Given the fact that the MBA and MBP come so close in price at higher specs, it would probably be worth it to just compare the two at an Apple store. Personally I found the display on the 13" retina to be absolutely stunning--text, photos and all. Totally worth the extra money, and extra weight IMO. I love my MBA but no way in hell is it better or easier to read on at standard resolution. Not to my eyes anyway. Just ordered a MBP w/retina and I look forward to sharper text, better contrast and color accuracy.
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The first "Should I get a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air" thread
- Thread starter badlydrawnboy
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I think you're probably right. I need to go down to the Apple store and compare them firsthand.
Anyone know when stores will have the new Macbook Pros on display?
Anyone know when stores will have the new Macbook Pros on display?
I hadn't realized that either. Having not lived with a Retina and only seen it in the store I just assumed it was better overall, end of discussion.
However, I'd still personally be tempted to go Retina myself if I was in your shoes and the price was going to be the same for the specd rMBP and Air. Retina would be nice for Lightroom photo editing in particular.
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Don't forget, that's only if you're using the "best for retina" setting on the rMBP. Personally, if I had a 13" rMBP I'd always opt for the 1680 x 1050 setting to get more screen real estate. And you still have the added clarity of those extra pixels. I'd go for the MBP because of this.
Concerning this:
I'm not sure how well the 8/9/13 hours battery life claims work out. However I know that on my 2011 model with 7 hours "official" battery life I get 4-5 hours if I just work on it, and around 6-6:30 if I actively conserve power. If you really want to work for 8 hours without worrying about the battery, the 13'' Air might be better. (In terms of benchmarks, it might not be a bad idea to look at the "medium load" benchmarks for battery life).
As for the screen, I would say the Air screen is somewhat weaker than the classical MBP screen, but with better resolution.
Yeah, my 2011 gets only 4-5 hours tooif I'm lucky. But I've read that the MBA batteries really do last 11+ hours (for the i5). I will definitely wait until Annandtech or someone like that does a battery analysis of the new MBP before I buy it (if I choose to go in that direction).
I think I really need to see these screens again to decide. I'm heading to the Apple Store on Friday. They probably won't have the new MBPs, but the previous model has retina and that hasn't changed.
The baseline Airs still offer great value. They have better (and for very light usage much better) battery life, portability (weight), and screen brightness. The new price points of the 13" rMBPs do attempt to undercut the upgraded versions of the Air. I think that the baseline models of both the 11" and 13" Airs with upgraded RAM still offer compelling price points. Beyond that it's much more of a preference call between the form factor/portability and power/retina. And again as countless people have alluded to, it really depends on whether or not having a retina screen affects your computing experience. Many people don't seem to notice any difference at all, while for others like myself there is no going back. Personally, I think that the new mid-level 13" rMBP offers the best overall value between performance/portability between the two lines.
Thanks for pointing this out. I'll definitely pay attention to this when I go to the Apple Store.
Another data point..
Ars Technica is reporting 15+ hours of battery life on the Air with Mavericks (using a custom test):
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/18/
Ars Technica is reporting 15+ hours of battery life on the Air with Mavericks (using a custom test):
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/18/
Yes... but I hope real world usage and benchmarks show 10+. Apple is known to sometimes be conservative about their estimates. What got me worried was when in the keynote Craig said Mavericks gave the 2013 Macbook Air a full hour of additional battery life.
It would be scary if it was said to be 8 for the 15.. because of Mavericks' extra hour. And 9 for 13'' because of well, Haswell and Mavericks.
Surprisingly the article today showed that Craig was very conservative and the battery life was actually 3 hours more as opposed to 1 hour for the 2013 13'' Air. I hope this holds true for the new Retina Macbook Pros too.
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I have the same dilemma. I currently own a 2008 plastic MacBook so I'm in the market for a new laptop, especially since I'm stuck with Lion as the latest OS. Needless to say that any of the two (Air/rMBP) would be a sweet upgrade and a noticeable boost over what I currently have.
I was sure I was gonna get the Air, especially because I carry my laptop to work back and forth every day, so the fact that it is light would be a nice benefit. Moreover, the battery life means I don't have to get the charger along, as I do right now, which means even less weight and space in my bag.
However, I didn't expect the $200 price drop which in my eyes makes the rMBP rather appealing now. Just to be clear, I'm looking for a standard configuration on both machines, as I'm working in social media and marketing, I don't play games so I only use my laptop for Google Docs and office tasks, lots of browsing (my browser is constantly open and frequently holds 15 open tabs or more), intensive email, and watching movies and tv series online.
Will I need a Retina display for watching movies and tv series and will it be a real added value to browsing and reading and writing documents? I rarely, if ever, edit photos or videos and even when I do it, it is for minor adjustments, I don't even need Photoshop.
I also can't say that I travel a lot because I don't, but I do like to have my laptop with me all the time and not have to worry so much whether there's a place to plug it in when I go to a conference or a seminar.
It seems like there's a lot of arguments in favor of the Air, however, the fact that makes me consider the rMBP, besides the price drop, is the fact that I don't like to change machines that often (you probably noticed that, with my 2008 plastic MacBook), so I want a laptop that will last me another 4-5 years, if possible. I don't want to get the urge to resell it in one year or so for a newer model and it feels like the Retina might stop me from having that urge?
Aesthetics wise, I really enjoy the thinness of the Air (but do feel like the design has been around for a long time already) and I much rather prefer the aluminum grey bezel of the Air instead of the all black, glass bezel of the Pro.
What would you recommend?
I was sure I was gonna get the Air, especially because I carry my laptop to work back and forth every day, so the fact that it is light would be a nice benefit. Moreover, the battery life means I don't have to get the charger along, as I do right now, which means even less weight and space in my bag.
However, I didn't expect the $200 price drop which in my eyes makes the rMBP rather appealing now. Just to be clear, I'm looking for a standard configuration on both machines, as I'm working in social media and marketing, I don't play games so I only use my laptop for Google Docs and office tasks, lots of browsing (my browser is constantly open and frequently holds 15 open tabs or more), intensive email, and watching movies and tv series online.
Will I need a Retina display for watching movies and tv series and will it be a real added value to browsing and reading and writing documents? I rarely, if ever, edit photos or videos and even when I do it, it is for minor adjustments, I don't even need Photoshop.
I also can't say that I travel a lot because I don't, but I do like to have my laptop with me all the time and not have to worry so much whether there's a place to plug it in when I go to a conference or a seminar.
It seems like there's a lot of arguments in favor of the Air, however, the fact that makes me consider the rMBP, besides the price drop, is the fact that I don't like to change machines that often (you probably noticed that, with my 2008 plastic MacBook), so I want a laptop that will last me another 4-5 years, if possible. I don't want to get the urge to resell it in one year or so for a newer model and it feels like the Retina might stop me from having that urge?
Aesthetics wise, I really enjoy the thinness of the Air (but do feel like the design has been around for a long time already) and I much rather prefer the aluminum grey bezel of the Air instead of the all black, glass bezel of the Pro.
What would you recommend?
Same here. 13" MBA vs. 13" MBP.
I just did an in-store comparison (the MBP was an older model, the new ones havent arrived yet) and instantly fell in love with the Retina display. Holy *****!
Even non-native resolutions look great. 200 g more weight make no difference for me. Only caveat: I like typing in bed, and the thin palm rests of my current 11" MBA feel quite comfortable. Let's see if the MBP is wrist friendly enough.
I just ordered one. 2.6 GHz / 8 GB / 256 GB
I just did an in-store comparison (the MBP was an older model, the new ones havent arrived yet) and instantly fell in love with the Retina display. Holy *****!
Even non-native resolutions look great. 200 g more weight make no difference for me. Only caveat: I like typing in bed, and the thin palm rests of my current 11" MBA feel quite comfortable. Let's see if the MBP is wrist friendly enough.
I just ordered one. 2.6 GHz / 8 GB / 256 GB
I'm so curious to see if I have the same reaction tomorrow at the Apple Store. Will report here after I check them out in case it's helpful to anyone else.
Yes, please.
Will do the same, though I'm not sure when they'll be arriving in Amsterdam.
Showing my ignorance here. I'm sure this doesn't mean that the MBA screen resolution and the rMBP resolution (set at best for retina) are identical... but then, what does it mean exactly?
Also waiting for comparison MBA Air i7 vs rMBP, but then 13. Already saw that the Air is better in single core tasks and the Pro is better in multicore tasks.
But I will wait for amandtech (or other) will review the battery life. If the rMPB has 8 hours for light use, and Air has like 12+, I think I will go for the Air.
I dont need 12+ hours, but when I do more heavy stuff, the extra battery life is nice!
The quad core pro doubles the Air in the multi score scores. I wonder what I would feel in the real world--office applications, some photo work but no video.
Have to decide today. I want an Air but if the power is so different, then it'll outweigh portability and battery life.
I'm interested in the answer to this question too, because it closely matches what I'll be doing with the MBA/rMBP.
Showing my ignorance here. I'm sure this doesn't mean that the MBA screen resolution and the rMBP resolution (set at best for retina) are identical... but then, what does it mean exactly?
Well the screens are certainly not identical.
The perceived or virtual resolution of the MBP is 1280 x 800 and the MBA is 1440 x 900. So the MBA actually looks like it has more working pixels when you leave the MBP on default settings.
Since the MBP is ACTUALLY 2560 x 1600 then you can scale the MBP to appear to be 1680 x 1050, which is now more than the MBA. I hope I could clear this up at least somewhat...