What to buy for a software dev.

[RootK]

Hey folks, I am very confused with what Apple laptop I want to buy... I know there's threads like that everywhere but I still cannot find a good reason why I should choose one laptop over another. Let me give you a little bit of a background. Until now I was using a 15.6" Dell laptop which is quite heavy (2.5kg) with a ****** screen resolution (1366x768). So coming from this hell any Apple laptop should be a sip of cold water in sahara lol. However, as it turned out the decision is not as obvious as I might have thought. Mainly I'm trying to choose between 11" MacBook Air (i7 8GB) or the 13" MacBook Pro /w Retina (128gb stock).
I will be using the laptop for iOS development so naturally I want to get the 13 rMBP, however usually I use an external monitor (24" 1080p) with my laptops anyway... The portability of the 11 inch mba is what making me lean towards it, however I don't know if the 13" is already portable enought (I will visit the nearest apple store soon to see the difference irl). So now I have a couple of optionas and I need to choose one of them.

1. 13" rMBP, 128gb stock
2. 11" MBA, 128gb
2.1. Should I go with the i7 8GB over the i5 8GB if the I only need processing power when I compile my XCode projects

I apologize if this question is a mess, this is pretty much what is happening in my head atm

 

[maflynn]

I think the 11" MBA is just too small - that's just me. The SSD is also very constrained as well. You may be tight on space fairly quickly.

I'd opt for the 13" rMBP, upgrade to 256GB of storage and don't worry about the i7, you'll not really notice a difference in performance over the i5

 

[RootK]

Thanks for the reply maflynn,
Well I will be using and external monitor and keyboard if I will go with the 11" mba, so the small form factor is not really an issue, actually it's the only thing that makes me wanna buy it. I am a student so I carry my laptop around quite a lot...

 

[maflynn]

Thanks for the reply maflynn,
Well I will be using and external monitor and keyboard if I will go with the 11" mba, so the small form factor is not really an issue, actually it's the only thing that makes me wanna buy it. I am a student so I carry my laptop around quite a lot...

I'm confused (its early and I've only had one coffee). You say the MBA will be hooked up to an external monitor and keyboard so the size is not factor then you go on to say that your student and will be carrying it around a lot so you want a small size.

In any case, if you like the small form factor go for the 11" MBA. One size doesn't fit all.

 

[kurzz]

I had a macbook air 11"for school. It was a huge pleasure to carry around a laptop so small and light! It's lighter than a textbook and smaller than my portfolio/notepad.

Keep in mind the screen is really small (vertically), so you'll be scrolling a lot. I, personally, would have opted for the 13" but if you real want something so small, you will love it.

 

[JohnPi314]

Hey folks, I am very confused with what Apple laptop I want to buy...

1. 13" rMBP, 128gb stock
2. 11" MBA, 128gb
2.1. Should I go with the i7 8GB over the i5 8GB if the I only need processing power when I compile my XCode projects

I apologize if this question is a mess, this is pretty much what is happening in my head atm

If I where you (which I'm not) I'd pick No. 1 for dev stuff. You need the extra screen space.