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Now I'm confused...

A

antonchigurh

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 21, 2011
63
0
As of this morning I was set to go forward with the purchase of a 13" MBA i5 with a 256GB drive and 4GB of RAM. I was still pondering the 13" MBP, but considering the fact that I travel for business quite a bit the MBA is attractive.

My typical use involves using the Microsoft Office suite, particularly Word, Excel (lots of spreadsheets) and PowerPoint, as well as receiving .pdfs that can be somewhat large.

Then I decided to chat with someone at apple.com. After describing my typical use, the person on the other end of the line recommended the MBP because its processing power and storage are more conducive to my needs. They stated that the MBA is better suited to light uses.

I was under the impression that the MBA could handle all of the above and then some. Any thoughts?
 
What?! That's ridiculous. Why would you need such processing power to run Word?

MBA wins for you. Two cents.
 
You will be fine with the Air
I switched from a 17" MBP to the 13" Air
I have yet to find anything my MBA can't do for me
Great for Office and all you described
If you need more storage... Dropbox
 
antonchigurh said:
As of this morning I was set to go forward with the purchase of a 13" MBA i5 with a 256GB drive and 4GB of RAM. I was still pondering the 13" MBP, but considering the fact that I travel for business quite a bit the MBA is attractive.

My typical use involves using the Microsoft Office suite, particularly Word, Excel (lots of spreadsheets) and PowerPoint, as well as receiving .pdfs that can be somewhat large.

Then I decided to chat with someone at apple.com. After describing my typical use, the person on the other end of the line recommended the MBP because its processing power and storage are more conducive to my needs. They stated that the MBA is better suited to light uses.

I was under the impression that the MBA could handle all of the above and then some. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you are mostly using Office and email then the Air is fine. ALso unless yu think you need more than 256GB the Air is also fine.

My Chief Creative Officer does mild photoshop, Office and Lotus Notes on her 1st gen Air and she is just fine and never has space issues. The 13in Pro would be cheaper and still fit your needs, but the Air would just as well.

I think the Apple emp. was just trying to save you money.
 
antonchigurh said:
...After describing my typical use, the person on the other end of the line recommended the MBP because its processing power and storage are more conducive to my needs. They stated that the MBA is better suited to light uses...
Click to expand...

They are confused. I run Office for Mac AND Windows, Windows 7 in Parallels, and my MBA doesn't skip a beat.

If you need more than 256GB of disk space, you need a Pro.

If you need more than 4GB of RAM, you need a Pro.

For what you've described, 4GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD goodness is more than enough.
 
antonchigurh said:
I was under the impression that the MBA could handle all of the above and then some. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I don't think you'll find an Air owner that would say an Air couldn't easily handle what you want to use it for.

If anyone gives you advice otherwise, ask if they've actually owned a 2011 Air. :D
 
You will be just fine with the Air. It has plenty of processing power for Office 2011. My guess is that the chat "specialist" was speaking from a standard list of talking points. The 13" i5 Air you have is almost as fast as the 17" 2010 MacBook Pro (at least in terms of CPU).
 
Whatever you choose...

Whatever you may choose, wait until this fryday for the $100 off.:)
 
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