Help me pick a laptop !

Hi guys, I'm gonna buy a macbook soon and i can't make up mind between these two, can you guys help me out here

1. 13" macbook air
2. 13" macbook pro

I'm just gonna use it on a day to day basis like, for example : browsing, watching HD movies, etc. Can someone give me a pros and cons about these two machines. Thx

Sorry for my english, not a native speaker

 

Are you going to use it as a main pc? Since you are probably into gaming I would consider the SA

If not, the MBA, its going to be more portable, albeit with lesser battery life. And as a plus the battery life under windows and OSX is pretty darn close.

You add that the higher res screen too.

 

I'm guessing he'll be using his M15x for gaming and the Apple for just day-to-day stuff.

I'd go with the MBA if you don't need a ton of hard drive space. Better screen and great looks and SSD speed. The MBP 13, without a dedicated GPU, doesn't offer enough of a performance advantage for me to recommend it over the MBA 13 for anyone who doesn't need the hard drive space a mechanical HDD affords.

The new Air 13 is really Apple bringing its A-game. The MBP 13...isn't. It's really overpriced for what it offers and just isn't that impressive. The MBA 13, on the other hand, is just plain awesome at lightweight, refined, day-to-day computing.

 

My alienware just got robbed. S*** happens. So I'm just gonna look for a portable replacement laptop that i can use on a daily basis.

So far my choice is towards the macbook air. Can this machine handle watching HD movies ? And what about it's cooling ?

 

same problem here want to buy a laptop but confused between macbook air and macbook pro 13
and also between alienware M14x

 

If you like upscale refinement and ultraportability and don't really game, get the MacBook Air.

If you like boy-racer attitude, gaming ability, and really don't care about portability because you carry your laptop monthly instead of daily, get the M14x.

If you want something halfway in between, get the Vaio SA.

As for the MacBook Pro 13...I can't think of a single person who should choose the MBP 13 as their best choice out of these four options.

 

Why not? The 13" MBP is more powerful than the high end 13" MBA (even with the i7 ULV), it can handle more RAM, it too can use SSD and at higher capacities (though they are expensive), it offers more ports which is always better for people who want to use it as a primary system, the battery life is better, etc. The 13" MBA reallly only has two things going for it over the 13" MBP: its thin form factor and it comes pre-installed with SSD at a competitive price. Other than that, the 13" MBP beats out the 13" MBA (also the 13" MBP can be picked up for as little as $999 if you live near a Microcenter).

Having said all of that, I would go with a 13" MBA today if I had a choice. I didn't go with the MBA whenever I purchased my 13" MBP as it was still using the aged Core 2 Duo processor and it didn't offer a backlight keyboard. I type a lot in the dark and in a poorly lit lab so having a backlight keyboard was essential for me. My computing needs are limited and the i5 ULV in the MBA would be more than enough for general day to day activities. The Intel HD 3000 also allow both the MBA and MBP to playback HD content without taxing the CPU. Even if a program does not support hardware acceleration, the CPU's in both the 13" MBP and 13" MBA can handle HD playback just fine. I have a buch of 1080p mpeg-4 AVC, mpeg-2, and VC-1 videos that I playback using VLC all the time and my CPU usage hovers areound 30% (it would sit at about 8% when using Snow Leopard but Lion changed the way programs can access hardware acceleration and VLC hasn't updated their software to reflect that).

It really all depends on what you are going to use the system for. Daily portable use pretty much calls for the 13" MBA, near-daily use along with hooking up a bunch of accessories points to the MBP, and gaming would be better on a Windows machine such as the M14x.

 

I was reading an article, that says that Apple uses Toshiba and Samsung OEM SSD's in their MBA. According to the test, the Samsung SSD has twice as fast 4k random read speeds, and 16x (16 times) faster 4k random write speeds..

If I was going to get a MBA, I'd make sure I was getting the MBA with the Samsung SSD (MUCH faster) than the Toshiba SSD. Though I'm not sure how one could know, before buying it. I guess, just keep returning it, until you get a Samsung equipped SSD?


AnandTech - The 2011 MacBook Air (11 & 13-inch): Thoroughly Reviewed


FWIW, I wouldn't pay the current MBA prices for a Toshiba SSD equipped machine. No way.

 

I do use my 13mbp on a daily basis (carrying it to work and college). Its portable enough for me. while the mba aint powerful enough. Its a god compromise in my case.

 

Made up my mind and i finally bought the 13" macbook air with the 256 SSD

luckly i got the samsung SSD, which i was relieved after reading the the review posted above

 

That's not too bad of a deal after all. Nice screen resolution (more than MBP), Samsung SSD, and decent processor.

If I were to get one, I'd keep returning them until I got the Samsung SSD - because the numbers are just way too good on the Samsung SSD vs Toshiba. And is likely the only thing holding me back.. I could get lucky, and get a Samsung equipped model on the first try, but who knows.

 

maybe i just got a little lucky getting a samsung ssd on my first try

so far the performance is flawless from start to finish. my only complaint is that sometimes the fan can get a little noisy, other than that this thing is just great... but sometimes I kinda miss my old M15X, to whoever may have stole it I hope you burn in hell.

 

if your going to game you should get the 14 inch alienware. if you just want a powerful machine the new air is really powerful. its true the mac pro is slightly faster but its not by much. its not by much at all. imho the lightweight air is a much better choice. I will be upgrading to a 13 inch air myself from a 2010 pro. the air is simply awesome this year.

 

Except the 15 inch MBP is smaller than the 14 inch Alienware.

 

Thanks for you guys' advice. I would like to suggest which one my brother buy.