so i just recently got a 2011 macbook pro 15" anti-G, 2.3 ghz with 256 ssd, 8 gig ram. i saw the deal on ebay for the 11" macbook air 64 gig 2 gig ram version and grabbed it for $659 after ebay bucks and coupon, etc. Do you guys think it's worthwhile to keep it in addition to my 15" macbook or should i just sell it?
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just reflexively bought macbook air 11" should i keep it
- Thread starter Medravi
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It depends on what you need it for. If you travel a lot, and aren't paying off credit card debt on either it or the 15" Pro, it could be a decent notebook. OTOH, if you just bought it because you got such a great deal on it, it may be worth selling it. Now that the deal has ended, you can probably get $850 for it. It's brand new, and you'd be selling it for the price of a refurb.
IMO, the 15" Pro is huge, but it it works for you, I'd probably test the waters and try to sell it. The 15 Pro with the SSD will blow away the Air in terms of performance, if that means anything to you.
The 11" would be the perfect travel and on the go companion. $659 is a steal, but if you're content with your MBP, you can easily sell back the MBA for $850-900 on Craigs/eBay.
no debt. question though, is it really going to be a lot slower than the pro? some of the vids on youtube that i've seen show the macbook air is pretty on par with boot times and whatnot; maybe i haven't seen one comparing an SSD mb pro with a macbook air, can't remember now. i don't game much, mostly use it for powerpoint presentations, web surfing and photoshop. just don't wanna open the shrink wrap and be disappointed, and lose resale value as a result. maybe i should go to an apple store and check one out, now that i think about it. unless there's someone out there who has em both and has any thoughts? thanks for your opinions.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" i5 (late 2010) and my new 11" MacBook air w/ 2 gb of ram is FASTER for day to day use than the pro. I'm not a demanding user though. Programs like word and sites like YouTube run faster on my end... even with 2 gigs of ram. The major bottleneck on the Pros is the hard drive. Granted, the Pro would definitely be faster with an SSD versus the Air with an SSD. Still don't regret my decision to purchase an Air. I love my Air so much that I'm eventually (when I have some serious time) going to wipe my Pro and sell it. If you love your Pro simply sell the Air at a profit and if you're upset with the speed of the Pro upgrade the Pro to an SSD with the profit. Just my 2-cents. IMO you can't make the wrong decision either way! 
For web surfing and PowerPoint, you won't notice much difference. Photoshop is another story. Note that the 15" MacBook Pro is about as fast as a Mac Pro desktop. The SSD is just as fast in the 15" Pro as it is in the Air, and the CPU and GPU are far superior. Boot times will be about the same, but anything CPU intensive or GPU intensive will be faster on the Pro.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" i5 (late 2010) and my new 11" MacBook air w/ 2 gb of ram is FASTER for day to day use than the pro. I'm not a demanding user though. Programs like word and sites like YouTube run faster on my end... even with 2 gigs of ram. The major bottleneck on the Pros is the hard drive. Granted, the Pro would definitely be faster with an SSD versus the Air with an SSD. Still don't regret my decision to purchase an Air. I love my Air so much that I'm eventually (when I have some serious time) going to wipe my Pro and sell it. If you love your Pro simply sell the Air at a profit and if you're upset with the speed of the Pro upgrade the Pro to an SSD with the profit. Just my 2-cents. IMO you can't make the wrong decision either way!
ahh, you're the perfect person to ask. do you ever take em both with you when you travel, or just the 11" air? i don't know if that would be practical, and probably completely makes the point of even having the more portable one worthless. i just feel like i'd be missing the 15 working on the 11 when out of town. i feel like i've kinda become a bit of an apple addict the past few years (you're welcome stockholders
), buying the new macbook pro each year (have 3 so far), got the ipad 1 and 2, etc. maybe i should just get rid of the air...thanks again
also, how do you guys with the 64 gb model get by with that amount of space? do you use one of those elgato micro sd usb drives, an external usb HD, or something else? i know owc has some options to upgrade your ssd with their aura pro models but they seem kinda pricey and there doesn't seem to be an option between the 60 gb model and the 180 gb model which jumps to $499
I can't speak to that since I have the 128GB, 1.6GHz model. Actually, for me, my MacBook Air has been my only Mac (and home computer) for the past 3 years. I started with a Rev A Air (1.8GHz, 120GB HD). Later that year, I purchased the 1.86GHz Rev B with the 128GB SSD. Night and day. It was my first experience with an SSD, and even though it was a slow SSD, it was still faster than a hard drive. That said, since I use Windows, the 128GB drive was a bit tight, but adequate. When the Rev D came out, I originally went for the 13" Ultimate, but never really needed the extra storage space so I switched to the 11" Ultimate, which I like because of the portability.
If I didn't use Windows and stored all my photos and videos on an external drive, then I could barely make a 64GB Air work. However, as a second Mac I could certainly see how a base Air might be useful.
Keep it!
Man, my experience is that I personally get more creative work done on really small machines. I've owned big laptops that take awhile to boot up, and open things, and to shut down and you pretty much need to sit at a table to use them comfortably (why not just sit at your desk while at home?).
But my little netbook (yeah, pc, but I just ordered my first macbook air 13" tonight to compliment my iMac), anyway, my little netbook I was using EVERYWHERE. My couch, the back porch, bed, in a chair in the corner of my workplace, in my car, you name it. I wrote a novel on my netbook (eee 1000 9 hour battery life).
So I am looking forward to using my MBA 13 for everything else besides writing. This thing is going to be with me EVERYWHERE again. I plan to work on my photos, videos, music hobby, writing, web design, forum posts, emails, podcast and music listening, you name it, I'll be doing it.
That 11" is perfect for on the go creativity, I think you should keep it and just enjoy what you are fortunate enough to have! Who knows, you may end up falling in love with the MBA and sell both to get a 13" MBA ultimate or something. Here are the videos you were probably referring to regarding how the airs SSD beats out the pro (barely, but it still does win).
Enjoy the toys man.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/7/aQjwA0WeQv0
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/5/GmTC3spOdwE
Man, my experience is that I personally get more creative work done on really small machines. I've owned big laptops that take awhile to boot up, and open things, and to shut down and you pretty much need to sit at a table to use them comfortably (why not just sit at your desk while at home?).
But my little netbook (yeah, pc, but I just ordered my first macbook air 13" tonight to compliment my iMac), anyway, my little netbook I was using EVERYWHERE. My couch, the back porch, bed, in a chair in the corner of my workplace, in my car, you name it. I wrote a novel on my netbook (eee 1000 9 hour battery life).
So I am looking forward to using my MBA 13 for everything else besides writing. This thing is going to be with me EVERYWHERE again. I plan to work on my photos, videos, music hobby, writing, web design, forum posts, emails, podcast and music listening, you name it, I'll be doing it.
That 11" is perfect for on the go creativity, I think you should keep it and just enjoy what you are fortunate enough to have! Who knows, you may end up falling in love with the MBA and sell both to get a 13" MBA ultimate or something
. Here are the videos you were probably referring to regarding how the airs SSD beats out the pro (barely, but it still does win). Enjoy the toys man.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/7/aQjwA0WeQv0
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/5/GmTC3spOdwE
Read the original post more closely, though. The OP has a 15" MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and and SSD. So it will boot in about the same time as a MacBook Air.
Note that I agree on the size. Ever since I purchased my first MacBook Air 3 years ago, I knew from then on that I'd never buy any notebook for myself that's bigger. Sure, I still have my corporate-issue 5.5 lb "thin and light" Windows notebook, but hopefully Samsung's very serious 9 series causes a sea change on that side of the fence, too. While ultraportables have been around for a while, the MacBook Air was the first attempt to make them mainstream, and the late-2010 model was the first really successful one.
No, I don't carry my Pro and Air around. I see no need to carry both. I purchased the Air originally with the intention of simply using the machine as a secondary computer. The Air does everything I desire and more since I'm neither a gamer nor video/photo editor. I have the 11" 1.4 Ghz Air with 2 Gb RAM and 128 SSD. I could not imagine having the machine with an SSD 1/2 the size. The only dilemma I've run into is how to store my movies on the Air since the SSD is too small to store them all. I am either going to purchase a Dropbox, upgrade my MobileMe, or purchase a separate HD and partition it into a movie portion and back-up portion. Even though I have an SSD, I still want to back-up my data. My years of pictures are waaay too valuable to be lost. Honestly though, if you're not completely sold on the Air I'd sell it before opening it for highest return. I don't think it's reasonable to considering using an Air with a 64 Gb SSD as a main machine -- you will definitely still need your Pro. Again, just my 2 cents.
Man, my experience is that I personally get more creative work done on really small machines. I've owned big laptops that take awhile to boot up, and open things, and to shut down and you pretty much need to sit at a table to use them comfortably (why not just sit at your desk while at home?).
But my little netbook (yeah, pc, but I just ordered my first macbook air 13" tonight to compliment my iMac), anyway, my little netbook I was using EVERYWHERE. My couch, the back porch, bed, in a chair in the corner of my workplace, in my car, you name it. I wrote a novel on my netbook (eee 1000 9 hour battery life).
So I am looking forward to using my MBA 13 for everything else besides writing. This thing is going to be with me EVERYWHERE again. I plan to work on my photos, videos, music hobby, writing, web design, forum posts, emails, podcast and music listening, you name it, I'll be doing it.
That 11" is perfect for on the go creativity, I think you should keep it and just enjoy what you are fortunate enough to have! Who knows, you may end up falling in love with the MBA and sell both to get a 13" MBA ultimate or something
Enjoy the toys man.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/7/aQjwA0WeQv0
http://www.youtube.com/user/SamTheeGeek#p/search/5/GmTC3spOdwE
I like your post and agree completely. By the way you made great choice getting the 13".
Your points are what I think many overlook or miss when they're buying a computer or deciding on their set up.
The Air isn't about Sandy Bridge, power or upgrading components .. it's what it allows the user to do, literally "anywhere-anytime". It's so convenient, easy to bring along, use in any situation that's the magic of it. Especially good for creative people around the office, home or on the go .... have an idea, need to do some work, reply to emails whatever the Air is much more apt to be by your side compared to any MacBook Pro - that's the magic.
I get a LOT of emails in a day ... having the Air nearby always allows me to keep on top of everything ... by time I get to sitting at my desk at home or at the office a lot of my work is already done.
Heck, I designed a complete consumer product literally from my couch on a rebB MacBook Air, from concept through design, manufacturing, production, product manuals, quality control and all the programs and power needed to do them was 80% completed on an old MacBook Air, that's using Indesign, Illustrator, MS Pubiisher(cough), Word, Excel, Powerpoint, gmail, google docs, iphoto, imovie, Evernote, many programs open at once and it handled it. Not without some fan noise and a little heat and times, but those problems are fixed with the new MBA's. The latest MBA's handle my tasks flawlessly, night and day compared to my revB.
Watch when people walk into an Apple Store and browse the notebook display, so many people stop and look at the Air, they're wow'd by it, have to type on it, lift it ... then you hear the comments "yeah but not powerful enough, small HD, not enough ram etc ... many walk out with 13" MBP's, some 15"'s... often on false pretenses imo.
Since I'm in the MacBook Air forum I'll dare to say that many people who buy the 13" MBP would be better served by the 13" MBA. But they don't buy the Air for the wrong reasons. For most people's use the Air is more than enough for all their tasks. External HD's are very small and cheap, as is an external dvd ... I'm surprised by how many I know who insist they need a dvd player but never use it unless they're installing software which is also available to download online
Maybe some over think their needs, get caught up in future proofing and power, value for dollar ... yes the Air costs more but not that much compared to what it offers ... ease of use, freedom, efficiency, fun to use, fast, pleasure to carry, not limiting like an ipad/iphone ... it's too cool not to use and when you enjoy using something things go better.
My 2 cents.
To the OP - sell that 11" MBA, ram and hard drive are to limiting ... sell it for a profit and buy an ultimate 11 or 13" MBA ... then you're rocking!
Use Both
I have the 15 MBPro with a 256 SSD, an iPad 1 - 3g unlimited, and a MBAir 11 - 2gb 64gb. I use them all. Traveling for 1 overnight or less (day trip) I only take the iPad and the Air. I am a developer by trade so I use all 3 in a development mode.... capturing specs and requirements, drawwing prototypes, etc.
The 64gb on the Air is half full of programs. The data is on the *cloud* in DropBox. Works perfectly. I go *get* what I need from the cloud, then put it back when done. Only core programs on the Air natively. Works VERY well.
my 2 bits worth...
I have the 15 MBPro with a 256 SSD, an iPad 1 - 3g unlimited, and a MBAir 11 - 2gb 64gb. I use them all. Traveling for 1 overnight or less (day trip) I only take the iPad and the Air. I am a developer by trade so I use all 3 in a development mode.... capturing specs and requirements, drawwing prototypes, etc.
The 64gb on the Air is half full of programs. The data is on the *cloud* in DropBox. Works perfectly. I go *get* what I need from the cloud, then put it back when done. Only core programs on the Air natively. Works VERY well.
my 2 bits worth...
snip
The 64gb on the Air is half full of programs. The data is on the *cloud* in DropBox. Works perfectly. I go *get* what I need from the cloud, then put it back when done. Only core programs on the Air natively. Works VERY well.
my 2 bits worth...
+1 Dropbox with selective sync is perfect for this. I have iMacs at me home offices but when I travel (by air) the iPad and the 11" Air are my only companions. The 64GB is not a problem for Office and Acrobat Pro. I only wish my 10% off eBay coupon was still valid when I bought this deal.
Cheers,
OP: Sell the MBA! I personally don't think that 15" and 11" is a big enough difference to justify keeping it... If you had an iMac, then you should probably keep it, but since you have a great MBP I'd sell the MBA and max out your MBP with the profits.
My
$0.02.
My
$0.02.
Don't sell it, just give it to me!!!
No, jokes aside. The mbp 15" is just to heavy to haul around, unless you have a really dedicated need for th screen size and power. I had it and my next one was a 13". More than enough for me. The 13" dropped on concrete so I now ordered a MBA 13" ultimate but if I had the money I would go mbp 15 or 17" for home use and 11" 4gb for travel.
No, jokes aside. The mbp 15" is just to heavy to haul around, unless you have a really dedicated need for th screen size and power. I had it and my next one was a 13". More than enough for me. The 13" dropped on concrete so I now ordered a MBA 13" ultimate but if I had the money I would go mbp 15 or 17" for home use and 11" 4gb for travel.
Just a thought. I don't know how much actual work and content creation you do when you travel, but you could sell the 11" and just nab an iPad2. If you're just doing web and emails, that is even better portability wise than the 11", but of course you don't get a full OS and you lose flash. Could be an option.
I would NEVER give up an MBA for an iPad, even if I was just doing light web and emails, OS is too valuable for any daily routine tasks, imo.