Should I buy the MBA 13" or cMBP 13"?

[nashoo]

Hey, guys! First off, I know that you must have read a lot this question, but after reading a lot about this, there are still some specific things that I'd like to know.

I just sold my previous 4-year-old notebook yesterday, and I'm planning to get a Macbook (I've been wanting it for a long while, so I'm super excited), but where I live (Chile) they offer me two macbooks at the same price: the Mid-2013 macbook air 13" (base model) and the 2012 non-retina macbook pro 13 (base model as well). Money is actually an issue for me, since I'm a college student and I'm buying this with my savings, so I want to make the best decision.

The use that I'm going to give to the macbook is: music (around 20GB of it), streaming videos, essays, occasional Photoshop, occasional gaming and I must say frequent Parallels/VMWare (for my transition between Windows to OS X and Ubuntu) and connecting to the HDTV for movies.

I don't have desktop computer, so it's gonna be my exclusive computer. Storage is not an issue I suppose, since I have an external drive, and battery life, yet great, won't be an issue either, since I won't likely be carrying my macbook around much. CD/DVD won't be an issue because I have an external optical drive already.

The thing is that I want it to last, at least, 4-5 years or so, and I love the OS X, and I don't want to stop getting the new OS releases. And I also have an iPhone and an iPad, and with my family we usually communicate over facetime and photo sharing, so being able to facetime in my notebook is just great.

I like the idea of the SSD PCIe that the MBA has, since I'm starting to see that all the new macs are getting this SSD drive by default, and maybe the new OS releases will focus on this new technology, but this is just my idea, is it going to be that way? If it is, I wouldn't want to be left behind because I have an old HDD.

So that's it, I apologize for the extension, but I'm truly excited about this and I really want to make the best decision, and I know you guys could help me. Thanks so much in advance, and sorry for my english if there was any mistake.

 

[DarkoDonnie]

for

Photoshop, occasional gaming and I must say frequent Parallels/VMWare

you're better off w/ mbp. especially since:

battery life, yet great, won't be an issue either

 

[thejadedmonkey]

for you're better off w/ mbp. especially since:

Why do you say that? Nothing OP is doing is CPU intensive, and the GPU in the MBA is better than what's in the MBP right now.

P.S. My vote goes to the air, but I'm of the opinion that the 13" MBP is a very strangely placed product that has very limited use-cases that aren't better served by other machines (eg an Air or a 15" MBP).

 

[nashoo]

Thanks for the reply! But how's the Air with Parallels? I won't be using some highly resources-demanding programs either I think. But what about the SSD? Since apparently Apple is using it as default in their newer releases, wouldn't it be better to have it already as a part of the hardware instead of waiting to buy it and replace it?

 

[maflynn]

The MBA runs parallels just fine. The 13" MBA gives you more screen real estate due to the higher resolution.

You are correct since the MBA has the SSD installed you're covered by the warranty completely. Installing an SSD yourself in a cMBP means you have to deal with the SSD manufacturer for that warranty and everything else through apple (If I'm understanding your question.)

 

[nashoo]

The MBA runs parallels just fine. The 13" MBA gives you more screen real estate due to the higher resolution.

You are correct since the MBA has the SSD installed you're covered by the warranty completely. Installing an SSD yourself in a cMBP means you have to deal with the SSD manufacturer for that warranty and everything else through apple (If I'm understanding your question.)

Thanks for the reply and yes, that was my question. So, what do you think I should get, MBA or cMBP?

 

[maflynn]

At this stage of the game I think the 13" MBA is better then the 13" cMBP.

I think the advantages of the cMBP are that you get more ports, an optical drive and expandability, i.e., replace storage and ram.

If those advantages don't really rate highly on your must have list then the MBA is a no brainer.

If it were me choosing between the MBA and 13" cMBP I'd be going with the MBA

 

[nashoo]

Oh, and other thing that I forgot to mention: since the cMBP has more CPU than the MBA, but MBA has the SSD with the new Haswell processor, some of the basic tasks run just similar in matter of speed (from what I've read), but in what cases would I need to favor the faster CPU from the cMBP over the SSD of the MBA? Because that's one of the things that keeps me doubting (if it wasn't for that, I'd buy the MBA)

 

[hkim1983]

That extra CPU boost won't really be relevant for what you're planning on doing. Actually, unless you're doing "serious" gaming, or heavy duty media work (either professionally or as a "serious" hobby), the CPU/GPU won't be bottlenecking you in the Air. Granted, there are other things that could utilize that extra boost in cpu/gpu (and additional cores + dedicated gpu in the 15" model), but it doesn't sound like you're one of those people. There's a thread dedicated to gaming and the new Airs in the Air sub-forum, I recommend checking it out to see if it answers your questions there.

As for whether or not it'll last you 4-5 years, that depends on your potential future usage and your expectations of what you consider to be "tolerable" performance. It should be more than adequate for 3 years though, and you may only begin to notice diminishing performance (assuming your usage remains mostly the same) around year 4 or 5. Honestly, the thing you have to worry the most is if they come up with a new format to encode media in (which they will) and how the internet evolves...