Hello Can anyone give me some advice on which one to get? I would want one which is 13" screen and the use of it would be for my IT job, so just MS Office, outlook and web browsing really i guess i would have to run a dual boot with windows 7 I understand Apple recently refreshed their products,, want to make sure i get the best one Many thanks Tom
It all depends on your budget and exactly what you want - if you want a retina-esque screen you're not going to get it from the macbook [not form the air at least]... How much storage are you likely to need? as the higher capacity SSD toting airs are quite a jump in price... Is your work likely to need the faster processor or more ram? If you're planning to put windows on it... why? Is there something you need that's windows-only? If so, why a mac? Why not something like the Dell XPS 13 So asking for advice a '13" laptop for general office stuff' is all well and fine, but a little more info is needed... Chiefly how much are you prepared to spend?
I would agree with RedFlames. If you want maximum portability, why not Surface Pro 3 (thinner and lighter). Solid build quality, junk free (as its Microsoft), fuller keyboard (End, Home, Page Up/Page Down), standard size keys, to easy to get used to, powerful, and you have a digitize pen, that means you draw on it with precision, and support pressure sensitivity and hovering tracking. Just to mention and alternative options to what was said.
Got to love people who totally ignore the OP's question and go off on their own tangent. If you're specifically after the MBA, the model to purchase is the 1.4Ghz i5/256GB SSD/8GB RAM. This will cost (retail) £1,079. If you think you really really need it then you can upgrade the CPU to the 1.7Ghz i7 for another £130. You need the 256GB SSD if you're wanting to dual-boot, but the 512GB is silly money. The other option is the 13" rMBP. Not much bigger than the Air, but better screen and CPU. For this, it's the 2.6Ghz i5 / 256GB SSD / 8GB model at £1,199. Again, you can get a CPU upgrade for £80, but it's only 200Mhz, and the i7 upgrade is silly money at £240. You could go for 16GB RAM at an extra £160, but again I think that is too much. If you do want the 512GB SSD it's £1,399 for that mode, but does include the CPU upgrade to 2.8Ghz. In a way it's down to budget. The Air is cheapest at £1,079, but it isn't much of a leap to the rMBP at £1,199 which has better specs. If you can afford the £1,399 the upgraded rMBP is a good buy (in Apple terms) as you're getting an £80 CPU upgrade and a £240 SSD upgrade for £200.
I would say go and take a look at both a Macbook Air and a Surface Pro 3, buy the best one within your budget that you like the look of.
No we have not! We are providing potentially more interesting options, in trying to find a better solution to the OP. It's like if you come and say: Hey guys in this apartment building, they have 2 apartment that is interesting, which one I should I get? There is no harm in us saying, hey, did you check out this apartment building 2 blocks away? We think it is closer to your work and potentially nicer to you? How is that going in a tangent? If the OP says: "Yea I did, But I still prefer the one I found", then ok, we will help him or her pick the best choice.
No, the OP said "I want a MacBook Air, which should I get?", not "Hi guys, I'm looking for a 13" laptop, any recommendations?". In fact, you totally ignored the OPs request and didn't even say anything about Mac choice.
I didn't ignore the OPs question I was asking for clarification, slapping Windows on it kinda negates the point of buying a mac imo... Also can't really recommend anything mac or otherwise without knowing the OPs budget...
Exactly. Leave the fanboyism to the windows threads. If the OP can get most of his work done through the mac operating system then virtualising windows could be an option for him, rather than paritioning and dual booting the macbook. Its actually possible to run a virtual instance of a windows machine from external storage. This could cut out the storage overhead and the hassle of having to shut down one machine to get to another. I'm not a mac user so I can't give you the full details of virtualising windows. But check out VMWare Fusion as a start. I know one of the IT guys at work uses a mac for server administration and the like, he seems to get on fine without windows. He's mostly SSHing into servers for maintenance.
Fusion is a very good piece of software these days, and you can easily fit it (+Windows VM) on to a 256GB primary OS X partition. Definitely worth thinking about if your use of Windows is minimal - which it can be, as OS X covers most bases anyway (and has the benefit of being a *nix based system, which means you can use Terminal). Comes down to exact usage really.
This has NOTHING to do with Windows fanboyism. This has to do of him, asking for MacBook Air (which is 100% fine), and say he or she wants to install Windows on it. Why? Is he planning to install and use Windows exclusively on it? If so, then maybe... just MAYBE, the OP is unaware of some options available. Not everyone knows what is available in the entire market. MAYBE, the only reason he or she wanted a Mac Book Air, is for the only reason that it is thin, light, and has a great battery life. So suggesting other options, is more helpful. Also, it builds a discussion for OTHERS that will come by and read this thread, which the viewer might find information helpful, and avoid repeated or ask similar questions.. over and over and over and over again. This is a FORUM, not QA system.
Woah, guys, chill out! My oh my! This is a forum which means DISCUSSION, not follow strict guidelines and never go outside of the box. The OP has stated about a Mac, and I wholeheartedly agree with the others on here that he should perhaps look elsewhere if he is going to install Windows and not use the OSX side of it at all. Spending that much money on a Mac just to do basic tasks doesn't need a £1000+ laptop when something else could do it just as well.
Seems to me you would just want the basic 13" MBA. I can't see why you would have to run a dual boot though - MS Office has a mac version, and web browsing, is well, web browsing! The basic 13" MBA runs in at £849 - But it's always worth looking in the refurb section on the apple site.
Only problem is the 128GB SSD they come with on the bottom end. Even if you have a pure OS X install you'll be running out of space pretty quick.
Still got loads of space left on my 128GB SSD, and I have all my software, a few games, my work files, OS X and a Linux virtual machine on there. Bags o' room!
Well given the op has 37 posts in the last seven years. I imagine he'll be back in about two and a quarter months
On my home PC I have 214GB of space allocated to my C drive and its actually been more than enough for day to day running of my machine. That includes about 45GB of uselesss crap in my downloads folder made up of installers, updates, linux ISOs, and random PDFs. None of which I have found I need to delete yet. I do have games and VMs on other SSDs, but as a pure windows programs and day to day file computer drive I would probably get away with 128GB. My work PC on the other hand its a bit of a nightmare fitting everything on to a 250GB SSD.
