Mba 13 Vs Mbp 13

Hi

I have never bought anything smaller than 15 inch, but now I require a smaller and lighter laptop which is great at portability and battery life.

I prefer the MBA 13, but the MBP 13 is a very good contender.

In terms of portability/weight/size oh yes the thinesssss and power which one would you recommend?

Im on the move so need a solid notebook not flimsy.

On the price the MBA 13 is £1122 and MBP 13 is £1020

Im happy with both prices, very similar and the MBP 13 seems more value for money, then again Im edging towards the MBA 13 due to its thinessss.

Which would you recommend

 

Do a search...

MBA - much lighter, better screen, shorter battery, a little slower, much more expensive

MBP - the opposite

 

hard to vote when we don't know what you need to do on the machine.

 

Are you considering the old MBP 13, or the upcoming MBP 13?

I would certainly not get the current MBP 13, simply because it should be updated soon, but mostly because it has a 1280x800 resolution. After seeing MBA 13's 1440x900 screen, MBP 13's screen looks awful. I would imagine the next gen MBP 13 will get 1440x900 too, and hopefully Sandy Bridge.

Do you have to make the purchase right now, or can you wait? If you can't wait, I'd say go for MBA 13, cuz the current MBP 13 is an outdated machine.

 

I'm typing this on a last gen air [1.8, 2 gig]. My wife has a last gen 13" macbook [aluminum 2.4, last version before LED screen]

In all honesty, if I could manage to swap the air's screen with the macbook I'd steal it in a heartbeat. there's not a HUGE difference in size or weight, the macbook is at least upgradable, and the macbook runs a bit cooler. Potentially larger drive, built in DVD drive. .I could go on.

The only reason I can find to go with the air is if portability is of utmost importance. Don't get me wrong here, I like my air. It does what I need it to do [which is essentially web surfing, watching video, virtualbox so I can access my mandatory windows only applications for work] but I do find myself staring at the pinwheel a lot more than I'd like.

Honestly, it all comes down to which you need more, the portability or the performance. If there's any chance to hands on both of them though, I'd highly recommend it.

 

Performance-wise it goes:

Last-gen MBA -> Current MBP 13" -> Current MBA 13" with speedy SSD

The fast SSD in the current MBAs goes a long way to reduce the time you're staring at the pinwheel.

 

Last gen air.. I would not even consider it as a viable machine without like the SD card slot.

 

you should at least wait till march,

Best Buy Guesses at a March MacBook Pro Release Date as Supplies Constrain - Mac Rumors

 

I agree with doh..

I have a MBP and MBA for different reasons and tasks.
I suppose if I could choose only one, I would go with the versatility of the MBP, but I could still get by with the Air also. Some people would not however.

 

What about if you had a 13" Air instead of 11"?

 

I bought the 11" for maximum portability.
But if I were compromising on that, and had gone with the 13", I still would be sacrificing as compared with the MBP, just not getting the space savings of the 11". The 11" (and I suppose the 13" would too) get mighty hot with processor intensive tasks, whereas the MBP under the same conditions system load is barely noticeable.

That is why no one system is the right one for everyone. You have to first assess your needs, then see what models most closely approximate your intended use, then decide if the unit capabilities, taking into consideration what it won't do, most closely fills the bill. It's obvious if the MBA did everything near as good as the MBP, price aside, it would always be the right choice. I wanted portability that not even the 13" MBA could deliver. That was the deciding factor.

Realize the MBA 13" has less processing power, less battery life than the MBP, and no optical drive. If those are minor points, for you, then I'd say the MBA might be the right choice.

 

First A BIG THANKYOU to all those who replied and voted.

I basically need to move around and it will be the general office/internet and some light gaming (Im not a gamer)...speed and heat is my main concern since I will be encoding video/audio. Though a CD drive is not essential since I rarely use it.

The MBA has a great screen, but if the MBP gets an update soon then the MBA looks outdated on the specs. I may be wrong.

I guess after reading a few of your posts, it appears that the MBP is the winner.

I need to get one in 4/5 weeks, so if no MBP update is announced by 16 March. I will buy the MBP 13.

 

It comes down to price... a 13" MBP is $1k. To get a decent 13" MBA like the one I have... $1.7k.

 

I'm going to have to say your almost completely wrong. More like:

Last-gen MBA -> Current MBA -> Current MBP 2010.

The only fast component in the Air is the SSD.

 

Yes this... even the fastest MBA can not process as fast as a base MBP, though 300mhz is not huge.

It may feel faster in regular usage however due to the standard SSD.

 

Which is the slowest component in all computers today. So a 10 fold improvement there makes a huge difference.

It depends on what it is you're doing, of course. For heavy CPU tasks like encoding video an SSD won't help much, it will be bottlenecked by CPU. But for general OS usage, like launching and switching between apps, current-gen Air with fast SSD wins flat out. No spinning beachballs, 10 apps can be launched in a few seconds.

 

MBP + SSD does bump up the price, but is SSD going to improve Start up times and general apps compared to standard HD?

I would be burning Cds/Dvd so what difference would it be between SSD and HD?

 

I would say either MBA 11" or MBP 15" ANd if you must choose between MBA 13" and MBP 15", I would take MBA 13"

I dont like MBP 13" much because its not as light as MBA, not as powerful as MBP 15", and the display is just horrible. Unless you want a bit of this, a bit of that, etc.. lol

just my thought

 

MBP + SSD does bump up the price, but is SSD going to improve Start up times and general apps compared to standard HD?

Oh, yeah. For the particular applications I use everyday, my MBA blows my MBP out of the water on speed. This is for one reason. My general usage is not CPU intensive, and the bottleneck of the drive is the salient factor. My boot up time on my MBA is around 9 seconds. My MBP is around three times that.

Now, if I were instead manipulating a video file, my MBP would fly as compared to the MBA.

The bottom line is that the relative speed of a system is dependent on the whole makeup AND what you are using the device for. An SSD certainly adds demonstrably greater speed for non-CPU tasks.

I would be burning Cds/Dvd so what difference would it be between SSD and HD?

Someone else may have experience here, as I have not done any CD burning comparisons with my SSD equipped MBA versus my HDD equipped MBP.

 

The MBP 13 is also a lot better at playing games, and I assume it runs cooler that the Air.

 

Note sure about all of this Pur specs i would agree the MBP 13 is faster. But get away from this and things change.

I just bought an MBA 13. 2.13, 256 SSD and 4 gigs of ram. I run VMware with Windows 7, SQL 2008, office, Visual Studio etc. I also use Python my MBA.
No bootcamp. Speed is great and no slowdowns or overheating issues at all. So far a excellent machine that is very light.
I have yet to even hear the fan running and that was with building a new project in VS.
This and my iPad together weight as much or less than that MBP.

I think not only is the MBA optimized on the OS level but also on the hardware level.
Add in a 1440x900 screen.......i mean come on.

Now that said. your more or less stuck at a 128/256 gig hard drive, no LAN port (USB lan port works just fine). Max of 4 gigs of ram etc.

If you can wait to see if they will announce a new model to the 13" i would wait otherwise today i would pickup an Air. I could not wait myself and that is exactly what i did.

 

Start watching videos and watch the fan go nuts. I have an identical loaded MBA 13 w/ 256gb SSD and it's certainly fast enough for everything except games.

 

Ok What have I decided....more like what have I just done.

I went down to the Apple Store and had a closer look at both the MBA 13 and MBP 13.

For me its all about ultraportability and weight.

The MBP 13 feels bulky and heavy, plus point was it had a longer battery life.

I finally decided Im not waiting for a new model, I decided to opt for the MBA 13 256gb option.

Decided to go for the higher model which has a faster cpu and 4gb ram.

My MBA 13 start up time is 16 seconds. Any tips to tweak the speed and clean up anywhere?

The screen is awesome. The battery life advertised is 7 hours, is this expected on normal use of bit of everything lie internet, word and watching videos?

 

Holy smokes, what are you loading at start-up? My MBA, even with several start-up programs, boots in about half that time.

BTW, those battery run-time stats are for users who dim their screen and do nothing but enjoy watching screensaver "movies".
Figure about half that for full brightness, active work with a little flash.

 

Don't buy an Air.

The Macbook Pro is clearly the superior machine, the ONLY upside to the air is that its about ~0.25inches thinner. Big whoop. As for the screen, the Air might have more pixels, but they're about the same. However the Macbook Pro is 16:10 and the Air is 16:9, the Macbook Pro has the better aspect ratio.

The Air is only worth it for the novelty after you already own a great computer. Think about what makes a computer "mobile," its battery life, not being a forth of an inch thinner. Not to mention you can't update anything on the Air.

 

13" Air is 16:10, 1440x900. 11" Air is 16:9, 1366x768.