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MacBook Pro Retina vs Air

G

gibbo132

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 8, 2010
139
0
I will be buying a new laptop soon, I was all up for getting a retina MacBook pro but the thought of spending £1650 (edu discount) is scaring me!
I need to run Aperture and Photoshop.
I would spec the MBA with 8gbs of RAM and possibly a 2.0ghz i7.
Do you think I would ever not regret not buying the retina pro because the air was to slow?
I would live the pro but it's a heck of a lot of money to spend and I'm not sure running aperture and photoshop would make good enough use of it!
I am currently running a 15" MBP 09. Upgrading it is not really worth it either!
 
I would buy the MacAir. It is more than fast enough and very portable. Save the money and keep it till you buy a next machine in 3 years or so. You will be happy now and you will be happy in 3 years!
 
I don't agree! I think for the extra money you should go with the Retina MacBook Pro. I am in the same position as you and have considered both options. If you go with the air, for the 256gb 13" model with the processor and ram upgrades, it cost around £1250 with edu discount. So for £400 extra you can have the base rmbp with the 16gb ram upgrade. When Apple upgrade the rest of the line with retina displays it will cause the prices of non retina laptops to drop drastically. Therefore he rmbp will retain its value better, not to mention the added extra ram, processor and graphics card. Just my opinion anyway and that's what I'm going to do
 
marshy82 said:
I don't agree! I think for the extra money you should go with the Retina MacBook Pro. I am in the same position as you and have considered both options. If you go with the air, for the 256gb 13" model with the processor and ram upgrades, it cost around £1250 with edu discount. So for £400 extra you can have the base rmbp with the 16gb ram upgrade. When Apple upgrade the rest of the line with retina displays it will cause the prices of non retina laptops to drop drastically. Therefore he rmbp will retain its value better, not to mention the added extra ram, processor and graphics card. Just my opinion anyway and that's what I'm going to do
Click to expand...

You do make a very good point! I can see Apple giving all macs a retina screen, which would certainly devalue the MBA a lot!
On the other hand I dont buy a laptop based on what it will be worth in 3 years!
Plus the pro means a new version of creative suite!
Oh decisions!
 
Retina.
Maybe this is just me, but I always seem to justify my big purchases with whatever model # postpones the disease of being "outdated" the longest. Similar to what was mentioned earlier, usually this is only a differential of a few hundred euros or dollars. So for me, I make the jump knowing that I will be much happier with the more expensive device because I will have it for a longer period of time.
 
To be honest both are expensive, I was going to buy the MacBook air because I wanted a 13" but after looking at the rmbp, i just can't do it! Apple has shown us the future of the MacBook line, so that firmly puts the MacBook air, and MacBook Pro in the past, they even said this during the keynote. The rmbp is the future, spend the extra cash. I think apple will have a bad quarter of sales, people who don't want to pay the extra for rmbp or don't want a 15" will be waiting for the next batch, that in conjunction with limited supplies.

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gibbo132 said:
You do make a very good point! I can see Apple giving all macs a retina screen, which would certainly devalue the MBA a lot!
On the other hand I dont buy a laptop based on what it will be worth in 3 years!
Plus the pro means a new version of creative suite!
Oh decisions!
Click to expand...

It's not just about the value in 3 years, it's also about functionality and usability. By buying the best that you can and future proofing yourself, the processor combined with the graphics will certainly make the rmbp more functional in 3 years than the MacBook air

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What we are missing is a 13" rmbp that hits the sweet spot on pricing. Apple will be updating these sooner rather than later.
 
If those are the types of apps you are going to run all the time don't buy the air and you if don't want to spend a lot of money for a retina MBP just buy a regular MBP.
 
Get a regular 15" MBP and use the savings towards a external monitor - that is what you will ultimately need when doing your serious work, not a 13 " or even a 15" screen. Also, you can put 16gb of ram and upgrade the hard drive yourself down the road as prices drop - can't do that with a retina
 
Vantage Point said:
Get a regular 15" MBP and use the savings towards a external monitor - that is what you will ultimately need when doing your serious work, not a 13 " or even a 15" screen. Also, you can put 16gb of ram and upgrade the hard drive yourself down the road as prices drop - can't do that with a retina
Click to expand...

Very true, part of the reason for the upgrade is the lighter weight. I carry this arround every day! My current 15" is to heavy!
I suppose the 15" retina is the way to go, In the grand scheme of things it's really not that much more expensive.
It is the ame price as a MBA + 24" IPS display and keyboard and mouse!
It is a lot of money to spend and I don't want to get it wrong, my current 15" became slow very quickly (my fault for buying a last gen c2d!).
 
gibbo132 said:
Very true, part of the reason for the upgrade is the lighter weight. I carry this arround every day! My current 15" is to heavy!
I suppose the 15" retina is the way to go, In the grand scheme of things it's really not that much more expensive.
It is the ame price as a MBA + 24" IPS display and keyboard and mouse!
It is a lot of money to spend and I don't want to get it wrong, my current 15" became slow very quickly (my fault for buying a last gen c2d!).
Click to expand...

How much RAM does your c2d have? I started with 4GB and it got sluggish over the years. After upgrading to 8GB a few months ago, I runs great. Unless you are gaming, I think RAM is more noticeable than processor.
 
...15" became slow very quickly (my fault for buying a last gen c2d!).


Yeah, since 2010 the newer CPu's are significantly better. I had a 13" 2010 with a 2.4 C2D and then I moved to a 15" 2010 with a newer dual core 2.4 i5 and the difference was night and day - geek scores of 50% higher. Now the quad cores are about 75% or more higher than that. Keep in mind for photography that the camera companies are all pushing higher and higher MP because all cameras are pretty good so they fall back on the 'bigger is better' or 'we have more pixels than the other guy'. I don't need more pixels but this campaign works. Anyway, my point is new cameras like Nikons D800 has 36 MP so one needs more storage and far more CPU power to push these huge files around.

I suppose the 15" retina is the way to go,...

Higher resolution is not the same as larger size - that lets you store your palettes when editing and also have a larger presence when viewing a photos. So in either case, 15" screen is still 15" in terms of field of view. If weight is an issue then go for the 13" MBP since aperture and photoshop don't really need a dedicated GPU since you're working with still images
 
I had this dilemma. I ultimately decided on the 11" mba and, when the imac comes out, getting that. my 11" mba worked out at $1199 AUD (edu discount) and, based on the current imac pricing, I will end up spending less money overall for a better system. I do a bit of photography and graphic design, and already used an external monitor but I need portability for classes. As I see it, I will be getting the best of both worlds. While it may be a few months until I get the imac, it's not like mba won't do the job until then.

as i see it, working from mba while at uni etc and imac at home, I'll get more use out of both in the long run. at least that is the plan.

I really wanted rmbp but the price was insane, as was the wait time. With my old mbp now a brick, I didn't want to have to wait. The mba wouldn't have been something i would have considered if I didn't ask how long I'd have to wait for mba.
 
dontcallmyname said:
I had this dilemma. I ultimately decided on the 11" mba and, when the imac comes out, getting that. my 11" mba worked out at $1199 AUD (edu discount) ... I really wanted rmbp but the price was insane, as was the wait time....
Click to expand...

Good point!!! You can get two computers for the price of one and have both extreme plenty of portability and power - though I think an 11" is awfully small ;)
 
Vantage Point said:
Good point!!! You can get two computers for the price of one and have both extreme plenty of portability and power - though I think an 11" is awfully small ;)
Click to expand...

Hmm an iMac + 11" Air does sound tempting! Fits the portability bill well, of course I would wait for the next iMac but if that goes Retina you can bet on it being more expensive! I would imagine it would be as powerfull as a rmbp!
That does sound lIke a good way to go however!
 
The 11" isn't that small, at least not as small as I thought. That said, my mbp was a 13" so getting 11" made more sense for me. It's not that much of an adjustment.

I suspect if the new imacs are retina they will have a retina and non-retina option.
 
dacreativeguy said:
How much RAM does your c2d have? I started with 4GB and it got sluggish over the years. After upgrading to 8GB a few months ago, I runs great. Unless you are gaming, I think RAM is more noticeable than processor.
Click to expand...
My 15" has got 8gbs

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I think I'm probably going for a 13" 128gb air and an iMac! Perfect option for a student imo. Yes its the more expensive option overall but seeing as I'm waiting for the iMacs to get updated. At least I have extra time to get the money! :)
 
Hey guys what do you think about getting an 11" with the i7 processor and 8gb memory and a thunderbolt display? That works out to roughly 2400 usd which although one of the more expensive set-ups, has all of the bells and whistles and I would assume it will last a very long time
 
Weight vs speed

At first when I got my RMBP, I was concerned about how big it was and thinking I wanted a 13" air.

Besides the phenomenal display, it has a faster processors and two fans instead of one. It is very quiet when running Fusion with Windows which is a hog on my old MBP. It is incredible how fast it reboots between the SSD and better virtualization support in the i5.

With scaling, I have double the real estate of the 13" air, 140% by 140% at the best scaling my old eyes.
 
Thanks for all your help, I'm 99% set on getting a MacBook Air 13" 128gb with 8gbs of ram.
I went to see the RMbp yesterday, while it was a fantastic machine it wasn't that much lighter than my current pro and I for aperture not that much faster. £550 is also a lot of money on top of what is already a lot of money!
The iMac was a nice idea but a nice screen will suffice I think!
 
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