My dilemma

[Yurieff]

Hello, folks!

I am in for replacing my old dying Acer 2012 notebook for an Apple machine. My budget is no bigger than €1200 so I automatically headed over to the refurbished section. Besides casual web browsing I will be using the machine for:
- Basic iOS development
- Composing and producing music (Ableton Live + a few plugins running simultaneously)
- Light photo editing + creating simple banners (Photoshop / Lightroom)

As I am a huge pixel lover and I cannot live without IPS panel I was pretty sure the 13 Retina Pro is the notebook to go with. So I visited an Apple reseller store and played with both Pro and Air. The 1280x800 scaling was way too small for me so I changed it to 1440x900 and 1600x1050 and it started stuttering everywhere in simple webpages. Keep in mind that it was the 2012 retina with 4 RAM running Yosemite. Will I be able to run 1440x900 absolutely smoothly? Honestly I don't like the idea of spending so much money on a machine that will have such a big flaws. Other thing that I've noticed is that the Air display has a pretty accurate color reproduction despite the viewing angles and lower resolution which was a nice surprise.

My laptops to choose from are:

Refurbished 13,3" MacBook Air with 1,7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
Mid 2013 Model
8 GB Memory
256 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD Graphics 5000

Refurbished 13,3" MacBook Pro Retina with 2,6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Mid 2014 Model
8 GB Memory
256 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD Graphics 5100

In interested in hearing your opinion.

 

[maflynn]

If you want an IPS display, then I think that will cross off the MBA from your list.

I also think the rMBP is a better all around computer then the MBA, it uses faster processors, GPU. I'd recommend option 2

 

[yjchua95]

Hello, folks!

I am in for replacing my old dying Acer 2012 notebook for an Apple machine. My budget is no bigger than €1200 so I automatically headed over to the refurbished section. Besides casual web browsing I will be using the machine for:
- Basic iOS development
- Composing and producing music (Ableton Live + a few plugins running simultaneously)
- Light photo editing + creating simple banners (Photoshop / Lightroom)

As I am a huge pixel lover and I cannot live without IPS panel I was pretty sure the 13 Retina Pro is the notebook to go with. So I visited an Apple reseller store and played with both Pro and Air. The 1280x800 scaling was way too small for me so I changed it to 1440x900 and 1600x1050 and it started stuttering everywhere in simple webpages. Keep in mind that it was the 2012 retina with 4 RAM running Yosemite. Will I be able to run 1440x900 absolutely smoothly? Honestly I don't like the idea of spending so much money on a machine that will have such a big flaws. Other thing that I've noticed is that the Air display has a pretty accurate color reproduction despite the viewing angles and lower resolution which was a nice surprise.

My laptops to choose from are:

Refurbished 13,3" MacBook Air with 1,7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
Mid 2013 Model
8 GB Memory
256 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD Graphics 5000

Refurbished 13,3" MacBook Pro Retina with 2,6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Mid 2014 Model
8 GB Memory
256 GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD Graphics 5100

In interested in hearing your opinion.

The rMBP has a far better CPU and GPU, plus display compared to the Air.

Once you go retina, you'll never go back.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The Air is a TN panel....

... it is a good one but still TN and still only 1440 x 900 pixels, that puts the air out of the running for you in my book.

To be honest until a retina Air comes out the 13 inch rMBP is the best choice for price, power, connectivity and screen in the line up.

I have the 2013 version and I love it.