MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

[NordWitcher]

So I am in the market to buy a new laptop. I'll be moving away from a desktop so its going to be my first laptop. I think I am at a point in time where I don't really need a desktop. The only reason I did get a desktop years back was cause of school work and that I was mostly a PC gamer. But my PC specs are so out dated that its been a long time since I could get any of the recent releases to play on my PC. Also helped by the fact that I've moved to console gaming I've found no need for a "gaming PC". I don't even see myself ever returning to PC gaming so my decision has just been made easier.

I am still looking about but I would really like to get either a MacBook Air or a Pro and I was hoping folks more knowledgeable about them would help me out here. I don't really work in tech nor do I plan on having a career involving graphic designing, editing or art. I'll be heading for university in a year or two and am mostly looking at either of them for mostly casual use - browsing the web, working on assignments, researching, and the off chance of a game here and there maybe Skyrim, World of Warcraft or Hearthstone.

I am actually leaning towards the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display since its only a couple hundred more than the basic MacBook Air. Also is there a big difference between the 13" and the 15" cause its almost a $500 difference and close to a $1000 if you get the higher end 15" with Retina Display.

What do you folks suggest?

tlr

> Looking to buy a laptop for casual use - surfing and a game - World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Hearthstone only
>MacBook Air or Pro
>Leaning towards 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display
>Which one should I get or what other options do I have?

Cheers!

[Gum]

The fact that youre willing to spend more money than needed, even after owning a proper PC for that long seems strange to me, and im almost certain you know nothing john snow.

Take either or, its not a big difference, and with your attitutde towards money, you can always buy a new one if theres an issue. Id personally go with the Pro, but id personally never buy a macbook unless i needed it for something worth paying the extra money for. GL with your new Mac, i think youll fit right in with the cool kids at Uni.

Sorry for being snarky. :>

[NordWitcher]

The fact that youre willing to spend more money than needed, even after owning a proper PC for that long seems strange to me, and im almost certain you know nothing john snow.

Take either or, its not a big difference, and with your attitutde towards money, you can always buy a new one if theres an issue. Id personally go with the Pro, but id personally never buy a macbook unless i needed it for something worth paying the extra money for. GL with your new Mac, i think youll fit right in with the cool kids at Uni.

Sorry for being snarky. :>

I should actually add that this desktop was bought in 2007 and its actually dying on me. The video card is already screwed up. I have to restart the damn machine 5-6 times to get it to work or else it just freezes and this is after already paying for a new video card only a couple years back. Its been a while since I've had an extended coverage on it. And considering my laptop is Dell its just going to be more expensive buying parts for it. Also I'll actually need to upgrade eventually down the road. I might as well do it sooner when I have no major expenses.

[Tehterokkar]

You pay $2500 to get a $600-800 worth laptop. It's your decision whether or not the price is worth it.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

You pay $2500 to get a $600-800 worth laptop. It's your decision whether or not the price is worth it.

If you look at the specs, the MacBook's are actually fairly good for the money. An ultrabook with those specs isn't that much cheaper, if at all.

[Cyanotical]

ignore people complaining about macs being overpriced, if you want a mac, buy a mac and dont let anyone tell you otherwise

i would get the pro, there is little price difference but the pro will feel better too use

[Vash The Stampede]

If you look at the specs, the MacBook's are actually fairly good for the money. An ultrabook with those specs isn't that much cheaper, if at all.

Really? Lets test that shall we.

Macbook Pro 13", cause that's what NordWitcher is looking at.

Macbook 13" $1299
2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
128GB PCIe-based flash storage
Intel Iris Graphics
display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600

MSI GP60 $750
Intel Core i5 4200M (2.50GHz)
8GB Memory
750GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M 2GB
15.6" 1920 x 1080

So yes you don't get an IPS screen but remember that screen is driven by Intel Iris Pro graphics. It's fast but not fast enough for IPS. Yes I know about Surface Pros and no they're not fast enough either for their IPS. But for half the cost you get a bigger screen and better GPU. If you don't like the HDD you can still go buy a SSD you can slap it in for $100, and still pay significantly less than the Macbook Pro 13".

[lloose]

You pay $2500 to get a $600-800 worth laptop. It's your decision whether or not the price is worth it.

$2500 Macbook pro is the top of the line Macbook. Show me a single "$600-800" laptop that has this.

2.5 ghz Haswell Core i7 CPU (that boosts up to 3.7ghz).
512mb SSD
Nvidia GTX 750M gpu
2560x1600 resolution screen.




And I highly recomend a Macbook pro retina. Best laptop screen I have ever used. The trackpad, keyboard, and just fit and finish of the laptop is amazing.

[Deleted]

Poor value for money, but if you've got the cash to splash, get whatever you want.

[Deleted]

512mb SSD

Impressive

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Really? Lets test that shall we.

Macbook Pro 13", cause that's what NordWitcher is looking at.

Macbook 13" $1299
2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
128GB PCIe-based flash storage
Intel Iris Graphics
display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600

MSI GP60 $750
Intel Core i5 4200M (2.50GHz)
8GB Memory
750GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M 2GB
15.6" 1920 x 1080

So yes you don't get an IPS screen but remember that screen is driven by Intel Iris Pro graphics. It's fast but not fast enough for IPS. Yes I know about Surface Pros and no they're not fast enough either for their IPS. But for half the cost you get a bigger screen and better GPU. If you don't like the HDD you can still go buy a SSD you can slap it in for $100, and still pay significantly less than the Macbook Pro 13".

The Mac has a 2560*1600 screen that will downscale to 1920*1080 with zero issues, the panel is IPS so won't warp the colours if you're not looking at it straight on. The screen will also have much better blacks making it easier to view in direct sunlight. It also has an SSD instead of an HDD which means the computer will load much faster and the battery life will be higher because it doesn't have to feed a dedicated GPU. It'll also have vastly superior build quality especially when compared to the wheelie-bin plastic they use on laptops like that MSI one.

I often use a quite old iMac at work for software testing (old enough to have a Core2duo in it), and it has one of the best screens I've ever used.

[Cyanotical]

So yes you don't get an IPS screen but remember that screen is driven by Intel Iris Pro graphics. It's fast but not fast enough for IPS. Yes I know about Surface Pros and no they're not fast enough either for their IPS. But for half the cost you get a bigger screen and better GPU. If you don't like the HDD you can still go buy a SSD you can slap it in for $100, and still pay significantly less than the Macbook Pro 13".

lolwut? you wanna revise that?

also, the MSI is a thick, plastic, cheaply made standard laptop, put the two side by side and even a toddler can see that the macbook is the higher quality machine, stop looking at just specs

[Septik]

macbook air is basically a tablet with a keyboard attached, its great if you are on facebook all day.

macbook pro is a very impressive machine, i worked on one for the past 2 years and had no performance issues ever. never tried playing any big games on it tho.

[lloose]

So yes you don't get an IPS screen but remember that screen is driven by Intel Iris Pro graphics. It's fast but not fast enough for IPS. Yes I know about Surface Pros and no they're not fast enough either for their IPS. But for half the cost you get a bigger screen and better GPU. If you don't like the HDD you can still go buy a SSD you can slap it in for $100, and still pay significantly less than the Macbook Pro 13".

The gpu doesn't have any factor in driving what kind of panel a laptop has. A TN panel will run the exact same as an IPS panel on any GPU. The only potential factor is the high resolution, but since the OP isn't going to be doing any gaming, it works perfectly fine. I have the Macbook you linked and its great. I use it for what its intended for though. I don't try to game on it, it is entirely a work and production system. I wasn't looking for something with beastly hardware, anything that I would need that for I can do on my desktop. I wanted an extremely good quality laptop with attention to things that usually get ignored on laptops (fit and finish things).

[Cyanotical]

I wanted an extremely good quality laptop with attention to things that usually get ignored on laptops (fit and finish things).

this seems to be the thing everyone forgets when they start comparing macbooks to standard laptops

[Gaidax]

Macbook Pro is definitely not a value proposition, but they ARE good...

Anything but the cheapest model comes with a very solid specs, gorgeous screen, good build and excellent battery life, if you try to get something similar from other vendor you will save maybe 30% cash max, BUT, you seriously need to go digging to find that, as there are almost no alternatives which have everything said Macbook Pro has - you will either give up screen, battery life or something else. Ultrabooks that match it AND are significantly cheaper are rare.

So a person who is not tech savvy and wants to make sure he buys good stuff should definitely go for that one, you will pay dearly, but you will get quality.

---------------

As between Macbook Air and Pro - Pro is a workhorse, you get performance and specs, Air is not bad, but it is definitely the weaker one with the strong point being ridiculously light and portable.

I'd say Macbook Pro is a better choice, it is still pretty portable but more powerful and if you take a decent model - it will not get outdated even in 3 years from now with only issue I can foresee is the new upcoming USB port, but I am sure they will be compatible with older ports using some sort of adapter.

--------------

A small note - get 256GB model... 128GB is simply irrelevant nowadays and it will get much worse next year.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Macbook Pro is definitely not a value proposition, but they ARE good...

Anything but the cheapest model comes with a very solid specs, gorgeous screen, good build and excellent battery life, if you try to get something similar from other vendor you will save maybe 30% cash max, BUT, you seriously need to go digging to find that, as there are almost no alternatives which have everything said Macbook Pro has - you will either give up screen, battery life or something else. Ultrabooks that match it AND are significantly cheaper are rare.

So a person who is not tech savvy and wants to make sure he buys good stuff should definitely go for that one, you will pay dearly, but you will get quality.

---------------

As between Macbook Air and Pro - Pro is a workhorse, you get performance and specs, Air is not bad, but it is definitely the weaker one with the strong point being ridiculously light and portable.

I'd say Macbook Pro is a better choice, it is still pretty portable but more powerful and if you take a decent model - it will not get outdated even in 3 years from now with only issue I can foresee is the new upcoming USB port, but I am sure they will be compatible with older ports using some sort of adapter.

One thing that really annoys me about laptops is when the keyboard is not rigid - you can often feel it flex while typing. Same goes for the trackpad. Especially when I'm coming from my desktop keyboard that is solid enough to use as a cricket bat without it breaking.

AFAIK USB 3.1 will be backwards compatible with an adapter.

[Johnkie]

Dont understand why you would spend extra extra money for a brand / status.... Fucking mac is just a bunch of greedy mofo's...
Why not buy a PC that gives you twice the juice for half the price?....
its liek buying gucci clothing... WAI!?

[lloose]

One thing that really annoys me about laptops is when the keyboard is not rigid - you can often feel it flex while typing. Same goes for the trackpad. Especially when I'm coming from my desktop keyboard that is solid enough to use as a cricket bat without it breaking.

The track pad is just amazing. I won't use a mouse with my Macbook because the track pad just that good. Multi touch gestures are something that once I started using them, I fell in love.

[ssjgohan4life]

If you don't care about price or value, get either one, if you want something better, dont get an apple, you could spend the same amount of money that a mac costs on a normal laptop and get twice the specs, and yes most non apple products pale in comparison in terms of eye candy, but that is the whole jist of buying apple, looks over everything else. My MSI GT70 looks pretty damn good despite being bulky and it has a steel series custom led keyboard to boot. Somebody commented insinuating that MSI was cheaply made, as if, this thing looks like a beast because it is, I could drop it and it wouldn't give a crap, I drop a mac and it gets a cracked screen, bent case and loose keyboard. I almost never run into bent laptops at my job repairing computers, but man do those macs get destroyed.