Want to buy a MacBook

H

HugeNickName

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First off, Yes this is a duplicate account, and yes it will be disposed after this post (I don't like posting with duplicate accounts, it's to remain anonymous). I'm trying to remain anonymous for a reason. No, I'm not trolling, I'm being semi sort of serious.

Recently I decided that it is time to leave behind Windows, and go into the world of apple. I decided that the best thing to do will be to buy a MacBook. That is where the issues started.

What is better? A MacBook air, or MacBook Pro? I know a few years ago, a MacBook Pro was the Pro choice (excuse the terrible pun), but these days it isn't that easy anymore. Neither of the two can be upgraded.

I decided that the MacBook Air is a good idea. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that it is a bad idea.

Is the MBA a good choice?

Here is what I'll need it to Do:

Basic programming - Nothing too intense or heavy. (PHP, C# and Node.js and Java(Android) with a little JS, HTML and CSS from time to time, using atom and eclipse most possibly. Needs to be able to do GIT integration.)
Little video processing later on down the line. I want to start posing videos to Youtube, so it needs to be able to edit videos. I don't need it to do rendering.
Web browsing for hours - Chrome?
Little photo editing - Nothing too heavy.
Long battery life - With load shedding becoming part of our lives, this is a must.

Will the 4GB MBA 13" be a good choice for me? will it be under powered, or will it handle multiple tasks at once?

What is the best (Cheapest) place to buy a MacBook from?
 
SauRoNZA

SauRoNZA

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Personally I wouldn't buy an Air unless you spend 10 days a month on a plane.

It's only about half a kilogram lighter than the new Macbook Pro's while having a crapper screen (if you go Retina for MBP that is, which you should) and just doesn't have the same level of performance.

Battery life on the Air really isn't all that magical either. Yes it's a bit more, but fact is you've never had an Apple product before so getting 7 hours is already going to be pretty damn amazing to you.

You might also end up wanting to run some VM's...so 4GB RAM isn't going to cut it.

What is the best (Cheapest) place to buy a MacBook from?
Click to expand...

This is a terrible question and you are already missing the Apple point.

Pricing is pretty standardized so it won't change much from one place to another. I'm impartial to Digicape as a supplier, but then if you aren't in Cape Town that would be an issue.

Accept the high cost and go Retina. You won't look back and you'll be happy for five years...after those five years it will still work 100% fine and you can buy a new one and sell it off or pass it to someone.
 
D

Darko

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The Air will be underpowered if you want to do C#. You will need a windows VM, or if you just plan to boot to Windows straight away, it might be ok.

For the price of the 13" Air (R18 499), you can spend a bit more and get the 13" Pro Retina (R18 999).

The Pro has more RAM. Which you need. Battery life is negligible in this regard, but the Pro will be worse off because of the retina screen.

As far as Chrome goes, it's been proven that Chrome and OSX are a terrible match in terms of battery drain and resources, so I'd suggest using FF, or stick with Safari.
 
$m@Rt@$$

$m@Rt@$$

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SauRoNZA said:
Personally I wouldn't buy an Air unless you spend 10 days a month on a plane.

It's only about half a kilogram lighter than the new Macbook Pro's while having a crapper screen (if you go Retina for MBP that is, which you should) and just doesn't have the same level of performance.

Battery life on the Air really isn't all that magical either. Yes it's a bit more, but fact is you've never had an Apple product before so getting 7 hours is already going to be pretty damn amazing to you.

You might also end up wanting to run some VM's...so 4GB RAM isn't going to cut it.



This is a terrible question and you are already missing the Apple point.

Pricing is pretty standardized so it won't change much from one place to another. I'm impartial to Digicape as a supplier, but then if you aren't in Cape Town that would be an issue.

Accept the high cost and go Retina. You won't look back and you'll be happy for five years...after those five years it will still work 100% fine and you can buy a new one and sell it off or pass it to someone.
Click to expand...

Pretty much the best conclusion. Get a mid speced 13 rMBP. Chrome is shyte on OSX. I use Safari. The Air is a great portable machine and does have great capabilities but if you need raw CPU power and more than 4gigs of RAM you will have to go for the Pro. Remember the Airs use ULV processors.
 
DrJohnZoidberg

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$m@Rt@$$ said:
Pretty much the best conclusion. Get a mid speced 13 rMBP. Chrome is shyte on OSX. I use Safari. The Air is a great portable machine and does have great capabilities but if you need raw CPU power and more than 4gigs of RAM you will have to go for the Pro. Remember the Airs use ULV processors.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Don't use Chrome on a Mac unless you really have to. I only use Chrome for WhatsApp and use Safari for everything else.
 
DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

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SauRoNZA said:
This is what I would look at...

https://www.digicape.co.za/macbook-pro/macbookpro-13-mf839

Unfortunately 128GB SSD really isn't enough.

Problem is paying R3500 more to double the space is just ludicrous.

https://www.digicape.co.za/macbook-pro/macbookpro-13-mf840


I miss my machine so much...sniff.

https://www.digicape.co.za/macbook-pro/macbookpro-13-mf841
Click to expand...

I've had no issues with 128GB. Had an Air and now a Pro both with 128GB storage and never run into issues.
 
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Enigma_

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zippy said:
Apple hater ? :)
Click to expand...

Yes, there is probably a little hypocrisy in the mix.

If you're a c# dev, then stay with Windows, I don't understand the logic in choosing an OS that won't suit your needs, or running a Windows VM within a Mac if you're aim was to get away from Windows in the first place.

But to answer your question - Macbook Air should be fine, there isn't much of a difference between that and the base spec Macbook Pro, other than the screen resolution.
 
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zippy

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C# dev can't leave windows behind. Get a windows machine. If you want to do OSX or iOS, get a Mac. Stop getting caught up with this anti Windows, anti Apple bs. I do Oracle dev work and work on C++ apps for Windows and OSX. They are both good operating systems. You get good and bad apps for any OS.
 
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PostmanPot

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I think most of us can empathise with you, most of us hated Apple/Mac at some (usually earlier) stage in our lives, usually because we couldn't afford them and had never used them properly, or hadn't been exposed to them enough because fewer people are able to own them. I did for 90% of my life. Hope you let us know who you are one day! :)

Definitely the Pro over the Air, a small premium for double the performance and resolution. I would go minimum 256GB flash storage. Nothing wrong with older rMBPs either, if you can get them a fair bit cheaper.

Nothing wrong with second hand either, people tend to look after their Macs well. What's nice about buying new is that they depreciate by a fraction of what non Apple products depreciate. Always check battery cycle count when buying second hand.

Many of those unfamiliar to MacBooks would even mistake a Pro for an Air, they don't realise how slim the Pro actually is.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/689532-Buying-A-Mac-For-The-First-Time-For-App-Dev
 
J

Joker

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Basic programming - Nothing too intense or heavy. (PHP, C# and Node.js and Java(Android) with a little JS, HTML and CSS from time to time, using atom and eclipse most possibly. Needs to be able to do GIT integration.)
Click to expand...
Look at using SourceTree for GIT, and you can use either VirtualBox (free) or Parallels to create a Windows VM for C#.

Web browsing for hours - Chrome?
Click to expand...
I'm starting to hate chrome on Mac, huge resource and battery hog. However unlike Safari it's cross-compatible with my windows PC's so sticking with it.

Will the 4GB MBA 13" be a good choice for me? will it be under powered, or will it handle multiple tasks at once?
Click to expand...
Not if you want to run a virtual machine, in which case you'll want at least 8GB.
 
Hamster

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Joker said:
Look at using SourceTree for GIT, and you can use either VirtualBox (free) or Parallels to create a Windows VM for C#.
Click to expand...

SourceTree is very easy to use but stupidly slow at times. Personally - GitExtentions (not sure if there is a non-windows version for it).
 
J

Joker

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Hamster said:
SourceTree is very easy to use but stupidly slow at times. Personally - GitExtentions (not sure if there is a non-windows version for it).
Click to expand...

Yeah I use GitExtentions for windows too, but from the Mac clients I found SourceTree to be the better of the GUI bunch. When you say slow are you talking about pull/push times? I've noticed that too..
 
Hamster

Hamster

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Joker said:
Yeah I use GitExtentions for windows too, but from the Mac clients I found SourceTree to be the better of the GUI bunch. When you say slow are you talking about pull/push times? I've noticed that too..
Click to expand...
I'm talking slow when opening a large repo with a very big commit history.

You can always try SmartGit. Bit different but also good.
 
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