How's Macbook Air 2013?

Hello, I'm trying to replace my 5 yrs old HP laptop and I was looking at Samsung Series 9 and Macbook

Air as my priority choices since they both have beautiful design and ultraportable.

While I was leaning toward Series 9 (because it had 15 inch screen with $900 range), amazon suddenly

raised the price of series 9 to $1100 Although there are third party sellers available for 900ish, I don't

really want to buy from third seller.. My budget is around $1000~1300

So, I was looking at MBA 13 inch.. and It looks quiet nice. I was never a fan of apple but I love that it

comes with new Haswell and decent battery life along with Intel HD 5000, where I can probably do some

light gaming, too

However, my main concern is that I never used Mac OS before and worrying if they might be some

compatibility issues, since it's not Windows OS that I'm used to.

My question is how will MAC be to newcomer in MacOS? And does MacOS capable of doing things

that I can do with Windows OS? (Sorry, this question seems ignorant but I never used MacOS )

Also, if I go with MAC 13inch, should I go with 128 GB SSD or 256 GB SSD?

Thanks for your insightful comment in advance

 

Depends on what exactly it is you're going to be doing.

Also, are you hitting return twice at the end of each line you type? No need to do that. Only if you want a new paragraph.

 

lol.. hitting return button twice became my habit cuz I got so used to double-spaced paragraph.. anyway my primary purpose will be schoolwork, with some multimedia purpose (like watching movies),and light gaming (like playing LoL, and Dota 2..)

 

school: check
multimedia: check
games: variable

Check whether the games you play have a mac client, if they do, you're good to go. The gaming ecosystem on macs has improved in recent years.

 

i will mostly play LoL and Dota 2, not graphic intensive game, while my buddy told me to stay away from Macbook at all even If u intend to play game like LoL..

 

LoL now has a mac client, but if you go to their website, you'll see that it isn't on par with the Windows client yet. That said, you can always install Windows via bootcamp (you need a Windows license obviously) on the macbook air to play your games.

On the SSD, got with 256 GB.

 

I am actually looking at the same two notebook, probably going to go with the MBA. Mainly because of the new hardware, long battery life, and the 15" Series 9's keyboard is just not very good in my opinion (short key travel). That said it IS much cheaper. If the notebook is going to be your main computer, you're better off with 256GB. LoL will run on the HD5000 just fine, but prepare for the MBA to get alittle warm.

 

I suggest you get the 128 GB if you're the type of person to play only a handful of games and keep very little media or other stuff. I always feel that upgrading storage on a mac is a rip considering the surcharges. External HD's are pretty cheap, but go for more storage if you really need it and can't carry the external HD. I'm sure it's pretty decent for the games you play, but I will do a test on battery (on a 11''). CPU/GPU Specs on it bench quite a bit better than my old HP with phenom II n950 / radeon hd 5650 which worked faithfully for all my *not* high end gaming needs for years. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm joining the Apple wagon from Windows too so I'll let you know.

 

I heard the MBA 11/13 2013 is having problems with the Wifi. Did they fix it already?

 

I too am bouncing back and forth from buying a samsung ativ book 9 13" FHD or a MB air. After playing with both at Best Buy I am leaning towards the air 13" First reason is the TN panel they use is very good for what it is with decent viewing angles. Not as nice as the ativ's matte finish but the mac uses a 16:10 aspect ratio which is a pretty big deal for me. Never cared for the 16:9 crap that the PC side started pushing on us back around 09. Samsung has improved their touchpads quite a bit but are still pathetic to Apples. Nothing on the PC side can compare to what Apple has done with their touchpads. I like to buy new tech and unfortunately, PC's don't retain value worth a crap. But macs do. Very easy to resell. I like W7 but W8 does not belong on a notebook/desktop IMO. Can't stand the look of the modern interface. MS lost it. So for now, I can't see anything better then the haswell powered air 13" for the money. Its the best machine out there and I am a long time PC guy. Never bought anything Apple.. ever. But I feel I may soon cross that line. MS really screwed up the PC side and its not going to get better with windows 8.1

 

Depends on what Windows machine that is. If it's Acer or HP or MSI or Asus then yeah the resale value isn't very high. But Alienware's resale value is very good and I'm sure the new Razer Laptops will be too.

 

The razor weights 4 lbs, and has a gaming gpu.. Plus at 14" is a different form factor then the air. Don't know what the battery life would be for these but I can guarantee its not 12 hours. The alien's specs for 14 are: Dimensions & Starting weight
Height: Front: 1.579 in (40.12 mm) Rear: 1.642 in (41.70 mm)
Depth: 10.171 in (258.35 mm)
Width: 13.314 in (334.98 mm)
Starting at weight with optional SSD: 6.116 lbs. (2.774 Kg.)

So for my needs, the alien is no ultraportable. Its a beast weighing 2X more and only getting 5 hours battery life.

Went back to i store last night and was ready to buy the air 13" Unfortunately, at night, the differences between the retina and TN panel was really eye opening. The air's display did not seem so bad when I was in there earlier with allot of daylight in the store. But at night, the air's screen was truly pathetic sitting by the MB retina. Very frustrating waiting for someone to build what i need. Under 3 lbs, hi resolution, good BQ, haswell , 256 SSD, and over 8 hours battery life. Yes, the Sony Pro 13 has all that buts its ugly. I mean really ugly and its a flex monster. I don't care its made of expensive carbon fiber. Everything flexes, the KB, screen, TP, everything. Reports of loud fan noise and over heating is not good for the Sony. Right now the closest match would be a samsung series 7 ultra and do a user upgrade to 256 SSD. Because Samsung only offers it with 128 which only gives the user a available 60GB of storage out of the box.. PATHETIC. What is wrong with the oems? Why can't one oem get it right? Except for Sony, at least they did put it together, however awkward and flimsy it may be.

 

I got my MBA 2013 the first day they were released. Overall great laptop, I didn't really notice the wifi issue, however the battery life is only around 6 hours (no gaming, just web, skype)