13 inch MacBook Air VS MacBook Pro

OnlyMessin

Hi I'm looking for a new laptop for college and I'm stuck between the 13 inch MacBook Air and the 13 inch MacBook Pro. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the Air or Pro, if there's any major pro/con that would steer you to/from one or other of them I would love to know.

Originally I was planning on getting the Air as it's a lot lighter etc. and I'll be using it for programming anywhere I can so mobility is a big factor for me. Recently though, I've questioned if mobility is important enough to disregard the higher specs on the Pro.

Any help is appreciated

5uspect

The Pro has an optical drive and you can upgrade the RAM/harddrive etc, making it more of a 'real' laptop. The Air is more of a single unit. All you can really swap out is the SSD. RAM is soldered to the logic board. Also the entry level Airs come with pretty tiny SSD capacities (64GB!) while the Pro starts at 500GB. I'm not sure about battery life, you'll have to check benchmarks, but I think the Air does a bit better. While you're looking at those benchmarks see how they benefit your computational needs.

I still prefer the Pro myself, however it seems the 13" Pro is becoming less and less appealing to everyone else as Apple improve on the Air with each iteration. So much so that there seems to be a retina version of the 13" Pro on the way. If travelled a lot, I would prefer the Air, however I don't find my 13" Pro to be much of a hindrance unless I'm carrying it with my camera gear.

Also I presume you're aware of the educational discount?

PogMoThoin

You should ask in the Mac forum, this one is for non Apple laptops

OnlyMessin

Hmmm seems I probably should go for the pro, seeing as I'll be doing computer science and a bit of hardware tinkering comes with the territory. The Pro is a relatively light and handy laptop all the same isn't it?

And yes I already knew about the discount, don't think I'd be able to afford it without it! Thanks for your help!

Sorry, didn't realise this was for non Apples, I didn't see anything about it in the charter

Brego

OnlyMessin wrote: »

Hmmm seems I probably should go for the pro, seeing as I'll be doing computer science and a bit of hardware tinkering comes with the territory. The Pro is a relatively light and handy laptop all the same isn't it?

And yes I already knew about the discount, don't think I'd be able to afford it without it! Thanks for your help!

Sorry, didn't realise this was for non Apples, I didn't see anything about it in the charter

Hey man, I'm in the EXACT same boat. Starting college in September doing Computer Science. I'm going for the Macbook Pro 13" i7/8GB/128GB SSD. ANYTHING will be an improvement from this 8 year old piece of ancient tech I'm typing on right now.

Make sure to tell us what your going to buy! I'm ordering mine this Friday!

Alanstrainor

OnlyMessin wrote: »

Hmmm seems I probably should go for the pro, seeing as I'll be doing computer science and a bit of hardware tinkering comes with the territory. The Pro is a relatively light and handy laptop all the same isn't it?

And yes I already knew about the discount, don't think I'd be able to afford it without it! Thanks for your help!

Sorry, didn't realise this was for non Apples, I didn't see anything about it in the charter

Seriously man...tinkering with the hardware in your Mac, or whatever you buy will not be part of the territory at all. If you're going to be carrying it around then the Air will suit your needs perfectly.

Computer science does not require a power house of a laptop. I'm using a 5 year old Dell for computing in DIT and it serves me perfectly, and has done for the last 3 years.

The Pro is still one hell of a laptop, and I would be torn between the two, but not for the reasons you state.

In short, if you want portable and light as possible then get the Air.

OnlyMessin

Brego wrote: »

this 8 year old piece of ancient tech I'm typing on right now

You're not lying when you say the EXACT same boat. I'm using a 7 year old dell inspiron which is sometimes just too narky to start up for me! Can't wait to get rid of this thing!

And Alanstrainor, It's not really that I'm looking for a powerhouse of a thing but I'm in dire need of a new laptop anyway and I already have an iPhone so going with a Mac is the best option for me for syncing across devices etc. I also think I'll be needing the extra bit of memory which is why I'm slightly leaning towards the pro atm.

BrianHenryIE

Get the 11" Air. If you have to ask which to get, then you don't need the more powerful one. If it helps, I'm starting UCD M.Sc. Computer Science. I'm using last year's Air and it happily runs IDEs and VMs without a hitch while having two browsers with 30-80 tabs open etc. etc. I had a 13" MacBook before this and they're too big. If you think screen size will bother you, buy an external monitor for your desk at home. I've the 23" Cinema Display and use the laptop without it most of the time. Get the 11" Air.

5uspect

Just curious, why would anyone need that many tabs open at one time? I've heard it mentioned elsewhere too but I could never understand why.

OnlyMessin

5uspect wrote: »

Just curious, why would anyone need that many tabs open at one time? I've heard it mentioned elsewhere too but I could never understand why.

Haha same here, more than 15 tabs and I go a bit mental to be honest.

BrianHenryIE

5uspect wrote: »

Just curious, why would anyone need that many tabs open at one time? I've heard it mentioned elsewhere too but I could never understand why.

Things I'm going to read later! 16 tabs in the current Window: Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, three forums, few articles to read, few pages of documentation I needed/might read further, list of modules in UCD, search results for a song and YouTube playing it; another Window with 13 tabs: mostly CodeIgniter documentation and then the page I'm working on; then another Window with 6 tabs of Google App Engine documentation to be read.

5uspect

That's a bit crazy. I prefer to use dedicated programs rather than over rely on a (potentially battery hogging) browser; Mail to manage Gmail etc, Adium (and now messages) for chat. Fortunately my main coding tool, Matlab, has a nice built in Documentation. Wouldn't you be better off with a Chromebook?!
Anyway carry on.

Back OT, the 13" Pro isn't a problem to carry around. It's not super light due to the metal construction but it's a solid durable machine.

BrianHenryIE

5uspect wrote: »

...Wouldn't you be better off with a Chromebook?!

Back OT, the 13" Pro isn't a problem to carry around. It's not super light due to the metal construction but it's a solid durable machine.

Also: FTP Client, Firefox for testing, XP VM (usually Win7), Komodo Edit (usually Eclipse), iTunes, Textedit, Terminal. Apache/MySQL running locally too.

Nobody has told the guy why a Pro would be worthwhile. My sister has the 13" Pro, it's enormous compared to the Air.

If you do go for the Pro, I want you to come back here in a few months, when you've experienced other people's Airs, and tell me I was right.

Get the 11" Air. 8GB RAM is excessive, but is an option.

brian.henry

brian.henry wrote: »

Also: FTP Client, Firefox for testing, XP VM (usually Win7), Komodo Edit (usually Eclipse), iTunes, Textedit, Terminal. Apache/MySQL running locally too.

Nobody has told the guy why a Pro would be worthwhile. My sister has the 13" Pro, it's enormous compared to the Air.

If you do go for the Pro, I want you to come back here in a few months, when you've experienced other people's Airs, and tell me I was right.

Get the 11" Air. 8GB RAM is excessive, but is an option.

if you can afford the 13" inch I'd go for that. A lot easier on your eyes and more keyboard space for typing.

BrianHenryIE

You get the same size keyboard from the 11-inch MacBook Air all the way up to the 17-inch MacBook Pro

anandtech.com

Brego

OnlyMessin wrote: »

You're not lying when you say the EXACT same boat. I'm using a 7 year old dell inspiron which is sometimes just too narky to start up for me! Can't wait to get rid of this thing!

And Alanstrainor, It's not really that I'm looking for a powerhouse of a thing but I'm in dire need of a new laptop anyway and I already have an iPhone so going with a Mac is the best option for me for syncing across devices etc. I also think I'll be needing the extra bit of memory which is why I'm slightly leaning towards the pro atm.

I have an iPhone 4s too, one of the reasons I'm looking forward to having a Mac as well! Messages and iCloud syncing (Safari, Notes, Reminders etc.) will be so unreal! Where abouts are you from? What college you going to?

OnlyMessin

brian.henry wrote: »

Nobody has told the guy

*girl

brian.henry wrote: »

Get the 11" Air.

Well, if I was going for the Air, I think I'd go for the 13" anyway for the display and battery life if nothing else. I definitely won't have any money to buy a separate display in the near future so I'll have to compromise!

Brego wrote: »

Where abouts are you from? What college you going to?

From Clare, heading to Trinity Computer Science and German to be exact. You?

Overheal

Whoever said they were doing a computer science course: go for a PC laptop. Much more useful learning tool in and of itself.

Brego

OnlyMessin wrote: »

From Clare, heading to Trinity Computer Science and German to be exact. You?

First girl I've come across doing CompSci! In Galway, GMIT Computing in Software Development!

Doylers

Look buy a pro there a bit more but you get more ram bigger hdd and other optional upgrades. A 15inch screen is a must imo anything smaller is annoying, weight wise look there light and you wont notice them in your bag now my old hp media laptop you would no its there I going back to do a computer course in september so I got myself a macbook pro retina 16gb ram 2.6 i7. Im going to run windows on parallels most of the time so I will have the best of both worlds and not have comparability issues. Oh plus the student discount was great I got all my upgrades for free basically.

brian.henry

brian.henry wrote: »

anandtech.com

screen is the main thing. 13inch is the minimum for doing any sort of prolonged work.