Upgrading from mid-2011 13-inch MBA to late 2013 13-inch MBP worth it?

[shockedlattice]

I bought a 13" mid-2011 MBA for school when it first came out. Now that I'm in grad school I'm finding I truly hate Microsoft Office 2011 so I've been running Parallels 10 with Windows 8.1 for things like Endnote, Office, Quicken, etc.

However lately my MBA is struggling to keep up. I have a chance to buy the late 2013 13-inch MBP with i5, 8gb ram, and 256 ssd for $900. Is the retina, extra cpu and ram, and usb 3 worth this?

Thanks!

 

[Kendo]

MS Office for Mac 2016 should be coming out in a few months. Perhaps this will be a cheaper alternative than buying a new computer? I'd personally go that route and save the money to buy a kickass Skylake MBP next year.

 

[shockedlattice]

Thanks Kendo. You make a good point. After using both Office for Mac 2008 and 2011 I guess I don't put too much faith in Microsoft developing an equal counterpart to their Windows software.

I should probably rephrase my question. If I buy the rMBP I'm hoping to sell my MBA for $400-500 afterwards. Is the late 2013 13-inch rMBP worth $900 today? I've been trying to keep up with the updates Apple makes to the line, and besides CPU and force touchpad I don't see major changes in the last 2 years.

 

[Kendo]

The 2013 and 2014 models are the exact same except for a 0.2 GHz bump in CPU speed. They share the same graphics card.

The 2014 and 2015 models are almost the exact same. The 2015 has a 0.1 GHz bump and the graphics card is a little faster.

So basically the 2013 and 2015 are relatively similar performance wise but the 2015 does have the Force Touch Trackpad and 1 extra hour battery life.

 

[flur]

After using both Office for Mac 2008 and 2011 I guess I don't put too much faith in Microsoft developing an equal counterpart to their Windows software.

The preview version of Office 2016 for Mac is available for free download and is extremely similar (feels almost identical to me) to Office 2013 for Windows. Since it's free, you might want to give it a shot.