Justifying an Air v. a Pro to my boss

[Meister]

To the OP:

Give a written statement how and why speed, portability and long battery life is important for your job to your boss
Also show that the air delivers all those at a lower cost.

That should convince him.

In terms of "Value for money", the 13" regular MBPs are the worst deal around.

Look at the hardware specs, and then look at the price. The 13" MBP (non-Retina) was released in mid-2012, and therefore, using VERY outdated hardware.

The hardware is not VERY outdated. The whole package is still very good.

 

[MRrainer]

To the OP:

Give a written statement how and why speed, portability and long battery life is important for your job to your boss
Also show that the air delivers all those at a lower cost.

That should convince him.


The hardware is not VERY outdated. The whole package is still very good.

It's the only user-servicable (well, sort-of) laptop Apple still sells.
You can install a "normal" SATA6G SSD and up to 16GB of "normal" SO-DIMM RAM in it with relative ease and no "Apple Tax".

But Apple has pushed down the price of entry-level MBAs to a point where it's very hard to justify still buying a 2012-era laptop - for 1200 USD, no less.

 

[Abstract]

While most(including myself) prefer the Air or retina models to the cMBP, saying it is essentially worthless is ridiculous.

For people that prefer older features such as OD, ethernet, etc. It's still better than anything else comparable on the market.

I never said it was essentially worthless.

I said, or certainly meant, that it was incredibly poor value, considering its price, and looking at what you get in return relative to every other laptop on the market.

To the OP:

The hardware is not VERY outdated. The whole package is still very good.

It's 2 year old hardware being sold for >$1000 price --- nearly the same price-tag as when it was NEW, current hardware.

Not only are the MBA models more portable, they use much faster processors (newer generation CPU and graphics), they use SSDs, their screens are higher resolution and PPI, and they last longer on battery life.


Pricing in US Dollars?

11" MBA (base): $899
13" MBA (base): $999
13" MBP (base): $1199 (.....for a model released 2 years ago).
13" Retina MBA (base): $1299

If you need native ports, and don't want to add adapters, then I suppose you would get the old 13" MBP.

If you absolutely need a spinning harddisk for the capacity, and can't carry a small external HDD, then sure.

To buy 2 year old hardware today, brand new, is silly. I'm sure it's a nice computer, but you'd be paying too much, because I'm sure you could buy a used MBA for even less, and still get more in return.