MBP or Air when cost is the same.

Sean Quagmire

My dad was originally set on the air - 13'' (i5 and 128GB SSD) costing €1279

but the 13" mbp (i5 and 500 gb) is €1199.

I was thinking would he be better going with the mbp but I'd say the air is lightening fast and he would have enough space (just about) in that SSD. He is not a power user.

Is it an obvious choice?

Colonel Panic

Always the Air. Always. I'm a Macbook Pro owner because I needed more powerful graphics, high res screen and lots of RAM but the Air is suitable for 80% of what I do.

Plus a 13" Air has a higher resolution screen!

sarkozy

I doubt your dad wants to lug 1.5kg around with him for the sake of a few Euros. If it was my Dad asking the same question, my only concern would be the limited number of USB ports. With the Air, that's easily answered: my dad would only need one port for a printer and as he uses a mouse, just get a bluetooth mouse (the Magic Mouse is excellent). That'd be my two cents. But if you can upgrade the RAM now, I'd suggest doing that to 'future-proof' it.

Sad Professor

It depends on his needs. The Air is thin, light and fast, but it's also lacking in storage and processing power, in addition to having no optical drive and limited connectivity (no Eithernet, etc). None of which is likely to be an issue if it's going to be used primarily as a secondary machine. But if he's going to be using it as a primary machine then he might miss those things.

I have both, a 13-inch MBP, which I now use as a desktop, and a 11-inch Air. The Air is so much more portable, I could never go back to carrying a MBP around.

Sean Quagmire

The cons for the air are not a problem so I think that's the decision made.

He should have about 110gb of space left after Lion and the few essential apps.

Just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something. cheers

Colonel Panic

As an aside, I'm seriously thinking about getting an 11" Air as a compliment to my 15" Pro.

Sean Quagmire

...and I a cinema display for my 15" mbp.

don't tell my missus

Groinshot

Sad Professor wrote: »

but it's also lacking in storage and processing power,

Storage: yes,
Processing power, I completely disagree. an i5 is more than powerful enough to run anything that a non-power user would need, and even still, woulkd do most power users.

NullZer0

Air wins hands down for day to day tasks especially with the SSD.
Once you start doing anything CPU intensive (bottleneck), things change.