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Late 2010 Air or New MacBook Pro

C

CirrusPilot

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
30
0
So I have a fully spec'ed Late 2010 MBA, and the SSD and/or logic board is on the brink of failing catastrophically. The Apple store took it in for repairs (which will take a few days) and told me if I buy a new laptop I can return it at no charge when mine is out of service. Awesome, because I really need one for work. I opted for the lowest spec'ed MBP.

My question is, would I be better off keeping this MBP and trying to sell the MBA on cragslist/ebay and try to recoup some of the cost, or would I be better off keeping the MBA, which still has a warranty until Jan 2014?

The MBA has a 2.23 Core 2 Duo while the MBP has a 2.5? i5. Both have 4GB ram, etc.

The nice thing about the air was the 256GB SSD drive, which was quite fast, but the 500GB HDD on the Pro is actually able to hold most of my stuff.

What do you all think? How much, if any, performance would I be gaining from the Pro over the Air?
 
I would keep the MacBook Pro and sell the Air. Later on you can upgrade it to SSD and 16GB RAM and it will be a very nice machine. Eventually you will need to upgrade computers and sell the MBA anyways, so why not do it now while you can get the most resell value?
 
You'll have the Macbook Pro for a couple of days and so you'll see first hand how much performance you're gaining.

If you feel like it's worth it to keep the MBP, then keep it.

From my perspective, I have a 2010 15" MBP and I'm planning on switching to the next 13" MBA.
 
zackkmac said:
I would keep the MacBook Pro and sell the Air. Later on you can upgrade it to SSD and 16GB RAM and it will be a very nice machine. Eventually you will need to upgrade computers and sell the MBA anyways, so why not do it now while you can get the most resell value?
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Yup the Air's from 2010 are little outdated because they are Core 2 Duo and 4 GB RAM

- a lot of it comes down to what you use it for - you have more invested into because of the AppleCare. If you sell make a big deal about the extra warranty.
 
Thanks for the quick replies!

I put it on Craigslist earlier, but unfortunately most people were disappointed to hear it had a Core 2 rather than an i5. One guy even had the nerve to offer $400.

How much performance do you think I am losing from the move to an HDD from an SSD? I noticed right away that System Preferences and iTunes seemed a little slower to load.

I am mainly using this for graduate school work. I don't run any intensive programs, I am almost 100% on Google Docs. I do stream movies from the computer to my jailbroken Apple TV, but other than that, its the normal listening to music and reading emails. Portability isn't a huge problem, as it is hooked up to a large external monitor at home most of the time.

My main concern is money. I don't want to have to make up a $500 price difference if the MBP isn't going to be THAT much better. But I am pretty upset that the MBA had such a catastrophic failure after less than 2 years. I guess thats what happens to early adopters of SSD drives!
 
FWIW, my screen on my late '10 Air died and Apple wanted $550 to fix. I was itching for a rMBP so once I got over the sticker shock, I bought the 15". I can still use the Air to run an external monitor. Like u, I'm upset that under 2yr, something catastrophic happens. Still debating Applecare on my rMBP.

Good luck.
 
CirrusPilot said:
Thanks for the quick replies!

I put it on Craigslist earlier, but unfortunately most people were disappointed to hear it had a Core 2 rather than an i5. One guy even had the nerve to offer $400.

How much performance do you think I am losing from the move to an HDD from an SSD? I noticed right away that System Preferences and iTunes seemed a little slower to load.

I am mainly using this for graduate school work. I don't run any intensive programs, I am almost 100% on Google Docs. I do stream movies from the computer to my jailbroken Apple TV, but other than that, its the normal listening to music and reading emails. Portability isn't a huge problem, as it is hooked up to a large external monitor at home most of the time.

My main concern is money. I don't want to have to make up a $500 price difference if the MBP isn't going to be THAT much better. But I am pretty upset that the MBA had such a catastrophic failure after less than 2 years. I guess thats what happens to early adopters of SSD drives!
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Its not going to be THAT much better. You will notice the difference between SSD and HDD. I assume the MBP is a 13" and your MBA is 13" as well. Your screen resolution is better.
 
You can always add a SSD to the MBP.

Also you should also be in the holiday return period. You have until Jan 7th to sell your MBA - if you cannot. Return the MBP.
 
T5BRICK said:
I'd keep the MBP and sell the MBA. You can always upgrade the HDD on the MBP later.
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^

This.

I'd frankly get whatever you could for the Air. With a Core 2, it's going to be hard to get much - while $400 might be low, that's closer to what you should expect than the price of the MBP.

While it's true the Air has more resolution, the Pro has a significantly better color gamut, and is a lot easier to look at for an extended period.
 
I think I may keep the MBP for a couple weeks since I can return it until January and see what I can get for the MBA. When I bought the MBA I wanted to run it until it died, which with the way things have turned out with its build quality, will likely be the same day the Apple Care runs out.

I have no need for Thunderbolt or USB 3.0, so that really isn't a selling point. I just hate spending money on upgrades I don't really need.
 
Any idea what brand of SSD apple was using in the Late 2010 model MBA? Was it still the samsung/toshiba?
 
Dude return the MBP and use your fixed MBA. You're in graduate school and need the money. Besides, as you said, you're just using it for google docs etc. so you won't benefit from an i5. No one is going to pay much for the air so keep it until you go do a postdoc and get your new boss to buy you an i7 MBP with an aftermarket SSD.
 
FuNGi said:
Dude return the MBP and use your fixed MBA. You're in graduate school and need the money. Besides, as you said, you're just using it for google docs etc. so you won't benefit from an i5. No one is going to pay much for the air so keep it until you go do a postdoc and get your new boss to buy you an i7 MBP with an aftermarket SSD.
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Exactly!
 
I had MBA 2012 and I exchanged it to rMBP 15". There is absolutely no compression between these two. In my opinion, the display on the rMBP is worth the extra 1.5 pounds from the MBA. The colors and the viewing angles on the MBA is just unacceptable for a $1800 or whatever laptop in 2012.
 
Moshe1010 said:
I had MBA 2012 and I exchanged it to rMBP 15". There is absolutely no compression between these two. In my opinion, the display on the rMBP is worth the extra 1.5 pounds from the MBA. The colors and the viewing angles on the MBA is just unacceptable for a $1800 or whatever laptop in 2012.
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The OP didn't mention that it was a retina MBP...
 
T5BRICK said:
The OP didn't mention that it was a retina MBP...
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Yeah my bad. Anyway, the colors and viewing angles of the MBP are much better than MBA. MBA has better resolution though, so whatever is more important for OP (I would still get rMBP).
 
I get an impression that you want someone else to justify your purchase of mbp. Return it and save money. You never had any problem using MBA until now (other than broken parts) and C2D was fine. Why bother to pay more and get a better computer that you don't need right now?
 
I am still waiting on the MBA to get fixed. I am slightly irritated with Apple, because all they can seem to tell me at this point is "we see what you see on the repair status screen." They can't tell me when they expect my computer to be back, they only know that a repair is in progress. Great. Aren't they the ones repairing it?

I am still debating on whether to keep the MBA and return the MBP or not. I like the fact that the pro has USB 3.0, as it was very, very fast to backup. The AirPlay is really nice, and I really like the fact that it is somewhat user serviceable (ram and HDD upgrades you can do yourself). I just am not sold on whether this is a big enough jump in technology to justify a new computer after 2 years. I would love a retina, but absolutely cannot afford to pay that much for a nice looking screen right now. I will wait 3-4 years for the price to normalize. Just like thunderbolt. Its cool that the computer has it, but I am not going to spend $700-$1000 on an external drive just to use it.
 
Made the decision to keep the Air. The deciding factor was the speed and portability. It was nice to have the backlit keys on the MBP and the AirPlay, but my MBA still seems to scream past the MBP performance wise (even though the MBA is a late 2010). The air is way faster to boot up, way faster to load programs, and way easier to transport.

I am going to keep this until it dies, at which point they will hopefully have ironed out the issues with the rMBP and it won't have such an outrageous price tag. I want an rMBP, but I refuse to pay Apple's "early adopter" tax again (which I did with this Air).

Thanks for all of the help folks!
 
CirrusPilot said:
Made the decision to keep the Air. The deciding factor was the speed and portability. -snip-
I am going to keep this until it dies, at which point they will hopefully have ironed out the issues with the rMBP and it won't have such an outrageous price tag. -snip-
Thanks for all of the help folks!
Click to expand...

Good sound decision CirrusPilot. I love my 2010 MBA...even in the dark! Let's see how long these things can last.
 
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