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Will the MacBook Air suit my needs?

A

Achtung(Baby)

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 4, 2011
33
0
Like many others on this forum, I am heading off to college this August. And as much as I want to wait for a Haswell rMBP, I just can't make it happen. So that leaves me with two options: the new 13" Macbook Air, or a refurb 13" rMBP.

Currently I am leaning heavily towards the MBA. I realize it lacks a retina display, but to me having the latest tech is more valuable. The only thing I am struggling with is whether or not the MBA will have adequate power for what I will be using it for. The model I am looking at is:

1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz
Intel HD Graphics 5000
8GB memory
256GB flash storage

I plan on using it for normal college tasks such as word processing, web browsing, movie watching, etc. I am an economics and political science major so I won't be required to run any demanding programs. I do however plan to run Parallels 8. I also dabble in photography so it has to be able to handle Photoshop CS6.

I personally don't have any experience with the air. So if someone who has one could share their experiences with me, it would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR Looking to buy a laptop for college, not sure a 2013 MBA with 8GB of ram will be adequate for my needs.
 
Or you could go for the current 15" Retina MacBook Pro.
It is on clearance sale at Best Buy — Only $1,259.99 vs. the regular price of $2,099.99.
Quite an offer.
 
I feel the MBA would be a great choice in your scenario. The retina display is obviously a gorgeous feature, but a Haswell Air would make more sense to me.

Considering what you want to do with it you'll be fine. Utilizing Dropbox, Evernote, etc... would work really well with an iPad, so I don't think that would be a bad decision to have both either.

Computing power will not be an issue (8gb of RAM will fly). MBA all the way.
 
Achtung(Baby) said:
Is it redundant to have an iPad and a Macbook Air?
Click to expand...

Different people will give you different answers. In my case, it sort of is. I could totally live without my iPad. There's almost nothing it can do that my MBA or iPhone can't. Are there certain times when it's nice having an iPad? Yes. But $499+ (or $329+ in the case of the mini) nice? Maybe not.
 
MBA has more than enough power for what you mentioned.

And if you were planning to get a laptop to bring to class with you, the MBA is preferable to the MBP because it's considerably lighter, and therefore much easier to lug around all day. My MBA goes everywhere with me...
 
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