Should I Buy a MBA or MBP?

I'm choosing between the 1.8 ghz 64 gig SSD MBA and the 2.5 ghz penryn MBP, and was wondering which one I should buy.

For reference, I'm going to be using it just for general purposes in college next year.

I don't really do photo/video editing or anything, and I'm not really going to be playing games on it.

For those reasons I was kind of leaning towards the Air, but I heard the MBP has some nice features that's worth the extra weight.

Lastly, I was wondering whether the processor power difference between the two will really make a difference to me if I just do internet browsing and MS office applications

 

You are running to class and have to take a Pchem book and your laptop. The Pchem book weighs 8 pounds. Do you really want a 5+ pound computer along for the ride? If you can afford the 'Air, go for the 'Air. It is well suited for anybody that is lugging stuff around. I carry 2 small and 1 large textbook to my evening class. Sometimes I also slip my Macbook (whitebook+) into my pack. The weight isn't terrible but if I had a choice, I'd be slipping an 'Air into my pack. If I had an 'Air, I would be slipping it into my pack on a more frequent basis and wouldn't put so much thought into "do I need it tonight?"

 

depends on what does matter...does price matter? For general purposes, you could easily get a laptop under a thousand (unless your partial to macs)

 

well price is not really an issue, they are both around $3000 so not a huge difference there. Before today, I had been only looking at the MBP's but after looking at side by side comparisons, the MBP doesn't look like something I
A) Need
or
B) Want to carry around all day, every day

 

Why not the regular MacBook? It's the least expensive of the three, weighs less than the MacBookPro, and has significantly more ports than the MacBookAir.

For your needs it sounds like the MBA would be the better to the two you mentioned, but if you're considering the MBP I'm not sure why you're ruled out the MacBook.

 

I kind of like the aluminum chassis

But really, I'm not really looking at prices when I'm buying, just looking at what would suit me best...I guess I'm really not a power user that needs a MBP...

 

the air is horrible performance wise from the reviews. honestly. Why would you care about an extra 3 pounds in terms of overall performance? My 8.5lb notebook pwns everything on a mac air, and I don't think it is heavy

 

also, which of these two notebooks has better battery life/ heat / noise?

 

yeah, but looking back on it, I don't think I really need a ton of performance

 

What is your planned use of it? Because if it will be your primary computer I would definately advise to take the MBP and max out every options as price is not an issue.

 

With only a 64 SSD drive you are most likely going to have to use an external drive maybe quite often.

I should imagine that you have done a fair bit of research into this computer already.

I don't know with your course if you might have any needs for Windows but if you do and intend to run it via Parallels it will run better on a MB or a MBP if you install more than 2GB of ram. Even Vista with Bootcamp runs better with 3GB of ram. The ability to be able to upgrade to 4GB is a plus for the MB and the MBP.

 

The MBA with 1.8" hard drive would be pretty slow, but the MBA with SSD may actually feel faster than the MBP (with regular hard drive) for regular desktop apps. I played with an MBA at the Apple store and was amazed at how snappy it was. And it feels soooooo light compared to even a regular Macbook.

Just be aware of the MBA's limitations: no built-in optical drive, only 1 built-in USB port, no dedicated graphics, no high-capacity storage options, and its 2 gb of RAM is not expandable.

If you are interested in games, serious graphics work, storing lots of stuff on the hard drive (movies etc.), watching DVDs, or virtualization, then go with the Pro. But otherwise, the Air with SSD could be really cool.

Ummm... Performance-wise, Vista runs just fine for me with 2 gb, and I can't imagine why it would be any different with Boot Camp. Since I installed SP1, Vista's actually pretty snappy. (With virtualization, you'd probably want more RAM, yes.)

I certainly agree with that.

 

Unless you really want the MBA or you have a more powerful system at home or dorm or wherever, I would not get the MacBook Air. Its a nice, lightweight secondary machine, but definitely not a primary machine for me. Since it seems this notebook is going to handle the bulk of your daily tasks, I would recommend a more practical MacBook or MacBook Pro instead.

 

Normally, I would agree with Sam, but in your case, it seems to me that you've already put the purchase into perspective. LOL

 

I had a similar delema, and decided to go with the MBP. I really like the concept of the air and it is one sexy beast, but I would rather get as much computing power as I can for my money. Since I could configure the MBP with a larger HDD, upgrade the memory to 4 gigs, and have a dedicated graphics card, I figured it was the best future proofing option.

 

This is obviously in the Mac forum for a reason, but have you looked at a Vaio TZ?? The design is nothing to sneeze at, and its even more compact, portable and useful (built-in DVD-RW) than the Macbook Air.

The MB Air is meant to be a second computer, and so I think that if you don't have a Mac Pro or some other desktop, you should go for a MB Pro instead. Kit it out with 3-4GB RAM and a 7200rpm drive and it'll be fast enough for everyday use, plus their battery life is about the same (nowhere near the TZ).

 

Vista with 2GB of ram was a bit to sluggish for me and i have tried this on a Mac computer and a PC. With 3GB it improved the performance. This is what i posted-
"Even Vista with Bootcamp runs better with 3GB of ram." Maybe if you upgraded if you have 2gb installed you might find this to be the case.

 

for anyone who has held both side by side:

is the pro like significantly heavier/bulkier than the air?

If the difference is that huge, it's not really worth sacrificing so much for a little bit thinner...

but yeah this will be my primary cpu probably, but I don't know how much stuff I really need to store. like on my desktop at home I'm only using 21 gigs of space

 

To give you an idea, the MBP is 1" thick. The MBA goes from something like .17"-.75"
The MBA is around 2.5 lbs and the MBP is 5.4 lbs. Honestly, I'd have to worry about someone who thought the MBP is heavy or awkward to carry around. It's the lightest 15" notebook out there, and not much heavier than many 13". I have to say, after playing with several of my friends MB, I feel the MBP is more portable than the MB. Not sure why... Perhaps its because the MB is barely lighter, it's thicker and the footprint is barely any smaller.

When I was still at my University, I would walk close to a mile between my place and my hall, with that and a few books in. No problem at all. Books were a bit heavy, but they were rather large

If you got a sleeve for either the air or MBP neither would be a burden to carry around. And I have not had time to play with the air.

 

There is a thread reviewing the Macbook Air that compares it to a Macbook Pro in a few photos. The difference is striking. Click here for the thread.

The Macbook Air is right at 3 lbs. The difference does not look that big, but it feels big in use. Consider that its not just the notebook, its the notebook on top of everything else. Consider the notebook the straw that breaks the student's back.

I think he has already made up his mind though

 

^ that's why I even brought that up lol

But anyway, I think I decided to go with the MBP...just too many sacrifices that are necessary to use the MBA as a primary comp.

As an aside though, I asked a genius at the apple store whether they were going to release a new MBP this summer and he said that this update they just did was their only one for this year...can anyone confirm/deny this?

 

In college, most classes you take will not require you to take your textbook to class. So you can afford to go with the MBP. Better power and has a better potential to last you for much longer than the MBA. Later on, if you decide you want to start doing stuff that takes up more power, you can go ahead and do it on your MBP rather than being stuck with the weaker MBA, causing you to spend more money on a more powerful computer.

 

I bet he is just saying that to make you buy the product now. A revision with montevina later this year is extremely probable. I am definitely waiting for it.

 

yeah I dunno, it wasn't really an indepth question, he was just like, "well, we just did our update for this year so you're set to buy it now"...did apple update twice last year?

 

I don't suggest the air as a primary computer. Too many compromises. If your budget is that high, why not get a refurb iMac and a MacBook? The macbook is pretty small (lighter + smaller than the pro) and has many more ports than the macbook. I'm pretty sure for <$3K you can have both, haha. You can have the best of both worlds.

The air is a great machine and if you do get one, imo the SSD isn't worth it due to the high (early adopter) price. Go for the HDD.

 

the MBP seems like a good fit for a primary comp for someone without a lot of physical space for a desktop. I'm just wondering now whether I should wait a few months for another possible update?

 

No... the updates just came out.. their won't be another for a bit.. Don't bother waiting unless you have no need for it yet..

 

As people keep bringing up the added 'weight of books' issue as a reason for picking the MBA over the MBP has anyone ever thought of this. Photograph the damn things. This is what you need and need to do. My personal way is this.

Necessary ingredients.
1) Digital camera (7MP or up preferably)
2) Cheap tripod (got mine for 20 euro)
3) Laptop or pc, windows or mac
4) Copy of Adobe Acrobat pro 8.0

Method
1) Switch camera to macro mode, I use ISO of 50 on my Casio Exilim 7.2.
2) Attach to tripod and turn on the flash
3) Photograph the book 2 pages at a time (around 4 seconds per 2 page spread)
4) import pictures to pc/mac
5) create a single PDF of them using Acrobat
6) OCR the large PDF
7) Compress the PDF. (filesize example: 834 page book of fine text = 182mb)

You now have a book that looks like a book (as you still looking at the photographed image just as a PDF) and its fully searchable so no messing around finding what you want. Most importantly its not sitting in your damn bag crushing your laptop and your spinal column dragging it 10 miles around the campus. And you still have the physical books at home for when you get back from college.

I have done this with my own college books (often 1600 pages of incredibly fine legal text) and I basically have a library stored on my MBP that is fully searchable in spotlight.

If the only thing the Macbook Air has going for it over the Macbook Pro is the weight and size then do yourself a favour, limit your load by doing this and get the better laptop, which is quite simply the MBP.

P.S. I know what copyright infringement is but this is the same as copying articles from a library in most jurisdictions.

 

Good suggestion, however how often does one have enough time to take digital photographs of their textbooks. Not saying its not a good idea, but I would certainly never take the time to do that.

 

Example:
800 page book
2 pages per shot
1 shot every say 4 seconds
= 400 shots x 4 seconds
= 1600 seconds = 26.667 minutes

Give yourself 1 hour to setup, take the shots, import and compress in total.

For me thats better than spending 30 hours a week dragging the thing around a college.

 

winner of an idea Jurisprudence! i've done the same thing for a friend who did not have a scanner, sans tripod. if you don't have a camera, use iSight + Photobooth (unreverse the image).

i know the decision is more or less made, but just for the sake of argument, just how much would the OP be benefiting from the power of the MBP?

based on what's been written so far, the OP does not seem to do anything that requires oodles of power, nor the additional ports available to the MBP. most users really only use USB and the 15" MBP only has 1 more USB port than the MBA.

i assume the OP is college-bound somewhere out of town, so there will not be access to the aforementioned desktop using up a lean 21 GB, thus necessitating a primary notebook. will there be need for FireWire or Expresscards or 2.5 GHz of dual-core processing juice? how often does your computer max out when surfing the web or typing up an essay?

based on the testimonies of MBA users, it sounds like the machine is very solidly built, portable yet highly usable, and an indescribable joy to work on. it has all the user-centric amenities that the MBP has (backlit keyboard, LED screen, multi-touch touchpad, etc) at 60% of the weight and 75% of the thickness.

snag a USB hub, external hard drive, USB printer and Superdrive and you're good to go.

from my brief experience in an Apple Store, the MBA felt very comfortable to hold and tote around. it was the only notebook i could wave over my head one-handed without a creak (but with a lot of yelling and screaming from store employees).

i only say this because money appears to be a non-factor.

 

Very well put points Hoimin.

For me its not actually about the power or the ports but about a replaceable battery and recharge times of the MBA in addition to possible noise issues and reliability. Some MBA owners have been reporting excessive recharge times (8-10 hours) which in a college environment can be the difference between using the laptop in the next lecture and going back to pen and paper (my college has a serious lack of available outlets in the lecture rooms although I know many are better equipped.)

Also from some reports the fan noise on the MBA can get a little bit nuts, running the laptop fans up to 6000rpm and above with some substantial heat build up and many stories of the processors locking up and shutting down. That makes me worry about the potential failure rate of the MBA over the long term, leaving owners in the lurch, out of warranty, out of luck and out of pocket.

I'll take a tried and tested design, quick recharge, replaceable battery, quiet fans and a larger screen to lessen eye-strain but thats just personal.

 

I agree and all I can say is that for a ultraportable the (mba's first adjective) is the thinness so its light and small enough for you to carry around is achieved and done really well, BUT it fails in the battery life department because the battery portion of an ultraportable should go hand in hand and it should be user replacable and be able to charge in 2 hours (at most). I think about it this way before buying an ultraportable, will the ultraportable I buy battery last 8-10 hours away from an adapter? Because if I buy a laptop and it needs to be hooked up to the wall most of the time, I rather have a mbp which is far superior and faster.

The battery life on the mba is not awesome but its ok at about 4:35-4:45, but compared to other ultraportables that can get almost 10 hours, its pretty bad. I mean people getting happy about almost 5 hours battery life is a joke to me since the new penryn mbp can do 5 hours or even a little over 5 hours, I believe that I read in various articles that the penryn mbp tops an the mba in battery life of an extra 20 minutes in battery life + mbp is user-replacable.

I honestly thought that the mba should have used a lower clocked ULV chipset like the sony vaio's tz models and toshiba ultraportables and fujitsu and etc... Imagine a 8-10 hr mba.. man that would be awesome + the price would be much cheaper too.

Also its a known fact and I've learned my lesson as well for rev. a machines from apple to be a beta test for first time purchasers and on the rev. b add alot of new features and improvements and to not be at its best and usually or pretty much all the time the rev. b is MUCH improved in every way. And yes the fans are very loud and high pitched whirl going brzzzz drives me insane!! And uncomfortable level of heat building up on the bottom back and left side.

 

@_@ hoimin made some pretty good points along the lines that I was thinking before, but I am a little shaky about the air because I have no idea what I may end up using that computer for in the next few years, and I would rather be safe than find myself needing something that the MBA can't do for me

 

I think if you're not sure, just get the MBP, it's the "safer" choice .

 

One solution is to just not spend all of your budget at once because in the end, it all comes down to $$. Being on the bleeding edge will always cost you more.

Wait until you're at college, then either buy a cheap refurbed Macbook for the time being, or make the decision between MBP/MBA then. But you have to be willing to buy used/refurbed and to jump on a deal. By Sept, you will definitely see MBA refurbs.

 

it's pretty rare to have a cordial discussion of differing opinions and such a consensus at the same time. kudos to the NBR Apple/Mac forum members! anyone in the same situation as Koralan should definitely take note of the wisdom in the posts of the contributors to this thread.

the initial launch of the MBA was almost as bumpy as the first Core Duo MBPs -- overheating issues, fan problems, build quality issues. as jjahshik32 mentioned, Apple's Revision A models are closer to Beta builds than final products. that being said, i believe the MBA will see vast improvements in the problem areas mentioned by Jurisprudence about CPU core lock downs and fan issues. the latest block of MBAs seems to be clear of such issues so far (see WilliamG's review), so the MBA might very likely be a possible choice come late August when Back To School sales are in full swing (a la Mark Larson's suggestion). you'll probably score a rebate offer on an old iPod Nano if history is any indicator.

personally, i'm waiting for revision B of a redesigned MBP, hopefully sporting Nehalem/Calpella under the hood. or an unholy mating of an MBP, MBA and Blackbook to form a black anodized aluminum MBP 0.75" thick (all around, without the silly tapering) with the MBA keyboard and screen and touchpad.

 

Can't argue about that! Seeing some of the other Mac forums out there on the web, I can't help but see how helpful and friendly every is here.