should i trade my MBP for a MBA??

[King t.]

hi,

I wanted to ask you guys if it is a wise decision trading my MBP for a MBA.

these are the specs:

MBP 2.16ghz core 2 duo
120gb hd
2gb ram
ati x1600 128mb

for a

MBA 1.6ghz core 2 duo
2gb ram
80gb hd


the reason why i'm thinking of trading is because I don't really use or need the ATI x1600 since i do not play games on my MBP, for that I have a PS3.

My main tasks are websurfing, mail, itunes, iphoto, adium, ical, skype, ichat, iwork and vmware for windows.
sometimes but not so often I use aperture, photoshop CS3 & idvd & Imovie.

will the MBA be able to hold up with the tasks i do?

 

[carichard]

The Air is up to the job...

I've always had the top of the line Mac laptop since its inception in the '90's. In February, I bought an Air just to use for travelling.

The interesting result is that 6 months later I find myself using the Air 95% of the time and the 17" MacBook Pro so rarely that I'm thinking I should sell it.

The Air is never going to be as fast as whatever Apple puts at the top of their laptop line, but for us non-scientists using typical software the speed difference is minimal.

The biggest sacrifice was going down from all that hard drive space to the 64GB solid state drive. But, I worked out a server situation where I can access my additional data via the internet on those occasions when I need it.

I daily use microsoft office, vmware fusion, even processor intensive CAD software, and most Apple software.

 

[iwuzbord]

hmmm.
the difference in processor speeds will be a shocker.
vmware might not work as well on the air.
but then you are getting a smaller laptop, which is better suited for websurfing and such. i want to say go in the middle and get a macbook
ps and aperture may not work as well without a clearing of the ram.
if the macbook is an option for you, go for it, because it isnt so big, has similar speeds to your pro, and will still be able to do what you want.

but the air might be too much of a jump from what you have now.

 

[ayeying]

hmmm.
the difference in processor speeds will be a shocker.
vmware might not work as well on the air.
but then you are getting a smaller laptop, which is better suited for websurfing and such. i want to say go in the middle and get a macbook
ps and aperture may not work as well without a clearing of the ram.
if the macbook is an option for you, go for it, because it isnt so big, has similar speeds to your pro, and will still be able to do what you want.

but the air might be too much of a jump from what you have now.

1. The difference in speed is NOT a shocker.
2. VMWare Fusion 2, Beta 2 is extremely fast on the MacBook Air. I have a virtual Windows XP running constantly w/ 256MB ram dedicated and it still runs extremely well.
3. Aperture has some dependencies on the video card, so if you're a major aperture user, I'd say stick with the MBP.
4. If you were to get the MB, it would actually be an major upgrade (excluding the vid card) from your current MBP (in terms of specs)

But everything dies down to what you want to do. If mobility is a major issue, go with the MBA. If mobility isn't an issue, I'd say stick with your current MBP until whenever revisions come out

 

[alphaod]

Since you want to do the move, I'd point that the Air isn't great for big files in Aperture, but apart from that that, it looks like the Air will suit your needs.

 

[mchank]

the Air will be fine for all those tasks. I'm waiting for the next revision of the Air before I sell my own Pro for the Air.

 

[King t.]

thanks for posting your opinions.

and yes i'll be trading my MBP for a MBA either this weekend or next week, but not for a 1.6ghz, it's going to be the one with the better processor 1.8ghz and with a 80gb hd

 

[netdog]

I recommend the SSD quite highly if you can swing it. I've had both.

 

[Apple Ink]

Hmmmmm....
I think VM alone is one good reason for sticking with MBP! But your call.....

 

[Apple Ink]

I recommend the SSD quite highly if you can swing it. I've had both.

And why? Just inquisitive!
What have been your experiences?

 

[King t.]

Hmmmmm....
I think VM alone is one good reason for sticking with MBP! But your call.....

why, I thought the MBA can run VMware or parallels without any problems? and the only reason why I'm going to use vmware is for outlook and torrentz, and probably for MS office. a MBA can handle that right?

 

[Apple Ink]

why, I thought the MBA can run VMware or parallels without any problems? and the only reason why I'm going to use vmware is for outlook and torrentz, and probably for MS office. a MBA can handle that right?

Firstly, on an 80GB HDD?
Secondly, IGP with a 1.8GHz processor: Vista no no!
Thirdly, MBA is famous for kernel Panics with VMs specially VMware (google it)
Not to mention that you wont be able to keep it on your lap while running a VM.

P.S.: MS Office and bit clients are available for Mac (MS Office 2008 for Mac and transmission/Azureus). Mail.app is also a great Mail client! Why Win then

 

[King t.]

Firstly, on an 80GB HDD?
Secondly, IGP with a 1.8GHz processor: Vista no no!
Thirdly, MBA is famous for kernel Panics with VMs specially VMware (google it)
Not to mention that you wont be able to keep it on your lap while running a VM.

P.S.: MS Office and bit clients are available for Mac (MS Office 2008 for Mac and transmission/Azureus). Mail.app is also a great Mail client! Why Win then

i'm not planning on installing vista, XP is enough
Azureus bec. i still have the one with no upload
outlook bec. of work.

for my private stuff i use imail

 

[ViViDboarder]

For use like that, I try to migrate from VMware to native applications.

There is likely a no upload version of some torrent client for OSX. Even an X11 version built for *nix could work. So it'd be a waste to allot extra HDD space for Windows for that.

If you want office, Office for Mac comes with Entourage (Read: Outlook for Mac) which you can use instead as a native program.

PS: I have a Macbook Pro and I still don't like to see any kind of slowdown from running two operating environments.

 

[ajohnson253]

if portability is a huge issue for you get the Air.

If running strong apps and still being portable just not as portable as the air then keep the pro

 

[aleni]

i bought mba for my secondary traveling companion. but since then i never used my quite new macbook pro 2.4ghz penryn. so i sold the mbp and kept the mba.

i'm doing a tshirt graphics in illustrator, so far this mba has been up to do the job just fine.

 

[ScottFitz]

I've got a 1.6/80 running VM Fusion (win xp home) and it is flawless. I have a couple of things I do at work that require internet Explorer with activeX controls. I pretty much just fire up the VM to get access to IE7.

Slightly off topic, but when I went to activate the copy with MS, the automatic code thing wouldn't go through. So, I had to call in. Their automated one had an issue over the phone. THe Live Person simply asked me for the first six numbers of a really long string. Once she heard the first six, she just gave me a code to punch in. (long one at that)

Didn't care, didn't ask me anything, just activated it and we were done muy pronto. I had to call in a few years ago on another install and it was like the Spanish Inquisition.

 

[ajohnson253]

i bought mba for my secondary traveling companion. but since then i never used my quite new macbook pro 2.4ghz penryn. so i sold the mbp and kept the mba.

i'm doing a tshirt graphics in illustrator, so far this mba has been up to do the job just fine.

so the MBA is the computer that you are using on a every day basis to do everything on?

 

[aleni]

so the MBA is the computer that you are using on a every day basis to do everything on?

yes mate, it's my primary computer now.

well i do have a high end gaming pc but that thing is never being turned on maybe about couple months since i got the MBA. lol.

 

[ajohnson253]

yes mate, it's my primary computer now.

well i do have a high end gaming pc but that thing is never being turned on maybe about couple months since i got the MBA. lol.

okay haha.

I got my macbook 2.4 Ghz from Best buy about a week and a half ago I am within the 14 days or 30 days to do an exchange and I have been to best buy like twice and played with the air and am gonna go one more time today and play with it.

If its as smooth as people are saying and eveyrthing seems okay I will do an exchange. I do basic stuff surf the web, download music. and some work documents for work nothing major.

I really like the LED and the multi touch, there on top of there technology on this piece. We'll see how it goes today

 

[aleni]

well from my experience, i had mbp 2.4ghz penryn which is much faster than the mba. with the mbp on hand, i felt the mba is really slow, but from the lightweight effect, i still decided to sell the mbp.

couple months without the mbp, i feel the air is not as slow as when i had the mbp. it's just a feeling effect.

so basically if all you do just basic stuff, mba is pretty fine, and the lightweight form factor just makes you want to bring the mba everywhere you go.

this thing runs windows xp on vmware pretty damn fast! i use it because my store relies on 1 program that is not available on the mac. it's called SBIC ( Small Business Inventory Control), and i can't find any fast and good Stock Inventory program that suits my need in the Mac. would be a dream comes true if i can find any of the mac program that does a perfect job like "SBIC".

 

[aleni]

oh, and i used to have the white macbook 2ghz core 2 duo. it's pretty fast and does the job well for me. but i can't stand of the dirtiness after couple months using it. the keyboards and casing are hard to clean, and i dont like using some silicon protector. it makes typing a pain in the arse.

 

[ajohnson253]

oh, and i used to have the white macbook 2ghz core 2 duo. it's pretty fast and does the job well for me. but i can't stand of the dirtiness after couple months using it. the keyboards and casing are hard to clean, and i dont like using some silicon protector. it makes typing a pain in the arse.

ya thats the only thing I am worried about here. I am a very clean person but I am guessing that after some use there will show some kind of yellow or dirtiness. People say the previous macbooks used to get yellow and what not. No more complaints on the current but we will see if I keep it, I hope it doesnt do all that.

 

[Abbas]

I'll speak from experience as I was debating the same thing. I have a MBP 2.2GHz with 4GB RAM, 250GB HD and the 8600GTM. Needless to say, it is a very powerful machine.

But I got an EeePC and found myself using it more than the MBP, purely because of its portability. Thus, I decided to check out the Air as I much prefer OS X over Windows.

Two weeks with Air and I've packed my MBP and its up for sale. Yes, its not as fast as the MBP but its fast enough. About the only time I feel it's slowness is working in Photoshop. But for Emails, Web, iTunes and Office, it works very nicely. I've also installed Parallels and VMs run great but battery life suffers (which was also the case with my MBP)

For me, portability was worth trading the extra power which I barely used on my MBP. I'm totally happy with the Air. I have the HD version and am now planning on saving up a bit to install an SSD instead.

 

[shoppy]

I would say go for it, I have just finished setting mine up and I find it snappy responsive and more then adequate to run all my apps.