Macbook Air?

[garybUK]

Background....

I have a Core2Duo 15inch Macbook Pro, I have a infuriating problem with Wifi dropping out exactly every 10 minutes (widely known bug that apple dont seem to want to fix because wifi works perfectly in cuppertino ). My DVD Drive is almost kaput, the thing isnt built very sturdy and the thing decides to power off randomly (with no warning) whilst on battery.... annoying!!

So....

Im currently working/living in Germany with very regular commute back to England via a mix of car and aeroplane.

I REALLY need a new laptop, asap. As from November i will probably be in the evil clutches of ryanair i have decided to go for a 13 incher this time round (for portability).

Questions:

Has anyone had any wifi issues with the Macbook Air? I would be looking at a 13 incher with 256gb SSD and upgraded CPU. Does anyone have problems with the 4gb RAM Limit? i do find myself running out of ram. Can I downgrade it to Snow Leopard? (dont like lion). Can the Air run VM with Windows 7 fine?

Im really torn between three laptops at the moment:

Macbook Air 13, Macbook Pro 13 & Sony Vaio SA

I can live with Windows, I do use Windows 7 on my macbook and I use RDP to use a Windows 7 VM daily. I have been disappointed with my macbook and am not tied into the Apple ecosystem what so ever.

Cheers for the advice.

 

[iPhysicist]

The WiFi of the 2011Air is better then the Mid2009 MBP but less strong then the Early2011 MBP. I could compare these machines in our universities WLAN. Next to each other the Eary2011 got the best Signal. BUT all were running Lion.

I would go Pro because you can easily upgrade Ram and Drive yourself. That - if you can live with the less amusing resolution in comparision to the Airs (beautiful) screen. Battery is not that different. The Air gets more uptime out of one charge but the MBP is not that far behind.

For VM - the more ram you have the better your experience will be, so 8GB would be recomended.

For NOT Lion - I do not know anyone who did this to the 2011 Air but I could imagine you will run into driver issues.

 

[garybUK]

The WiFi of the 2011Air is better then the Mid2009 MBP but less strong then the Early2011 MBP. I could compare these machines in our universities WLAN. Next to each other the Eary2011 got the best Signal. BUT all were running Lion.

I would go Pro because you can easily upgrade Ram and Drive yourself. That - if you can live with the less amusing resolution in comparision to the Airs (beautiful) screen. Battery is not that different. The Air gets more uptime out of one charge but the MBP is not that far behind.

For VM - the more ram you have the better your experience will be, so 8GB would be recomended.

For NOT Lion - I do not know anyone who did this to the 2011 Air but I could imagine you will run into driver issues.

Thanks for that.

The screen is the one thing putting me off the MBP 13" at the moment, no Matte option and resolution is woeful for laptops of that price in this day in age. The rest of the computer looks perfect though with the upgradability, ability to add my own SSD etc.

VM would be running 1) Windows 7 64bit Ultimate i have it with just 1.5gb ram at the moment and 2) FreeBSD with 2gb RAM (Used for some astrophysics software).

 

[NutsNGum]

You've just got to decide what's more important to you really.

I bought a 13" MBP, but I just couldn't live with the resolution. It really is very poor for doing anything that uses any sort of screen space - it's fine if you have an external monitor - but carrying one around in a bag everywhere you go isn't really an option, it also has a massive bezel, which is quite jarring.

Text is far less sharp on the Pro also.

I've owned both and can safely say that the 13" Air, to me, was the far better machine, at least out of the box. The upgradability of the Pro was a plus, but the screen resolution is so poor that I found it hard to see past it; so to speak.