MacBook Pro or air?

[brosephh]

Hey guys, I have spent hours trying to come up with an answer to my own question, should I get the MacBook Pro or air. I can't afford the retinas, and I'd like to keep it 13 inches as it were. I really like the portability of the air, but would it struggle with music production?

Kind regards,

Joe.

[padi_04]

Buy the pro, it's more user serviceable than the air (and the new mpbs).

It might be a pain to produce with the air mainly because of the small drive, meaning you will have to use an external if you have a big sample library and such. If you get a ssd for the pro you can replace the dvd drive for another disc to use for this purpose.

[mostapha]

The Air is a very capable computer. People use them for mobile recording, and they can run production software just fine, though you'll have to bounce things to audio more often than you would with a higher-end processor and more RAM.

It's biggest limitation IMHO is soldered ram, combined with the fact that Apple doesn't give legit RAM upgrades. It costs less than $100 to get 16GB of ram for a Macbook Pro……and you just can't do it with an Air. The Air CPUs are pretty good for how small they are, but they're not that impressive today.

SSDs are still a on the expensive side, but you can put two of them in a MBP. The Air will only ever have one, and the ones from Apple are still kind of crap unless you get lucky. There are 2 different SSDs they used: one of them is fine (only a little lackluster) and the other one blows………and there's no way to tell which one you're going to get until you get it. Alternatively, OWC sells aftermarket ones that are better and not that expensive. But that's all the upgrades you can do to an Air……just the SSD.

Macbook Pros still have firewire for a little while longer, IIRC, which may or may not matter to you. And if you use it, MBPs have gigabit ethernet instead of taking up your thunderbolt port……since Apple's thunderbolt adapters won't allow daisy chaining……because they don't think when they design things like that.

Basically………I'd always chose the Pro over the Air. I really want an Air, because I'm sick of carrying around a 13" laptop……I think it's too big to carry around 5ish days/week. But I'd never be happy with it as my only computer. My MBP, on the other hand, has served me well for over a year and will continue to do so for some time yet.

Conversely, the only reason for an Air IMHO is if you want the smaller 11" size. The 13" air has literally no advantages over the 13" MBP except for being just a little cheaper.

[djromanj]

I had the same dilemma when purchasing a new laptop.

I went for a mac book pro for the reason mostapha mentioned.
The mac book pro is way more serviceable, than the air. With the macbook pro, you can eventually upgrade everything yourself, change the ram, and remove the optical drive for an SSD. The Pro is a solid laptop.

[LoopCat]

I wold go the 13inch MBP. I think in the not to distant future the airs will be the one to get for DJ's/Mobile Producers when they bump up the specs a touch but at the moment I think the pro edges it out like the others have said.

[tricks]

Yup, go with the MBP. I got a used last gen from amazon warehouse about a month or two ago and couldnt be happier. It was stated as "used - very good" when I got it it was still basically shrink wrapped. Looked like the actual computer hadnt been touched. Anyway, popped 8 gb ram in there and swapped out the hard drive for a 256 SSD and it screams. Total cost was about $1100

Go for it.

[joshmlevi]

Macbook Pro.

[Xtian317]

I've been happy with my MB Air.

[dj gullum]

the Air 13" has 1 advantage over the MBP 13". Air is 1440x900 and MBP is 1280x800 so you get more screen on the Air.

[C.Lukas1]

Can't go wrong with either really. It's all personal preference.

I was in the same boat about 6 months ago. I went with the MPB. HD space was the final decider. I would have loved to have had a SSD, but only 128gb was available at the time and it's quite expensive anyway. I believe they now offer a 500gb ssd.