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MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro (1 Viewer)

Clinton McClure

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My wife is going back to school this fall to get her LPN license. Right now, she has a late 2011 15" MacBook Pro with an i7 processor. She likes it but often complains that it's too big and she wishes she had bought a 13" like mine instead. She's by no means a super user and her Pro is mostly used for Facebook and YouTube. I'm having some serious thoughts about getting her a 13" 2014 MacBook Air and selling her Pro. I can use my Best Buy card and pick up a 2014 13" Air with a 256GB HDD for $1100 at 18mos no interest.I'm sure there are some Air owners here at HTF who could give me their thoughts on an Air vs a Pro.Also, I might add that I would be installing Parallels and Win7 because I'm sure she'll get some software from the university for her computer labs which will be Windows only.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Clinton,

I cannot talk specifically talk about the Macbook Pro vs. Air, but
your wife and I are in similar situations.

I also own the late 2011 15" i7 Retina Macbook Pro.

I also feel despite the immense slimming down the MBP has gone
through, it's still rather heavy to carry around.

I have been looking to downsize to a 13" screen. Had one been
announced at WWDC in June, I would probably now own one.

For me, the only cons I see is that one, they still don't have a
Retina version available. That is a big factor for me, and worth
holding out for.

Secondly, it is a decrease in overall power, though perhaps not
one that would easily be recognized. For most browsing and email
usage the loss would be negligible. For someone like myself who takes
my laptop out in the field and does camcorder encoding and editing, I
might notice a bit of a lag.

Still, don't think I am still not contemplating jumping on an Air eventually.
I just think I need to be more patient for Apple to announce the next big
upgrade in the AIR product line.

For you, however, I don't see why now wouldn't be a good time to jump.
 

Clinton McClure

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Her Pro isn't the retina version and she doesn't do anything graphics or processor intensive. I wish there was a retina version available now but it's not a show-stopper for her. I think the part she would really appreciate is a 3 pound laptop vs a 5 pound one and the quick boot times.
 

schan1269

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Dumb question...Why not buy a cheap 7 13" now as a school computer and leave the Pro for home?Unless a 2yo Apple still has resale.Then you can wait for new/improved...
 

Clinton McClure

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A 2 year old Apple still has crazy resale value. Her 2011 is the model with a discrete video card and a 2.4GHz i7 processor. It's also one of the last models where the RAM isn't soldered to the motherboard and can be upgraded to 16GB without sending it back to apple. Gazelle.com alone will pay almost $600 for it. The original MSRP on it was close to $2000 but we got it new for $500 from her sister who ended up with two of them for college (part of her tuition package) and sold us the 2nd one. If I wish to take my time and sell it locally, I can probably get closer to $800 for it. If she gets a MB Air, neither of us will have a need for the 15" Pro. I have a 13" Pro for work/home and the 15" would sit in a box in the closet doing no one any good. As for buying a cheap 13" Windows 7 machine.... You get what you pay for and I would rather spend $1000+ on a quality Apple machine which has a long life and keeps its resale value in case she wants to upgrade again in a couple years.
 

schan1269

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Hey now, HP makes good stuff. Granted since i used to do wholesale, i know how to get deals.I went small this time as well. My last 4 laptops have all been 17" or bigger(mainly so i could have a full keyboard and numeric).This time I went with 15(lost the numeric). I'm 6'2" and lanky(35" arms, 36" leg). Our Mac came with that stupidly small bluetooth keyboard. Replaced it with a fullsize with extra USB.Anyway this NIB HP only cost me $275. $120 less than Amazon.
 

Sam Posten

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As a former owner of a 17" MBP nobody is more surprised than me when I tell you: My 2012 era 13" Macbook Air is the best portable computer I have ever used. I can't wait for the 'real' refresh, I will be on board day 1.
 

Tim Glover

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What about waiting for the rumored iPad Pro? That's what am hoping for. I have a new 15 MBP -retina and love it but hate having to haul it to work and home. Just not a fan of the smaller current iPads...
 

Sam Posten

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I have purchased every non trivial update to the iPad and Gazelled off the prior one for roughly 60%+ of what I paid, or more. I do not expect this year to be an exception. I will buy the new iPad as soon as it is for sale, with LTE and as much storage as it can hold.I'm not a one or the other kind of user. I use both. If I had to choose I'd go with the laptop but my heart wouldn't be in it.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Sam,

You know I am in for the iPad, too.

Would definitely look to sell it as soon as the Apple conference date is announced.

The closer you get to the actual Apple product announcement the lower the Gazelle price
will go on current iPads.

Let's just say I am not waiting for the last minute to sell my old iPad.
 

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My mom has been using DOS and Windows for 30 yrs. she still laments the loss of WordStar. She dislikes technological change. She bought a 13" Air last week. It has been agony. But, like the Black Knight says, she'll get better. Im sure this helps no one here at all. I just need to share my pain... ;)
 

Clinton McClure

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I ended up getting her the 13" MBA with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD. It should be more than adequate for school and home use. My impression so far: Freakin' fantastic! I love the super fast performance of the SSD. It makes me want to replace the mechanical HDD in my MBP with a SSD. Oh yeah, she likes it too, mostly because it's really lightweight.Now I'm waiting for Gazelle to email me a shipping label for her 15" MBP and what they give me should cover half the cost of this.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Clinton,

Congrats on your purchase!

Yes, experiencing SDD for the first time is something extraordinary.

I am hearing 12" retina Air for October, so I will probably pick one up myself then.
 

Clinton McClure

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Ron - My wife's first laptop was a 10" HP netbook with an SSD which was painfully slow and unreliable. SSD was in its infancy then and I was turned off by the technology and figured it would never surpass 7200 or 10,000 RPM HDDs for performance and reliability. How wrong I was. I'm thinking in the spring (maybe sooner) I'll be picking up a Samsung Evo or Pro SSD for my MBP.
 

DaveF

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Current SDD pcs are a sea-change. My wife's iMac has the fusion drive, which splits the difference between SSD and conventional hard drive, and it's great. These Airs are pretty interesting. Glad your wife likes it and finds it a good purchase.
 

Clinton McClure

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Dave,

A friend of mine created a fusion drive setup in his 2010 (I think) MacBook Pro and really liked it. I think he was booting from a 128GB SSD and had a 500 or 750GB HDD for data storage.
 

DaveF

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I've read about how that's done. It's a neat hack for the motivated (and well backed-up, since it's not supported and might be bit risky :) )

My mom has the new MBA. For all her grumbling, I think she'll appreciate the light weight and lengthy battery life.
 

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