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I am currently a junior in highschool. I am planning to major in political science with a minor in criminal justice and then go to law school. i am just wondering if a macbook air would be a good choice for college? or if a macbook pro would be better?
Also check with the Dean/Department Heads of your target schools. Some colleges love Mac's (Music, Art, Film majors)... MBA and Legal schools - not so much.
And As as student (either HS or College) you should be able to "Educational Buy" (aka get a discount) on the hardware and software you'll use.
depends on WHAT you plan on doing with it the most.
both are perfect, owned both, still own the Air. The new Pro is very close in form factor to the Air now.
You need to ask yourself if you NEED / want the retina display, and what kind of use are you doing? Lots of photo video editing? If so then get the Pro. Gaming? also then the Pro.
Give both a test drive at your local Apple store or best buy. 😊
The NEW macbook Pro and Air are EXTREMELY close in form factor
The newest macbook Pro is essentially a larger macbook Air with Retina display and options for speed in increasing prices up to an independent graphics and quad core processor.
both Air and new Pro now have PCIe SSD and permanent RAM.
The Air is the lightweight portable form factor, fast to boot and shut down, but with longer battery life than any of the macbook pro in 13"
Now the new macbook Pro and macbook Air are extremely close in form factor and nature.
both have 802ac wifi
both have permanent RAM, no superdrive
both are slim profiles and SSD
The only real differences now between Air and Pro....are (in the most expensive Pros) faster processors and quadcore processors and top end model autonomous graphics and the Pro has HDMI output.....and of course the retina display
both are now "very good for travel"
Other than features the form factor of the Air and Pro are VERY close now,....so now its merely a matter of features and price more than anything.
You need an external HD regardless of what you get for backups etc. Drop into an Apple store and handle both and make your choice based on features, such as Retina or non-retina, .... both at a distance now look like the same computer.
The Pro weighs more, ....but nowhere near what it used to just a month ago on the older macbook Pros
The NEW macbook Pro is a different creature entirely than the older macbook Pro, .....the new Pro is thicker than the Air, but id frankly call the NEWEST Pro a "macbook Air with Retina display" , or
Maybe a “macbook Air PRO with Retina display”
Instead of Air VS Pro now,.....its really a smooth transition from Air to pro without comparing say, 2 different creatures, now its like contrasting a horse from a race horse.
Either one in 8gig of RAM (preferably)... the 4gig upgrade costs very little, the I7 you will notice only 15% faster on heavy applications over the I5, and NOTHING on most APPS.....I5 has longer battery life.
As you see below, the non-Retina 13" AIR is 82% of the Macbook with Retina display in resolution
there is no magical number of pixels per inch that automatically equates to Retina quality.
A huge internal SSD isnt a game changer for anything, you need an external HD anyway
➕what you WONT READ on Apple.com etc. is that the larger SSD are MUCH FASTER due to SSD density
"The 512GB Samsung SSD found in our 13-inch model offers roughly a 400MB/s increase in write speeds over the 128GB SanDisk/Marvell SSD"
http://blog.macsales.com/19008-performance-testing-not-all-2013-macbook-air-ssds -are-the-same
Here is an excellent video comparison between the 11” I5 vs. I7 2013 Macbook Air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqJ-on03z4
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-465 0u/2
I5 vs. I7 performance 13” Macbook Air 2013
Boot performance
11.7 I5 ……11.4 I7
Cinebench
1.1 I5….1.41 I7
IMovie Import and Opt.
6.69 I5….5.35 I7
IMovie Export
10.33 I5…8.20 I7
Final Cut Pro X
21.47 I5…17.71 I7
Adobe Lightroom 3 Export
25.8 I5….31.8 I7
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Performance
27.3 I5…22.6 I7
Macbook Pro processor and configuration options:
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
Macbook Pro ports:
Macbook Air (13") ports:
Air for carrying around campus - you'll need external storage and backup... Airs are meant to be used as a temporary computer - not with 1TB drives of music and video, or in place of a desktop.
If you want/need 1TB drives of music and video choose the other style laptop - but being in college keep/make a good backup plan for whatever you buy so when (not if) something happens to your laptop (beer/wine/soda spill - theft, dropping/losing it) you can still turn in your work and pass the course.
FWIW any really important PITA work (thesis etc) should have TWO backup copies and one stored off site. If there's a fire at the Frat House or someone breaks into your dorm you wont lose all your valuable work.
Also do not squeeze or stack anything on whatever laptop you buy... the internal batteries can crack - causing risk of fire, and of course non-operation.
Good Luck
Macbook air or macbook pro for college?
