2011 13": Macbook Pro or Macbook Air

Should I get the 2011 13": Macbook Pro or the Macbook Air?

I'm sold on everything about the Air (thin, SSD, 1400x1900 display), however, I'm hearing problems about the Air. Such problems are, Snow Leopard is better than Lion, and problems with the screen display of the Air.

Are the problems of Lion, or the display of the Air significant? If they are, I will opt for the Macbook Pro.

 

Lion was only recently released, and while it did ship with a bunch of bugs, Apple will provide service packs for it relatively quickly. The first service pack they released shipped out 2 or so weeks after it was originally released. I've hear people having some difficulty if they went the upgrade route from Snow Leopard rather than doing a clean install, myself included.

I'm not sure on what screen-related problems are on the Air. When I messed with them at Apple's store a couple weeks back the screens looked great.

I'd side with getting the Air at this point because the resolution is higher than the 13" pro has.

 

The whole SL vs Lion debate comes down to preferences much like Windows 7 vs Mac OS X. Some people liked a few features in SL that were taken out while others prefer the multi-touch gestures, Launchpad, and Mission Control introduced in Lion better. There were some issues but Apple released an update (not really a service pack, more of a routine update) a little while back so Lion is now up to 10.7.1. The main issues people had with Lion, aside from their preferences, revolved around the lack of audio output when using digital optical audio and HDMI along with wi-fi dropouts. Apple has fixed those along with a handful of other problems.

The main issue I would be concerned about is the display quality of the Air. Some people have units that are fine while others come across ones that produce a more yellowish backlight and have a darker area near the bottom. Some people can live with that while others can't.

On a side note, if you live near a Microcenter, you can purchase the baseline 13" MBP (which will outperform the Air in every aspect except hard drive read and write speeds) for $999 new. You also have to take into account the use of an optical drive since the Air would require the purchase of an external one whereas the MBP has that built in. Lastly, if you are going to use this mainly sitting at your desk, go with the MBP since it offers more ports for connectivity. It has FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, etc.

Otherwise, if you are going to be using this mainly in portable environments, go with the Air and you can just keep exchanging the unit until you come across one without a defective display. You are going to get Lion no matter which system you go with since, from what I have heard, Apple has pretty much run out of SL MBPs.

 

Snow leopard vs lion is not an issue with the macbook air. You'll be using lion on any new macbook pro and on any new macbook air.

The display is OK but the viewing angles are not as good as the pro. You can see it for yourself in the apple store and decide.

 

Firstly, I prefer the Air for portability purposes. I'll mainly be in a WiFi environment, so ethernet port will be of little to no use. I rarely use optical drives, maybe 2-4 times a year - the only time I need an optical is to burn the odd DvD, which I use my desktop for.

Well the Snow Leopard vs Lion debate has concluded. Both the Air, and Pro include Lion.

My only concern now is, there's been many complaints about the Air's display having poor color shading throughout the lower part.

 

I think every Mac I've every purchased had people online somewhere complaining about some aspect of it that never affected me.

 

I’d consider myself an average user. Mainly Web browsing, typing documents, watching movies, listening to music, and downloading torrents.

Could you verify if my following requirements would be included in “ everything”.

My requirements:

Adobe Flash

Adobe Reader

Bit Torrent

WinRAR

I'd imagine there's no problem with iWorks, or iTunes (which are the only other two requirements of mine).

 

i went for the air.

better res, less glare. very easy choice. i mostly just keep it in the house but the form factor is nevertheless a big plus.

i personally do not notice the colour shading at the bottom, and even now that i look down at it i can barely recognise the problem - even with full brightness with full screen white. perhaps it is worse on others.

as i see it, the only reason you might have for going pro is battery life OR cost. the battery on the air is decent, but it's not 6-7 hours decent. cost-wise, i decided to upgrade to 256GB - but it's the same price as getting a pro with 750GB SATA.

 

that stuff is all fine

 

The compatibility problems stem from trying to use age old programs such as Quicken and Office 2004 that were written for the PowerPC architecture. Apple has been selling Intel chips since 2006 and users have thus far relied on an emulator called Rosetta.

Apple removed this emulator in Lion.

 

Winrar is a windows program. You can use The Unarchiver (my favorite choice). It is free on the mac app store:

The Unarchiver on the Mac App Store

You can also download and install it manually from their website.

 

There is also UnrarX or something similar. WinRAR actually has an OS X command-line driven option but I couldn't get it up and running and I prefer something with a GUI anyway (what is this, 1988?).

Enjoy the new Air. I know I would have purchased an Air had Apple updated it around the time they came out with the 2011 MBPs. I required a new computer then and couldn't really wait. I also didn't want to settle for the Core 2 Duo processor so I jumped on the Sandy Bridge platform. The 13" MBP isn't a bad system at all, it just isn't as crazy thin as the MBA. The funny thing is that the 13" MBP is already pretty damn thin. I stacked it up against a similarly sized notebook from another competitor that was already thin and my MBP was even thinner. Either platform provides a good environment for OS X computing and I don't think you can go wrong with either.

 

The only knock on the 13 MBP is the resolution. 1440x900 and it'd be one of the most recommended laptops out there. Quite frankly, 1280x800 is "below" average, which is quite uncharacteristic of Apple.

 

I returned from the store, compared the Pro, and the Air.

I'm officially sold on the Air.


My reasons that sold me on the Air...

Ultra thin (light) - the Pro is too thick (heavy) for my standards - I need ultra portability.

Display much less glossy than the Pro - the Pro is too glossy - however, I still plan on ordering an anti-glare film. The anti-glare film will convert the display into a matte finish.

Anti-Glare Film - MacBook Air 13" - Shop | Power Support USA

I use anti-glare film on my iPhone, and now it's completely matte - glossy irritates my eyes.



I'm not saying the Air is better than the Pro, your needs should be the deciding factor.

If I frequently needed an ethernet port, or an optical drive - I would've bought the Pro. However, I don't need an ethernet port, and the only time I ever use an optical drive is when I need to burn a DvD, which I do on my desktop anyway.


Pros & Cons about both the Air and Pro...

Air:

Pros: Thin (light), SSD, 1400x900

Cons: No optical drive, no ethernet port, slower cpu


Pro:

Pros: Optical drive, ethernet port, faster cpu

Cons: Thick (heavy), HDD, 1200x800

If you don't need an optical drive, or an ethernet port, than the Air is for you. The SSD compensates for the slower cpu, so essentially, both the Air, and the Pro are relatively the same with regards to speed.




Thanks for the replies!

 

Fixed that for you.

 

I agree if by "a far superior" you mean "the exact same".

 

The ifixit teardowns don't mention the keyboard as far as I can tell, but are you sure you aren't just imaging things? You're the first that I've seen suggest that the differences go beyond simple variation in the F-keys and the lack of an eject button.

 

Well, unfortunately, I'm in a dilemma again.

With my student discount:

Macbook Air 13" - $1249

Macbook Pro 13" & 128 SSD - $1374

Based on all these posts, it seems like the Pro is a more stable & durable (strong display, runs cooler?) machine than some of the inconsistencies of the Air (weak display, heat?), however, I'm still in awe over the architect of the Air. Is it true the Air " generates too much heat"? Considerably more than the pro? If so, this could be a deal breaker for the Air, and I could justify spending $125 more for a more powerful, reliable machine in the Pro.

I've just read on the Apple forums, that people are complaining about the Air being too noisy (fan), due to heat - even in minor tasks such as browsing. Although, it could be an Operating System problem, and not that of the hardware, I wonder if this happens to the Pro too...but, I'm not sure what to think...

Thread is here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3218882?start=15&tstart=0

 

I don't think SSD reliability is much of a concern now to be honest.

The MBA does generate quite a bit of heat, depending on what you do with it, though. What's more, it happens very quickly... my MBA can jump 20C almost instantly when I do something processor intensive. To be fair, though, it also cools down very quickly, and it idles at a lower temp than my old 13" Aluminum MacBook during general work. It also doesn't tax the processor nearly as much just web browsing or using flash. Also keep in mind that I have the 11" with the i7, so I got the smaller (hotter) machine and the faster (hotter) processor.

The keyboard is indeed slightly different, at least on my 11" Air. The key stroke is slightly more shallow than my MacBook, and the keys are bit closer together, but that could be due to the 11". As far as the display, it's far and away better than the MacBook was, but the late 2008 Aluminum MacBook was notorious for horrible screens. The sad part is that they're both better than any Windows laptop I've ever used in the same price range (including my Thinkpad T410) and better than my $2000 M90. Keep in mind, though, that while viewing angles may not be as good as a MBP, they're also not quite as glossy, which some may prefer.

To be completely honest, I was going through the same decision process this past weekend before I picked up the MBA. It eventually came down to speed. The SSD of the Air just makes the computer so much faster for general usage. The MBP will clearly win when it comes to raw processor performance and CPU-intensive stuff like video encoding, but web browsing, Office work, and other similar everyday computing tasks, the SSD of the Air makes the machine just so much faster. You could always get an SSD for the MBP, but that would put it way more expensive than the Air.

 

Putting SSD in a MBP doesn't make it more expensive than the MBA. In fact, I could buy a new 13" baseline i5 MBP for $999 and slap in a good 120-128GB SSD for $160 ($130 after mail-in-rebate) making it come out less than the 128GB 13" MBA. Its even about $100 less expensive to do the same thing with a 256GB SSD compared with the 13" 256GB MBA. It is more expensive if you order the SSD option from Apple with the MBP but, much like most PC companies, they drastically overcharge for upgrades like that.

The MBP is definitely the less expensive option than the MBA while also providing better performance all around (processor, battery life, can use more than 4GB of RAM, etc.). It all comes down to how much someone wants to spend and what form factor they want. I really don't think there is any need to buy a MBA if the OP is just going to carry it around the house since those systems were designed to be taken on the go. I think it would be a waste to buy an ultra-portable notebook and not actually use the portable aspect of it. A MBP will be just fine when using it around the house and then some. The MBA has the advantage of being extremely portable for people who travel a lot. I would buy one now (if I didn't have my MBP) as I take my MBP with me to classes on a dialy basis. Although it is really portable as-is, the MBA would weigh even less.

Both systems will also produce quite a bit of heat compared to other traditional plastic notebooks. This is due to their designs. Both use aluminum enclosures which simply conduct heat. Apple also believes in a minimalistic design so their ventilation ports are smaller than what other companies use. MacBooks in general (even going back to the old PowerBook G4 Titanium days) have always ran warmer than others. They are metal, have smaller ventilation systems, and are smaller than other notebooks. All of those factors go against super cool operation. It really isn't a problem unless you use them on your lap, then I would be worried. A flat, hard surface will be fine for either the MBP or MBA.

 

Also, a high quality SSD will be considerably faster than both the Samsung and the Toshiba SSDs used in the MBA.

 

The Toshiba is slow, but I think the Samsung is good.

Apple could make the MBP 13 a lot more attractive by fitting a 1440x900 display and putting the SSD in one of the standard configurations available in stores. That would make the choice easier: the MBP 13 for power users and the MBA for general users and portability.

 

I think you're missing the point of what Apple is doing here. They are positioning the Macbook Air as the computer of the future and it's currently Apple's only notebook computer with no optical drive which is the direction they are taking their computers. I'm pretty sure the next versions of the MBP's will ship without an optical drive. If they are going to purposely make the MBP more attractive it will detract buyers of the MBA.
Also, power users know what they need and it shouldn't take more attractive features like a built-in SSD in the MBP to get them to buy. The MBP in it's current state is already positioned for power users over the Air.

 

The current MBA 13 is ahead of the MBP 13 in at least two ways: higher screen resolution and standard SSD. Perhaps the anti-glare screen as well, which is an option on the MBP 15 but strangely not the MBP 13.

What I'm saying is that Apple should sort out the feature set, so that power users considering the "Pro" model aren't making sacrifices in critical areas like screen resolution compared to the "standard" model. It needs a dedicated GPU option also. Naturally, I would expect it to be more expensive than the MBA.

Right now, Apple has two standard-ish models in the 13" size and no high end model.

Whether or not they eliminate the optical drive is a separate issue.

 

These are all good points, but I take issue with the qualms about the resolution of the MBP 13. There is not much difference in pixel density between 1280X800 and 1440X900 and the MBPs screen (the lower resolution) has such awesome color accuracy and wide gamut that it runs circles around the MBP screen. If the glossiness bothers you, you can get a matte screen protector - as you said you would with the MBA as well - and end up with much better colors and viewing angles. Resolution is only important if you are doing precision photo or video editing; otherwise, when you look at them side by side, you will not see a difference and the MBP's vastly superior color and viewing angles will make it look better. If you are concerned with the increased "real estate" on the slightly higher resolution MBA 13, just Zoom in a bit on the MBP13 and you have just as much real estate and,again, a sharper, brighter, more colorful screen.

The rest is a personal decision. I agree that you could get virtually the same response time by putting an SSD in the MBP 13 and you would end up with a much more powerful computer that generates way less heat and has more flexibility. You can't even add more Ram to the MBA, much less increase your SSD capacity.

The weight is the strongest reason to go with the MBA, IMO. it is a full 2.2 lbs lighter than the MBP, which used to be considered pretty light until the MBA, Sony Z and Toshiba RX series. 5.2 lbs is still not very much to carry around and you may often be able to skip the power brick because it gets about 2 hours more on a battery charge.

How's that for making the decision harder??!!

BTW, if you buy from Best Buy they give you a 14 day return for full refund, so you could buy and try the MBA - and for that matter the MBP - and see which one you prefer. If you have the cash or credit, you can buy both and really do a direct comparison. Return the one you don't like as much.

I think we've beaten this horse to death, no? (btw, since this is a duplicate to your thread in "Which notebook should I buy, beware of the mods taking one of these threads down.

 

I'm sorry, since when did the 13" Pro become heavy and not portable?

It has the same footprint as the 13" Air, and while the Air is fractions of an inch thinner it weighs a mere 1.5lbs less.

So please tell me, where exactly can you take a 13" Air that taking a 13" Pro would be impossible?

I mean, buy what you will, but stop trying to give stupid reasons for your purchase.

 

Not saying that mbp 13 isnt portable but its still 800g and imo its a huge difference. MBP feels like a book in your bag while MBA feels like like an a4 exercise/note book.

 

Haha, this guy

 

There's no disputing that the Air is considerable lighter than the Pro.

However, now, my only concern is quality of the product I want to purchase. I keep reading that the Air generates excess heat, and that LG displays are superior to that of the poorer display of Samsung. So, if I buy an Air, it's a 50/50 chance that the display will either be good, or bad.

Now, perhaps, I don't read up on the Pro, nearly as much as I do on the Air, but I don't hear many complaints about the Pro, with regard to its quality. The Pro seems to run cooler, and has a superior display quality than that of the Air. I'd rather give up the thiness/design of the Air, for the superior quality of the Pro.

I'm still undecided between the two.

Note: If I get the Pro, I lose nothing with regards to hardware that the Air has to offer, as I'd be purchasing a Pro with a 128 SSD, and I'd purchase a anti-glare screen protector from power-support.

 

Just remember, you ever want to upgrade? The air wont... the MBP you can HDD and RAM.

As for the quality, if you don't like the screen return it in less then 14 days. Please beware about return policies.

 

The MBP still generates a lot of heat for a notebook of its size. Metal notebooks, no matter who they are from, will always do this though. Metal (aluminum or anything else) acts as a heat conductor rather than an insulator. Combine that with the small form factor of the 13" MBP or even smaller 13" MBA and you have a recipe for increased heat production especially when compared to 2" thick plastic notebooks.

There are some issues facing the MBP line particularly with their ability to connect with a wi-fi network though it seems more tied to OS X rather than the hardware itself and I have yet to encounter any issue along those lines after upgrading to 10.7.1. I still have a problem with my 13" MBP outputting 1.1 audio via HDMI instead of 2.0. I thought it was solved with the upgrade to 10.7.1 but it wasn't. I also wouldn't put too much into online complaints about either model. The people who complain are always going to be heard over those who have nothing wrong. That is often why forums exist in the first place. People need help so they go online, make a post, and get assistance.

The whole SSD and display "issues" surrounding the MBA seem to be blown out of proportion. I know people expect things to be perfect in a $1500 computer but, due to the nature of using multiple sources for multiple parts and having everything assembled on a line, that just isn't going to happen whether it is a $300 computer or a $50,000 car. Buy what you want whether it is a MBP or MBA, fool around with it, and see if there is something wrong. If there is, you can always exchange it at your local Apple Store or call Apple's customer support and they can exchange it out for you. Third party stores at Best Buy can also work though any exchanges must go through them.

 

Completely agreed,

Disk Permissions Repair will usually fix this issue. I would say about 80-90% of the people that had problems with wifi failed to do this. If that didn't work removing then adding the wifi back in system pref>network usually did the trick.

I think people caught on to the "somethings wrong omg freak out". Most people will not even notice a lot of the issues people are even talking about. Its like buying a car and noticing they oversprayed the paint a bit. While I can agree the screen issue would suck for the not even lighting, I haven't seen any of them that I would consider to be horrible.

 

With heat, I would say the MBP 15" with the quadcore that I have isn't that bad. I had a $700 HP laptop before and that thing would throttle itself playing internet videos if I left it on my bed. My MBP doesn't get as hot as my dad's older dell work laptop, but his newer one is a little better.

If you are having heat problems on a mac install SMC fan control and set it at 6000rpm. I do this when I game and even on Ultra in SC2 my temperature for the CPU stays around 70 degrees. The thing though is in OSX heat control is much better then in Windows 7, because your system isn't using as many resources. The only thing is you have to turn on Graphics Card status because the discrete GPU comes on for skype and chrome for some reason.

 

because the method they use to control auto switching is flawed logically. If ou have an app running thats linked to certain APIs or libraries.. then it will switch, no matter what the app is really doing.

They can leave it like this, but they need to make something kind of like their Firewall list, so you can add in certain apps to a list of "do not switch the graphics for these" ... or a list of "only switch the graphics for these"

Maybe I'll have to make that app myself... but gfxCardStatus works ok.

 

That is definitely a good idea hopefully apple adds it to their existing material or somebody makes an App for it.

With the HD3000 I only need the 6750 in games like Starcraft 2 and apps like Mathematica I'm guessing. Perhaps its useful for iMovie though. I think the HD3000 suffices for 98% of the content on the web.

 

Yeah, this needs to be a setting on a per executable basis.

 

Won't help with mathematica. SC2 definitely. iMovie it should help a bit for displaying the video, but not important for the encoding or anything. Should still be "on" for imovie for sure.

 

I was under the impression that Mathematica was GPU accelerated? I've done some graphs/calculations where it takes a while, so I assume that a faster one helps.

 

you're right, my mistake. certain built in functions are GPU accelerated, and you can also program your own functions specifically to leverage the GPU, if you put in the time to learn how to do it. It's not extremely straightforward.

In general, most things will not benefit from GPU acceleration in mathematica, but there are occasional cases where you will get an extremely large benefit.

 

In laptop terms the gap from 4.6 lbs to sub 3lbs is a vast gulf. These are two entirely different categories of laptop as one is tolerably portable while the other is a no-brainer for carrying.

But Apple knows this and has clearly differentiated some features on purpose. If I were them I would have just gotten rid of the 13" MBP instead of making the feature split. Only thing I can think is that their cost of production must be much lower on the 13" MBP and margins higher, so they are keeping it alive (particularly for volume markets eg corporate sales) by restricting the 13" MBA a bit with onboard connectivity options etc. At least at my company 13" MBP seems to be available on highly favourable terms, so them must be a lot of margin embedded in there.

For a non-corporate user it will simply come down a question of whether the person prioritizes minimal weight/bulk or maximal connectivity and CPU speed. In practice most casual users would fall into the former camp but be lured by CPU numbers that they may not need.

 

So have you purchased a MBA? (You know the MBA can add ethernet port & optical drive via USB when necessary right?)

I've successfully used PowerSupport's aftermarket antiglare film on an iPhone, do these work as well on MBAs or glossy MBPs?

 

Except that the 13" MBP is Apple's most successful notebook. It started selling like hotcakes back when Apple reintroduced a model smaller than 15" that was just an aluminum MacBook and then later taken into the MBP line. It is also unmatched by other Apple systems in terms of price especially the baseline 13" MBP since one would only get an 11" MBA for the same price. I understand where you are coming from by making the MBA and MBP lines more distinguishable but the 13" MBP is Apple's best seller. They would be better off keeping it so they don't have to push people to the $1300 price just to buy a 13" notebook. The 13" MBP has two things going for it: size and price.

That is what makes it so successful and why the 13" MBA can't currently replace it. The 13" MBA has the size factor going for it but not the price especially since anyone with a budget of around $1000 would be forced to buy an 11" MBA if they wanted to buy a Mac notebook. Apple needs a proper notebook to fill in that all important price gap especially since many people don't want to spend $1000 on what they see as nothing more than an overpriced netbook (even though the 11" MBA has much, much more power).

I actually see the MBP and MBA lines eventually mixing with future notebooks taking the MBA's general design. We haven't reached that point in time but I believe we will get there over the next few generations. Until then, Apple needs to keep the 13" MBP to fill in that 13" notebook size and ~$1000 price gap.

 

I could see that with the 13" but I would not like that with the 15". I would rather the 15" increase in power instead of decrease in size. I mean the pro has to mean something in the 15" and 17" at least. I think Apple might agree because they put an extremely powerful card into the 15" and 17" (6750m) at least in Mac terms.

 

^^ That really depends though.
Only real difference is GPU and some people just dont need gpu and do need screen size. For those 15 inch air would be perfect.

I would dare to say that GPU is only needed for gaming and video editing and thats not the majority of users. I am myself is a web/graphic designer and i think HD3000 could handle all my needs just fine. Only bought top end because i like to check games time to time.