MacBook Pro or MacBook Air AGAIN!

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weelzSA

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So I know everyone is bored of this same question but here goes.

I was pretty set on getting the MacBook Pro with the knowing I can upgrade when I want ect. But today I had a chance to play with the Air again and now I am undecided. I know the best thing is to go for the Pro because of the processing power and future proof.

Basically I just want to know who out there uses the Air for the daily use in there job and how they fair with it? I will mainly use it for web design, some photoshop, some coding and the rest.

If I go for the Pro, I will replace the HDD with an SSD and maybe upgrade the ram.

Please could you give me your input.

Thanks.
 
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Love my Air. Loved my old Pro before that but it was getting on a bit... Have yet to find a shortcoming with the Air and my vote between the regular Pro and the Air would be the Air. Now, if you we're looking at the 13" Retina on the other hand...
 
greg0205 said:
Love my Air. Loved my old Pro before that but it was getting on a bit... Have yet to find a shortcoming with the Air and my vote between the regular Pro and the Air would be the Air. Now, if you we're looking at the 13" Retina on the other hand...
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Thanks for the reply. No unfortunately it will be the non retina Pro. What do you use yours for? I'm almost certain the work I do won't tire the Air out at all, my only problem is I can't upgrade it (well the SSD you can but at a price).
 
weelzSA said:
Thanks for the reply. No unfortunately it will be the non retina Pro. What do you use yours for? I'm almost certain the work I do won't tire the Air out at all, my only problem is I can't upgrade it (well the SSD you can but at a price).
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You can order them with 8gigs of RAM if you want, pricey 'tho. I use mine as my office machine, for graphics, for photo editing, occasional video editing and the rest of the usual suspects.
 
I have an Air, and I sold a 17" MBP and bought a 13" Air.

I sometimes regret it but then if it had been the other way around I would also have, that's just the way I function.

BUT, for my needs the Air is better, way more portable, the screen seems to be of a different finish to the pro, not quite gloss, not quite matte; I like this very much.

It's a 2011 one with an i7 processor, I run Photoshop perfectly fine. I can even edit video's using Final Cut Pro and it copes fine, the fan just runs higher than normal.

The only reason I would want a pro, given the option of an air and pro that are fairly equivalent eg. non retina, is for doing ALL my work on eg. as a main computer. I have a desktop at home which I use when I'm at home.

The Air performs it's function as a brilliant PORTABLE laptop, and excels at portability :P

Any more info I would be glad to spout forth
 
I will be suing the Air as my main work pc. My work involves web design (DrupL, Wordpress ect), coding, managing PC's and servers remotely (not more than two at a time), some photoshop and then the normal email and web browsing. So that's where my predicament comes in - I'm pretty sure the Air will handle the work load and the Pro defiantly will. Just not sure which one to go for. As I mentioned I have a 128GB SSD I will install in the Pro if I go for it. I will also connect it to a 24" monitor that will run a secondary display and only use it on its own when I go out to clients ect.

So you see my predicament?..
 
weelzSA said:
I will be suing the Air as my main work pc. My work involves web design (DrupL, Wordpress ect), coding, managing PC's and servers remotely (not more than two at a time), some photoshop and then the normal email and web browsing. So that's where my predicament comes in - I'm pretty sure the Air will handle the work load and the Pro defiantly will. Just not sure which one to go for. As I mentioned I have a 128GB SSD I will install in the Pro if I go for it. I will also connect it to a 24" monitor that will run a secondary display and only use it on its own when I go out to clients ect.

So you see my predicament?..
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Honestly, I will just spend the extra money and get a retina pro. It seems lika alot now, but it is totally worth it.
 
I am not being sarcastic or anything, I am just rying to look for a valid reason, but how do you come to buying A macbook, I mean the price, does it justify it,are you getting what you pay for, they just seem so over price imo.
 
Ry4n said:
Get the Mac Book Pro 13" with retina and SSD.
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There is no chance of getting the retina version - the price is too high in my opinion and what I do doesn't really require the extra price for the screen.
 
Saltex said:
FNB seems to have good deals on the macbooks.
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Yeah I saw FNB deals and I am leaning towards going with them and later on in a few months will make one big payment to pay it off - its easier that way as I don't have the funds right now to pay out right.
 
Saltex said:
I am not being sarcastic or anything, I am just rying to look for a valid reason, but how do you come to buying A macbook, I mean the price, does it justify it,are you getting what you pay for, they just seem so over price imo.
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That's a great question. Unfortunately the answer brings out the "yes but" replies for WinTel fanboys. And then an argument ensues. And then the point is lost. For me, it is a personal preference. My first mac was a Classic II (OS 7). At the same time Ihad a 486. That 486 was to be the last PC I would own for years. Classic was followed up by performa, G3, MacMini PPC, MacMini Intel and then current MBP. The classic worked from 94 to 2006, when I retired it. The Performa lasted from 98 to 2003, when it was given away - still in good working order. The G3 did 2002 to 2006, given away as well and to the best of my knowledge, still working (at least it was in 2009). The PPC Mini still works to this day and I can do just about anything on it I can do the the MBP. The Intel, sadly, had its power supply culled a few months back when cable thieves caused an arc and the resulting spike sent it to hell. The MacBookPro has been going without issue since 2010 - and I expect at least another 2 years out of it.

And now to your question: factoring the shelf life and the eternity of the software (anything I buy on the AppStore will be available for my next mac and the one thereafter and so forth, without activation) it makes more sense to me than a WinTel solution. OSX = R200. iWork = R600. So for R800, I get everything that a Win OS Pro version + Office with Outlook would provide for several thousand.

All without activation for use on as many macs as I have. I'll await the hailstorm from the haters.

(all this said and done, I have become more and more disillusioned with Apple's seeming scorn for 3rd world customers, but that is another debate. Next Mac will be Hackintosh...)

EDIT: Oh, for any fanboys of whatever nature taking offense to that word - none intended...
 
Saltex said:
I am not being sarcastic or anything, I am just rying to look for a valid reason
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I can think of one that stands out for me, the touchpad (in both OSX & Win).

Haven't found another make of laptop with one that comes remotely close to that of my Air. May sound trivial, but its the primary input mechanism for a laptop/ultrabook when on the move or untethered.
 
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I only use desktop, and and it's like when I look at those figure I just think with that money I could upgrade to another machine. I have never used OSx, I have an ipad which I have no use for, got it with fnb just for the sake of it. All I am looking for is the justification for that price, cause I mean if i look at that hardware it should retail at 8-9k for me to consider it.
 
I am using a MacBook Air 11" with i7, 8 GB RAM and 512GB SSD connected to an 27" monitor. Perfect combination of portability and power. Sure it's expensive, but considering what the equivalent Ultrabook would cost, it's not bad at all. Everything seems fast on this little beast ;)
 
Saltex said:
I am not being sarcastic or anything, I am just rying to look for a valid reason, but how do you come to buying A macbook, I mean the price, does it justify it,are you getting what you pay for, they just seem so over price imo.
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I bought mine to do ios dev. Now I only turn my windows PC in to play Warcraft. I prefer gaming on desktops. They are pricey, but I never regret buying it. Compared to the cheap wintel laptops I have owned, my MacBook Pro is many levels above them.

Chances are my next desktop is going to be a mac.

But, if I was staying in SA where Apple doesn't have a proper presence, and access to a decent App Store is problematic, then I would be far more reluctant to spend the extra cash :)
 
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