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rMBP 15", New iPad, or MacBook Air

R

renosausage

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
158
0
Hey everyone, I need some help here if you don't mind.

I currently own a 15" rMBP that I leave connected to a 32" LED TV screen. I live this laptop a lot, but I feel like I have more power than what I need.

I am currently in nursing school, so carrying a laptop to the hospital is just not feasible and I hate to lay it down somewhere. I mostly use my iPhone to look up information when I need to.

Here's my dilemma, I'm in school and I'm poor. I have this 2000 dollar laptop that I don't feel like I use to its full potiental.

I would love to sell this laptop and replace it with an iPad or even a MacBook Air.

I know both the iPad and Air would be much more portable and I could carry them around.

Is the iPad capable of replacing a laptop. I mostly surf the web, type papers, and research.

Also is it even worth the investment? How much could I sell my rMBP for and how much would I save buying and Air or iPad?

Thank you :)
 
renosausage said:
Hey everyone, I need some help here if you don't mind.

I currently own a 15" rMBP that I leave connected to a 32" LED TV screen. I live this laptop a lot, but I feel like I have more power than what I need.

I am currently in nursing school, so carrying a laptop to the hospital is just not feasible and I hate to lay it down somewhere. I mostly use my iPhone to look up information when I need to.

Here's my dilemma, I'm in school and I'm poor. I have this 2000 dollar laptop that I don't feel like I use to its full potiental.

I would love to sell this laptop and replace it with an iPad or even a MacBook Air.

I know both the iPad and Air would be much more portable and I could carry them around.

Is the iPad capable of replacing a laptop. I mostly surf the web, type papers, and research.

Also is it even worth the investment? How much could I sell my rMBP for and how much would I save buying and Air or iPad?

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

Since u have a Mbp and feel it's underused, maybe you should go for an 11" MBA. For me, an ipad is too limited to replace a laptop, so a happy medium is MBA. It's still small enough to be portable and powerful enough for your other tasks.

I think it'll be too frustrating typing papers and researching on an ipad. Plus you can connect the MBA to your tv for a larger monitor.
 
A 15 inch RMBP is a beast and overkill for the majority of users. I think a MBPA would serve you just fine. An Ipad in my opinion is good consumer item for minor tasks but it can not replace a laptop. I think a MBPA or a refurbished RMBP 13 inch which is now $1249 on the apple site, is good for the majority of people.
 
renosausage said:
Hey everyone, I need some help here if you don't mind.

I currently own a 15" rMBP that I leave connected to a 32" LED TV screen. I live this laptop a lot, but I feel like I have more power than what I need.

I am currently in nursing school, so carrying a laptop to the hospital is just not feasible and I hate to lay it down somewhere. I mostly use my iPhone to look up information when I need to.

Here's my dilemma, I'm in school and I'm poor. I have this 2000 dollar laptop that I don't feel like I use to its full potiental.

I would love to sell this laptop and replace it with an iPad or even a MacBook Air.

I know both the iPad and Air would be much more portable and I could carry them around.

Is the iPad capable of replacing a laptop. I mostly surf the web, type papers, and research.

Also is it even worth the investment? How much could I sell my rMBP for and how much would I save buying and Air or iPad?

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

You surf the web and use word with a $2000+ laptop! what a waste. Just sell the thing immediately and get a MacBook Air or wait for the new iPad this month

My friend wasted $2300+ on a rMBP and the most intensive thing he does on it is use spotify, such an unbelievable waste of money. I personally am wondering myself if I should get a rMBP as my iPad takes care of most of what I need and I use my beast iMac for everything else
 
I think I may go ahead and sell my rMBP right now before the new ones are released.

Then I'll hold onto that cash and buy a Mac mini for my LED display.

I could put 1000 dollars back in my pocket!
 
renosausage said:
I think I may go ahead and sell my rMBP right now before the new ones are released.

Then I'll hold onto that cash and buy a Mac mini for my LED display.

I could put 1000 dollars back in my pocket!
Click to expand...

That sounds like a solid plan. I'd consider an iPad too for portability and casual browsing.

Depending on what Apple does with the cMBP this next update, I might just do something similar. My MBP is being used like a desktop most of the time anyway.
 
you say bye bye to portability if you go with the mac mini. Like you said you need to carry around...so no mac mini because you are depending on a TV or monitor
 
True, but between my iphone and an iPad I should be good to go.

iPad = 330
Mac mini= 600

That's 990 dollars, if I sold my MacBook for 1500 I would have 500 in my pocket!
 
renosausage said:
True, but between my iphone and an iPad I should be good to go.

iPad = 330
Mac mini= 600

That's 990 dollars, if I sold my MacBook for 1500 I would have 500 in my pocket!
Click to expand...

You can also opt for the iPad Mini if you want. The baseline refurb sold by Apple is only $280. You can probably find it even cheaper (and brand new) elsewhere, especially once the new Mini comes out soon.
 
Okay here's the update. Please help me with this I'm not computer savy.

So I found this guy who is selling a Mac Pro Tower for $200.

Mac Pro Desktop - Model MA356LL/A MacPro1,1
5150 2.66GHz Xeon CPU
250GB, 7200RPM Hard Drive
6GB RAM
1Gbps Ethernet
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT GPU
Clean Install of OS X 10.6

He said it had a DVI connection so it would go perfect with my LED display and I already have a keyboard and mouse.

Is this machine too old. I know it has a 32 bit kernel maxing out at OS 10.7

Is that bad considering what I want to do?

Is this a crazy endeavor, pleas help!
 
renosausage said:
Okay here's the update. Please help me with this I'm not computer savy.

So I found this guy who is selling a Mac Pro Tower for $200.

Mac Pro Desktop - Model MA356LL/A MacPro1,1
5150 2.66GHz Xeon CPU
250GB, 7200RPM Hard Drive
6GB RAM
1Gbps Ethernet
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT GPU
Clean Install of OS X 10.6

He said it had a DVI connection so it would go perfect with my LED display and I already have a keyboard and mouse.

Is this machine too old. I know it has a 32 bit kernel maxing out at OS 10.7

Is that bad considering what I want to do?

Is this a crazy endeavor, pleas help!
Click to expand...

IF (big if) true I would consider it a good deal. Maybe you should check what is the latest OS that this Mac Pro can run. For $200 you get a perfect machine for what you do.
 
Or is this a better deal?


21.5" iMac, Late 2009
Processor: 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB
Hard Drive: 500GB
Software: Mac OSx Lion

iPad Mini
16GB Wifi
Has been updated to iOS7


Everything looks and works great.


All for 900
 
Think you should just go for the MBA. Prices have dropped, battery is great, and it should meet your computing needs. If you want a small tablet to carry to work get an ipad mini or (gasp!) a nexus 7.
 
I think an iPad would not suffice for school papers. It's good for taking notes, or writing things that are very simply formatted. I think it's comfortable enough to type on if you get one of the fold over keyboards to go with it.

But if you are writing for school you probably need things like headers/footers, footnotes, endnotes, table of contents, etc. That's not up to par yet on for iPad (though apparently there's supposed to be a new Office app coming out...)

Plus by the time you bundle the iPad and the keyboard, you're nearly carrying a laptop. Unless you have a really compelling reason to stick with the iPad, I'd go for the greater versatility of the 11" mba. You should either go for an earlier model from ebay (2010s are going for $450-600, that's what I have and it's great), if cheap is most important, or a 2013 refurbished direct from Apple ($849) if the extra battery life will let you save the weight of carrying around the charger and the peace of mind from the one year Applecare is worth the cost to you.
 
What model is your 15" rMBP?

I also suggest you get a 11" MBA. For economy, go for the 2012 model, but Haswell MBA will be a faster machine
 
The ipad is not very good for typing stuff. So I would recommend an 11 inch MBA.
 
There's one word of caution about 11" MBA! Many have reported that they get eyestrain fast on that screen, because letters are really small on it! Just go and see in the store yourself if you can work on it for extended period, compare to 13" MBA, before you decide to buy one.
 
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