MacBook or MacBook Air, Can't decide.

[bbotte]

Well I am going to purchase one or the other in December. Went and played with both yesterday.

1.83 SSD Mac Book Air
500GB Time Capsule
Super Drive
$2,857.70 Ohio Sales tax and Education discount. I work for a College.

MacBook, 13-inch, Aluminum
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
Accessory kit
500GB Time Capsule
2042.13 with Ohio Sales Tax and Education Discount. I work for a College.

Roughly $800 difference. I love the Air's light weight! And it is more than fast enough for what I need. (MobileMe, syncing iPhones and My AppleTV, Web surfing, paying bills Photoshoping pics of the family and friends) Although for 800 less I get a faster clock speed, a larger HD, double the ram, and I really like the screen on the MacBook. But when I pick up the MacBook it feels twice as heavy as the Air even though I know it is only 1.5lbs. Arg!

What would you do? Is the 800 worth the less power but light weight of the Air? The only thing I would like to do is run Bootcamp and WinXP also and I am questioning the HD Space on the Air. My wife does some things for her work at a nearby Hospital on the web and you must have a Windows OS to do them. I have less than 20GB of music and Photos, but will have a Time Capsule anyway. Will the SSD be Ok with Both OS on it and my 20GB of Media? Program wise will be Office 2008 Mac, and Photoshop. Maybe StarPlayer for Sirius.

 

[byke]

I am in the same situation .. MB or MBA ....
I am basically waiting until the MBA release in November to see if the new chips help address the heat issues, and see if the MBA screen is nicer.

I have no idea if they will change the trackpad on the MBA ...
But this also may help me decide.


Basically until I can do a side by side comparison of both the new models I cant make a decision.

 

[wordmunger]

If you like the light weight of the air but can't bring yourself to spend the extra $800, why not get the hard drive version instead of the SSD version? Sounds like you don't need the power of the MacBook. You can always buy an external drive or a time capsule with the money you save.

 

[zsft]

You know I was looking up at the specs for the Macbook and the Air...though the Air only has 1.86ghz, it has 6mb of cache under the hood. The Macbook only has 3mb for both specs. Even with double the cache the Air is probably not gonna outrun the 2.4ghz Macbook (even it might come close?)...but I'm curious if it can do the 2.0ghz model. Anyone got benchmarks? Also given the Air uses SSD...who knows usage wise it might come out close to the 2.4ghz Macbook...just a thought.

 

[skubish]

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Unless you are on the road a lot and need a MBA which is 1.5 pounds lighter, there is no compelling reason to get a MBA. Get the MB. You can easily put a SSD into it later.