Which 13" MacBook is better for £999 ? 'Air 256GB' or the old 'Pro Retina 128GB' ?
John_Adam1
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Both these MacBooks now cost £999.99 at John Lewis.
I will use it mostly for browsing the net, watching YouTube and also storing photos and music.
Not really into gaming or video editing and stuff like that.
I'm leaning towards the Air.
I will use it mostly for browsing the net, watching YouTube and also storing photos and music.
Not really into gaming or video editing and stuff like that.
I'm leaning towards the Air.
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The main other differences is retinal display and HDD size.
Is Retina display actually worth it in a 13.3" screen? Is a 256Gb drive needed?
In practice I doubt there is a lot in it.
http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-128gb-flash-storage-13-3-/p1911263
http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-macbook-air-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-256gb-flash-storage-13-3-/p2680042
Which do you think would perform better? That's the most important thing for me. I'd like it to last several years too.
With your intended use I would go for something like this:
http://www.johnlewis.com/dell-inspiron-13-5000-series-convertible-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-ram-500gb-13-6-/p2915493
Less than half the price, nice screen and tablet etc stand options for viewing movies, plenty of storage for photos and music.
I would say performance will be almost identical.
They seem to have exactly the same processor.
They have different graphics chips, but that won't matter really.
"Hard drive" are both flash-memory type so their performance will be basically the same.
It's just about preference:
Do you want Retina display?
Do you need 256GB or is 128Gb enough?
Do you really need the laptop to be as light as possible.
The only real advantage of the Air is the weight. If weight is important, it might be worth looking at the MacBook, which is lower specced, but will be fine for your intended use, plus has the hi res display and is very light and portable. They have some with a couple of hundred off in John Lewis just now - 999 or 1049 I think.
In another thread the OP said their monthly income is zero so I'd definitely go for the cheaper option that did everything I needed it to, Apple or no...
The other thing to have checked would've been the official Apple refurbs which are very good but drmand is usually high so you have to be quick/decisive/know exactly what you want beforehand.
To be honest I don't know what these storage amounts really mean.
If I keep music and photos down to a minimum then would the 128 pro be adequate? And would it be any good for online gaming like Fifa or Colin McRae Dirt if I did want to give it a try?
Thanks for that. It's getting very complicated. I have looked at the MacBook option, but I suspect I need a better processor than this one, because I hate it when computers start to run very slowly after a couple of years and I fear this might happen with the M processor?
Thanks for the tip. My parents will be paying me a lot towards it, so price isn't the most important factor. I'm also not interested in buying a refurb, because I want to buy from John Lewis and get their 3 year warranty option.
the CPU is an I5, but ti does not say what speed they are, but for what the OP wants to do, he will not notice any difference.
While i like Macs, I do think it is a lot of money just for browsing, i certainly would not want my parents to pay than they had to.
Air: 1.6GHz to 2.7GHz with Turbo Boost
MacBookPro: 2.7GHz to 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost
So this particular MacBook Pro is probably a much faster machine.
As for 128Gb being enough, since the extra storage requirement is not speed critical then simply get either an SD card or USB flash memory with say 128GB on board.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexar-JumpDrive-S45-Flash-Drive/dp/B012PKVV00/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1477834242&sr=8-2&keywords=128gb+usb
I don't know about games. Maybe search on Youtube with "macbook pro i5 games" to see what the performance is like.
The MacBook Pro is probably looking like the better bet of the two models here.
Found a review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEMQTJsdUew
Thank you very much, that's a big help.
Thanks for the advice, but please don't concern yourself on the finance side of it.
In our house we are total Mac-converts and years of past nightmare experiences with viruses and spyware etc will prevent us from ever going back. Even if the Macs were twice as expensive again, we still wouldn't change policy on this.
I understand that lots of people will think very differently on this, but our family know very little about computers and how to fix problems and so we need to minimise stress and so Macs have been wonderful for us since we made the switch back in 2008.
I have read this and looked at YouTube videos and am now 90% sure I will go with the Pro. The retina screen is what does it for me.
At the end of the day either option is going to be a million times better than the 2009 MacBook White which it's replacing!
Whilst the Air would be best suited to OP's needs one thing I disliked about the laptop was its screen.
Always looked washed out and of a poor quality in my eyes.
Cheers for that. Yes, like I said, it's the screen that is swinging it for me at the moment.
Try Currys, they have gone out of stock as everyone is buying older tech Macs because they offer better value and ports than new macbooks.
Back in stock on JOhnLewis and I have ordered a 128GB Pro Retina for £999.99 and the Air 256GB for the same price. I will return/cancel the one machine once I have made a final decision, but I at least this way I won't lose the choice if they sell out quickly.
I've got the Pro myself and it's a great machine. If you decide to go with that one, you might want to do what I did and buy one of these (or similar) to double the storage on it.
be careful here - I once had hell on wheels returning a laptop one day after online purchase from JL as they said it was exempt from the distance selling regs and was 'recordable media'. I didn't use it, just turned it on and didn't like the display. After a 3 month dispute, during which I was backed by (now defunct I think? Consumer Direct), and during which JL behaved badly, they finally agreed to refund me "as a gesture of goodwill". I don't know if they still regard laptops as not part of distance selling but I would clarify it with them first.
Btw the MBP has a much nicer display and a much better keyboard imho. I am also looking at a new 'old' one. Does the Apple store still sell them as they don't appear any longer on the website?
I prefer Applecare to JL warranties although admittedly they cost a lot more (unless you have access to education pricing). The extra 2 years from JL are with some 3rd party insurer. My MBPro failed 53 days before end of warranty and Apple sorted it quickly with a whole range of new parts.
Highly likely it'll not work out smoothly,
Others will know more than me I'm sure, but i always thought that the big culprit for slowing machines down as time goes on was the hard drive. But with solid state storage that's far less of an issue.
I use mine for the usual browsing, photos, music with a bit of word processing, plus a bit of light Adobe CC stuff. and its fine. Its horses for courses, but for me the light weight + hi res screen more than makes up for any occasional performance issue. And I guess its not my main machine.
You sound like a prime candidate for a chromebook.
I do recognise that the Pro has got much lighter since 2011 though, so may well now be a viable contender in terms of lightness and portability.