chinavol Posted November 3, 2012 Share #21 Posted November 3, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have been pleased with the 15" MBrdisplay. You can feel the difference in speed of the all flash system immediately. The air's are flash as well but limited in hard disk size. In my opinion the better investment is the new Macbook due to screen resolution, battery life and hard disk size. Beware, the new Macbook does not have internal DVD player and all the ports have switched from firewire to thunderbolt (need to get converters). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 3, 2012 Posted November 3, 2012 Hi chinavol, Take a look here Macbook Air 13" vs Macbook Pro Retina 13". I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Ruhayat Posted November 3, 2012 Share #22 Posted November 3, 2012 I invested in Apple. I have a iMac, macbook, ipads, iphones, etc. now I feel like Apple is going in the wrong direction the only apple left that is upgradeable is the Mac Pro, which is hopelessly out of date Windows 7 (and 8) are just as good as OsX. In some respects better, and the applications available are much much more extensive then apple Sorry, Apple is overpriced and selling on style alone now, and it won't last forever Sorry to cherry pick through your comments, but I agree with these points in particular. I've been a hardcore Mac fanboy for a decade and a half - was an Amiganut in college, as I couldn't afford an Apple at the time. When Apple was struggling financially, I made the commitment to buy a new laptop every year just to support them. Sadly, the Apple of today is not the company I used to support. It's now the biggest maker of toys in the world. Marrying iOS to the OS X made the desktop operating system clunky and ridiculous. It explains why a lot of productivity users have gone back to Snow Leopard on their Lion and Mountain Lion machines. The last two OS X releases, like Win 8, caters more for people who want to play. And it's been a while since Apple cared about the creative industry. It's all consumer led. The Mac Pro has not been updated in, what, 2 years? Buying an iMac means throwing away the screen when the computer dies. And we still don't have a decent standalone alternative on the desktop despite the creative market clamouring for it - the new Mini update doesn't even include a separate graphics processor... strange given that Adobe has been moving towards using the video card to increase performance. I haven't used Windows at all for the past 2 years, but recently I installed Windows 7 on my ageing 2.0GHz dual core Asus desktop with 2GB RAM, and was blown away. The new OS is much snappier than XP Pro, and faster than my 2.8GHz Core i7 MacBook "Pro" with its 8GB of RAM. I also found it far more usable for work - graphic design and photo editing - than Mountain Lion. In short, my advice to the OP would be to forget Apple and OS X, and buy a speedy Windows machine with Win 7 Pro instead. Windows has come a long way in the past 2 years. If you still want to stick with Apple, go for the 15-inch Retina machines, or at least make sure your laptop has SSD and a separate graphics processor (which the 13-inch MacBook "Pros" don't). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Holy Moly Posted November 4, 2012 Share #23 Posted November 4, 2012 I'm now at the crossroads with Apple..... Having used Macs from the olde Apple LISA in the eighties and now with eight machines in the family plus phones and pads the dead of the graphic processor in a MacBookPro 15" makes me think about a change..... Having found a huge amount of issues with NVidia graphic chips in the net, the You Tube reballing and motherboard cooking videos it seems for me in the long run cheaper to buy every two years a Windows laptop with fresh guaranty and threw it away than to stick with a MacBookPro for a longer period and suffer new issues. Other brands have the same problems but I can get them for a much lower price..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipus Posted November 4, 2012 Author Share #24 Posted November 4, 2012 I just wanted to note that I went to an Apple store yesterday and compared the screen glare of the 13" MBA and the 13" MBPR. Both are very similar in how they handle glare and in the brightly lit shop I was not bothered by the ceiling lights, whether when looking at images or reading text. Clearly progress has been made in this respect (though personally I would like to have a matte screen). One thing struck me - both screens show a green-yellow-red effect which radiates out from strong light sources, such as spotlights, horizontally and vertically. It is a bit difficult to describe in words but essentially there is a "plus sign" of red green yellow rather blurred "dots" streching out from the light source. I only saw this "effect" when I focused my eyes on the light source reflection, not when I studied what was on the screen. So it didn't bother me. I also compared the weight of the two computers. The MBA is very light. In fact, it felt in my hand pretty much like my wife's 11" MBA (2011) feels, which means the weight really is a non-issue for this computer. While the 13" MBPR is also light, the overall thicker (though that word isn't really accurate for this computer) form factor combined with the heavier weight made it feel more like the ordinary 13" Macbook Pro in my hand. It feels like a bigger computer, simply. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jip Posted November 4, 2012 Share #25 Posted November 4, 2012 I've got a 15" Retina MacBook Pro... I've always had the 15" MacBook Pro's but got myself a Retina mac this year. The biggest differences between the Air en Pro Retina are CPU speed, and screen resolution... For photo editing the Retina mac's are WAY better, because you can see more details there. Also before the Airs were always faster because of the SSD they had, but the Retina Mac's also have SSD's, and pack better CPU's... I think if you want to be photoshopping you should go for the Retina. For all the other tasks a 13" air is more then enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokoshawnuff Posted November 5, 2012 Share #26 Posted November 5, 2012 Looking at the current options its sad that the matte screen is gone from the options. I have a recent 17" MBP with the matte screen and its wonderful. Not very portable at 17" though, so my next computer (maybe in a couple years) will likely be a combo of the air and some kind of Apple desktop for which I can get a matte screen, if the iMac is offered with one or a pro with a third party display. As for Philip I'd suggest at least 8gb (though now you don't seem to have a choice on more) of ram and 2.0+ ghz processor. I think the MBP would be a better option as the specs at a basic level are better than a maxed out MBA, and at only 1.6lbs more weight the pro feels significantly more solid Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted November 12, 2012 Share #27 Posted November 12, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I just bought a 13" MBP retina. I also have a 13" MBA that I sold today. I love the air and it's the second one I've owned but the retina screen is addicting and I love the more solid feel of the MBP..I didn't think it would matter but it does.. I use my laptop many hours a day and my only complaint about the MBP retina is the price. ouch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
40mm f/2 Posted November 13, 2012 Share #28 Posted November 13, 2012 I have a mbp 17" (matte) and one problem I have with its screen is metamerism i.e. that exact color balance is dependent on viewing angle. Only moving the head by a few cm changes the color balance. Mba has a similar screen. The retina display is much less sensitive to metamerism (not quite as good as the last ipads). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJB Posted November 18, 2012 Share #29 Posted November 18, 2012 My perspective is it depends on how you use a laptop. I travel a good deal and the light weight and thin MBA 13" beats the MBP for me simply for portability reasons. If I was mainly using one as an office or desk based machine, I would prefer the retina screen without doubt. If I could buy a Win 8 machine of similar quality I probably would (and will) as the OS changes Apple have imposed in recent years have become tiresome. I tend to see Apple as a mobile device (phones and pads) seller primarily now, and their software development is focussed strongly on this. It gives me some sympathy with the view expressed earlier that Apple has become a global manufacturer of toys. They are quite good toys, but not ideal for heavy duty users of computers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 20, 2012 Share #30 Posted November 20, 2012 It gives me some sympathy with the view expressed earlier that Apple has become a global manufacturer of toys. They are quite good toys, but not ideal for heavy duty users of computers. What the heck does that mean? I would bet that most of the Apple laptops, Air or MacBook, have way more computing and geeky bench specs than most users can use. You would have to be a heavy graphics user with huge photoshop files open with many layers to out run most of the power in these Apple laptop products. I'd be hard pressed to call them toys. Buy a Dell or whatever PC you want if, you think Apple is just making toys and you want to do real work and spread sheets and work stuff like that. But, I'm very happy with my Mac toys and I hope Apple can continue along the path they are traveling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted November 21, 2012 Share #31 Posted November 21, 2012 So why don't you just install Windows on your Apple? My perspective is it depends on how you use a laptop. I travel a good deal and the light weight and thin MBA 13" beats the MBP for me simply for portability reasons. If I was mainly using one as an office or desk based machine, I would prefer the retina screen without doubt. If I could buy a Win 8 machine of similar quality I probably would (and will) as the OS changes Apple have imposed in recent years have become tiresome. I tend to see Apple as a mobile device (phones and pads) seller primarily now, and their software development is focussed strongly on this. It gives me some sympathy with the view expressed earlier that Apple has become a global manufacturer of toys. They are quite good toys, but not ideal for heavy duty users of computers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted December 30, 2012 Share #32 Posted December 30, 2012 @philipus Just read on the macrumors site that Airs and 13" MBP are to be all given retinas by June 2013 and also get a nice bump in processors, graphics included. You might be better off waiting to see what comes out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrendanD Posted January 1, 2013 Share #33 Posted January 1, 2013 Amazing how these posts ramble on..... Very happy with my MBPRet. Best laptop Ive ever owned. Do I feel the need to diss Asus etc. Not at all...... I dont think theres a lot of difference these days, but the retina display is gorgeous.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chap Posted January 6, 2013 Share #34 Posted January 6, 2013 I use a 13" MBA but just bought a 13" MBP with Retina display. I upgraded to the fastest version and to the 768 GB flash memory. Weight is critical to my travels. There is only 1/2 pound difference but I get a lot more power and storage in the MBP. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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