Macbook Pro vs Macbook Air for photo viewing etc

You've slightly missed the point of what I was saying. I'm not talking about soldiers, I'm talking about photographers taking their laptops to Iraq and Afghanistan. But apparently warzones are less dangerous places for laptops than a university :ROFLMAO:. Of course most people here will not be in situations as extreme but I was using it as an example to counter your point that somehow the Air is more durable laptop; it's not.

Also, on the weight, the X230 weighs exactly the same as the 13 inch Air and 270g more than the 11 inch model. Really not sure where you are getting your numbers from but so far you've been wrong on the weight, RAM and casing.

It's great you like your Air, and it's a good laptop but there are many reasons why the world's largest photography company didn't pick them for their photographers. Everyone needs to make their own decision but it doesn't help when some people are spouting ill-informed and wrong information.
 
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inkiboo said:
You've slightly missed the point of what I was saying. I'm not talking about soldiers, I'm talking about photographers taking their laptops to Iraq and Afghanistan. But apparently warzones are less dangerous places for laptops than a university :ROFLMAO:

Also, on the weight, the X230 weighs exactly the same as the 13 inch Air and 270g more than the 11 inch model. Really not sure where you are getting your numbers from but so far you've been wrong on the weight, RAM and casing.

It's great you like your Air, and it's a good laptop but there are many reasons why the world's largest photography company didn't pick them for their photographers.
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I was looking at the Amazon listing for it. It listed the weight as 1.8kgs with 4GB Ram for £1444.

In comparison an 11" Air weighs 1.08kgs.

The casing is a plastic outer at least. I know far too many people with plastic laptop casings that have cracked when they've been dropped. Now, I know that you really shouldn't drop your laptop, but these things happen. You can minimise the risk by using magnetic cables and so forth, but for some of us, we just can't seem to keep the damn things on the table. And plastic cases do crack.
 
The Lenovo page shows weight as 1.35kg. http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x230/#features

I've had Lenovos and currently have a unibody Macbook for work. Generally Lenovo machines have been almost bullet proof, surviving users that destroyed Viaos in weeks, but they aren't pretty. Macs OTOH look nice, seem lightweight, but I'm not convinced about the quality of hardware inside the case and ease of fixability. The magsafe power supply connector is good though. ;)

Guess we're a little OT at this point.

The MBA screen is standard Apple faire, outside of Retina displays, and entirely usable if somewhat dull with poor viewing angles. For a lower cost device to view images on holiday then an 11" MBA would be ideal, especially if you like OSX. However if OSX is not so important then it would be well worth looking at some of the ultrabooks, which also have relatively low res displays, but are being discounted now, e.g.:

12.5" IPS screen, 1.6kg, £766. http://www.ebuyer.com/512912-lenovo-thinkpad-s230u-twist-ultrabook-n3c7tuk
 
Hi

What a lively thread !
I'll look at the Lenovos, 2nd hand they look pretty cheap.
I want to avoid anything with Windows 8, had it on a desktop (not touchscreen) and it drove me mad, couldn't find my old W7 key so went iMac, hence may as we'll try the whole mac family.

But at end of day the laptop is for holiday use of viewing/storing photos.

Thanks

John
 
Isn' the screen in the MB air the same as the MB pro 13 (non retina)? I've got the latest MB pro 13, and find the screen dead good, despite not being retina... not as good as my iPad screen obviously, but not shabby...
 
lawrenceots said:
Isn' the screen in the MB air the same as the MB pro 13 (non retina)? I've got the latest MB pro 13, and find the screen dead good, despite not being retina... not as good as my iPad screen obviously, but not shabby...
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The non-retina MBP 13" is 1280:800 - the MBA 13.3" is 1440:900.

I sent some time in an Apple store trying a couple of macbooks over Christmas, and there didn't seem a big difference in quality between my 5YO Macbook & the retina screen at normal working distance (I had to actually check whether it was retina or not).

John - I think that's probably the right decision. Last year I bought a used 12" Philips H12Y to take to Africa, and it's actually a really nice little laptop. It was slow with windows so I bunged Linux on it (and encrypted the hard drive in case it was stolen) for pretty much the same purpose that you want one.
 
So hang on, the air actually has a sharper display than mine?? That's bonkers! :P
 
Not sharper, but just slightly higher resolution.

To me this makes sense - it's a road-warrior's tool (in theory) so you're likely to have to do real work on it & squeezing as much info on screen as possible in the space makes sense. A MBP is a portable computer that can be used out & about if needed, but will most probably be plugged into a proper screen & keyboard most of the time - like mine is. While it's not a terrible screen it's certainly not a good one either, and although it's possible to work on it, more pixels would help.
 
Hi

Checked out the x220, expensive new and 2nd hand it's a big price drop.
Quite a few people at work have these and the engineers say they get quite a high failure rate, compared to other laptops. Mainly on the fans, so they overheat, it's ok for a few hours use but not on all day.

Looked at MBA and MBP today.
Compared retina to non retina and I could finally see a difference, which Looks worthwhile.
So that rules out the MBA and makes the retina the fav.
Best deal is on the 8gb and 256ssd, so that's where I'm leaning.

Thanks for all the inputs and feel free to add anything else.

John
 
Given Lenovo stopped selling the X220 a while back as they are now on the X240, I think any prices you were looking at would be out of date.

And you are the first person I've spoken to who thinks they have a high failure rate.
 
Hi

That was the view of some of our PC engineers.
Someone in my department is on his 3rd in under 2 months, but 2 others have had no problem.

John
 
Just before Christmas, I bought a non-retina MBP for a variety of reasons. First off, upgradability. Both the Air and the Retina Pro are pretty much impossible to upgrade and designed to be 'sealed for life' whereas the non-retina MBP has upgradable RAM and HDD (I plan on adding a 500GB SSD and 16GB of RAM when I can afford to). Next reason, ports, especially the Ethernet port. The only downside is that it doesn't have HDMI. I have a displayport to HDMI adapter, but I just know that when I really need it, it'll be nowhere to be found. I also dual boot with Windows and have a few games installed. The fact the screen is only 720p helps in this regard, as it requires a lot less graphical power and games should stay playable for longer.

I did heavily consider a Retina MBP, but given that there's no option to upgrade them at a later date, the minimum specification I wanted would have cost me £1250, which is simply more than I'm willing to spend on a laptop. The MBP I bought cost me £799 (play.com Christmas sale) which is pretty much the maximum I'd want to spend on a single piece of tech, it's still more than what my car cost!
 
Hi

I didn't know the current MBP could still be upgraded, I thought all macs had gone the way of soldered bits to mobo.
I'm going to check all the pricing again, which is a key factor.

Thanks

John
 
Johnraiders said:
Hi

I didn't know the current MBP could still be upgraded, I thought all macs had gone the way of soldered bits to mobo.
I'm going to check all the pricing again, which is a key factor.

Thanks

John
Click to expand...

The current Retina ones can't, but the non-retina one currently for sale can still be upgraded (which is now a bit of an old model), which is what I went for. At the next Macbook refresh, it's most likely that the non-retina Pro will be discontinued completely, leaving only the Macbooks with soldered RAM and very difficult/expensive to upgrade SSDs, which is a shame IMO. If you want an upgradable Macbook, now is your last chance.
 
Hi

In the end I got a MBP retina 8gb 512 ssd.
Got a sweet deal on a 2nd hand one, only 2 months old, 3 yr warranty.

Thanks for all the input.

John
 
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