The Ultimate macOS Thread

I'm with him on this one, the MBA is a better (and cheaper) fit for light computing like writing and surfing, the 13" MBP is not really worth it unless you really need CPU power.

Cheaper? They cost the same.
 
For a short time I traveled with my MacBook to and from work (I bicycle). I stopped on account of it being too heavy.

If you plan on walking or biking then I'd go for the MBA.
 
For a short time I traveled with my MacBook to and from work (I bicycle). I stopped on account of it being too heavy.

If you plan on walking or biking then I'd go for the MBA.

+1

I walked around with my MacBook in my backpack just about every day for 3 years. At first it doesn't seem that bad, but after a while you feel the weight. Go with a MBA if you will be taking it everywhere.
 
+1

I walked around with my MacBook in my backpack just about every day for 3 years. At first it doesn't seem that bad, but after a while you feel the weight. Go with a MBA if you will be taking it everywhere.

For me it was the opposite, heavy at first then barely noticible
 
For me it was the opposite, heavy at first then barely noticible

Same here. I'm on a 2007 MB Pro 15" at the moment, and have been bringing it to school every day on bike, barely noticing it was in my rucksack together with several books. So mobility is not an issue. The lightweight packaging of the Air is still pretty attracting though.
 
Same here. I'm on a 2007 MB Pro 15" at the moment, and have been bringing it to school every day on bike, barely noticing it was in my rucksack together with several books. So mobility is not an issue. The lightweight packaging of the Air is still pretty attracting though.

In that case I'd see if it has enough storage space foe you. The lower end models have a 64GB SSD.
 
How much were you carrying and for how far?

14 inch D630, 2 to 3 textbooks and several binders. How far? All across a medium sized college campus. :)

The base MBA is nice, but had limited storage...I had to pass.
 
Its (Lion that is) fast because they have removed the PowerPc engine so I have lost loads of games that were written for PowerPC machines. Snow Leopard had this support.
 
Its (Lion that is) fast because they have removed the PowerPc engine so I have lost loads of games that were written for PowerPC machines. Snow Leopard had this support.

Only for PPC apps. I'm guessing the fresh install has less crap running on it.
 
I swapped the shitty RAM that was installed in the macbook pro my friend lend me for a few days and it is now MUCH faster :)

Next, let's swap the hard drive as well, and everything should run smooth as silk :)
 
DUHHHHH was thinking the 11" MBA.

Horribly sized screen though on the 11". Whereas the 13" MBA has a better (higher res) screen than the MBP. Would always go for the 13".
 
In that case I'd see if it has enough storage space foe you. The lower end models have a 64GB SSD.

Yeah, but the 13" comes with 128 GB as minimum.

Is Flash storage in any way an issue?
 
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Yeah, but the 13" comes with 128 GB as minimum.

Is Flash storage in any way an issue?
Not sure what you mean by that. On a high level it works like any other storage you have ever used, it's slightly more complicated when you get to the root of it but nothing that you should care about (unless for some reason you are planning on hacking the firmware). From personal experience my MBP has an SSD drive and I've had it for about 6 months now, don't see any issues with it.
Horribly sized screen though on the 11". Whereas the 13" MBA has a better (higher res) screen than the MBP. Would always go for the 13".
I think OP meant that he was choosing between a 13" MBA and a 13" MBP and I got it wrong in pricing since I was thinking of the starting price for an MBA which is for an 11".

I forgot that the MBA has a higher res screen, in that case I would actually say that unless you need the CPU power and cannot afford a 15" then MBA would be a better choice.
 
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Not sure what you mean by that. On a high level it works like any other storage you have ever used, it's slightly more complicated when you get to the root of it but nothing that you should care about (unless for some reason you are planning on hacking the firmware). From personal experience my MBP has an SSD drive and I've had it for about 6 months now, don't see any issues with it.

I was just wondering whether there would be any differences in performance, but I guess not?
 
Yeah, but the 13" comes with 128 GB as minimum.

Is Flash storage in any way an issue?

I've been using SSDs for the year or so. The only issue I have had was with a cheapo Kingston drive. Performance wise an SSD will kill a magnetic hard disk.
 
I was just wondering whether there would be any differences in performance, but I guess not?
SSD is MUCH faster than HDD in every possible way, has a longer life span and a lot more resistant to shock (no moving parts).
 
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