Going back to an Air

[flowrider]

I cannot see buying the 12" Macbook and returning the 13" MBA I picked up for $849.

I'm new to the Macs but steer me right if I am wrong. The Macbook will be lighter and better resolution and better battery life. Anything else?

What throws caution into the wind is the processor and graphics, and of course an extra $300 but that was even more till the Macbook went on sale so a better consideration now.

The resolution isn't bothering me on the MBA per se but having better would be nice.

If it were me, I'd keep the MBA, simple reason - connectivity options. You may want to read this:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2478031,00.asp

Lou

 

[sracer]

I cannot see buying the 12" Macbook and returning the 13" MBA I picked up for $849.

I'm new to the Macs but steer me right if I am wrong. The Macbook will be lighter and better resolution and better battery life. Anything else?

What throws caution into the wind is the processor and graphics, and of course an extra $300 but that was even more till the Macbook went on sale so a better consideration now.

The resolution isn't bothering me on the MBA per se but having better would be nice.

I believe that the battery life on the 13" MBA (12 hours) is better than the 12" MB (9 hours) by a significant amount.

 

[whodatrr]

As someone who currently owns the three units in question: 11.6 MBA, 13 MBA, (two) 12 rMBs, along with a 13" MBP that this kids use, I'd say you need to spend some time with both of them. This is highly subjective as YOU are the best person to judge the weight and portability, as well as the quality of the screen. Nobody else can authoritatively tell you which is better, but your own eyes and hands.

Comparing the 13 MBA and 12 rMB:

13 MBA Pros
- Significantly better battery life
- Slightly more power (Whether or not you'll notice depends on what you use it for
- Larger screen, which will be nice if your eyesight isn't great
- More ports (may or may not be important, depending on your plans)

12 rMB
- Lighter and smaller (The difference is enormous, for me, but YMMV)
- Better screen - my eyes are pretty good, and it now pains me to use my MBAs. NOTE - if you crank down the resolution on your rMB, you will effectively have the same desktop as the 13" MBA. It will be smaller, which is bad for some, but it will be much clearer, which is more noticeable to some than others


It's subjective, but to me the rMB feels more like carrying around a tablet than even an ultrabook. Again, I've come from years of MBAs, including the first horrible release.

But one thing is for sure - If your new 13 MBA is one of the ones with only 4GB of RAM, return it and get 8. That's one of the unfair things about these comparisons - they usually compare the lowest end 4/128 MBA with the base rMB which is 8/256. My feeling is that 4GB is barely acceptable today, and will soon be completely unacceptable. 8GB is OK for me, but my desktop sports 32.

I cannot see buying the 12" Macbook and returning the 13" MBA I picked up for $849.

I'm new to the Macs but steer me right if I am wrong. The Macbook will be lighter and better resolution and better battery life. Anything else?

What throws caution into the wind is the processor and graphics, and of course an extra $300 but that was even more till the Macbook went on sale so a better consideration now.

The resolution isn't bothering me on the MBA per se but having better would be nice.

 

[batting1000]

But one thing is for sure - If your new 13 MBA is one of the ones with only 4GB of RAM, return it and get 8. That's one of the unfair things about these comparisons - they usually compare the lowest end 4/128 MBA with the base rMB which is 8/256. My feeling is that 4GB is barely acceptable today, and will soon be completely unacceptable. 8GB is OK for me, but my desktop sports 32.

That's your opinion though. 4GB happens to work perfect for me.

 

[whodatrr]

Well, if it works for you, that's outstanding. It certainly wouldn't work for me as i keep an eye on such things, and even 8GB is limiting. But that's how I work, do it's subjective.

But I tend to look a couple years down the road at these things, as I make purchases. While 4GB may be OK today, will it be in three years? Also, how will it impact the resale value of a system, three or so years down the road? Since these MBA and rMBs aren't user upgradeable, you're faced with making that decision at the time of purchase. It would be sad is saving $100 at the time of purchase made your system obsolete faster, or made few want to buy it, when it was time to sell it. Those may not be your concerns, but my feeling is that they're important considerations for a 1st time Mac buyer.

CPU horsepower isn't as important, because this new class of ultra light systems popping up everywhere is making it less so. But RAM will continue to be an issue, which is why you see Surface Pros available with 16GB, 15 rMBPs coming with 16GB standard, and all new 12" MacBooks (THE light duty system) shipping with 8GB standard. I think the only reason Apple still offers the MBAs with 4GB is so they can claim to have a cheap system. This is just like them selling base iMac with spinning drives, instead of Fusion or SSD... it's a race to the bottom, and the MBA is Apple's bottom laptop. Even if you can get by with 4GB today, my feeling is you'll wish you had more down the road.

So, respectfully, we can differ on that opinion.

That's your opinion though. 4GB happens to work perfect for me.

 

[batting1000]

Well, if it works for you, that's outstanding. It certainly wouldn't work for me as i keep an eye on such things, and even 8GB is limiting. But that's how I work, do it's subjective.

But I tend to look a couple years down the road at these things, as I make purchases. While 4GB may be OK today, will it be in three years? Also, how will it impact the resale value of a system, three or so years down the road? Since these MBA and rMBs aren't user upgradeable, you're faced with making that decision at the time of purchase. It would be sad is saving $100 at the time of purchase made your system obsolete faster, or made few want to buy it, when it was time to sell it. Those may not be your concerns, but my feeling is that they're important considerations for a 1st time Mac buyer.

CPU horsepower isn't as important, because this new class of ultra light systems popping up everywhere is making it less so. But RAM will continue to be an issue, which is why you see Surface Pros available with 16GB, 15 rMBPs coming with 16GB standard, and all new 12" MacBooks (THE light duty system) shipping with 8GB standard. I think the only reason Apple still offers the MBAs with 4GB is so they can claim to have a cheap system. This is just like them selling base iMac with spinning drives, instead of Fusion or SSD... it's a race to the bottom, and the MBA is Apple's bottom laptop. Even if you can get by with 4GB today, my feeling is you'll wish you had more down the road.

So, respectfully, we can differ on that opinion.

That's great, but again, your opinion is swayed by the fact that you personally need more than 4GB for what you do.

When it comes to me, all i do is browse the web and use the iWork apps. I'm not editing videos, editing photos, gaming, or any of that. If browsing the web and using Pages requires more than 4GB of RAM in the near future, something's wrong.