MacBook Pro or MacBook Air

[FUTURE DAYS]

Hi Cruisers,
Just wanting info regarding best choice of the Mac laptops for Cruising
Cheers Harry 'FUTURE DAYS'

[bouncingyellow]

MAte I would definitely go Mac air , had many MacBooks and the hard drive always fail, you can always back up larger files to a separate storage base , cheers.

[bluemoose]

Yes, the hard drives go in the MacBooks, which is why you must back them up, but do you really want to rely on a flash storage media like what the Air has?

Well Future Days, as you can see, either way you go, KEEP IT BACKED UP!

[FUTURE DAYS]

Thanks mate for the info...is the Mac air solid state?? just flew b ack home from Brissy today!!

[FUTURE DAYS]

many thanks for the quick response mate!! so pound for pound which way are you suggesting? Cheers H

[Scott Berg]

We have both... a few of comments:

--Both now use flash memory in place of mechanical hard drives, a huge improvement; hard drives fail in any laptop given enough time and use
--The Air is lighter but has fewer ports and no built in optical drive
--The Pro has a faster chip (optional) and is available with more memory, up to 16G; for us photoshop guys that matters

So, for my shekels I prefer the Pro for it's additional I/O and optional memory upgrade. That said my wife's Air is really cute and light. Both are excellent examples of industrial engineering. All depends on how you intend to use it. And keep backing up; Flash memory is fast and stable but you never know when the gremlins will sneak in and trash your data

SB

[bouncingyellow]

Cheers I am from Brissy also , solid state is so much stable , make sure your capacity is bigger than your iPhone .

[bluemoose]

Yes, but solid state doesn't tell you the whole story. Flash has a limited life. It will probably be fine, but back it up!

[FUTURE DAYS]

Thanks so much for the info Scotty, much appreciated. I'm in the process of getting ready to Cruise again, and ditching my landbased iMac 24, dumping everything onto a Mac lap-top ( to be decided..!) and iPhone, iPad, etc...so am after feedback from Cruisers who have experienced this. It's interesting to hear all the pos/Neg feedback from all you guys....cheers mate..!

Harry

[FUTURE DAYS]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

We have both... a few of comments:

--Both now use flash memory in place of mechanical hard drives, a huge improvement; hard drives fail in any laptop given enough time and use
--The Air is lighter but has fewer ports and no built in optical drive
--The Pro has a faster chip (optional) and is available with more memory, up to 16G; for us photoshop guys that matters

So, for my shekels I prefer the Pro for it's additional I/O and optional memory upgrade. That said my wife's Air is really cute and light. Both are excellent examples of industrial engineering. All depends on how you intend to use it. And keep backing up; Flash memory is fast and stable but you never know when the gremlins will sneak in and trash your data

SB

Thanks for the info SCOTTY! Cheers Harry

[FUTURE DAYS]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

We have both... a few of comments:

--Both now use flash memory in place of mechanical hard drives, a huge improvement; hard drives fail in any laptop given enough time and use
--The Air is lighter but has fewer ports and no built in optical drive
--The Pro has a faster chip (optional) and is available with more memory, up to 16G; for us photoshop guys that matters

So, for my shekels I prefer the Pro for it's additional I/O and optional memory upgrade. That said my wife's Air is really cute and light. Both are excellent examples of industrial engineering. All depends on how you intend to use it. And keep backing up; Flash memory is fast and stable but you never know when the gremlins will sneak in and trash your data

SB

Thanks for the info SCOTTY, cheers Harry!

[Chipg]

I have both, get the Air, no question about it. I bought the fully loaded 13" Air, it runs photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut, Aperture with no problems. The screen resolution on the 13" Air is much better than the 13" Pro but for anyone doing serious photoshop color correction you will also buy a pro external monitor. I know 4 professional photographers that ditched their pro for the Air.

My Air is the best portable computer I have ever owned (and I have had a lot of computers).

I even made an external battery for my Air that is small and provides an extra 5-6 hours of time.

[Gene :^)]

I think it would be good to add:

An Island Time external WiFi receiver. http://islandtimepc.com/marine_wifi.html
Connected to an Apple Time Capsule (data backup and also a wifi base station for inside) http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/
And install MacENC on the Pro or Air for the nav station. http://www.macenc.com/
And install iNavX on the iPhone and iPad. http://www.inavx.com/

Then you have a full set up including back up of data.

For choosing Air or Pro, I would say the determining factor would be if you want the DVD/CD drive or not. Since you already have iPhone and iPad for ease and portability, maybe the Pro would be good for the nav station/desk area.

------

Gene :^)
http://www.Strathbelle.com/

[DeepFrz]

I was at an Apple dealer yesterday. The salesman told me he is selling a lot of NEC monitors to the professional photographers.

[Chipg]

I bought the dvd drive for my Air, I think it was $79 and used it only once, that was to set it up for windows so it runs both mountain lion and windows 7, I have never had a need for it since but keep in mind for $79 an Air can have a dvd player (actualy cheaper and a blu ray if you go with a third party external drive).

Good luck to you in your search for the best computer for your needs, the cool thing is you can just go buy the Air and if you don;t like it within 2 weeks Apple will refund 100% of your money then you can buy the pro.