MBA or rMBP?

[dominiongamma]

I'm currently attending college and would like to get a MBA or rMBP, I can afford the 13 inch one on both, and I would like a laptop to last for couple years 3-4, which one you recommend because I'm torn with the light wight of the MBA and the nice screen of the rMBP. Any help would be greatly apprecate

 

[Mac-lover3]

Pro's for MacBook Air:
+: Light very light
+: Super fast PCI SSD
+: Longer battery life

Contra's for MacBook Air:
-: Resolution of the display (should be Retina with the coming update around March/April)
-: Less powerful (markable when doing intensive tasks)

The MacBook Air is a great laptop for it's price!

Pro's for MacBook Pro:
+: Screen (it's gorgeous)
+: Much more powerful

Contra's for MacBook Pro:
-: Heavier then the Air
-: More expensive
-: Less battery life
I have a MacBook Air (2011) for school (taking notes, make PPT,... also sometimes in iMovie creating something,..). and it's still doing everything great with 1,6GHz, 4GB RAM!

 

[Algus]

Weight and effective battery life on rMBP are still very good. Don't really compare to MBA of course but I can still get all I need from the rMBP and the extra weight isn't that distracting.

The screen is a real asset. Set to full retina it's gorgeous but you can also zoom out to get more effective work space. For me it was a combination of the 8 GB RAM stock configuration and retina display that tipped the scales in favor of the rMBP.

They are both really good computers though.

 

[dominiongamma]

Another thing is 8 gb of ram which I would do in the MBA I'm nearly at the rMBP cost. Guess I'm leaning towards the The rMBP

 

[cbautis2]

-: Less powerful (markable when doing intensive tasks)

The MacBook Air is a great laptop for it's price!

Pro's for MacBook Pro:

+: Much more powerful

Contra's for MacBook Pro:
-: Heavier then the Air
-: More expensive
-: Less battery life
I have a MacBook Air (2011) for school (taking notes, make PPT,... also sometimes in iMovie creating something,..). and it's still doing everything great with 1,6GHz, 4GB RAM!

2014 MBA just as fast as 2014 13" rmbp according to geek bench. The only performance that rmbp 13" has is the iris 5100. See here:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1835103?baseline=1839146

So much for the CPU power touted on rmbp 13

 

[Natzoo]

get the mac book pro with retina, i promise you will need it. I have a friend who has the 11 inch MacBook Air and he ran out of memory and he takes photo classes as an elective. I recommend to get the rMBP because it has 8gb of ram, rather than 4 (MBA). Also try to get the memory upgrade. Also its a better display for netflix night

 

[organic bond]

2014 MBA just as fast as 2014 13" rmbp according to geek bench. The only performance that rmbp 13" has is the iris 5100. See here:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1835103?baseline=1839146

So much for the CPU power touted on rmbp 13

Yes, but in this case the MBA uses an i7, while the MBP uses an i5. No wonder it's better.

I still use a late 2010 4GB MBA and run Parallels Win 8.1, no issues at all. Fantastic machine! Of course 8GB are a must these days. If I were the OP I'd wait for the upcoming MBA though, then choose.

 

[Natzoo]

i just feel like the rMBP is a mac book air, its basically the same size the specs are only .02 mm off.

 

[pasadena]

Depends on what you will be doing with it. What kind of studies are you doing ?

If you're torn between the portability of the MBA and the screen of the MBP.... wait for the retina MBA which should be (hopefully) announced before end of March.

 

[dominiongamma]

I think I decided on the rMBP tax return was higher then I thought ha and I was in the Apple Store and it was still light and the screen was amazing!

 

[Meister]

Yes, but in this case the MBA uses an i7, while the MBP uses an i5. No wonder it's better.

I still use a late 2010 4GB MBA and run Parallels Win 8.1, no issues at all. Fantastic machine! Of course 8GB are a must these days.

8gb RAM is not enough. 16gb is the bare minimum.
If he can wait, he should go for the upcoming 32g option with broadwell.
I have 8gb ram and Yosemite uses 7.99 just for safari with a few tabs open.
For his heavy workload the OP should get more than 16 if he can.

Since the cpu is soldered, he should als get the i7 upgrade. That is another must!

 

[pasadena]

I think I decided on the rMBP tax return was higher then I thought ha and I was in the Apple Store and it was still light and the screen was amazing!

It's just 1/2 pound over the 13" MBA

 

[motrek]

8gb RAM is not enough. 16gb is the bare minimum.
If he can wait, he should go for the upcoming 32g option with broadwell.
I have 8gb ram and Yosemite uses 7.99 just for safari with a few tabs open.
For his heavy workload the OP should get more than 16 if he can.
...

The next version of OS X might require 64GB of RAM. You have no way of knowing. You'd be an idiot to buy a machine with only 32GB of RAM. Think about future-proofing.

 

[cbautis2]

Yes, but in this case the MBA uses an i7, while the MBP uses an i5. No wonder it's better.

I still use a late 2010 4GB MBA and run Parallels Win 8.1, no issues at all. Fantastic machine! Of course 8GB are a must these days. If I were the OP I'd wait for the upcoming MBA though, then choose.

Not really. Even an i5 used by my Surface pro 3 8GB (which I use for outlook, MS project and as a secondary tablet since my primary is still 13" MBA Early 2011) is just as fast as the base i5 used by mid 2014 rmbp.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1839146?baseline=1833082

Agree that 8 GB is a must especially when you have 20+ tabs on one browser and another browser with 10+ tabs open when doing research essay stuff.

 

[Meister]

Agree that 8 GB is a must especially when you have 20+ tabs on one browser and another browser with 10+ tabs open when doing research essay stuff.

That is ridicolous! You need at the very least 16gb of memory for that much websurfing.
And the i7 has 1mb more cache, that is absolutely necessary to futureproof your machine.

The common denominator for RAM in the MacPro section is that you need 48gb if you want to multitask hard word editing and keep a lot of tabs open in different browsers.
Selling any mac with less than 16gb in 2015 is plain irresponsible.

The OP will definitely regret not getting a maxed rmbp when his email doesn't work in a couple of years.

 

[dominiongamma]

Maybe I'm insane but people now saying 8 gb is not enough? does ram future proof it? Will I need it for basic stuff like web surfing, Netflix and word documents? I want to keep this many years to come, wasn't sure if ram helps?

 

[Meister]

Maybe I'm insane but people now saying 8 gb is not enough? does ram future proof it? Will I need it for basic stuff like web surfing, Netflix and word documents? I want to keep this many years to come, wasn't sure if ram helps?

There have been several threads of people with 8gb and even 16gb RAM complaining about the performance with Yosemite.
The next OS will be much more resource hungry and might make 8gb RAM the bare minimum.
Just look at the macbook airs with 4gb now. They are constantly beachballing while you browse hard.

 

[dominiongamma]

There have been several threads of people with 8gb and even 16gb RAM complaining about the performance with Yosemite.
The next OS will be much more resource hungry and might make 8gb RAM the bare minimum.
Just look at the macbook airs with 4gb now. They are constantly beachballing while you browse hard.

Probably right, it sucks Apple charges so much for RAM but I guess if I want to future proof it I must do 16 gb :

 

[Scepticalscribe]

To the OP: It depends on what your priorities are.

For speed, power and portability - along with superb battery life - get the MBA. And get a maxed out one. Mine dates from 2013, and is a CTO with 8 GB RAM, Core i7, and 512 GB SSD. It is super fast.

However, I don't game, I don't do video work, and I have not yet bothered to obtain Yosemite.

Re the need for sheer power, and an outstanding screen, the rMBP is obviously, the better machine. It is also more expensive, (especially at higher specifications) and is somewhat heavier to carry about.

 

[capathy21]

Maybe I'm insane but people now saying 8 gb is not enough? does ram future proof it? Will I need it for basic stuff like web surfing, Netflix and word documents? I want to keep this many years to come, wasn't sure if ram helps?

It is more than enough. Meister is being sarcastic due to all of the ill informed people who recommend insane amounts of ram just to perform the most basic tasks.

Web surfing, Netflix, and Word documents would work on my 2 inch thick Gateway laptop from high school. Get what you are comfortable getting to last you a few years. Don't max it out and waste money just because. If you want plenty of room to grow and you can afford it, get the 8GB of ram model. You could be fine with 4 if finances were restricted but 8 will cover you for years to come.

 

[dominiongamma]

To the OP: It depends on what your priorities are.

For speed, power and portability - along with superb battery life - get the MBA. And get a maxed out one. Mine dates from 2013, and is a CTO with 8 GB RAM, Core i7, and 512 GB SSD. It is super fast.

However, I don't game, I don't do video work, and I have not yet bothered to obtain Yosemite.

Re the need for sheer power, and an outstanding screen, the rMBP is obviously, the better machine. It is also more expensive, (especially at higher specifications) and is somewhat heavier to carry about.

I don't game, it will be for tasks like PowerPoint , word , browsing the web, nothing major, I thought 8 gb would be enough but everyone saying to do 16 gb guess I'm not sure which RAM to get?

 

[maflynn]

8gb RAM is not enough. 16gb is the bare minimum.
If he can wait, he should go for the upcoming 32g option with broadwell.
I have 8gb ram and Yosemite uses 7.99 just for safari with a few tabs open.
For his heavy workload the OP should get more than 16 if he can.

Since the cpu is soldered, he should als get the i7 upgrade. That is another must!

8GB of ram is more then enough for 90% of what people need laptops, 16GB s overkill and a waste for (for most people).

There are plenty of people rocking with 4GB of ram and its more then enough.

Don't forget that OS X has swap space so it will never run out of memory.

As for the i7, the OP will probably never see the performance improvement that the i7 brings.

----------

That is ridicolous! You need at the very least 16gb of memory for that much websurfing.

You stating and recommending that you need 16GB of ram to surf the web? Maybe I'm missing something like the /s sarcasm tag because that is really not correct.

 

[Meister]

there are plenty of people rocking with 4gb of ram and its more then enough.

i think to answer the op's question 4gb isn't enough any longer. Especially using ps. I've seen enough threads of people complaining about performance issues on macs running yosemite (or even mavericks) with only 4gb

lol

----------

You stating and recommending that you need 16GB of ram to surf the web? Maybe I'm missing something like the /s sarcasm tag because that is really not correct.

A while ago a user complained about lag on his quadcore MacPro 3,1 with 16gb RAM.
It was suggested he upgrades to 48gb. For webbrowsing and word editing only.

Sarcasm is not sarcasm, if you mark it as such with a tag.

 

[capathy21]

I don't game, it will be for tasks like PowerPoint , word , browsing the web, nothing major, I thought 8 gb would be enough but everyone saying to do 16 gb guess I'm not sure which RAM to get?

For your usage, 4gb would be fine for several years, 8 gb would probably ease your mind and 16 gb would be the equalivent of shredding money. The i7 upgrade is also a complete waste of money considering your usage. Get the storage space that you will be comfortable with.

Anyone who is recommending more than 8gb of ram is either being sarcastic or has no idea what they are talking about.

 

[organic bond]

Not really. Even an i5 used by my Surface pro 3 8GB (which I use for outlook, MS project and as a secondary tablet since my primary is still 13" MBA Early 2011) is just as fast as the base i5 used by mid 2014 rmbp.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1839146?baseline=1833082

Agree that 8 GB is a must especially when you have 20+ tabs on one browser and another browser with 10+ tabs open when doing research essay stuff.

And then? Neither one uses an i7, is the reason why the MBA in that test is faster. I'd compare Apples to Apples.

Like I said, I can even run Parallels on a 2010 machine with just 4GB, however going 4 GB now would be shortsighted. I'd get 8 at least, my iMac has 20.