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Discussion & troubleshooting on MacBook and MacBook Pro, iBook and PowerBook. Maybe the Duo if you're stuck in the past.

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  1. 23rd February 2012, 12:28 AM #1
    Zuko
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    Default Air or Pro?..I know you've seen this a million times!

    Hi there, I'm wanting to purchase my first macbook... But I don't know if I need an air or Pro?

    I really only surf the web and watch youtube and sometimes movies. But occasionally I like to muck around with photos... I usually have 3 or 4 webpages open at one time (facebook and forums) I also like to play Facebook games.

    I like the idea of the air being smaller and more compact... but don't want anything slow and annoying...

    Thanks in advance for your help
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  2. 23rd February 2012, 03:33 AM #2
    dotnet
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    The Air isn't going to be slow and annoying – but more expensive (compared to the 13" MBP). For the extra money you get SSD as standard and a better display. And of course a much sexier form factor.

    I've got a 13" 1.8GHz i7 MBA as my main work machine, doing all sorts of corporate web apps, MS Office and Entourage, VMware, Aperture and it drives a 30" ACD just fine. I sold my 2009 17" MBP to get this one and haven't looked back.

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  3. 23rd February 2012, 07:15 AM #3
    gehenna
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    We have one of each in the house. The Pro is mine and I only need it for the extra RAM I put in, as I work in VMs all day. If the Air had expandable RAM up to 8GB I would trade in a heartbeat because I love my finances Air. Very interested to see how the rumors of new more powerful and larger Airs will pan out this year. I'm getting pretty tired of lugging this Pro around every day, and it's only 13"!!! I carried a 17" around for years too
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  4. 23rd February 2012, 12:18 PM #4
    decryption
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    Quote Originally Posted by gehenna View Post
    We have one of each in the house. The Pro is mine and I only need it for the extra RAM I put in, as I work in VMs all day. If the Air had expandable RAM up to 8GB I would trade in a heartbeat because I love my finances Air. Very interested to see how the rumors of new more powerful and larger Airs will pan out this year. I'm getting pretty tired of lugging this Pro around every day, and it's only 13"!!! I carried a 17" around for years too
    I'm the same - I need 8GB of RAM, so the Air is immediately out for use as a primary machine. However, if the next MBA has 8GB of RAM, I wouldn't bother with a MacBook Pro unless you need a dedicated graphics card or a bigger screen.
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  5. 23rd February 2012, 12:33 PM #5
    thatfilthyspringbok
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    From what you've described it sounds like an Air will suit you fine.

    I went with the Pro for work because I needed the 15" screen, superdrive and 8gig of RAM (also for VMs). It's also my only gaming PC so the dedicated graphics helped. As decryption and gehenna have said, If those things aren't on your radar then you don't need a Pro.
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  6. 25th February 2012, 01:15 AM #6
    Zuko
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    Thanks everyone, after doing lots of research I have ordered a macbook air.

    Thanks for taking the time to answer me
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  7. 25th February 2012, 02:35 AM #7
    torana355
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    With your needs Get the Air, i had the same choice a month ago and could not be happier with my purchase. My mate has a MBP and after using my MBA he is getting one aswell lol.
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  8. 25th February 2012, 09:16 AM #8
    The_Hawk
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    I "upgraded" from a 2009 17" MBP to a current gen MBA after I bought the wife one and just loved it so much :P I did got the top of the range 256GB SSD + 4GB RAM and it is actually quicker than my old machine The screen res is very nice on the MBA (better than the 13" MBP), I do use VM's on my Air and I do miss my 8GB RAM, but not enough to go back.

    If you grab a USB DVD-RW drive as well the price is starting to get up to 15" MBP territory, but it's really about the form factor. Which do you prefer?
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  9. 28th February 2012, 12:37 AM #9
    Currawong
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    If I didn't need 8GB of RAM, I'd get an Air. A 15" Air with 8GB would nail me for sure, as I could piss off everything else to a Thunderbolt dock/monitor+dock. This makes much more sense than what I have now with half a dozen cables hanging out of it.
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  10. 8th March 2012, 07:31 PM #10
    AnthoMac
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    Congratulations on ordering the Air. Please note that it's very powerful for what it is, and can easily handle the tasks you've mentioned. The current i7 Air is as fast as my 2.5k MBP from 2010 - boy how things have changed.
    Switched the day iTunes AU opened with 2005 15" PowerBook G4 1.67Ghz, 2GB RAM; 2010 15" MacBook Pro i7 hi-res, 8GB RAM; iPod Shuffle 2ndGen 2GB; iPod 4thGen 30GB; Windows 7 PeeCee (intel C2Q, Ati HD 5770, 4GB DDR2)
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