumb]

Hey thanks for all the input.

I'm pretty committed to staying as light and portable as possible, although better battery life would be great.

Do any of the portables have better real world battery life than the others, even though apple rates them all about the same?

 

[KPOM]

Hey thanks for all the input.

I'm pretty committed to staying as light and portable as possible, although better battery life would be great.

Do any of the portables have better real world battery life than the others, even though apple rates them all about the same?

The 13" Air has better battery life than the 13" rMBP. According to most reviews I've seen the Air gets closer to its Apple rated time. That said, the rMBP battery does last significantly longer than the one in the 11" MacBook Air.

Here is a comparison of several Macs from AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6409/13inch-retina-macbook-pro-review/11