Macbook Air 2012 vs Samsung 9 Series or 2013 Macbook

[xax121]

I've been weighing up both the Macbook Air and the Samsung 9 series. But I'm not quite sure which to get, or even to wait for the next Macbook Air update.

The current update seems to be an incremental one, I had been hoping for maybe a redesign.

Macbook Air:
Can be configured up to 8gb
Works out cheaper than the Samsung with student discount.
Better customer service with Apple
Can run OSX (although any UNIX distro will do)

Samsung 9 Series:
I would say it looks slightly better than the Air, with its thinner bezel etc.
Is lighter and thinner than an MBA and has a smaller footprint.
Has a higher screen resolution of 1600x900
Also not too keen on the Apple keyboard layout. I've been using a British Windows keyboard all my life and the Apple "British" keyboard is completely different.

Although it would be nice to have a new laptop for my final uni year, I'm not in such a rush to buy it and would consider waiting for the next MBA update or even Haswell Ultrabooks.

About this, what can be expected in the new update? Is a redesign with a smaller footprint and bezel. Or even a better display?

Also if I were to get a MBA I think I would choose the 8gb version, but I'm sure if there much point in bumping the processor up to an i7.

Should I bite the bullet and get it now or wait for the next refresh which may be a bigger update?

Thanks.

 

[Confuzzzed]

As a Sandy bridge MBA owner, I would have to say it seems to me that the Ivy Bridge iterations seems to be a nice 'real-world' uptick in performance particularly on GPU. Having been using Macs since 1996 and PCs at work since 2000, I would have to say I wouldn't be considering the Samsung machine at this stage. Consider this. I still own my 2005 mac mini and it runs as fast as the day I owned it, has never had any issues with it whatsoever and not even come close to been infected with viruses. Don't know what your computing needs are so can't advice specifically but if I were you I would pull the trigger now on the 2012 MBA and take advantage of your student discount (and associated perk of 3 year hardware warranty if you buy online) unless you envisage your first job to require video editing and/or do a lot of gaming in which case you may want to wait until next year.

 

[xax121]

Thanks, I'm studying computing science so I won't have any need to do photo or video editing. Also not worried about games.

I just need a Windows and a UNIX OS to write and compile code and use programs such as Eclipse regularly.

At the moment I have an 11.6 inch Atom netbook, but I hate having to do any work due to the smallish screen size and its not a fast machine.

I've always got access to computer labs at uni so it's not critical that I need to get one now.

 

[anotherarunan]

If you plan on doing a lot of Windows critical programming on your new machine - then sadly it will be beneficial to get a Windows machine.

If you can get away with using your campus PC's for this sort of stuff - then get a mac for personal use/ casual programming stuff.

 

[juliusaugustus]

I say get a series 9 and run Windows and Unix/linux on it. It is better than paying for the Windows License. Plus the Series 9 is a nicer machine in terms of look and feel. Also if you look around hard enough the series 9 comes down in price on certain websites

 

[splitpea]

What do you have now? What career do you intend to go into after graduation? It might be worthwhile to wait and choose your computer after you know what job you'll be holding and whether they'll be supplying you with a computer for work.

 

[fawx paws]

Get the mac

Or, you know, you could use the Mac for OSX and enjoy a great coding environment. Fun fact: OSX is based on unix, so opening up a terminal will provide you with nearly the same command-line experience as running a Unix partition. Also, OSX has some great tools for programming. Eclipse is available for OSX as well as the Subclipse plugin (for all of your version control needs). I guess I'm confused as to why you would need to run in Windows for your major. If anything, running OSX is going to make your life easier.

 

[Mosco]

I have only had one non trivial developer related issue on the mac. I needed a very specific version of java for the web backend java stuff I was doing.

Other than that, I would say unless you are doing windows specific development, that developing on a mac is more powerful than windows or linux.

 

[KylePowers]

Or, you know, you could use the Mac for OSX and enjoy a great coding environment. Fun fact: OSX is based on unix, so opening up a terminal will provide you with nearly the same command-line experience as running a Unix partition. Also, OSX has some great tools for programming. Eclipse is available for OSX as well as the Subclipse plugin (for all of your version control needs). I guess I'm confused as to why you would need to run in Windows for your major. If anything, running OSX is going to make your life easier.

This!

Plus, an MBA runs Windows perfectly in my experience (which is only virtualized). Surely it'd run even better via boot-camp. So I don't really see a downside to picking up a Mac. Coding isn't very computationally intensive, so hardware is a moot point (plenty of computers in my CS labs that are hella old that we all use for coding).

 

[xax121]

I'm not doing any Windows specific development. I can run everything I need from OS X/Linux.

I'm leaning towards the Air just not sure if I should wait until the next release.

Currently all my from is done from either the cs labs or from my desktop at home. I'm only really using the netbook for internet browsing.

After graduation I intend to apply for some sort of development job either with a bank or tech company.