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Bought 2012 13" Pro... Should I exchange for 13" Air?

qpid360

qpid360

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hi guys, I KNOW this has been asked a million times, but I'm still on the fence about what I should do. I purchased a new Macbook Pro 13" base model yesterday to upgrade from my 2010 11" Air. I would be using it for general tasks, as well as photo editing with Lightroom. On occasion, I do some light video editing as well. Now from what I read on some reviews, particularly from photographers, they mention that the 13" and even the 11" Air runs Lightroom just fine. I understand that the color gamut in the Pro is better than the Air, but the lower resolution kinda drives me nuts. I'm also confused because I thought the Pro can only be upgraded to 8gb of ram, but I've been reading that it's actually 16?

If I keep the Pro, is it worth the cost to upgrade the drive to an SSD and add more ram? Or is it better to just return it and switch to the 13" Air? (I have no problem picking up an external 3.0 drive for space).

Thanks y'all.
 
If you plan on using an external monitor, keep the pro and upgrade it to 8/16 gb of RAM and an SSD (if you want to use it for more than a couple of years).

If you want portability, go with the air since you will be on the fly more and living with a 1200 x 800 resolution is quite unfortunate.
 
The bit on RAM - what you are seeing that some MBP models officially support 8GB but will actually recognize 16GB.

As far as exchanging machines, do you want expandability? If not then you don't really need to go with the MBP. The MBA will handle your current usage just fine but it is less future proof due to its lack of expandability as far as hardware upgrades due to soldered components. This, however, has its trade-offs such as increased portability.

It's always worth it to upgrade the expandable models in my opinion because it will increase your system's performance (or "revive" it if upgrading an older model) and the parts are always usable in another unit.
 
Thanks for the responses. Do you think I can get by on 4gb on the Air or is it necessary to get 8?
 
qpid360 said:
Thanks for the responses. Do you think I can get by on 4gb on the Air or is it necessary to get 8?
Click to expand...

4GB is a lot of RAM to me, anyone's opinion here will differ. You will be able to "get by" just fine in my opinion, it's just that you may want to go with the 8GB option in order to future proof the computer more, in other words take possible future usage in to account, and if you see yourself needing more then you should upgrade from the jump as you won't be able to later on.
 
I would get an 8gb air. The extra 4gb ram makes a big difference if you are someone who runs a lot of apps/tabs/photo editing.
 
mankar4 said:
I would get an 8gb air. The extra 4gb ram makes a big difference if you are someone who runs a lot of apps/tabs/photo editing.
Click to expand...

This twice.

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qpid360 said:
Thanks for the responses. Do you think I can get by on 4gb on the Air or is it necessary to get 8?
Click to expand...

You're complaining of the Pro only being upgradable to 8GB from what people said, even though its actually 16GB but you ask if you can get by with 4GB on the Air? Lol wow.

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This is a no brainer. Stay with the Pro and get a Samsung 830 SSD and upgrade to 16GB 1600MHz ram and the Pro will run circles around the Air.
 
I wasn't "complaining" about it being only able to support 8gb. I was looking for clarification on whether it supported 8 or 16.

Everyone else, thank you. I ended up getting an Air. I'll pick up a retina Pro in a year or so.
 
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