mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Yes, I know, I'm a PC person. One of my sisters is looking at Mac's though. Opinions: Air or Pro? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skadi Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Air. We hardly use disks anymore, and you can buy a separate disk reader if you really need it (I think it's around $50). The 13 hour battery and lightness are incredible. I really think you only need a Pro if you are a Pro (a professional)--that is, a photographer, illustrator, film maker, etc. For the average person, I think Air is just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 If she buys the Air or the Retina Pro, she needs to get everything she wants as far as memory and hard drive space because they are not upgrade able at all. Personally, I'd go for an Air if it was my turn to get a new one. My husband has one and it has plenty of horsepower and is super light and the battery lasts forever. It's his second Air. I have an older, much heavier Pro. Tell your sister to look at refurbished models. They have the exact same warranty and qualify for the extended AppleCare warranty, and she can save a couple hundred dollars (which could mean she could get a bigger hard drive or more memory for the same price as new). All of our Mac laptops have been refurbished. I didn't know about the refurbished store when I got the iMac and Mac mini.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 The only thing with refurbs is to make sure you get the latest model year. They do sell older models. For an air, you'd be looking for a 2013 if you wanted the really long battery life and better graphics card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 She's asking if it's better to go through Apple Store or through Best Buy (if she goes new...I'm all for refurbished, but she is talking about still possibly going new)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypatia. Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 I have a Pro right now and my next one will be an Air. The only time I use the DVD drive is when DS1 is doing his Teaching Textbooks (the drive on the homeschool laptop died) or when we're doing Atelier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 I have a Pro and I do use the dvd drive. I watch movies on my laptop when I travel alone and I'm probably the last person on the face of the Earth who actually buys a music cd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 She's asking if it's better to go through Apple Store or through Best Buy (if she goes new...I'm all for refurbished, but she is talking about still possibly going new)? Apple store. They'll have a record of her purchase for warranty purposes and won't have to keep up with a receipt just in case. There is literally no upside to new versus refurbished unless she just wants to pay more to not have to wait on it to ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 She does NOT want a disc drive. We were considering Pro because of the specs on speed and RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Looks like the new Pro's don't have disc drives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 She does NOT want a disc drive. We were considering Pro because of the specs on speed and RAM. Is she looking at a regular Pro or a Retina pro? The air will outrun a pro with a traditional hard drive because it is totally flash memory based. A moderately upgraded air will run circles around a traditional Pro for the same price. Eight GB of RAM for a Mac is plenty. Stats don't matter with them as much as they do for PCs. You can actually slow down a Mac by having more ram than you need. I'd recommend an air with an upgraded processor, 8gb of ram, and 512 gb of storage. They are QUICK. My next one will be this sort of Air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Is she looking at a regular Pro or a Retina pro? The air will outrun a pro with a traditional hard drive because it is totally flash memory based. A moderately upgraded air will run circles around a traditional Pro for the same price. Eight GB of RAM for a Mac is plenty. Stats don't matter with them as much as they do for PCs. You can actually slow down a Mac by having more ram than you need. I'd recommend an air with an upgraded processor, 8gb of ram, and 512 gb of storage. They are QUICK. My next one will be this sort of Air. Thank you :) This helps a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 I have a Pro and I do use the dvd drive. I watch movies on my laptop when I travel alone and I'm probably the last person on the face of the Earth who actually buys a music cd. You and my DH. :P Something about sound wave compression or some such... Actual CD is usually better quality. I probably bungled that. FWIW, I've had a Pro and never used it to its full capacity. I agree that one should be a photographer, film maker, etc to get the most out of it. I am using an old MacBook till I get an Air. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Thank you :) This helps a lot. No problem. One more thought...the pros have not been upgraded to the haswell chipset like the air has been. They have older generation processors for 2012 and the biggest benefit is that the air's processor has more power and much longer battery life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 You and my DH. :p Something about sound wave compression or some such... Actual CD is usually better quality. I probably bungled that. FWIW, I've had a Pro and never used it to its full capacity. I agree that one should be a photographer, film maker, etc to get the most out of it. I am using an old MacBook till I get an Air. :) There will be ALOT of photographs! They have to photograph EVERYTHING...for advertising, auctions, flyers, videos.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 There will be ALOT of photographs! They have to photograph EVERYTHING...for advertising, auctions, flyers, videos.... My husband is quite the photographer and has no issues editing them with an Air. His is upgraded like I described earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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