Help deciding on an Apple laptop

billwill

I am an Apple employee (tech support of iOS devices). For the next four days, I have access to a discount that will knock 25% off any Mac computer and then another $500 off of the resulting price.

I would like to spend $500 max on this but I'm not sure what to get. Specifically, I can't decide between the 13 inch Macbook Air with a 128gb flash drive, 8gb of RAM, and a 1.8ghz i5 or the 13 inch Macbook Pro with a 500gb HDD, 8gb of RAM, and a 2.5ghz i5. Both come out to approximately $508.

The thing is, I've never owned a laptop before. I've always been a desktop guy (still am). I have a nice desktop at home with a 24-inch monitor and a terabyte of storage space that I am perfectly content with. But it would be nice to have something to take with me to school and work, if I ever needed it there, and also a way to browse the internet in either the living room or the bedroom.

I'll be using this laptop for web browsing, streaming of Netflix, and homework (since I'm an English major, this means opening a Word document). Nothing too intensive, really.

Tell me what to buy. Is the lightness of the Air an appropriate trade-off for lack of internal memory and a slower processor?

P.S. I also can, instead of using the above discount, knock 25% off the price of an iPad and then another $250 from there. Perhaps an iPad would better suit me, but it would be a waste to not use the bigger discount, right? It's an either-or thing.. I can't use both the discount on the iPad and the one on the Mac.

Thanks in advance.

Xobyte

If storage isn't a concern, go with the Air. Especially since you'll be taking it to school and work. I got the 13" Air that came out last year and I absolutely don't regret getting it over the 13" Pro.

kaliyama

Macbook Air hands down. It does everything you need it do short of game, do crunchy math things or render. Ipads are nice but if you need to word process they aren't a substitute for macbooks.

Esh

If you don't need storage, get an Air. Come student loan time I'm selling my 13" Pro and going for an Air.

Dhalphir

If all you want is something for web browsing and streaming, get the iPad for less money.

But the iPad won't be too good for writing word documents, although its fine for viewing them, so if you plan to do actual word processing, go for the air.

Esh

Dhalphir wrote: »

If all you want is something for web browsing and streaming, get the iPad for less money.

But the iPad won't be too good for writing word documents, although its fine for viewing them, so if you plan to do actual word processing, go for the air.

He's an English major. ;-)

KafkaAU

I have a pro at home. Definately go for the air. Storage can be taken care of by external drives and/or your desktop, and if you need to use CDs/DVDs you can share the drive on your desktop.

tynic

yeah I had a pro (years ago) but I travel a lot and had to cart it everywhere, and even though it's not really SO heavy, as laptops go, getting an Air was a tremendous relief.

Organichu

I have that exact machine: 13" MBA, 1.8 i5, 128gb ssd, 8gb of ram. i am also coming from a 13" mbp.

i strongly encourage you to get the air. there is literally nothing i miss about the old machine. i have a thumb drive (like everyone else in the world) so i don't miss the optical drive; i definitely don't miss the extra lb and a half of weight. this isn't only about carrying it around in your bag (where the weight matters less, balanced on your shoulder). it's an absolute dream to just pick up with one hand and carry around the house. and the ssd is a huge performance boost- if you've never used one, it will amaze you. in the past if i wanted to just throw together a piece of sample code (but i wanted to work in a big ide like eclipse or xcode or visual studio) sometimes i'd just go 'meh' because i didn't feel like waiting the 15 seconds from click-to-usable. same thing with a funny photo edit idea in photoshop. if i couldn't do it with a super lightweight program that would open instantly, i'd just decide not to... because i'm a young person of the add generation and i don't want to wait for anything. but an ssd seriously changes all that. just about everything opens just about instantly, and you'll never consciously think 'oh, let me go get a cup of coffee while all these plugins load'.

it's great.

bowen

Air as well, you won't need what the pro is going to throw at you most likely.

Plus carrying the pro around oh my god.

Djeet

13" Air.

Does discount apply to refurbs? If so you can score the July 2011 13" 4GB/128GB Air for $190, and given your expressed duty requirements (not unlike my wife's) that's good enough.