Deciding between new MacBook Air and Pro

[yonington]

Can someone help me make a decision between the 13" MacBook Air and the 13" MacBook Pro? I am currently using a 2008 MacBook and was waiting for the WWDC announcements to get something new. Obviously, I would love the new retina MacBook, but it is too expensive. I need something portable and some what powerful (but I am not editing films or anything, just lots of hungry applications) I am debating between getting the 13" MacBook Air (1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM and the 512 GB hard drive) and the 13" Pro (2.9 GHz, 8 GB, 750 GB hard drive).

I figure that with the solid state drive the Air the Pro are pretty comparable and that the 512 solid state drive is worth the investment.

Thoughts?

 

[mattopotamus]

I personally think there is no advantage whatsoever in getting the 13" pro for what you sound like your needs are. What hungry programs are you running?

 

[iAppl3Fan]

MBA will cover your needs.

 

[shznit]

13" Pro sucks compared to Air. They are almost the same in performance but the Air has an actual useable screen resolution, ssd, it's much smaller and lighter, and runs cooler.

 

[yonington]

The other issue is that I need more storage that 256 GB, but the 512 is so damn expensive, whereas the Pro has 750...

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Between those two.....I'd go with the Air.

 

[heliocentric]

the pro is better value I would say.

It has a faster processor with slightly better graphics, comes with more ram, more hdd space and more interfaces (firewire, more usbs and dvd drive).

plus you can upgrade the hdd (to an ssd?) and ram in the future.

 

[Panch0]

The other issue is that I need more storage that 256 GB, but the 512 is so damn expensive, whereas the Pro has 750...

Comparing any size HDD to any size SSD is an exercise in futility. Because of the SSD, the MBA will feel much much faster than the 13" MBP, even though the MBP might win in a CPU benchmark.

I agree that 256GB is not much storage at this point, but neither is 750GB. Think about how much data you really need to have with you at all times. For example I have almost 20TB of storage in various Network Attached or Direct connect external drives at home, but I only have a 160GB SSD in my current MBP. Of that 160GB, I'm using less than 100GB, and of that 100GB, 40GB is the disk file of a windows virtual machine.

If I want to play music, I have iTunes Match, Amazon Cloud Player and Pandora.
If I want to watch video, I have netflix, or I just copy something locally and remove it when I'm done.

Work stuff stays on network shares at the office.

Best of luck!

 

[M1chbeck]

I would love the new retina MacBook, but it is too expensive.

But the 13" MacBook Air you described (1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM and the 512 GB hard drive) is $2,099.00 ... put on 100$ and go for the lower-end 15'' MBX

 

[ebolamonkey3]

I agree w/ the posters above, no reason to get the 13" Pro at this point, especially w/o a SSD.

 

[yonington]

But the 13" MacBook Air you described (1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM and the 512 GB hard drive) is $2,099.00 ... put on 100$ and go for the lower-end 15'' MBX

As nice as that would be, I would be back to same problem of space... the low end MBX only has 256 GB...

 

[palpatine]

As nice as that would be, I would be back to same problem of space... the low end MBX only has 256 GB...

I think it's worth trying to think of a way to change your workflow. Get a Time Capsule and you solve it. Get an external drive, and you are all set. There are all sorts of solutions. The 13" Pro at this point is definitely not worth the money.

 

[jamesr19]

another advantage of the Air is the screen res is higher so you can fit more on the screen. It's also so light sometimes I have to check that I actually packed it in my bag!

 

[gwsat]

Comparing any size HDD to any size SSD is an exercise in futility. Because of the SSD, the MBA will feel much much faster than the 13" MBP, even though the MBP might win in a CPU benchmark.

Here is an example that proves your point: I run Windows 7 with several Windows apps in a VMware Fusion virtual machine on my 2010 13 inch MBA Ultimate. Virtual machines are memory hogs and the rule of thumb is that you need 8GB of RAM to avoid trouble. Because my MBA had flash storage, though, I thought I might be able to run my Windows apps anyway. In the event, that was the case. The reason 4GB of RAM will work on the MBA is because of the lightning quickness of its flash storage. This means that even a large number of page outs to storage, which I have, don't slow things down much because memory swaps to flash storage are exponentially faster than swaps to a mechanical hard drive.