Yup! Today I had a Macbook air to play with and, goddammit, thats some serious sexiness! So thin and so elegant that when I went back to my good ol’ black Macbook it felt kinda crappy.
However, it’s design comes with a few shortcommings beign the most important that the SSD is hardbuilt into the computer with no way of changing it to a bigger drive. I’m planning on selling the old MB and get an air but when going to the Apple site and comparing the 13" Air to the 13" MBP the MBP offers 4GB Ram vs 2GB Ram and the HDD can be upgraded to 128GB SSD as the Air have. MBP after the upgrade it’s still $1300. Also the Pro has a fairly snappier CPU. Same GFX card on both.
But the 13"Air is SO sexy. From cold boot to Finder is 15 seconds. 15. Seconds. Seconds!!:eek: Not to mention 2.9 pounds and so thin any backpack could carry it no problems.
I have a MBA, I can say, I like my pro more. As much as I love the Air line, it just sits under my couch and gets turned on during commercials to check email or type a paper.. yes I realize, I spent a bit too much for something to turn on maybe 3 times a week (as I’m usually at my desk). But in all honesty, as far as general usage, I’d go with the Pro.
They’re both great, however it depends on its usage. Personally sometimes I like to just get on my computer and throw in maybe some Starcraft II, or CS:S and for that the air will not work at all.
It’s all dependant on usage. If just for DJing, fuck it - use the air (store your real collection externally, carry the music you’ll need tonight on the air). It’s much lighter, and smaller.
Something you should know though, I have heard rumors (I think it was from JesC - but don’t quote me on this) about the new MacBook Pro line going with all flash memory. So it may increase performance on the MacBook Pro. That’s why I am waiting till it’s launch before picking up a new Mac.
I have the new one. I was relunctant to buy the old one - it came out when I was in high school and I was too afraid to take it and see it break. Which brings us to a funny story, one of the kids did end up having his parents buy him one, the next day he brought it to school, some jealous kid runs up and spanks the shit out of his hand, and the macbook drops in the hall and gets stomped on. I cried inside.
Oh no! I saw my mate install and play Startcraft II on the Air and it ran very VERY smooth (40FPS+/-) with everything on medium and textures on high. If it ran SCII like that, a Valve game would run even better. Still gaming deserves a more dedicated machine but for portable DJing/production the Air deserves a more serious thought.
IIRC, JFK of MSTRKRFT use a MBA old model with SSD. Cant remember if I read it or was on a “Show us what you have on yer DJ bag” vid from the news here…
The only reason it runs like that is because it’s all SSD. Which helps ALOT. But as far as production, ehh, it’s really the SSD still. It’s a dualcore just like the pro. But I don’t know, its really whichever one you like. Lol. That’s what it comes down to. Lol.
Well idk, my problem is I used to rarely turn off my laptop. If I left it on and then went on SC II then I would get close to maybe 3 - 5 fps, and it would be extremely glitchy.
As for gaming in general, I wont discuss it much, but fuck it.
Get the MBP. If you want … wait until the product refresh hopefully sometime in April … I think there is a rumor that it might get a design change as well to make it look similar to the Air (with the tapered ends). No idea if this is true though
MBP all the way dude! plus, 15secs from cold start up? so what, i rarely shut mine down, just close the lid and off i go, let it sleep until i use it again, then its like 2.5secs until you can be on the web etc…
Apple is preparing to launch five new MacBook Pro models carrying order numbers MC720, MC721, MC723, MC724, and MC725. The five new models will reportedly span all three current MacBook Pro sizes of 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch. The new models are also said to be making their way to Apple Italy over the next few days in preparation of a launch “towards the end of this month”.
