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Mac Air Over Macbook Pro

B

Bilalo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2012
402
2
Oxford, England
I'm gonna make this simple, MBP Retina will cost me around $1000 extra bucks, i know its worth it and better but i don't want what i don't need, i wanted to ask, i want to buy a laptop in which my use of it would be everything except gaming, so music, videos, movies, browsing, uni stuff, not programming or engineering, just normal stuff, is the mac air good enough for all of that? And in addition if i decided to play games would it support it or not at all? Games like world of warcraft, league of legends, dota 2 etc... Thank you :)
 
Yes.

Yes.

I have the newest 11" Air.

It runs everything my 13" MBP did, and most of it faster.

While I can't guarantee every game will run perfectly, either MBA would be easily be okay for everything else you mentioned.

Save the money and use it on a nice external monitor.
 
Bilalo said:
I'm gonna make this simple, MBP Retina will cost me around $1000 extra bucks, i know its worth it and better but i don't want what i don't need, i wanted to ask, i want to buy a laptop in which my use of it would be everything except gaming, so music, videos, movies, browsing, uni stuff, not programming or engineering, just normal stuff, is the mac air good enough for all of that? And in addition if i decided to play games would it support it or not at all? Games like world of warcraft, league of legends, dota 2 etc... Thank you :)
Click to expand...

Don't expect games to run as you'd like them to run on your MBA. For one, Fan will go bananas on you.
 
26139 said:
Yes.

I have the newest 11" Air.

It runs everything my 13" MBP did, and most of it faster.

While I can't guarantee every game will run perfectly, either MBA would be easily be okay for everything else you mentioned.

Save the money and use it on a nice external monitor.
Click to expand...

I wanted to ask is mountain lion good with the air or laggy and so on? If i get the air its gna be 13" top specs, and will it slow down or whatever if i fill up around 100-150 gigabytes of HD space
 
Bilalo said:
I wanted to ask is mountain lion good with the air or laggy and so on? If i get the air its gna be 13" top specs, and will it slow down or whatever if i fill up around 100-150 gigabytes of HD space
Click to expand...

I am using 13" low spec... ML absolutely fine for me!
 
Nope

Bilalo said:
I wanted to ask is mountain lion good with the air or laggy and so on? If i get the air its gna be 13" top specs, and will it slow down or whatever if i fill up around 100-150 gigabytes of HD space
Click to expand...

Unless you're filling your HD more than 90% full, you should never have a problem with it ever slowing down.

ML has been great. Had Lion for a few weeks, ML seems smoother.
 
Discreet graphics are always better for games have you considered a regular 15" macbook pro?
 
AppleDApp said:
Discreet graphics are always better for games have you considered a regular 15" macbook pro?
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I second that, seems like a regular 15" MBP would be good for you. But if you want just a bit more portability get the air I loved mine when I had it :)
 
also to add to my previous post if you are debating between the 13" macbook air and the 13" macbook pro I strongly recommend the air. SSD storage makes all the difference.
 
AppleDApp said:
Discreet graphics are always better for games have you considered a regular 15" macbook pro?
Click to expand...

Im considering the MBP retina actually, gna save a few more bucks and get it since its gna be a 3-4 year laptop and i will be gaming, just one question 2.6 GhZ and 2.7 GhZ has $300 difference in price is it tht worth it? :S
 
Bilalo said:
Im considering the MBP retina actually, gna save a few more bucks and get it since its gna be a 3-4 year laptop and i will be gaming, just one question 2.6 GhZ and 2.7 GhZ has $300 difference in price is it tht worth it? :S
Click to expand...

you don't need the retina model you can have the same specs with a more reparable machine without the retina and save a few bucks.

The retina MBP is the least repairable computer

Teardown highlights (if you can call them that):

Just like in the iPhone 4/4S (and the MacBook Air), proprietary Pentalobe screws prevent folks from accessing the machine’s internals. That means you need a special screwdriver just to remove the bottom cover.
As in the MacBook Air, the RAM is soldered to the logic board. Max out at 16GB now, or forever hold your peace—you can’t upgrade.
The proprietary SSD isn’t upgradeable either (yet), as it is similar but not identical to the one in the Air. It is a separate daughtercard, and we’re hopeful we can offer an upgrade in the near future.
The lithium-polymer battery is glued rather than screwed into the case, which increases the chances that it’ll break during disassembly. The battery also covers the trackpad cable, which tremendously increases the chance that a user will shear the cable in the battery removal process.
The display assembly is completely fused, and there’s no glass protecting it. If anything ever fails inside the display, you will need to replace the entire (extremely expensive) assembly.
Repair Score: 1 / 10
Click to expand...
 
Go with your gut feeling. Only you know which one has the greatest appeal. Both have good resale, therefore they're easy to sell if you choose the wrong one.
 
Not gonna get the air because i wanna play games like wow and so on so mbp is what ill get and i dont mind spending a few bucks since i cant put 16 gb ram on a normal mbp and gettin a normal one with ssd 512 will cost quite close to a mbpr so.
I know repairing it is ****** but im getting the applecare so all on them i dont need to unscrew it.
I like the air being lighter but I realized gaming or graphics is an imp spec for me :S
 
Bilalo said:
Not gonna get the air because i wanna play games like wow and so on so mbp is what ill get and i dont mind spending a few bucks since i cant put 16 gb ram on a normal mbp and gettin a normal one with ssd 512 will cost quite close to a mbpr so.
I know repairing it is ****** but im getting the applecare so all on them i dont need to unscrew it.
I like the air being lighter but I realized gaming or graphics is an imp spec for me :S
Click to expand...

Let's hope that machine doesn''t break when it's out of warranty. I would also max out the specs so you aren't disappointed if you need more power down the line.
 
AppleDApp said:
Let's hope that machine doesn''t break when it's out of warranty. I would also max out the specs so you aren't disappointed if you need more power down the line.
Click to expand...

Doubtful he'll be disappointed with the specs. And I wouldn't lose sleep over it breaking out of warranty. While it can happen, the probability is so remote as to be a waste of time and energy thinking about it.

To OP: The money to go from 2.6 to 2.7 is NOT worth it. Just go 2.6 Ghz/512 SSD/16 GB RAM.

Good choice on the Retina Pro, it's an amazing machine.
 
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