Ok I bought a MBA last week, this was my first mac EVER! and DAMN do I love OSX and Mac Products! The AIR is a great little machine! I planned on taking my desktop with me to college and having the air to take to class but now I'm second guessing myself and wondering if I should go back exchange the AIR for a PRO and sell the desktop? My question is, is the battery life + weight of the MBP adequate to carry all day from class to class? Pop it open, take notes/wifi etc? The reason I love the AIR is because its battery life + mobility factor but I'm wondering as a college student do I need this? I want to take my LAPTOP with me everywhere but i feel like the headroom the MBA creates is way to close for me... Talk to me please its an emergency I have only 5 days to make the trade!
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College Students + People that TRAVEL ALOT with their MBP! Please Look!
- Thread starter wnxgenral
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What will you be doing in college? If you are just taking notes, then a MBA/MB would be fine. If you are doing heavy 3D editing and such, a MBP all the way. What desktop would you be using?
Got an MBP to use for college
That is what I'm planning on using my MBP for. Since some of the classes I need for my journalism degree require video,audio, and photo editing I went with the MBP especially since I want to keep it throughout college, but if your just doing basic stuff like writing papers then the MBA should be fine.
That is what I'm planning on using my MBP for. Since some of the classes I need for my journalism degree require video,audio, and photo editing I went with the MBP especially since I want to keep it throughout college, but if your just doing basic stuff like writing papers then the MBA should be fine.
The desktop is a QuadCore, 2x8800GTX, 8GB, Vista... blah blah but what is making me cry about the MBA is the Hard Drive space... I want to be able to port around my entire music library and I cant do that on the AIR... I also want to be able to sync my iPhone to my MBP instead of the desktop! I feel like I just want everything in one place instead of a Desktop, MBA and iPhone... just a MBP and iPhone 
Not that I'm a graphic design major or anything but I've ALWAYs pushed my computers to the limits and expect nothing but awesome speeds from them...
Not that I'm a graphic design major or anything but I've ALWAYs pushed my computers to the limits and expect nothing but awesome speeds from them...
The desktop is a QuadCore, 2x8800GTX, 8GB, Vista... blah blah but what is making me cry about the MBA is the Hard Drive space... I want to be able to port around my entire music library and I cant do that on the AIR... I also want to be able to sync my iPhone to my MBP instead of the desktop! I feel like I just want everything in one place instead of a Desktop, MBA and iPhone... just a MBP and iPhone
Holy crap I would keep that desktop. If you cant keep the desktop and the MBP, get a black MB. That will be fine. Good lord I wish I could get that desktop.
The desktop is a QuadCore, 2x8800GTX, 8GB, Vista... blah blah but what is making me cry about the MBA is the Hard Drive space... I want to be able to port around my entire music library and I cant do that on the AIR... I also want to be able to sync my iPhone to my MBP instead of the desktop! I feel like I just want everything in one place instead of a Desktop, MBA and iPhone... just a MBP and iPhone
Wow. obviously I didn't read that post before I replied. MBAs cost as much as the lowend MBP which is still very strong. You should just replace MBA with the MBP. Good luck on selling MBA at good prices.
I've only owned the MBA for like 6 days... Apple will do an exchange and let me purchase the MBP for the difference.
I bought a MBP for college last summer and I have to say that it's been really convenient to have my entire computer with me all the time. It just makes it so much easier to be able to go to class, then go straight to the library. However, the main thing that really pushed me to go for the MBP instead of just buying an iMac or Mac Pro was I wouldn't be able to take my computer with me during breaks. For Thanksgiving/Winter/Spring break, I just had to take my MBP with me for my flight home. For me, it's really the convenience... if I could get a MBA with enough hard drive space to keep all my data, I would take that in a heartbeat... but alas. Who really needs a built-in SuperDrive anyway?
Oh, and as far as battery goes, I have the Santa Rosa MBP and usually the battery is more than enough to last the day. The new Penryn MBPs are even more efficient so it should be fine.
Oh, and as far as battery goes, I have the Santa Rosa MBP and usually the battery is more than enough to last the day. The new Penryn MBPs are even more efficient so it should be fine.
Just for that one reason, go exchange it, go buy the Macbook Pro. It'll be a very very robust machine and you won't need to bother packing a desktop to college and buying stuff to lock it in your dorm.
In this sense, the MBP is more portable than the Air since you don't need to rely on any other machines or extraneous peripherals.
The issue is that the MBA doesn't have a removable battery, so the life in 18 months will be less than spectacular and it'll be tough to change that. The lack of firewire was a deal breaker for me. External hard disks just don't do well on USB. As a student, I keep Apps on the internal disk, archiving files and multimedia on external disks. My two cents, anyway.
Yeah as long as the battery on the mbp is good you'll probably get around 4.5-5 hours in OS X (with brightness on the lowest of course) for basic application usage (internet browsing, applications etc). That is quite excellent for portability
You will get 4 hours or so of typing time if you disable blue tooth and your wifi and have the screen half of its brightness. With brightness lower than that you will get much better. But half is about what i can tolerate.
Its when you spin that harddrive more then the spinning it does for saving documents.
Also! The mbp is NOT big, it is NOT heavy, the screen is HUGE and i love it. There are little cheerleader girls in my classes that carry around laptops twice as thick, and much heavier. Its not cumbersome at all. So don't worry about that at ALL.
Its when you spin that harddrive more then the spinning it does for saving documents.
Also! The mbp is NOT big, it is NOT heavy, the screen is HUGE and i love it. There are little cheerleader girls in my classes that carry around laptops twice as thick, and much heavier. Its not cumbersome at all. So don't worry about that at ALL.
You can refer to my post on the second page of this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/505173/
EDIT - pasted it here for easier access:
The desktop is a QuadCore, 2x8800GTX, 8GB, Vista... blah blah but what is making me cry about the MBA is the Hard Drive space...
I want to be able to port around my entire music library and I cant do that on the AIR... I also want to be able to sync my iPhone to my MBP instead of the desktop! I feel like I just want everything in one place instead of a Desktop, MBA and iPhone... just a MBP and iPhone
Not that I'm a graphic design major or anything but I've ALWAYs pushed my computers to the limits and expect nothing but awesome speeds from them...
Just a hint. Get an IPOD CLASSIC, put all your music on it, and back up your music on your desktop also (always have atleast two accessible copies of your music and media...) Then all you have to do is carry your Ipod classic with you and you can plug that into your laptop and that will act as a portable storage device for porting your music around. Thats what I do. If i have an album I'm really into, I put that on my Iphone, but keep ALL my music on the Ipod classic 80GB. This eliminates the need to lug around an external hard disk to port your tunes around, and naturally an Iphone won't cut it for carrying your whole library.
Wow, now I know why you Warrior Nation guys are so good at video games.. look at your PCs! I better not pwn another WNx guy with my athlon xp 2500+ / radeon 9800 xt
As a light gamer, I recommend you keep your desktop, and trade the mbA in for a low-end mbP
I used a PB 12 inch for the first two years on the university and i believed that a 15 incher would be too big and problematic to carry around.
As we all know apple never made the 12 inch mbp, so i was "forced" into buying the 15 incher. Now i've used the MBP for a year and I really love it,
it's not too big, but it feels much more of an computer than the 12" did
As we all know apple never made the 12 inch mbp, so i was "forced" into buying the 15 incher. Now i've used the MBP for a year and I really love it,
it's not too big, but it feels much more of an computer than the 12" did
My limited 2 cents... I carried an ibook g4 through my university career, and it was more than capable. So i would suggest a macbook, but if you want to replace your desktop as well, you may as well go with a MBP, and a portable external for added memory.
Dont know how your lecture halls are, but most of my classes had outlets by the desks, so should not have to worry about the battery life as much anyways..
Weight factor, i carry it in my backpack, every day to and from work, carried my ibook in my back pack while travelling around the world... The weight is far from a factor to worry about, it's probably lighter than one of your text books.
Dont know how your lecture halls are, but most of my classes had outlets by the desks, so should not have to worry about the battery life as much anyways..
Weight factor, i carry it in my backpack, every day to and from work, carried my ibook in my back pack while travelling around the world... The weight is far from a factor to worry about, it's probably lighter than one of your text books.
My needs definitely warrant using an MBP for college. Yes, I take notes on it - but I also do some fairly intense development work on it, in numerous languages (some requiring me to fire up Parallels and use Windows).
Go back and get MBP. I was in a similair situation with a new aluminium iMac here except I purchased a samsung laptop to take around and this meant the iMac was hardly used and I couldn't use Mac OS X so I took the samsung laptop back, sold iMac on ebay and got this new macbook pro- perfect solution. I think later on you will wish you exchanged for MBP if you don't know.
Go for the MBP. It's only 5 pounds, I'm a college student as well and weight is never an issue. You're also getting a lot more for your money(Bigger Screen, CD Drive, More Expandability, Removable Battery, Better Graphics etc). I only do a lot of general stuff(Office, Internet Browsing, Instant Messaging) on my MBP. Even if you don't use it all, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it later and not have it I always say.