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MBA or iPad 3?

Frankied22

Frankied22

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 24, 2010
1,837
716
Ok so I know these threads are always coming up, but I figured I'd ask anyway to get some opinions and input. This is my situation: as of right now I have roughly $1150 to spend on a new computer. I'm trying to decide between going with a custom built gaming rig (my buddy is offering to sell me his graphic card for $100 so I could realistically build a decent gaming rig for $550) and an iPad 3 (or refurbished iPad 2 depending on if the 3 will be a worthy upgrade), or going with a refurbished 13" MBA w/ 4gb ram and 128gb SSD. I am without a computer right now so I am trying to decide what will be best. What do you guys think?
 
Frankied22 said:
Ok so I know these threads are always coming up, but I figured I'd ask anyway to get some opinions and input. This is my situation: as of right now I have roughly $1150 to spend on a new computer. I'm trying to decide between going with a custom built gaming rig (my buddy is offering to sell me his graphic card for $100 so I could realistically build a decent gaming rig for $550) and an iPad 3 (or refurbished iPad 2 depending on if the 3 will be a worthy upgrade), or going with a refurbished 13" MBA w/ 4gb ram and 128gb SSD. I am without a computer right now so I am trying to decide what will be best. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

MBA without a doubt! The only reason to get an iPad is if price is an issue...but if you are willing to spend the money, get a MBA....I have had an iPad since day one....it was great at first, but it got more and more annoying in how lacking iOS really is. If you just do mail and web you can get away with an iPad....tho safari is so damn unstable I barely use it for web anymore.

As long as they use iOS and refuse to build it with enough ram, the iPad is pretty useless.
 
Overall?
An MBA.....
An MBA can do everything an iPad does, but not the other way around....

But they supply 2 completely diff solutions to a user....really should not be compared....
 
I would also go for the MBA, but you are in a MBA forum. I love the iPad for all the things it does well and for some people it serves all of their purposes but chances are at some point you'll find a couple things it just isn't able to do, or isn't able to do very well compared to a real computer.

The comparison is a little odd, a gaming rig is the polar opposite to what you can do with the MBA. Not that you can't play games on the MBA, especially if you use boot camp into Windows 7, but I think you need to decide what you really plan on using the devices for.
 
What will you use the computer for?

Gaming: Windows PC

College: MBA

Facebook and Email: Ipad 3
 
Yeah but you won't be doing any serious gaming on a macbook air.

If you want to game on mac comfortablly your looking at spending 2000+ dollars.
 
Owning an iPad2 and a MBA, I would go for the MBA due to it being more versatile than the limited iOS based iPad.
The iPad is ok for couch surfing and watching movies. Also some iOS apps are quite limited, for example Quick Office Pro fails to calculate several excel formulas (sumif, ...) and to make it worse the whole formula gets deleted when you save the document (there is no warning at all).
 
Shadow2k said:
Owning an iPad2 and a MBA, I would go for the MBA due to it being more versatile than the limited iOS based iPad.
The iPad is ok for couch surfing and watching movies. Also some iOS apps are quite limited, for example Quick Office Pro fails to calculate several excel formulas (sumif, ...) and to make it worse the whole formula gets deleted when you save the document (there is no warning at all).
Click to expand...

What this guy said.

I would not consider the Ipad as a laptop replacement until apple increases support for certain things.

1. For instance, allow downloading of drivers to print on any wireless printer rather than being forced to buy a specific HP printer to print from you ipad.

2.Adding wireless mouse capabilities to complement the use of a wireless keyboard for productivity.

3. Apple brand keyboard attachment that utilizes the magnetic attachment to create a laptop like enclosure (i.e. an aluminum ipad sized keyboard that closes and opens similar to a laptop and can also keep the ipad up when used for typing. The weight would have to be about a pound unless there is some sort of bracket to keep it balanced when the ipad is opened.

4. File management! Apple needs to let people have a folder system where they can manage files easily. The current management system is ridiculous and causes anyone with 30+ files a lot of frustration to keep track of files.
 
i would choose the 11 mba over the iPad hands down. i haven't touched my iPad in all last week (since got mba 11)

i think the 11 mba has the best of both worlds. it has the portability of the iPad and the power of a OS X machine :D
 
I would wait for Ivy Bridge, then get a 11" MBA. They should get a much-needed battery boost, thanks to the architectural improvements.
 
As has been pointed out, these are vastly different devices. I have both. The iPad is not a computer; the MBA is the vastly superior solution for the tasks you want to perform.

I typically carry both around with me simultaneously (Tucano One is my new best friend!) and use them for entirely different purposes. Whether you wait for Ivy Bridge depends, in my view, on whether you can find a good deal on the i5 variant. I paid $1135 for my i5 11" some months ago, and haven't looked back.
 
not an either/or proposition in my view. it's really fundamentally no diff than asking iphone or mba? both have distinct value from each other.
 
GKDAIR said:
Yeah but you won't be doing any serious gaming on a macbook air.

If you want to game on mac comfortablly your looking at spending 2000+ dollars.
Click to expand...

What do you consider serious gaming? I've been able to play all the new games I've gotten.

Skyrim runs great....Rage runs fantastically, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is very smooth, Portal 2 runs flawlessly in Mac and PC....Crysis 2 runs great, Battlefield Bad Company 2 runs fantastically, Assasins Creed Brotherhood is quite fast and smooth....So far the only games that haven't worked have been Rockstar's half assed console ports.

Are you going on experience or what you think it can do?
 
gentlefury said:
What do you consider serious gaming? I've been able to play all the new games I've gotten.

Skyrim runs great....Rage runs fantastically, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is very smooth, Portal 2 runs flawlessly in Mac and PC....Crysis 2 runs great, Battlefield Bad Company 2 runs fantastically, Assasins Creed Brotherhood is quite fast and smooth....So far the only games that haven't worked have been Rockstar's half assed console ports.

Are you going on experience or what you think it can do?
Click to expand...

does rage runs well on the 11mba ? i have been looking to try out that game, but i didn't know if it will play smooth on the mba
 
iKIKO said:
does rage runs well on the 11mba ? i have been looking to try out that game, but i didn't know if it will play smooth on the mba
Click to expand...

Yes thats what I have...it runs great as long as your running 64bit windows. Skyrim runs better under 32bit. I am currently more interested in Skyrim, so I'm running 32bit...but when I had 64bit installed rage ran like a champ!
 
MBA. I have an Ipad and an MBA 13" and use both extensively for work, but if I were to cut out one, it would have to be the iPad. I think the iPad is good for a whole lot more than couch surfing, but it still has limitations that would prevent me from relying on it as my sole device.
 
iKIKO said:
but the ivy its speculation, rumors, or it is confirmed ?
Click to expand...

We know for a fact that Intel is releasing the Ivy Bridge processors in 2-3 months, and, unless hell freezes over, Apple is going to use them in their computers.
 
glen e said:
Overall?
An MBA.....
An MBA can do everything an iPad does, but not the other way around....

But they supply 2 completely diff solutions to a user....really should not be compared....
Click to expand...

Exactly. Virtually all of the posters on this thread so far have suggested that you choose the MBA over the iPad, and I'd go along with that.

The iPad is a brilliant piece of technology, but it is far more limited in what it can do than an MBA is. While both are ultra-portable, the MBA is a fully functioning computer with iOS which makes it much more versatile.

It all depends on what you want/wish to use it for. As others have remarked, if it is simply for surfing or brief emails, the iPad is fine; however, if you need to do serious writing - reports or essays, (say, for college), the full keyboard of the MBA is a necessity as writing for any length on an iPad can become a bit tedious.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Exactly. Virtually all of the posters on this thread so far have suggested that you choose the MBA over the iPad, and I'd go along with that.

The iPad is a brilliant piece of technology, but it is far more limited in what it can do than an MBA is. While both are ultra-portable, the MBA is a fully functioning computer with iOS which makes it much more versatile.V

It all depends on what you want/wish to use it for. As others have remarked, if it is simply for surfing or brief emails, the iPad is fine; however, if you need to do serious writing - reports or essays, (say, for college), the full keyboard of the MBA is a necessity as writing for any length on an iPad can become a bit tedious.
Click to expand...

HOWEVER....the reverse is also true...there are many situations I want my iPad with me vs the MBA: traveling, looking at PDF's at a job site or portable presentations. Pilots are storing their whole flight bags in cockpits these days on ipads, thry cant pass MBA's around....The iPad is so much better at those type things.

They both have their place...the iPad is not a "junior" anything....Just here on this section of macrumors.
 
Considering an iPad as a replacement for a Laptop is stupid, and makes you look stupid at the university.

An iPad is a closed OS on which you can barely write, edit or format your notes. As for all the other serious softwares you can't do it, or not half as well or efficiently as on a Laptop.

However, the gaming issue is serious and come on with the Macbook Air. My 2010 Macbook can't even make an old PS2 or Gamecube (which were release 8 years ago) emulator work.

BUT there is a solution, not really developped yet but coming: external graphic cars with Thunderbolt.
 
iPad is an accessory device for most people. Honestly, the only people whom I can see an iPad replacing a laptop for are senior citizens (not to be rude; I just mean that people who as a stereotype are the least computer savvy).
I still can't understand why someone who is computer savvy, and by that I mean general keyboarding, internet skills, grew up in the digital age, would choose an iPad over a MBA if they could only have one device. Yes, you can make an iPad do much of what a general purpose laptop can do, but not without gymnastics and external keyboards and apps that let you browse the filesystem, etc. It's just not worth it if your goal is to make an iPad into a laptop replacement.
 
If you need to run two or more apps side by side and/or intend to carry keyboard often, get MBA.
 
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