|
|
Post by Noza on Dec 14, 2012 10:02:11 GMT -5
Next month I am planning to purchase a MacBook, as my current laptop (not a Mac) is thin on the ground and I need something I can take in to my University lectures to type up notes with.
After doing some research their are three models within my price range; the new MacBook Air (£1000), the old MacBook Pro (£1000) and I could just about stretch to the new MacBook Pro (£1500) with the retina display. I am simply wondering what one is the best one for me to get. I am mainly looking at speed and portability (I know the Air is slimmer, but the new pro looks fairly portable as well), but something that won't be slow to play Football Manager. I would not be using it for any editing programmes. Any recommendations would be appreiciated.
|
|
Fleet Foxes
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 9, 2012 10:27:47 GMT -5
Posts: 1,117
|
Post by Fleet Foxes on Dec 14, 2012 10:40:55 GMT -5
You'd be fine with either model. The Air is of course thinner but some people feel that the 11'' screen (the base model) is too small, and they rather just get the pro than pay the same price for the 13'' air. The funny thing is, that the 13'' Air actually has a higher resolution than the base Pro model (you can get a higher resolution and antiglare for more money though of course). The Retina Display Macbook pro obviously has higher resolution than both of them and has a thinner profile compared to the Macbook pro because there is no optical drive; much like the Macbook Air. Not really sure if resolution matters that much to you, and whether or not you are willing to shell out that much money because of it.
The Air and Retina Display MBP both come with flash storage standard--this means your computer will boot up/shut down/sleep/wake and load up files much faster than with standard hard drives like the ones on the MBP. You can upgrade the MBP to have an SSD (same as flash storage) but be prepared to shell out a ton of money for that considering SSD/flash storage is relatively much more expensive than regular hard drives. the Macbook air does not have a lot of memory 64GB of flash storage (base model), the MBP will come with 500GB of the traditional hard drive, and the Retina will come with 128 GB of flash storage.
What a lot of people do these days if they really want an SSD, is just buy a MBP with the standard hard drive, buy a separate SSD and install it themselves--which is a lot cheaper than Apple doing it for you. You can not upgrade the memory on the MBA and the Retina MBP because Apple likes to be dicks and solder those to the motherboard.
The 13'' Retina Display MBP surprisingly does not have a Dedicated graphics card, and neither does the MBA. Dedicated graphics card is ideal for gaming (not that Mac's are ideal for gaming anyway). the MBP, however, does have a dedicated graphics card that's something to consider because your computer may not be able to handle intense graphics on some games with an integrated graphics card that the MBP w/ Retina and MBA have.
So the questions you have to ask yourself:
- What screen size do you want?
- Does resolution matter that much to you that you are willing to pay more money?
- Do you need an optical drive?
- SSD/Flash storage with less space? or HDD with more space?
- Dedicated graphics or integrated graphics?
|
|
|
|
Post by Cass on Dec 14, 2012 12:47:43 GMT -5
The main thing for me when I bought mine is, as soon as I was told Air doesn't have a disk drive. I was sold on getting a Pro.
|
|
|
|
Post by pxkgotosleep on Dec 14, 2012 12:49:51 GMT -5
I bought a Macbook Air 2 years ago. Love it, absolutely.
|
|
|
|
Post by Noza on Dec 14, 2012 12:52:12 GMT -5
Extremely helpful, thank you very much.
I am not worried about the graphics card, as my rubbish HP laptop can run Football Manager (the only game I actually play) fairly lag free as it is. I was looking at the 13" Air, which has the same flash storage as as the retina Pro (128GB). I'll only be using it to save Word/PowerPoint documents on, so that amount of memory is fine. Just a quick question; what is the difference between HDD and SSD? From the Apple site I have taken the specifications for the Air and the Pro (retina display):
Air:
1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz
4GB memory
128GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Pro (retina display:
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
128GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Built-in battery (7 hours)2
Now to me, it just seems like I would be paying £500 extra for a (admittedly, very good) screen, which I cannot really justify. Thanks for your help, once again.
|
|
|
|
Post by pxkgotosleep on Dec 14, 2012 12:54:04 GMT -5
The Pro is bigger. Love my Air. It's as big as 4 pieces of A4 paper.
|
|
Ramos
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 19, 2007 13:58:31 GMT -5
Posts: 2,264
|
Post by Ramos on Dec 14, 2012 16:09:22 GMT -5
I've got the 13inch pro without the Retina display. It's awesome for me since it has a disc drive & it's a hard drive rather than flash storage. Not a huge fan of Flash storage in general and the extra 400 odd Gig was a huge factor.
I'm assuming the Air has the same screen as this one only smaller, so I would say that it's pretty awesome. This screen is just under the resolution that HD gives so it's perfect for plugging into the tv to watch films/sports.
Since you were saying it's for Football Manager I'd say you probably need the Pro since there is no disc drive in the Air. One con with the Pro that you might notice with FM is that is you play for a prolonged period of time without a break (say 3 hours) it gets really hot, although this is an Apple issue so if anything goes wrong they have to sort it while it's still in warranty.
It basically comes down to your feelings on Flash memory against hard drives & if you could find a way to install FM without having the disc drive. Either way if you quite like Apple products you'll love a Macbook. It's so intuitive and basically the latest OS (only had this since Mountain Lion came out so I can't say whether earlier versions were) is awesome as it's basically the same as the OS on an iPhone or iPad.
|
|
|
|
Post by SodaGuy on Dec 14, 2012 16:55:40 GMT -5
Extremely helpful, thank you very much. I am not worried about the graphics card, as my rubbish HP laptop can run Football Manager (the only game I actually play) fairly lag free as it is. I was looking at the 13" Air, which has the same flash storage as as the retina Pro (128GB). I'll only be using it to save Word/PowerPoint documents on, so that amount of memory is fine. Just a quick question; what is the difference between HDD and SSD? From the Apple site I have taken the specifications for the Air and the Pro (retina display): Air: 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz 4GB memory 128GB flash storage1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Pro (retina display: 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz 8GB 1600MHz memory 128GB flash storage1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Built-in battery (7 hours)2 Now to me, it just seems like I would be paying £500 extra for a (admittedly, very good) screen, which I cannot really justify. Thanks for your help, once again. You'd also [by the specs] be getting a faster Mac with the MBP vs. the Air. |
|
Fleet Foxes
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 9, 2012 10:27:47 GMT -5
Posts: 1,117
|
Post by Fleet Foxes on Dec 14, 2012 19:08:57 GMT -5
Extremely helpful, thank you very much. I am not worried about the graphics card, as my rubbish HP laptop can run Football Manager (the only game I actually play) fairly lag free as it is. I was looking at the 13" Air, which has the same flash storage as as the retina Pro (128GB). I'll only be using it to save Word/PowerPoint documents on, so that amount of memory is fine. Just a quick question; what is the difference between HDD and SSD? From the Apple site I have taken the specifications for the Air and the Pro (retina display): Air: 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz 4GB memory 128GB flash storage1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Pro (retina display: 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz 8GB 1600MHz memory 128GB flash storage1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Built-in battery (7 hours)2 Now to me, it just seems like I would be paying £500 extra for a (admittedly, very good) screen, which I cannot really justify. Thanks for your help, once again. The pro with Retina display would be more powerful of course, but if all you're going to do is word processing/ very light gaming, and resolution is not that important to you, go with the air. As far as SSD vs HDD differences SSD's have no moving parts unlike HDD which means less chance of failure or breaking. SSD's can open files, boot up/sleep/wake/shut down much much faster than a computer with an HDD, also if you play games loading times will be significantly faster with an SSD. Here's a video comparison |
|
|
|
Post by Noza on Dec 17, 2012 10:00:06 GMT -5
Thanks very much everyone for your input.
Think after much deliberation, I'm gunna go with the Air. It does everything I need it to do, and I just cannot justify the extra £500 on the screen, and it being slightly faster.
|
|
