Please help me make a decision Air VS MB

[wetrix]

The macbook air is cooler, but the macbook is better value. I'd say go for a macbook with SSD if you're not going to be lugging it around much.

If you take your computer with you everyday, the Air is a no brainer.

There really is a difference in portability and it's much bigger than the difference in performance.

 

[Scottsdale]

The macbook air is cooler, but the macbook is better value. I'd say go for a macbook with SSD if you're not going to be lugging it around much.

If you take your computer with you everyday, the Air is a no brainer.

There really is a difference in portability and it's much bigger than the difference in performance.

True, for $1099 you can buy a refurbished MB. HOWEVER, the display differences are huge, and anyone who wants to use the Mac a lot, will LOVE the much nicer display on the MBA. If the displays were the same quality, then I would say you could make an argument for a MB.

I love my MBA, and I think for someone who wants quality, portability, and power who can afford it, should definitely buy the MBA with SSD.

 

[zen]

...excel 2008 is a DOG on the air, use office 2004 instead. my files have alot of charts and the airs slow hard drive just cant handle them....

Someone in another thread just pointed me here - I'm curious about this Office 2004 vs Office 2008 thing. Office 2008 is universal, Office 2004 is rosetta, and having just switched from 2004 to 2008 on my alu iMac, the difference in speed is light night and day. I should have switched to 2008 months ago, and I use MASSIVE Excel charts.

I'm not sure the HDD would be an issue for something like Excel?

 

[DocGo]

MB Air

I was having the same dilemma but in the end, I chose the MBA over the MB because I bring my laptop to work everyday. I have an older Macbook (circa 2007) that I leave at home as my "desktop". The MBA is a joy to use.

 

[The Grue]

Similar Questions

I'm also in the process of making such a decision. I was originally attracted to the Mac by the new 17" MBP, specifically by the low size / weight ratio and the long battery life. When I went in to the store to look at it, I saw and loved the MBA.

In terms of my profile, I'm a consulting exec who travels extensively (4-8 flights per week), and I'm looking to replace my work laptop and home machine with a single laptop, where I can run a virtual image of my Windows work PC to get access to Outlook, Visio & Project, client VPN software, etc., house my personal files and apps, and maybe play the occasional game (not into 1st person shooter games, so the integrated graphics on the MBA aren't the biggest deal)

I know I'm looking at the two extremes of Apple's offerings, but as I look at it, those two machines offer something not currently available from other manufacturers, namely the Air's unique form factor, and the MBP's power, screen, battery life, etc. in a < 7lb package.

I'm not that concerned with the storage on the Air. My current ThinkPad laptop only has a 60GB drive, and I'm still 15GB short of filling it, and that's without ever really having paid much attention to optimizing the disk space. Also, I'm using my Airport Extreme to host a 1TB drive for file storage, and plan to make that available over the Internet, so things like photos, old work files, etc. can just live there.

I'm also not that concerned about the limited ports, etc. on the Air. I rarely use my optical drive anyway, and I'm fine with carrying a small hub to run my USB peripherals.

My three real concerns on the Air are
1) Whether the 2GB RAM would prove to be too little to run VMWare Fusion for my Windows needs and the other apps I need. In my typical day, I usually have Outlook running all the time, plus several Word docs, Excel Files, and/ or PPT docs, open at the same time, plus a browser window or three.

2) Whether the MBA battery would be sufficient for my needs. My heaviest battery use comes when traveling, and I do fly coast to coast relatively often. With Wifi off on a plane, and the screen dimmed, what kind of battery life should I expect?

3) Whether the non-upgradability of the RAM would limit the useful life of the machine too much. As this is a personal purchase, I'd like it to last a while.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Deep_Thought]

Just a quick question regarding Outlook - have you tried Mail? I was a big Outlook user, tried Entourage (OSX Office equivalent) and in the end tried Mail and its by far the better app... There is also Excel, Word etc available natively on OSX.. The only time I use Windows now is for VPN and IE for our phone system configuration... I´m fairly sure 2GB would be fine for this - I´ve been doing so with my white MacBook for sometime now and that only has 2GB ram...

 

[The Grue]

Just a quick question regarding Outlook - have you tried Mail? I was a big Outlook user, tried Entourage (OSX Office equivalent) and in the end tried Mail and its by far the better app... There is also Excel, Word etc available natively on OSX.. The only time I use Windows now is for VPN and IE for our phone system configuration... I´m fairly sure 2GB would be fine for this - I´ve been doing so with my white MacBook for sometime now and that only has 2GB ram...

Phil,

Thanks for the advice. I figured I'd try some different options, but since I'm connecting to a corporate exchange server and we have some other apps (e.g. CRM linked to Outlook contacts) that utilize Exchange, I have a feeling I'm going to need to keep using it for my work email. I'm definately open to switching for personal.

 

[michael.lauden]

the MBA is.... so.... COOL.

i wish i had it!

i have a 1.66 Intel Core Duo (not a Core 2 Duo) in my mac mini and i don't think it's slow.

sure it may not be as spine tingling fast as my 2.0GHz - but 2.4GHz vs. 1.6GHz will yield a lot more differences.

i wouldn't be surprised if it was 40% faster overall


either way you can't go wrong buddy!

 

[Deep_Thought]

Phil,

Thanks for the advice. I figured I'd try some different options, but since I'm connecting to a corporate exchange server and we have some other apps (e.g. CRM linked to Outlook contacts) that utilize Exchange, I have a feeling I'm going to need to keep using it for my work email. I'm definately open to switching for personal.

Ah, Entourage does support Exchange but not sure about the CRM..

 

[The Grue]

Ah, Entourage does support Exchange but not sure about the CRM..

Yeah - there are some Outlook plugins that are used for the CRM thing that probably wouldn't work natively in Entourage.

What year is your Z3? We have a 2000 M Roadster.

 

[Deep_Thought]

Yeah - there are some Outlook plugins that are used for the CRM thing that probably wouldn't work natively in Entourage.

What year is your Z3? We have a 2000 M Roadster.

99 Facelift.. One day I´ll get an M, but I´ve got a hankering for the M Coupe at the moment!!!

 

[candeo]

OK, so I just received my macbook Air and 24" cinema display and I LOVE THEM.
The AIr is super fast and a joy to work with.

I do have an issue, though. I use the display in extended mode (as opposed to mirrored). I have some applications that I use for work on the display and safari on the laptop screen.
When I disconnect the Air, when I reconnect it, then the applications are not organized the way they were before I disconnected. Is that normal?

 

[mshaf]

4gb - I use a lot of applications (about 80) and at any given time I'm running 10-20 of them. That pushes a 2gb environment into swapping which slows things a lot with any storage option currently configured in a MBA (the HDD is painfully slow, and the write speed of the SSD is still not up to a 7200rpm HD). Using iFreemem I was able to live with 2gb but it cost me time and productivity monitoring and managing memory. People that use fewer applications at once or do not use a Virtual Machine could get by with 2gb without a noticeable performance impact, but it just depends what you are running when.

120/128gb - I travel away from home a lot so accessing some types of files remotely works just fine, but music and video and the sizes of pictures I deal with remote access performance is not good enough. At home via Airport Extreme its just fine but I don't spend much time at home.

Video encoding - ripping DVD's using Handbreak to iPhone format movies. Unusable on my RevA MBA. I imagine RevB would be a lot better but still nowhere near my MB or iMac

Hope this helps

Wow I just picked up a RevA refurb HDD and it breezes through movies when encoding with Handbrake... just don't understand why so many people had issues with the RevA.

 

[Miker2k]

Wow I just picked up a RevA refurb HDD and it breezes through movies when encoding with Handbrake... just don't understand why so many people had issues with the RevA.

Speculation is that something in the refurb process coupled with software updates has led to performance improvements on the Rev A. I believe 100% all of the horror stories I hear about the Rev A. These people have no reason to lie and there are alot of them. I just wonder if the Rev A refurbs are more of a Rev A take 2..... I love my refurb Rev A.

 

[Scottsdale]

OK, so I just received my macbook Air and 24" cinema display and I LOVE THEM.
The AIr is super fast and a joy to work with.

I do have an issue, though. I use the display in extended mode (as opposed to mirrored). I have some applications that I use for work on the display and safari on the laptop screen.
When I disconnect the Air, when I reconnect it, then the applications are not organized the way they were before I disconnected. Is that normal?

Congratulations. You made a wise choice.

I have same problem... when I have my apps open on the extended 24" display they all show there. However, when I use my MBA away from the external display, those apps I used ALWAYS open on the right side of the display with only like the left ten percent of the window showing on the right side of my MBA's native display. It is the ONLY annoying part. I have never taken the time to figure out why myself, maybe someone else will give us the simple answer here. Anyways, best wishes with the new setup, aren't they just beautiful and amazing together?

 

[Eyedn]

Congratulations, this thread is also swaying me towards the MBA SSD, i was really stuck between this and the MBP (seperate thread).

It's seems like a great machine and i hope you keep us posted on how its going, im certainly interested for one.

 

[steve31]

MB display is no where as good as the MBA. But either is a great choice!

 

[jklara]

I love my air

If you didn't have a desk top, then the air might not be for you but... I bought my air to be portable. I am a girl- not even 5' 1". I carried my girlfriend's 13" around and it was too heavy and too bulky. The air is really light [yes guys there is a difference] and it is super thin and fits in my oversized purse very nicely. I spent the extra money and put all my power in my desk top and kept to convenience in my lap top. Just my opinion- hope it helps.

 

[pyromaniaque]

Get the new Macbook Pro!! You can get a deal on it virtually anywhere online for $1699-1800.

Otherwise, honestly. Get the Macbook. The Air was a better screen when viewing at wierd angles, but head on, the Macbook is still a great machine.

With an SSD, the Macbook would tear any Air apart.