MacBook Pro 13" vs MacBook Air 13"

ever hear of paragraphs? makes it much easier to help you.

go with the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air is a toy!

plus, you'll always be able to swap the SSD in the pro down the road!

if u go with the Air, how will you transfer your data without firewire? i mean really?

The SSD in the Air is not a replaceable module, but flash storage soldered to the logic board. The MBP's SSD is user-replaceable: you could upgrade to a larger and faster SSD (the ones Apple uses are quite slow compared to some) at any time.

The MBP also has an optical drive built in. If you don't find that useful, it can be replaced with a second hard drive or SSD for extra storage, and the optical drive can be mounted in an external enclosure for infrequent use at home or in the office.

The MBP can use up to 8GB of RAM. The MBA is limited to 4GB.

The MBP's CPU is 29% faster than the MBA's. They use the same GPU.

The MBP is a far more complete and flexible machine.

The SSD in the MacBook Air is user replaceable.
The mSATA SSD unit appears to be assembled by Toshiba and is model number THNSNC064GMDJ for the 64GB version, others will be THNSNC128GMDJ and THNSNC256GMDJ perhaps.

The power connection is on it's own PCB so one can replace it if the Laptop developed an issue with the intake of power and was down to a fault with the power circuit on that PCB.

Memory is not upgradable as it is soldered onto the PCB.

GPU & CPU have a bit too much compound on the chips, will result in a bit more heat than if it was done correctly by a human and not a machine, this is the same for all devices as human error is to great and a machine is better even if it give you a lesser quality job.

MacBook Air 13" (aprox 128 DPI) screen has a higher DPI than MacBook Pro 13" (aprox 109 DPI )

*The SSD in the Air is not a replaceable module, but flash storage soldered to the logic board. *

This is not true Eww. It is replaceable. Toshiba are one manufactur making a unit that's compatible. I wouldn't say it's *user replaceable* though as it involves taking the unit apart.

It's not soldered to the MB. The memory however is.

In the last month I've had both an 11.6" 64Gb/2Gb unit and now have an 11.6" 128Gb/4Gb. Both units had removable SSD.

Would broadly agree with your other points though. In office apps (I.e word/excel etc.) I'm hard pushed to tell the difference between my Air and my SSD i7 :o

Message was edited by: MacRS4

Thanks for the correction, guys. Sorry for my error, Rpma1900. The MBP is still a more complete and flexible computer than the Air.

Sorry I didn't realise somebody had already mentioned it. Reading too quick.

Would agree the MBP is a more flexible unit - by far. My Air is my travel buddy, it couldn't replace my MBP. The Air actually replaced my iPad funnily enough.

I tell you what though - it's a lot faster than the specs would indicate. Have a look at my initial thoughts here, including some video: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2010/10/232010_Macbook_Air_-_FirstThoughts.html

Your comments bother me for numerous reasons.

First off, the SSD is replaceable and not soldered though I would agree it is not 'easily replaceable' for your average home users. More importantly, the reasons that a user would even WANT to replace a SSD are slim to none. Most people replace their hard drives because they either want a faster one, more space, or it simply fails. SSDs are much MUCH faster than their spinning counterparts and have amazing life expectancy -- usually far longer than the user will actually hold on to the computer itself.

As for space, more and more people are moving to external store and the cloud. Hard disk space is dirt cheap and getting a 500GB drive that contain more music and movies than most people have is a non-issue.

Optical drive? Are you serious? When is the last time you actually used a CD/DVD. To install Mac OS X? The new MBA comes with a USB stick containing Snow Leopard, iLife '11 (and iWork '09 if you purchase it with your Mac). You can still use a USB CD-ROM drive or even another Mac via Remote Disc. For the few times a year you use one, I am sure you can make due with other means. If not, get the Superdrive, it also is a DVD+DL burner.

Now for RAM, unless you do heavy Photoshop editing or the like, 4GB is more than enough. I was running World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 simultaneous in windowed mode and I didn't notice any issue switching between the two. Also, I run Parallels 6 with Win7 using 1280MB of RAM without a hitch. The 4GB amount is perfect for 99% of computing needs.

So for you to say that MBP is 'more complete and flexible machine.' I don't really agree. Complete? Possibly, but that depends what you define it as. Technically, they are both just as 'complete,' they have a PSU, CPU, motherboard, RAM, and a hard drive. The rest is extra.

Now flexible, I DEFINITELY disagree with. Everyone that uses an Air for more than a day wonders why in the world they used to carry such a bulky computer before. The Air does it all and for a fraction of the weight/size. I've owned one for about a month now and I'm still amazed at how capable of a computer it is and how fast it is.

Just to counter your claim further, I'll give you a real world example. When I first ordered my MBA 13", I was getting heckled by a friend of mine with a new MBP. He asked me why I didn't 'just get the Pro for the same price, it's more machine anyways.' I always just said 'I need the portability, I like the weight and size difference, I like the comfort, and 7hr battery is nice.' In the back of my mind I was honestly a little worried I might be disappointed with the Air before I got it.

Needless to say, all my doubts quickly disappeared. The initial boot took a whopping 15 seconds into OS X. After that, it now takes about 8 seconds from powered off to get into OS X and it's completely responsive as soon as you see the dock. My friend was floored. How could a machine like that be seemingly faster than his MBP? How did they fit all this power in such a small computer?

Now he touted gaming so we did that round. World of Warcraft runs at medium settings at 30+ FPS in most areas. You get about 20 in Dalaran, but 40+ in area less populated like the Barrens. Starcraft 2 runs flawlessly at Medium/High settings. Counter-Strike:Source, Left 4 Dead 2, TF2, and the other Steam games run at 25-30+ FPS on medium/high settings. Sure, the fan comes on it but it stays remarkably cool.

On paper, the MBP looks faster but in practice the MBA -feels- faster in every aspect. Windows appear instantly, boot times are amazing (5 second restart?), and it's all around just a dream. I've used computers for over 15 years and this is the fastest computer I've ever owned. It's that good.

My co-worker (another IT guy) has been eyeing up my MBA and now is retiring his previous-gen MBP 15" for the MBA 13". Same resolution, less weight, more battery. The power is all there and mine even runs Parallels better than his does.

Don't underestimate the Air. I know the previous revisions have been underdogs, but this one is a real winner. Anyone that owns one will tell you the same story I have.

I'm not sure who that's directed at. While I roughly agree with some of your points I think there's more to it.

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First off, the SSD is replaceable and not soldered though I would agree it is not 'easily replaceable' for your average home users. More importantly, the reasons that a user would even WANT to replace a SSD are slim to none. Most people replace their hard drives because they either want a faster one, more space, or it simply fails. SSDs are much MUCH faster than their spinning counterparts and have amazing life expectancy -- usually far longer than the user will actually hold on to the computer itself.
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Slim to none? Hardly. 128Gb is simply not enough for me for my work or play. My MBP has a 240Gb SSD and a 1Tb SATA drive in it. The Air for me is a great travel buddy, it's not a great complete replacement. It would mean carrying around with me an Air & External storage. Cloud storage? Understand that for some stuff, but storing my DVD stuff in the cloud isn't feasible - the download times would be tiresome. I don't mean movies by the way, I mean DVD software images that I use a lot.

I totally agree with an SSD being years ahead in terms of performance. I'd never go back to a physical drive for OS & Apps. Reliability? Well, it's early days on that. See my article here: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2010/4/1SSD_Failures_More_thoughts_on_thetech.html

I use a lot of SSDs in the kit I have. My Mini has one, my MBP has one, my Air has one (obviously) as do my two windows machines. Completely sold on the tech. More reliable? That's not been my experience to date. They should be, I agree, and I expect reliability to get better, that's true, but they're not as infallible as you seem to indicate.

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Optical drive? Are you serious? When is the last time you actually used a CD/DVD. To install Mac OS X? The new MBA comes with a USB stick containing Snow Leopard, iLife '11 (and iWork '09 if you purchase it with your Mac). You can still use a USB CD-ROM drive or even another Mac via Remote Disc. For the few times a year you use one, I am sure you can make due with other means. If not, get the Superdrive, it also is a DVD+DL burner.
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Completely agree. Rarely use a DVD drive. As you can see from my notes, I replaced the DVD in my MBP with another hard disk.

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Now for RAM, unless you do heavy Photoshop editing or the like, 4GB is more than enough. I was running World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 simultaneous in windowed mode and I didn't notice any issue switching between the two. Also, I run Parallels 6 with Win7 using 1280MB of RAM without a hitch. The 4GB amount is perfect for 99% of computing needs.
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You're making a lot of assumptions about people's usage patterns. 4Gb is great for general operation. I survived with my main machine running 4Gb for years, before moving to 6Gb and then 8Gb. For my main work I can not use a machine with only 4Gb. It can't cope. My 8Gb machine can.

How did I cope before? Well, I had my laptop and another machine at home.... I'm not that far from that solution now with the Air & the MBP am I? Difference is the more powerful machine is mobile.

If you're an office type user who wants Office in OSX, maybe Photoshop, and you want to run Win7 & Office in Parallels/Fusion then yes, 4Gb is probably enough. If like me you're a tech architect who has documents that run into 4/500 pages including embedded Excel, Visio etc. then 4Gb just ain't enough. Never mind the stuff I have to do with server virtualisation. I can run about 8 VMs on my MBP, no way can the Air cope with that. I admit this is probably an unusual requirement.

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Now flexible, I DEFINITELY disagree with. Everyone that uses an Air for more than a day wonders why in the world they used to carry such a bulky computer before. The Air does it all and for a fraction of the weight/size. I've owned one for about a month now and I'm still amazed at how capable of a computer it is and how fast it is.
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Me too, I was astonished how well the Air performs considering it's specifications.

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Needless to say, all my doubts quickly disappeared. The initial boot took a whopping 15 seconds into OS X. After that, it now takes about 8 seconds from powered off to get into OS X and it's completely responsive as soon as you see the dock. My friend was floored. How could a machine like that be seemingly faster than his MBP? How did they fit all this power in such a small computer?
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Isn't that different from my SSD equipped MBP.

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On paper, the MBP looks faster but in practice the MBA -feels- faster in every aspect. Windows appear instantly, boot times are amazing (5 second restart?), and it's all around just a dream. I've used computers for over 15 years and this is the fastest computer I've ever owned. It's that good.
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It is a fast unit. It's as no way as fast and capable as my MBP. It just isn't. I can do more and faster on the MBP than I can on the Air. But here's the thing - a lot of it's down to what you're doing isn't it?

The Air for me is very much a second machine. I use it to go to meetings, when I'm travelling to site, I often use it for documentation. I'm off to Aus for a couple of weeks - the Air will be coming with me, not the MBP.

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Don't underestimate the Air. I know the previous revisions have been underdogs, but this one is a real winner. Anyone that owns one will tell you the same story I have.
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I completely agree. The only caveat I'd add is that you need to assess it against your requirements of course. I for one could not replace my day to day machine with one - it's not able to cope with the stuff that my MBP can do with ease.

I think someone is just ticked that they spent around $2000 for a machine that does the same for $999... Sure your Macbok Air is "thin" and awesome looking... but I'll take the extra couple lbs of weight.... Good luck.... LOL

rpma -

technical discussion aside, I bought a MacBook Air because I wanted an ultraportable sexy, thin computer. but because the applications I typically use are pretty processor intensive, e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Logic Express, I kept my MacBook Pro in case the new one wasn't fast enough. truth is, I have been using the Air almost exclusively since I bought it, and the Pro has become my secondary computer. the Air is a super fast machine and I LOVE it. sometimes when I run the Adobe apps together, it will lag a bit. but honestly don't think it's much different than the lag on my Pro. it's especially great if you travel a lot. the Pro starts to feel real heavy after 10 min of walking in the terminal. the Air you don't feel at all - it's like having an extra magazine in your bag.

if you have the cash, get the Air. you'll be amazed, and you will love it.

I've got to agree with guys here.

I got my MacBook Pro 13" (8 GB RAM) very recently, and shortly after MacBook Air from work (13", 4 GB RAM, 256 SSD). I switched entirely to Air, and Pro is lying around unused.

I prefer the way Pro looks (nice shape, edge-to-edge glass and black bazel), but every time I open it, I just can't justify using it.

Air does feel faster. 3D Mark shows very close results (with Air being around 1 - 3% faster). CPU maybe isn't performing as well (PC Mark around 10% slower in air) but when balance it out with SSD, it's finishing up the same movie in iMovie a bit faster than Pro.

Pro has a better color gamut, hands down. But I'm happy to sacrifice it for larger working area (resolution). For photo work I am connecting to external display anyways.

I think a lot of power in 13" Pro is actually in your (and mine 🙂 ) head. Every now and then when I look at it, I want to switch back, cause it's just so much more-powerful looking. But It's just not something I can confirm in tests or normal use / work.