Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I'll say it loud - I prefer MBA over MBP retina

Will upgrade from MBA to rMBP next month, when my friend takes a trip to Hong Kong - They still don't have the new model in Mainland China.

I can't even imagine how awesome it will be to use it for studying, because I have tons and tons of scientific papers I need to read all the time, and although I've tried on my iPad, it's just not even close to full size OS X, in terms of productivity.
 
I have been in love with my Air since it arrived from Shanghai 3 months ago. I have my reasons, mainly form-factor and the freedom it's battery life affords me compared to my previous Windows laptops, but I don't feel self-important enough to try to persuade someone, who will have their own personal preferences, on why they should get an Air or a Pro. Nor do I care why anyone on the internet prefers the Air or the rMBP for their own use. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of my choice, but do agree with the thread starter and the thread's title. I wholeheartedly prefer the Air over the Pro.

For probably the first 24 hours of the new rMBP release, I second guessed myself about the Air. They did a very nice job with the new rMBP, no doubt about it. However, that's long since passed..every time I pick up my Air, I still find it hard not to smile. I have my last 3 laptops around to keep a sense of perspective and every time I give it a serious thought, the Air astounds me over and over again.

Bottom line (for me)..if Apple does improve the screen quality of the Air in the next year or two, while maintaining the performance and battery life of this mid-2013 model, I'll sell this one and upgrade. For me, no matter what they do with the rMBP, the Air will always be my choice - it's really that simple. If the future upgrades come at the cost of the crucial aspects I find most important to me, I'll still be happy with my current MBA.
 
This...

ItHurtsWhenIP said:
every time I pick up my Air, I still find it hard not to smile
Click to expand...

...and that:

ItHurtsWhenIP said:
if Apple does improve the screen quality of the Air in the next year or two, while maintaining the performance and battery life of this mid-2013 model, I'll sell this one and upgrade. For me, no matter what they do with the rMBP, the Air will always be my choice - it's really that simple. If the future upgrades come at the cost of the crucial aspects I find most important to me, I'll still be happy with my current MBA.
Click to expand...
 
w00d said:
I dunno man, 6 hours of battery == I needs the power brick. I think there are a lot of people who use a computer more than 6 hours a day even if you exclude lunch, bathroom, meetings, etc.

Commuting on a bike with a backpack almost every day, long days in airports, traveling with a single backpack... I'll gladly shed whatever weight I can. And take as much battery capacity between charges as I can.

Every bit adds up. If the rMBP was a better machine for my needs, I would have bought one the day it came out.

This machine is a tool for me and nothing else. I'm not gonna get worked up defending which machine is "better" since that is entirely subjective.

+1 for the MBA, IMO.
Click to expand...

Again, a 60-Watt MagSafe 2 adapter is so light, in and of itself, I could store one of those in my pocket, for crying out loud. If we're talking about that much of a weight difference, then you are definitely splitting hairs. I will not knock a preference for the MBA either way; as, you're right, that's entirely subjective. But for a difference between 9 and 12 hours of battery life, and at what point you inevitably take out that adapter, it's silly. Personally, if I were sizing up a Haswell 13" MBA versus a Haswell 13" rMBP, I'd more be affected by my maximum RAM options and whether or not the apps I was to be using with it had native retina support; things that do affect the experience of using the computer over the course of the long haul. I'd opt for the Air simply because I have more software that isn't retina-ready and even a few things that never will be. But that's just me.

Fallingreason said:
Clearly we have different use scenarios, because I had a 2012 MBA before my 2013 which got about 6-7 hours of continuous use with my needs and I needed my power brick multiple times a week. I wasn't comfortable leaving it unless I could substitute my iPad in for quite a while.

My work requires me to be continuously mobile and bringing my computer with me as a mobile workstation is incredibly useful. Not all of us work at a desk. Even more-so, the lightness of the machine is such that I can comfortably reach for it with one hand without moving my whole body. This was not as comfortable on the 13" MBRr while I owned it. This is also incredibly useful for my work.

The retina display however, makes no difference. That is about all I gain with the MBPr as the processor in the MBA is fine for me.
Click to expand...

Regarding the boldfaced, you'd also charge a Haswell Air multiple times a week as well if your usage patterns were that consistent and you would still need the 45-watt MagSafe 2 Brick either way. We're not talking about that large of a time difference in terms of the battery here. Again, splitting hairs.

Regarding the Italicized, that is an extremely odd thing to need in a "mobile workstation", but okay. I'm pretty sure that you could still do that with a 13" rMBP, though I guess that depends on how strong you are physically.
 
Yebubbleman said:
Again, a 60-Watt MagSafe 2 adapter is so light, in and of itself, I could store one of those in my pocket, for crying out loud. If we're talking about that much of a weight difference, then you are definitely splitting hairs. I will not knock a preference for the MBA either way; as, you're right, that's entirely subjective. But for a difference between 9 and 12 hours of battery life, and at what point you inevitably take out that adapter, it's silly. Personally, if I were sizing up a Haswell 13" MBA versus a Haswell 13" rMBP, I'd more be affected by my maximum RAM options and whether or not the apps I was to be using with it had native retina support; things that do affect the experience of using the computer over the course of the long haul. I'd opt for the Air simply because I have more software that isn't retina-ready and even a few things that never will be. But that's just me.
Click to expand...

9 vs 12 hours of battery life is a big deal to me when I am traveling. Stuck in an airplane with dead battery is not my idea of fun.
 
w00d said:
9 vs 12 hours of battery life is a big deal to me when I am traveling. Stuck in an airplane with dead battery is not my idea of fun.
Click to expand...

And in what situation would that happen? I have a 13-hour flight next year, and even the 13" rMBP can play videos for 10-11 hours. And in an event that you run out of battery, there is something called sleep/relaxing. Or an iPad if you have one of those.

Look, I will be doing tons of traveling. On a daily basis. And the battery difference is negligible.
 
I wish there was a MacBook Pro model that was small enough to overlap the 11" MBA. I'd love to have to struggle, trying to decide between the 11" MBA and 11" MBP.

Probably will never happen...
 
PDFierro said:
And in what situation would that happen? I have a 13-hour flight next year, and even the 13" rMBP can play videos for 10-11 hours. And in an event that you run out of battery, there is something called sleep/relaxing. Or an iPad if you have one of those.

Look, I will be doing tons of traveling. On a daily basis. And the battery difference is negligible.
Click to expand...

I don't buy the travelling argument at all, exactly because of what you said, it's not like you're hooked to the laptop all the time anyway.

Where I do see the difference is the amazing comfort that the MBA gives you, especially when half of the time you do undemanding tasks anyway. I sometimes get as much as 15h real world use. Not having to worry about charging this thing is a real blessing. I sometimes have to care more about the juice on my blackberry than on this laptop. The 9h out of the rMBP wouldn't have been enough today for example. I started the day at around 6:30am watching the news with my breakfast, then research/presentations and 2 evening meetings, now it's midnight, I'm posting here and watching a bit of a video and I'm still on 12%, about to plug in for the night.

There's absolutely no way you're gonna get 11h of continuous video playback out of the rMBP (I'm pretty sure even at the lowest backlight setting, on the MBA it makes huge difference, and when saying 15h I meant at a comfortable backlight level). I don't think it's possible on the MBA (the video playback). 9 hours... maybe, definitely not on the rMBP. So let's keep it realistic, without fanboy masturbation.
 
PDFierro said:
And in what situation would that happen? I have a 13-hour flight next year, and even the 13" rMBP can play videos for 10-11 hours. And in an event that you run out of battery, there is something called sleep/relaxing. Or an iPad if you have one of those.

Look, I will be doing tons of traveling. On a daily basis. And the battery difference is negligible.
Click to expand...

Longer battery life means I need to recharge less often. How is that not a benefit? 9 vs 12, that's a 25% difference. And you say it is negligible? Would you be just as happy with 6.75 hours instead of 9? That's only a 25% difference. Why would I want to bring an iPad when I am trying to cut weight and volume? Speaking of iPads why did they make an iPad air? Isn't the normal iPad small enough? The less times I need to dig out my charger the better, it's convenient, it makes my life better.
 
stayley said:
There's absolutely no way you're gonna get 11h of continuous video playback out of the rMBP (I'm pretty sure even at the lowest backlight setting, on the MBA it makes huge difference, and when saying 15h I meant at a comfortable backlight level). I don't think it's possible on the MBA (the video playback). 9 hours... maybe, definitely not on the rMBP. So let's keep it realistic, without fanboy masturbation.
Click to expand...

I am going off of numerous reviews that have stated those 11 hours battery life with continuous video playback on the 13" rMBP. And they weren't doing that with low brightness. I don't see how it's not realistic. Keep in mind we are talking about iTunes HD videos here, and under Mavericks there is even greater battery efficiency when it comes to watching movies through iTunes. But in any case, I'd still prefer the rMBP for those usage patterns you stated.

----------
w00d said:
Longer battery life means I need to recharge less often. How is that not a benefit? 9 vs 12, that's a 25% difference. And you say it is negligible? Would you be just as happy with 6.75 hours instead of 9? That's only a 25% difference. Why would I want to bring an iPad when I am trying to cut weight and volume? Speaking of iPads why did they make an iPad air? Isn't the normal iPad small enough? The less times I need to dig out my charger the better, it's convenient, it makes my life better.
Click to expand...

Of course the Air is going to be better if you're after maximum portability/battery life. If that's all your after, then by all means have the Air.
 
MBA is probably the most perfect notebook I've ever had. I've had it since the 1st 11.6 was launched, and it's been my steady work machine. It packs extreme portability with all the power I need. Having said that, one thing I prefer about the pro is the ability to support multiple external displays. Actually, I've now started to spend 80% of my time on my iMac, which has two 27" externals, plus the native 27. Sounds excessive, but start using that real estate and it's hard to go back. So, the ability to support two external TB displays, on the MBP, is better than the one external on the air. If I didn't have an iMac, that'd be a serous consideration.

Now, having switched to a 13" MBA, I also appreciate the slight weight-size penalty it brings, vs. the 11.6. I'm much more productive with a 13, in a hotel, than I am with the 11. Again, it's about real estate, for me. But that's the way I work.

So, if I didn't have an iMac, I'd probably opt for the Pro, vs. the MBA. Since I do have a 27" iMac with two additional external displays, the MBA makes sense.

Having said all of this, there's actually some innovation coming from Microsoft... yeah, Microsoft. I've got a Dell Win 8.1 tablet that's surprisingly useful. I also really like what I'm seeing with the new Surface Pro 2. My dell tablet feels as fast or faster than my MBA, and Win 8.1 is just now starting to make sense. Although it's confusing to switch between the Tile & traditional desktops, I think I'm starting to get where they're headed. There seems to be two schools of thought: Seperate Mobile and desktop OS, vs a combo OS. The combo OS isn't working yet, but that's what I'd really like to see.

Surface Pro 2 is an iPad, although Klunky & bulky. It's a portable, though the KB sucks vs. the MBA. And it seems to be a fairly good desktop, assuming the dock works as well as it;s supposed to (e.g. 2-3 external 2560 displays).

Until then, I'll roll with both an iMac and a MBA. If I could only have one system, it'd be a MBP, for more external displays.
 
PDFierro said:
Of course the Air is going to be better if you're after maximum portability/battery life. If that's all your after, then by all means have the Air.
Click to expand...

Then why were you busting my balls earlier about battery life?
 
I had a 13" MBA before I got my 15" rMBP. I would love to be able to use the MBA, but I need the quad core and really could use 16gb though mine is only 8. I run Cad and have a substantial VM open all the time and the Air just couldn't delve the horsepower i needed. I think we are still a ways from a quad core 16gb Air!
 
iRun26.2 said:
I wish there was a MacBook Pro model that was small enough to overlap the 11" MBA. I'd love to have to struggle, trying to decide between the 11" MBA and 11" MBP.

Probably will never happen...
Click to expand...

I think this a good chance it may happen in 2014 or 2015. Maybe 12" rather than 11". The CPU performance of 11" MBA is almost the same as 13" Pro (i5 vs i5 or i7 vs i7). Memory and SSD are the same types. The only major difference is the retina display, and there is some difference in GPU performance.

Apple could've put a retina display on this year's Air. Actually Sony and Samsung did for their Haswell-based ultrabooks, using slightly less powerful Haswell processors.
 
yosemit said:
I think this a good chance it may happen in 2014 or 2015. Maybe 12" rather than 11". The CPU performance of 11" MBA is almost the same as 13" Pro (i5 vs i5 or i7 vs i7). Memory and SSD are the same types. The only major difference is the retina display, and there is some difference in GPU performance.

Apple could've put a retina display on this year's Air. Actually Sony and Samsung did for their Haswell-based ultrabooks, using slightly less powerful Haswell processors.
Click to expand...

I think the 13" MPB had an edge in clock speed (especially compared to the 11" MBA) more ram too.
 
PDFierro said:
I am going off of numerous reviews that have stated those 11 hours battery life with continuous video playback on the 13" rMBP. And they weren't doing that with low brightness. I don't see how it's not realistic. Keep in mind we are talking about iTunes HD videos here, and under Mavericks there is even greater battery efficiency when it comes to watching movies through iTunes. But in any case, I'd still prefer the rMBP for those usage patterns you stated.
Click to expand...

Yes, just like I was expecting 12h battery life on the MBA no matter what basing on the interviews at that time. It's simply not true when you start watching videos on comfortable brightness (and from what I've seen you have to crank up the rMBP much higher than the MBA as far as that goes). 11h of general messing around, I guess, but I won't believe 11h of watching videos with 1/2-3/4 brightness. Don't believe everything you read. It doesn't change the fact that the rMBP has great battery life, but lets not steal it from the MBA, cause that's where it really shines and still brings enough of an edge over the rMBP that's worth mentioning.
 
Last edited:
The thing I don't get is this:

MBA has 25% more battery and weighs 15% less (13" vs 13").

Some of you guys are dismissive of that but cherry pick a few benchmarks on the rMBP where it is marginally better than the MBA and make a big deal out of it.

Retina screen, sure, that is nice, I love looking at it, but honestly it does not make me any more productive and doesn't increase my earnings, so I can live without it.
 
Yeah, my problem with those 13" configurations of the rMBP is that they don't quite cut it as ultimate performance machines (as much as a portable laptop can be), so performancewise they are practically on par with the MBA (practically, not synthetic-benchmarkingly). Yet they weigh more and last shorter on a charge... Again, the only distinctive feature being the retina display that for some is a must, for others just a welcome but not a deal-breaking feature (like myself).
 
w00d said:
I did.. and... what is your point? It seems like you're hung up on arguing MBP > MBA at all costs.
Click to expand...

Not me. Other people are. I never have. I even said myself that the MBA is the best option for someone seeking maximum portability/battery life and nothing else.

----------
stayley said:
Yes, just like I was expecting 12h battery life on the MBA no matter what basing on the interviews at that time. It's simply not true when you start watching videos on comfortable brightness (and from what I've seen you have to crank up the rMBP much higher than the MBA as far as that goes). 11h of general messing around, I guess, but I won't believe 11h of watching videos with 1/2-3/4 brightness. Don't believe everything you read. It doesn't change the fact that the rMBP has great battery life, but lets not steal it from the MBA, cause that's where it really shines and still brings enough of an edge over the rMBP that's worth mentioning.
Click to expand...

I will certainly be testing it for myself. I don't believe everything I read, but I do believe those numbers. Even if I can only get 9 hours out of the rMBP, I'm happy. Yes, we must not discredit the MBA. But for the MBP powering a Retina screen + everything else, the MBP battery life is impressive and will satisfy most people.
 
w00d said:
Ok....
Click to expand...

And how does that point to me getting hung up on arguing MBP > MBA at all costs? I was responding to your original post in which you were talking about the weight of the machine when it comes to traveling, and how you want the most battery life you can get. I really don't see what the debate is here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back