Trade MBP for New MBA???

[BlackMamba14]

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Sister going to college and needs large storage and apps. Is trading a 2009 15 MBP for new MBA sandy bridge. And would including an iPad 2 be more or less fair of a trade off?

 

[iStudentUK]

We don't know for sure what the new Air's specs will be. Plus 15" 2009 MBP is a bit vague- what spec?

 

[BlackMamba14]

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Just assuming that they will have new processors. MBP 4gb ram, 320 gb storage, 2.56 core duo

 

[iStudentUK]

Well lets assume the new Airs get a new processor then. There may be a RAM upgrade as well (2GB not enough).

Your MBP may be older, but it is still very good. Assuming she is doing normal student stuff (word processing, iTunes, web-browsing etc) it will do your sister very well. Plus it is upgradeable. The Air is a very different beast, with its own pros and cons. If you get the 11" it will be a big drop in screen size for you to adjust to, as well as things like no optical drive and no upgradeability.

However, if you are happy the new Air will meet your requirements it would be a fairly good swap- but what model would you be looking at? 11"/13", bigger storage etc? I know it's hard to tell before the update, but what are your thoughts?

 

[BlackMamba14]

I am still debating between the 11" and 13". Part of me wants the 11" due to the portability and size. I am not worried about the optical drive bc since I have had the MBP I have rarely if ever used the DVD drive. I'd probably get the 128 of storage with 4gb ram which may end up being the base model. May upgrade the storage. Is it more fair for both of us for me to give her the MBP or MBP with iPad 2. I'm not really sure how well MBP's keep their value

 

[iStudentUK]

Well I can understand wanting to be fair as it's your sister, all I've done is look on eBay.

2009 MBPs with your kind of spec seem to vary a lot depending on condition, AppleCare etc. However, a reasonable one seems to go at a similar price as the current 11" MBA. If you go for the 13" MBA you may want to sweeten the deal a bit.

Hopefuly you'll get some more opinions will arrive soon!