Macbook vs macbook pro vs macbook air

Speedster

Speedster

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Apart from the obvious (specs & price), are there any other factors to look at when choosing between these three?
 
Basically the Pro and Air are much nicer than the MacBook now, so try get one of them.

The aluminum looks way better. They have higher quality screens. The Pro also has a backlit keyboard. I have a Macbook Pro.
I'm really impressed by the new Airs though. I'd say try get one of those. The 13" Air has a 1440x900 display and a super-fast 128gb SSD built in! Very nice, if you can afford it.
 
I picked up one of the new Airs (13", 256GB) last weekend and am loving it - I am partial to the 13" form factor so was thinking 13" Macbook Pro (been using the 13" polycarbonate Macbooks in various iterations since they first came out and pre that the 12" Powerbooks) and basically very impulsively picked up the Air and cannot be happier.

My - up until a week ago - Macbook was the 2.4Ghz model with 4GB Ram and I installed a 128GB OCZ SSD in it, so it was pretty much as quick as that machine was ever going to be (which is faster by a long mile than the standard machine) and even though the Air only has a 1.86Ghz CPU and 2GB Ram I can honestly not tell the difference in perfomance. The Air's as snappy as the MacBook ever was, the new higher res screen is awesome with the added 'real estate' those extra pixels give making a real difference and the thin size of the machine combined with the solidity of the aluminium case makes it perfect.

I do have to disclose though that I also have a Mac Mini Server for the 'heavy lifting' so I only use the Air / MacBook for email, office, web, iLife etc.
 
redcliff said:
I picked up one of the new Airs (13", 256GB) last weekend and am loving it - I am partial to the 13" form factor so was thinking 13" Macbook Pro (been using the 13" polycarbonate Macbooks in various iterations since they first came out and pre that the 12" Powerbooks) and basically very impulsively picked up the Air and cannot be happier.

My - up until a week ago - Macbook was the 2.4Ghz model with 4GB Ram and I installed a 128GB OCZ SSD in it, so it was pretty much as quick as that machine was ever going to be (which is faster by a long mile than the standard machine) and even though the Air only has a 1.86Ghz CPU and 2GB Ram I can honestly not tell the difference in perfomance.
Click to expand...

what did you do with the 'old' mac?
 
Ok, so I popped over to the iStore over the weekend and looked at the different options. I've narrowed it down to either the 13" MacBook Air (128GB) or 13" MacBook Pro (2.4Ghz). The Air is R500 more. Which one to take?
 
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Air. It's way faster with an SSD, has higher resolution screen, is thinner and lighter, with just as good powerful graphics and battery life.

If you need an optical drive, you can get an external.
 
Synaesthesia said:
Air. It's way faster with an SSD, has higher resolution screen, is thinner and lighter, with just as good powerful graphics and battery life.

If you need an optical drive, you can get an external.
Click to expand...

Is their a big difference in the processing speed? The Air has the SSD, but the MacBook Pro has a much faster CPU.
 
Speedster said:
Ok, so I popped over to the iStore over the weekend and looked at the different options. I've narrowed it down to either the 13" MacBook Air (128GB) or 13" MacBook Pro (2.4Ghz). The Air is R500 more. Which one to take?
Click to expand...
What are your needs?

For me only having 128gb of storage, not matter how blazingly fast, would cripple me and there's no FW800. Until memory sticks come down in to price to the same level as a DVD I'm going to still need a writer and having to carry an external sort of defeats the purpose. I can always put in a SSD into my current 13" when they become affordable.

I've suggested to my mother that she gets the 11" because she doesn't need any of those things I mentioned and the smaller form factor is a big plus over a 13". She also doesnt really need a fast cpu (which the airs dont seem to have anyway).
 
Speedster said:
Ok, so I popped over to the iStore over the weekend and looked at the different options. I've narrowed it down to either the 13" MacBook Air (128GB) or 13" MacBook Pro (2.4Ghz). The Air is R500 more. Which one to take?
Click to expand...

13" MacBook Pro
 
bwana said:
What are your needs?

For me only having 128gb of storage, not matter how blazingly fast, would cripple me and there's no FW800. Until memory sticks come down in to price to the same level as a DVD I'm going to still need a writer and having to carry an external sort of defeats the purpose. I can always put in a SSD into my current 13" when they become affordable.

I've suggested to my mother that she gets the 11" because she doesn't need any of those things I mentioned and the smaller form factor is a big plus over a 13". She also doesnt really need a fast cpu (which the airs dont seem to have anyway).
Click to expand...

128GB should be plenty for me. I was thinking about getting an external HDD for home which my wife and I can use as a backup and long term storage drive. The 11" is really nice size wise, I'm just concerned that the CPU is a bit light.
 
Speedster said:
128GB should be plenty for me. I was thinking about getting an external HDD for home which my wife and I can use as a backup and long term storage drive. The 11" is really nice size wise, I'm just concerned that the CPU is a bit light.
Click to expand...
It is but it depends on what you're planning to do with it. I do heavy photo editing and that's a bit of a chore on the 13" MBP but the size won out at the end of the day - otherwise I would have got the 15".

If you're not going to be doing much heavy lifting then the cpus in the airs could be more than adequate.
 
Speedster said:
Is their a big difference in the processing speed? The Air has the SSD, but the MacBook Pro has a much faster CPU.
Click to expand...
The SSD beats the faster CPU most of the time. Seriously, go try both in the store, I bet the Air with the SSD will be much faster overall.
 
Here... linky...

As said by me before... the soldered-on RAM, soldered-on SSD hard drive and soldered-on battery are deal-breakers for the AIR.

No upgrade ever.

You buy it, and that is all it can be... if RAM fails, whole machine goes in. If SSD fails, whole machine goes in... etc. Expensive when out of warranty to remove soldered mainboard components for repair... and apparently, there are issues with the Air's graphics / display....

Mac Book Pro 13" = yumm.
 
bwana said:
It is but it depends on what you're planning to do with it. I do heavy photo editing and that's a bit of a chore on the 13" MBP but the size won out at the end of the day - otherwise I would have got the 15".

If you're not going to be doing much heavy lifting then the cpus in the airs could be more than adequate.
Click to expand...

I see you can bump the 11" up to 1.6Ghz and the 13" to 2.13Ghz. Is this worth the effort?

Also, is it worth upgrading to 4GB RAM?
 
That is a very personal decision - what suits one does not suit everyone. If I had to decide between the two, I would take the MacBook Pro any day - but hey, that's me.
 
Macbook Pro dude, if cash is not a problem - look at the 15" i5 or the 17" i7 :) - dual graphics etc.. perfect..

But of course, depends on what you want the Macbook for.. if casual browsing, iTunes etc.. i would say the Air
If you want a bit more.. the PRO..
 
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