Considering a MacBook

[sbridgey]

well my laptop is dieing the battery wont hold its charge and it randomly stops recieveing power from the a/c adapter. i use it for uni so i would get student discount on one.

I am not sure whether i should just get a £400 windows laptop

A macbook air

or a macbook pro 13"

I am leaning towards the MPB 13" at the moment

I want a laptop i can take to lectures use in lectures, in the periods between lectures and when i'm at home so battery life is very important but so is something that is useable, i am not spending £700~ on a laptop that i can barely use. So i like the idea of the MBA, but is it too small to be practical? is a windows PC adequate or is a MPB overpriced for what i need?

 

[Gavin.]

In a similar situation myself, Windows laptop is now getting on 6 years old and needs a replacement really. Looking at the costs though I am never going to be in the financial situation where I can afford to shell out that amount of money for a Laptop.
I'm swinging more towards the 15" 2.0ghz i7, Finance is a must in my case though.

 

[jenic]

Get a 13" MBA imo.

You need portability, so it makes sense. And you'll have a useful screen size too.

 

[Danny133]

Get a 11" MBA

 

[Gavin.]

I keep getting told that the screen is rubbish on the 13", is it really that bad?

 

[jenic]

I keep getting told that the screen is rubbish on the 13", is it really that bad?

Nah, the air screen is good, its the 13" pro people moan about as they use the older, lower res screen.

 

[Gavin.]

Sorry mate I meant the 13" MBP, im a noob to macs but im not spending another £*** on a Windows device. Is the 2011 MBP 13" screen ok?

 

[Ben]

I've got a MBP 13" and the screen is fine, if I could of afforded it I would of liked the 15" though.

 

[Danny133]

I had a 15" Laptop shitbook. Then a 13" MBP. Now i have a 11" MBA.

The MBA is the best machine i have ever owned.

 

[jenic]

Sorry mate I meant the 13" MBP, im a noob to macs but im not spending another £*** on a Windows device. Is the 2011 MBP 13" screen ok?

If you have never owned a better screen before you will love it, everyone used to wow at how good my 13" was.

Go to a store and have a look, then make your own mind up. I wouldn't get a 13" pro personally, the only reason for going 13" is for portability, why not go air?

 

[Gavin.]

Hmm... I dont know, I am a proper old school PC user and the idea of being able to put a bigger hard drive in if needed appeals to me. lol.

On that note do you actually have access to change anything like that on macs? I know they are not as accessible as other makes of laptop/desktops

 

[Fletcher]

I would also go for the 13" inch MBP.

 

[jenic]

Hmm... I dont know, I am a proper old school PC user and the idea of being able to put a bigger hard drive in if needed appeals to me. lol.

On that note do you actually have access to change anything like that on macs? I know they are not as accessible as other makes of laptop/desktops

Can be done, used to be easy pre-unibody, but its a little trickier now - http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Install...body-Early-2011-Hard-Drive-Replacement/5119/1

 

[Danny133]

you can change the SSD on the MBA ..

 

[jenic]

you can change the SSD on the MBA ..

Can you buy bigger drives (or is it chips :S) though?

 

[Gavin.]

I was under the impression from the apple website that it was chips not an ssd

EDIT: they are replaceable apparently,wont be cheap though

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-MacBook-Air-11-Inch-Model-A1370-Solid-State-Drive/4381/2

 

[Danny133]

Can you buy bigger drives (or is it chips :S) though?

User upgradeable - they are flash chips soldered to a board .. but the board is clip in clip out .. you can buy new ones online .. 30 seconds to change them

 

[wozzaa]

you can change the SSD on the MBA ..

Not as easily or as cheaply. Doesn't use a regular SSD drive. So only certain places sell them, they are more expensive than a normal drive as a result.

Closest thing I can compare it to would be something like a USB memory stick running via the PCI Express bus.

Ram is also soldered to the board on the MBA, so is not really user serviceable

 

[Millsy]

I've just today bought a MBA, can thoroughly recommend it tbh. the screen is far better and crisper than the horrible reflective one on the MBP.

Yes its not as user serviceable as the MBP but tbh the spec of this will be perfect for a couple of years, by which time I'll swap it out for the next gen. I wanted a machine I didn't have to keep messing about with, had enough of that with previous laptops and pc's. I love the way this thing is lightning fast with the SSD as well. my NAS drive is where all my other data is kept.

for ease of travel, sleekness, weight and beauty, I think the MBA wins hands down tbh. imo

 

[Gavin.]

Hmm, to now its a choice between a 13" MBP or a 13" MBA

 

[wozzaa]

I would say 13" MBA with the 256GB option if you can afford to spend the extra. Will work out cheaper than replacing the drive yourself in this case.

The i5 vs i7 upgrade. Not needed really, if you don't mind paying the extra then get it. But for basic work, word processing etc. It won't be that noticeable.

If you do upgrade you are getting on for 15" MBP prices and that is where you have to decide do you want the performance from the MBP (Which is a fair bit faster) or the Portability of the MBA.

 

[Danny133]

don't write off the 11" ..

I did and thought f**k that its going to be stupid.

Its actually not. Its the most portable your ever going to get with Apple .. its diddy and weighs f**k all .. BUT the screen is big enough to do everything .. i photoshop on here and its more than ample!

 

[sbridgey]

ahh, this is going to be a difficult decision then, a 13" air or pro. i like the speed of the pro and the HDD capacity but the ssd in the air and the lightness makes the decision so difficult. Does the air's ssd make up for the slower CPU? and is it really as useable as the pro. i think i am going to have to take a trip to an apple store some time soon to decide!

 

[sbridgey]

I also understand there is a MBP refresh due very soon so is it worth waiting for that then deciding?

 

[wozzaa]

As I said when I wrote about the refresh, it could be 4 or 5 months as intels new CPU has been delayed. So it could take a few months.

If you need it now, then buy now.

 

[Millsy]

Reading reviews for the last two weeks and then finally testing it out for myself yesterday at apple, when you're looking at 13" MBA vs MBP the only real difference is the user replaceable ram and HDD but as said you can change the SSD in the MBA, not as cheap as a standard 2.5" but its do-able.

personally i think the SSD makes up for the slightly lower processor power when compared to the MBP, watch enough youtube videos and you'll see the difference is quite noticeable.

it's a difficult decision, but you need to ask yourself what you would prefer.

get to your nearest Apple store and try them out?

 

[Spee]

Let me chuck another option in!

My main is a MBP 15". I think I've posted before, but I'm a little disappointed with it! My previous, a Unibody MacBook was/is/feels just as quick tbh. The air was on my list but the battery lets it down. The MBP was on my list, that's what I went for of course. I wouldn't say it was wasted money, it's a lovely thing of course and the extra screen real estate is brilliant for photo work etc, but the UMB handled most of my work just as well.

The battery on the UMB also lasted longer by some margin that the battery on this MBP!

Negatives on the Unibody MacBook? Not many. The screen is great, despite what other people may tell you but the body scratches easily and the edges of the screen bezel and main body are easily knocked/marked.

At the price though, a current Unibody MacBook is seriously good value. I'd go for one of them, spend a little on extra RAM and off you go. Food for thought!

Just a note! I AM an Apple fan, years of windows fails have pushed me that way. I've owned Macs now since 1998. However, I am not Apple blind, the first MBA was terrible, I sold mine withing weeks of buying it, luckily losing nothing as they were in demand. I have just thought of another down side to the unibody MacBooks, Pro and standard, they are a pain to type/mouse on! The keyboard is great (and backlit on the 15" MBP, the track pad is genius! However, prolonged use will find that sharp edge along the front of the machines digging into the sides of your hands, it gets annoying and ultimately painful after a while! For prolonged use, factor in a bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse (both brilliant btw!).

G

 

[jenic]

What MBP do you have?

I swapped my white MB for a 2010 MBP and was a little disappointed, luckily apple swapped it for a 2011 MBP when they messed up a repair and its such an upgrade speed wise now.

 

[Spee]

I have a 15" MBP 2.53 with 500GB HD and 8G RAM, bought new in June 2011. What died on yours to get it swapped?

 

[jenic]

I have a 15" MBP 2.53 with 500GB HD and 8G RAM, bought new in June 2011. What died on yours to get it swapped?

Went in for a new logic board, airport card, and right speaker. Came back with a crackly left speaker.

Said I was fed up of driving to Manchester so they decided to swap it. Yours is the i7 quad core sandy bridge like mine then, should be a huge improvement over your old c2d.

 

[Spee]

To be honest, I overstate my disappointment sometimes!

However, the one program I need it to perform well with (Aperture) it doesn't cope well with, and I've no idea why it struggles with it, the Unibody MacBook lapped it up! I now use the UMB with a 27" monitor for photo work. I may well ditch the MBP and get a 27" iMac and run around with the UMB and iPad. I do struggle with the fact that the UMB doesn't have an SD card slot though, unforgivable in this day and age!

 

[wozzaa]

The MBP should easily be outperforming the UMB in Aperture, might be worth reinstalling the OS. If you upgraded to Lion then you really want to do a proper fresh install of it. Stick it on a thumb drive. Back everything up and then wipe the drive and install it on a fresh drive.

Should basically be no comparison between them.

 

[JackD]

I was in exactly the same position! At uni so need it for lectures etc, I went for the 13'' MBA. Absolutely amazing! Only had it about 2 days but I'm really impressed with it! Still finding out all the shortcuts and useful bits n bobs as I'm new to mac!

 

[sbridgey]

now i'm tempted by an air, looks like whatever i buy will be good though as apple don't really make rubbish laptops as far as i can tell anyway

 

[Gavin.]

I think I'm going for a pro, looked at reviews on it seems to be the one for me.

 

[fletch8]

personally i wouldnt be paying twice the price for the same thing. yes i know a mac is better in every way, but imo unless you need those extras then youd be silly to pay twice the price.

but then again a car is a car and theres a massive difference between a nova and a rolls royce so ive blown my own argumeant away!

 

[gsums]

Not read any of this thread but 2 wees ago i bought a MacBook Pro 13'' and cant think about life without it definatley the best buy.

 

[Danny133]

MacBook Air!!!!

 

[Gavin.]

what has the air got over the pro though apart from portability?

 

[wozzaa]

In 13" better screen, SSD.

But the 13" with an SSD added later on will be faster. Just not as good a screen.