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mac book air vs 15 inch mac book pro

F

fullfloridiancj

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2010
108
1
Im debating on getting a souped up macbook air or a 15 inch mac book pro.

I already have 13 inch 2009 mac book pro and would like to get something different. I like the look, feel, and design of the air but I dislike the fact that I cant upgrade the ram to anything more than 4 gigs (the same as my mac book pro 13 inch).

the mac book pro is bulkier and I don't care for the placement of the keyboard. However, It has a higher end graphics card,better sound, and i can modify the ram and hardrive myself. I am can also use the 15 inch for some light gaming which I cant do for the air.

I am a student and can get a discount of 200 on the pro vs. a measly 50 on the air. However the air is lighter for dorming purposes.

I am also concerned that the pro will have a refresh by christmas. I cant see much of a difference in power if I get an intel i7cpu. But Im sure I wont be able to upgrade the mac book pro with a solid state hardrive if they make it as thin as the new air.

Suggestion are greatly appreciated !
 
I LOL'D AT THE TITLE!

The 15" is NOT bulky in any way. The MacBook Air is a puny machine which will not suit your demands.

Here's the breakdown: If you want your current level of performance with that 13" MBP, then go with the MBA.
If you want to see an improvement, go with the 15" MBP.
 
I also laughed at the title. The air can't compete with the 15" pro. There will not be a refresh before 2012.

15" pro weighs 5.4 lbs. the 13" air weighs 3.0 lbs. Not much difference IMO.

I say get the 15" MBP.
 
The MBP will most likely not get a significant refresh. If past releases are anything to go by, you will get a small clock speed boost, if anything at all. At the moment, there are no Intel CPUs that Apple could possibly upgrade to.
 
Well, do you want raw power or ultimate portability? Get the 11" air if you want portability, get the pro if you want power. Dont waste your time with the 13" inch air, it's just very slightly more portable than the pro you've got, and not worth it IMO.
 
I have a 17" and it fits fine in my dorm and around my campus. Point is, go for the 15" MBP
 
I was in the same exact situation you were in now (picking between the Air or Pro) and opted for the 15" MBP. I bought the machine to upgrade my 13" MBP from 2009. The 15's size does take some time to get used to, now I appreciate all the extra space I have to work. Plus, I need to keep it until I finish grad school, so expandability was really important for me. The Air cannot be upgraded in any way.
 
I recently made this choice too. I'm going travelling so wanted a portable machine that would handle my photography needs and play the odd game. The air obviously had size on it's side, but I'd quickly run out of disk space so need to carry around a backup drive and possibly an optical drive too. I went with the 15 inch pro in the end. Way more powerful, massive HDD, optical drive, bigger screen and still fits in my camera bag. I don't regret it one bit.
 
Thanks everyone

I decided to buy the 15 inch thanks to your suggestions! Really appreciate all the input.

Does anyone have suggestions on what hardcase I should buy? (incase maybe) I see many people having trouble installing it on youtube. However, it cant be as bad as the invisible shield stuff I was conned into buying at best buy
 
fullfloridiancj said:
but I dislike the fact that I cant upgrade the ram to anything more than 4 gigs (the same as my mac book pro 13 inch)
Click to expand...

13" Pro's ram can be upgraded up to 8GB.

To add to this, let me give you a brief idea of how much 4GB of ram really is [pasted from an older post made by me]:

I use AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Google Sketchup (these three almost always run at the same time as I need to go back and front between them). Other than this, I always have mail and Safari running. I have iChat video chat running constantly as well. In the background I run skype which I hardly use but it runs for calls and what not. At the same time, I have xcode and textwrangler running. I also have iTunes always running where I watch some HD xcode videos. Aside from this, little tools like Logmein, splashtop remote, and todo sync application. I have 4GB of ram and usually have about 10mb free with 500mb or so inactive so that is a total of 700mb at the minimum available to me.
Click to expand...
 
saberahul said:
13" Pro's ram can be upgraded up to 8GB.

To add to this, let me give you a brief idea of how much 4GB of ram really is [pasted from an older post made by me]:
Click to expand...

While I agree that 4GB is fine for the average person, your example isn't 100% correct. If there is a lot more RAM available, programs will often use more and vice versa. If you upgraded to 8GB, you likely wouldn't have 4GB + 10MB free.
 
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