Should I get Macbook Air today or wait for new rMPB?

[JohnLA]

Hi all! So I am a high school student going into 11th grade. I live in Louisiana, so for the rest of today (8/3/13) I get an additional 4% off of taxes, not huge but nice.

My question is, should I get the Macbook Air with Haswell today or wait for the Retina Macbook Pro Haswell Refresh?

Macbook Pro is as an option but I heard it might not refresh at all because Apple wants to promote Retina.

My uses of this laptop:

Programming in Xcode (iOS apps)
Taking notes in class
Web Design
Running an online business off of it. (Ebay, which is mainly web browsing)
Occasional photo editing
I INTEND to play Sims 3 and record gameplay. Then I will do editing.
So I would LIKE to be able to edit video. Not worth $1000 to me.

Here is the other problem. I don't want to pay more than necessary. The rMBP is out of the picture if the price is to high. Right now I can get one for like $1400. If it's more than $1500 after refresh, goodbye Retina. Besides, when I bought my first laptop in 2008 (2 years of grass cutting...), I bought it for the touchscreen which was a waste. I'd hate to buy into another screen gimmick, plus I know if I get a Retina I will never be able to look at another screen again.

What are other sales that I could buy from? Black Friday?

Right now my 13" 128SSD, i7, 8gb RAM Air costs $1279. Plus a free $100 gift card. Should I just go for it?

Also is the i7 worth $140?


Thanks guys! Glad to finally join the MacRumors family!

 

[ducatiti]

I was in similar situation just yesterday. Today, I ended up buying two 13" RMBP for only $1,199.00 each, ($300 off right now from Best Buy). I bought one for daughter and myself. It was a no brainer for me since when will I get an opportunity to purchase a 13" retina this cheap?

But as they all say in this forum, "If you need it, buy one now".

 

[2IS]

I was in similar situation just yesterday. Today, I ended up buying two 13" RMBP for only $1,199.00 each, ($300 off right now from Best Buy). I bought one for daughter and myself. It was a no brainer for me since when will I get an opportunity to purchase a 13" retina this cheap?

But as they all say in this forum, "If you need it, buy one now".

wow, nice... I'm waiting for a Haswell rMBP myself but that's a tempting price... I may have to test my will power and go to BB.

 

[PDFierro]

Sounds like you can't afford the Haswell rMBP at retail price. In your situation, I'd just buy what you described now. But Retina is far from being a gimmick.

 

[JohnLA]

Sounds like you can't afford the Haswell rMBP at retail price. In your situation, I'd just buy what you described now. But Retina is far from being a gimmick.

Well what I meant was that it wasn't necessary. In my situation I just felt like I paid alot for something I didn't need.

Ok so here's another question. That price for the 13" rMBP is awesome! But will the intel 4000 graphics do what I need AND power the Retina display? I have heard that the Retina has had problems due to the 4000s lack of power. Would it play a game and record at a decent FPS?

 

[JohnLA]

Well I think I solved that one rather quickly. Some users report that the 13" rMBP drops below 30fps on Facebook using Safari!

That is NOT going to play and record.

Air it is I guess. Lower res. plus better graphics =better performance.

Now it's: buy now or wait.
And : i5 or i7

 

[sonicrobby]

Well I think I solved that one rather quickly. Some users report that the 13" rMBP drops below 30fps on Facebook using Safari!

That is NOT going to play and record.

Air it is I guess. Lower res. plus better graphics =better performance.

Now it's: buy now or wait.
And : i5 or i7

Well the Air refresh just happened, so you dont really have reason to wait. I havent been involved in Apple sales in year's pasts, so I dont know how much they actually go down for black friday sales;

As for i5 v i7, you probably wouldnt even notice the difference, so I would say its not worth the extra $140.

p.s. No one told me it was a tax free weekend! Time to go on a spending spree :0

 

[srsub3]

wait and see what happens..... it's hard to say this if we don't know your actual laptop

 

[scbond]

OP, your question is only one that you can answer. Do you want an Air or a rMBP? get whichever you want to get. Having others tell you which to get won't make a blind bit of difference when it comes to you buying one.

 

[PDFierro]

Agreed. We can give him advice, but he really has to decide on his own.

 

[Badrottie]

If you care about longer battery life then get Haswell based 13" MBA If you care about graphic performance then go for 13" MBA….if you don't care about retina display then you can go for MBA! rMBP is not for you.

 

[bughyz]

I think the 13" MBA with the Intel HD5000 graphics chip will be sufficient for your needs. The Retina MacBook Pro is overkill in this situation. But, if money is not a problem, rMBP

 

[jread]

I know that this goes against what everyone says, but in my experience the 13" rMBP still outperforms the Haswell MBA. I had the MBA first (i7/8GB/256GB), but hated the display so much that I returned it for the 13" (also with an i7). I found it to be considerably more powerful than the MBA, and even with HD 4000 it still had much better graphics performance. Also, I disagree with anyone who says that the i7 is not worth it on the 13" rMBP. On paper it doesn't seem like a huge bump (about 1000 points on Geekbench), however in real-world use it performs very well. I did not have nearly as many problems with lag as people with the i5, so I really do think that the i7 makes more of a difference (at least on that particular machine) than people give it credit for.

I now have a refurb 15" and my wife is using the 13". Love both machines and am very happy with them. I will never buy another MBA until they give it a retina display.

 

[2IS]

It goes against what everyone says because it's simply not true... Sorry, but a weaker IGP pushing more pixels isn't going to have better graphics performance than a stronger one pushing less.

 

[JohnLA]

Thanks guys. I decided to wait a while anyway.

So. Applecare for $183? I think i might get the i5 and get Applecare instead of the i7 that I wouldn't notice.

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Oh yeah! I now realize that I would want to use the video editing and gaming+recording at the same time.

So I don't know that the rMBP could drive that. Intel 4000 graphics just don't sound like they would cut it. But would the Air actually be capable?

Thanks to all who helped! I normally love, love, love Apple. But I tried to put my fanboy-ism and geek-ism aside in order to make a smart decision on what is an expensive purchase.

 

[phillyfan9090]

wait for haswell.. you will want that extra power when you get to college

 

[jread]

It goes against what everyone says because it's simply not true... Sorry, but a weaker IGP pushing more pixels isn't going to have better graphics performance than a stronger one pushing less.

What you're forgetting is that the ULV processor in the MBA is also a lot weaker than the big boy processor in the rMBP. Despite the weaker IGP, the rMBP still outperforms the Haswell MBA.

 

[2IS]

What you're forgetting is that the ULV processor in the MBA is also a lot weaker than the big boy processor in the rMBP. Despite the weaker IGP, the rMBP still outperforms the Haswell MBA.

I'm not forgetting that, and in terms of graphics, no, it most certainly does not. Especially not with the pixels the rMBP has to push compared with the MBA. There's a very good, very simple reason why what you said goes against everything, and that's because it isn't true.

 

[jread]

I'm not forgetting that, and in terms of graphics, no, it most certainly does not. Especially not with the pixels the rMBP has to push compared with the MBA. There's a very good, very simple reason why what you said goes against everything, and that's because it isn't true.

Why? Because you said so?

I had both machines, and ran Starcraft 2 on both with the same settings, playing through a few hours of various games. The 13" rMBP performed smoother and better than the Haswell MBA. Both machines with the i7 upgrade and 8GB of RAM.

 

[vpro]

Pretty much...

They are pretty much the same computer. Just difference in price for the PRO and the Retina add on to the MacBook line. That's all. If you want prestige and status like the company wants to make you think you get when you dish out your life savings, then go with the latter. Happy shopping and good luck to you all.

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wait for haswell.. you will want that extra power when you get to college

This is exactly right because you'll only have power till you get to college when the company releases some more powerful treats. If you waited this long, what is an extra 4 more years? Right? Right, I thought so!