13" Macbook Pro vs. 13" Macbook Air

[RBWilliams]

I guess the huge question I have is 11" or 13" Air. I like the 11" because it is small and compact but I am blind as bat

LOL!  Well, me too and I'm thinking 15"......I need to see...lol

[Cookie]

I guess the huge question I have is 11" or 13" Air. I like the 11" because it is small and compact but I am blind as bat

 

13" is very very light too. Screen size vs. weight, I still vote 13". 

[babycakes]

I own a MBA 11" from 2011 and it has been faithful. Even though my 3 year warranty expiration is approaching, I only had to have one real fix (LCD started screwing up) which I got fixed next day. 

 

I love it because it's so portable and lightweight, and it runs as well as a full sized macbook (the new macbook pro retinas and beyond are a hair faster when powering up from sleep). When I was a lab tech it was very useful. I like things "mini" so my reasons for getting the 11" over the 13" are fairly trivial (as well as the lower price). However if I had to do it again, I'll do the 13" just for a longer battery life. You're going to be spending a lot of time on that computer reading articles, crunching data, writing your dissertation, etc. and probably procrastinating so a long battery life is crucial.

[Icydubloon]

You buy a laptop for its portability. If you truly need computing power (e.g. engineering) you know where to get it (school cluster, machine, the cloud). Get the air.

[alpheratz]

So, I guess the new Macbook air is out. It's $100 cheaper than before, but you only get a $50 education discount. 

 

For anyone who's still looking to buy a laptop: the fact that the new air came out knocked down the price of the previous models by quite a lot ($200).  The only update to the Air was a slightly newer processor, which reportedly didn't actually up speeds all that much.  The mid-2014 model and the previous model (which they were selling through April 2014) still both have 4th generation haswell processors, so...  

 

In my mind, the two are pretty comparable.  I wanted a nice ultrabook, so I got the higher end pre-configured 13.3" model (4GB memory, 256GB flash storage; MD761LL/A) for $950.  $200 off the price it was selling for in April ($1,299) brought it down to $1,099, and you can get a student discount for $150 from The Evil Big Blue Best Buy.  I have to admit that I was on the fence about buying an Apple because you can get laptops with comparable specs for cheaper, but I did my research and decided that I really wanted an ultrabook.  At a price point of $1,299, I probably could have found something that was better than the Macbook Air (lower-end Asus Zenbook, anyone?).  Knocking a total of $350 off that price made it a pretty solid deal.  That practically covers the price when my proprietary mag-safe charger breaks the next four times and I have to buy new ones at the low, low price of $80!

 

If anyone else is curious, you can still find the slightly older models for discounted prices at various online retailers (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.).  I couldn't find them still being sold through the Apple store, but they're still out there.  

[vdshop]

I like Macbook Air 2016. hehe