Pro or Air?

Gael23 · 12-04-2014 9:45am #1

I want to but a good laptop for once and I don't know which of these to go for.
I don't need any special features such as gaming, video editing or anything. Just a good Laptop that won't cause problems.
People I've spoken to me are telling me to go with the Air but anyone I know has the Pro whip hitch I really like the look of but I've been advised that the Pro is more portable for me as I travel a lot.
Anyone got any advice.

Stuxnet · 12-04-2014 12:51pm

Having owned both, if you don't need extra power etc, pointless getting a pro unless you've money to burn, it would be an expensive web browser. I have a 2013 i5 13" Air that does some heavy lifting for me, (virtualization testing) its ideal. So it is more then capable.

Sad Professor · 12-04-2014 2:11pm

I assume you mean the Retina MacBook Pro. The non-Retina Pro is next on Apple's chopping block.

If it were me and I were using it as a primary machine, I’d get the Retina Pro. The Air is more portable though and is probably good enough for most tasks. It’s due a redesign shortly, so you might want to consider waiting.

Gael23 · 12-04-2014 6:00pm

The Retina Pro is a little more then I want to spend. The shop inwas in.tried to sell it to me by saying a pro will last longer than the air.
Im.tempted to go for the Pro without retina although i know the air us probably adequate for me.

Dingle_berry · 12-04-2014 6:50pm

If you travel a lot and don't need a lot of computing power or to be able to do DIY hardware updates go for the air. It's significantly lighter, battery life is better (if you forget charger) and is a bit more compact (for fitting into luggage).

whiterebel · 12-04-2014 8:03pm

Do a search on here, its asked regularly and people have given loads of opinions on both.

maringo · 12-04-2014 9:47pm

Have a macbook air 4 or 5 years now. Never a problem with it and nice and light for travelling too. But might be worth your while waiting for the newer one to come out as previous poster suggested.

Nonoperational · 12-04-2014 11:56pm

Retina pro. Fantastic machine.

Gael23 · 13-04-2014 9:19am

Will do a search.
The girl in the shop said that you can get up to 10 years out of a Pro but a bit less than that from an Air. Is that true or was she just trying to sell me the more expensive machine?

Sad Professor · 13-04-2014 9:29am

ryanf1 wrote: »

Will do a search.
The girl in the shop said that you can get up to 10 years out of a Pro but a bit less than that from an Air. Is that true or was she just trying to sell me the more expensive machine?

She was talking nonsense. Either machine could fail after 4 years. Or could keep going for a lot longer. It’s luck. Either way, with no software support and limited if any upgradability, they’d both be totally antiquated after 10 years.

Colonel Panic · 13-04-2014 10:07am

5 years is a reasonable life span for a fully loaded Mac, I reckon.

Until recently, I would always recommend the 13" MBA over all else, but I've decided my next machine will be a 13" rMBP. I think they're at a point now where they're almost as thin, the batter lasts almost as long and they have a good bit more grunt than the Air.

Depends on your usage of course!

Nonoperational · 13-04-2014 5:01pm

Just to elaborate, I was in a similar position. I went for the retina Macbook pro, mainly for the screen. The screen is far higher resolution and is really really great to look at. The difference in price isn't huge, and the new retina pro is very compact and light. The air is also a considerably older model.

Both great machines, but by far the best bang for buck Mac laptop at the moment is the 13" retina Macbook air with 8GB of ram and a 256SSD.

Doylers · 13-04-2014 5:07pm

I have a 2013 Air with 8GB of ram. There great computers fantastic battery life and runs my VM fine although a bit more power would be great. Im planning on going to a retina in september to get a better screen but also I will get a bigger drive, the stock 120GB SSD is not big high enough imo.

If your going to be doing a fair amount of video work I would definitely go for the retina to save time in the long run waiting for exports.

Gael23 · 13-04-2014 5:24pm

No I will only be using it for general day to day things so need no special features.

Stuxnet · 13-04-2014 7:59pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

but by far the best bang for buck Mac laptop at the moment is the 13" retina Macbook air with 8GB of ram and a 256SSD.

There is no retina air model, typo perhaps

Gael23 · 13-04-2014 10:41pm

Is the 1.35ghz processor enough in the Air? My Packard bell has 2.00 ghz so that's a good drop.

Zcott · 13-04-2014 11:30pm

I don't think you'd notice it that much to be honest. It's more about disk speed and RAM.

Stuxnet · 13-04-2014 11:31pm

Read the performance section here of this review to understand while having a low looking clock speed, the mac air is far from slow.

Note integrated intel HD 5000 graphics,
faster I/O,
PCIe storage, ...the ssd is actually plugged hard into the motherboard, no cable bottleneck... the air is faster then the latest retina pro

All these make for a fast machine and allow the clock speed to run what appears to be low, all this gives super performance and very very long battery life.

Nonoperational · 13-04-2014 11:55pm

Stuxnet wrote: »

There is no retina air model, typo perhaps

:eek:

Indeed! The Retina Pro.

Stuxnet wrote: »

Read the performance section here of this review to understand while having a low looking clock speed, the mac air is far from slow.

Note integrated intel HD 5000 graphics,
faster I/O,
PCIe storage, ...the ssd is actually plugged hard into the motherboard, no cable bottleneck... the air is faster then the latest retina pro

All these make for a fast machine and allow the clock speed to run what appears to be low, all this gives super performance and very very long battery life.

How is the air faster than the latest retina pro?

5uspect · 14-04-2014 12:06am

ryanf1 wrote: »

Is the 1.35ghz processor enough in the Air? My Packard bell has 2.00 ghz so that's a good drop.

Clock speed alone is not a good measure of performance. FLOPS would be better as you're doing more with each clock cycle as the transistor count is higher and the architecture is more advanced.

Gael23 · 14-04-2014 5:48pm

Stuxnet wrote: »

Read the performance section here of this review to understand while having a low looking clock speed, the mac air is far from slow.

Note integrated intel HD 5000 graphics,
faster I/O,
PCIe storage, ...the ssd is actually plugged hard into the motherboard, no cable bottleneck... the air is faster then the latest retina pro

All these make for a fast machine and allow the clock speed to run what appears to be low, all this gives super performance and very very long battery life.

That review is very informative.
My gut feeling is that the 2013 Air is sufficient for me. I relay like the look of the Pro Retina but it's another €200 which I can't really see a point in spending.

Gael23 · 14-04-2014 10:35pm

Mr.S wrote: »

Then get the Air, Pro would be "wasted" on you!

That's what im thinking. I prefer the look of the Pro.but the Air suits me better.

Doylers · 15-04-2014 1:55pm

go air it will do you fine, if it does me for college work and running VM's it will do you just fine

Nonoperational · 16-04-2014 10:54pm

Go pro! The screen is worth €200! Buy it online using the education discount and save 8%...

Gael23 · 18-04-2014 4:56pm

Bought the Pro Retina! Only because I got the 10% education discount.

Sad Professor · 18-04-2014 4:59pm

Good choice.

banquo · 18-04-2014 11:58pm

Get the Pro. It's just a beautiful machine.

Nyum Nyum · 20-04-2014 11:36am

I just got a 15" Macbook Pro Retina last week and my word.....it is stunning.

Gael23 · 26-04-2014 8:56am

Got it yesterday. Mostly love it so far.
One thing I wasn't aware of is it has no ethernet port. Thats something I need so will have to buy a separate adapter

Losty Dublin · 28-04-2014 7:12pm

MBA are due a refresh tonight.

FourFourRED · 28-04-2014 7:19pm

Losty Dublin wrote: »

MBA are due a refresh tonight.

Rumoured not to be a significant upgrade though. Spec bump I guess. Would be far more interested in this supposed 12" retina version.

Gael23 · 28-04-2014 8:29pm

I really like it but using a non windows machine for the first time is a challenge. Had to spend €29 on an Ethernet port too.

Xpro · 28-04-2014 9:44pm

ryanf1 wrote: »

I really like it but using a non windows machine for the first time is a challenge. Had to spend €29 on an Ethernet port too.

Give it a while. Once you go mac you don't go back:D

They are fantastic machines tho, I'm very happy with mine.

5uspect · 29-04-2014 7:45am

ryanf1 wrote: »

I really like it but using a non windows machine for the first time is a challenge. Had to spend €29 on an Ethernet port too.

After getting famailar with all the gestures and nifty features like multiple desktops and the excellent window management going back to Windows will feel absolutely claustrophobic.

Pro or Air?

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