Anybody got any thoughts on Mac laptops?

[hobbitle]

Hey peeps

I've had a Macbook Pro for about 7 years now (two different ones over that time)… But since starting uni I'm kind of tired of carting it around… it's heavy!  I'm thinking of getting a, 11" MacBook Air but it seems like pretty bad value for money… to get the 'good' specs (similar to my MacBook Pro) the 11" Air is $2000! And my 13" Pro was $1500! 

I know I need at least the 500GB Hard Drive but I don't really work my computer very hard these days… I used to do heaps of drafting and film/photo editing but not so much anymore.  Mostly internet and uni note-taking, watching and downloading lectures etc…. Perhaps I don't need the 8GB RAM (upgraded from the standard 4GB) and the 1.7gHz i7 Processor (upgraded from 1.3gHz i5)……?  Anyone have any thoughts?  Has anyone made the switch from a bigger computer to something like an Air?  Doesn't have to be Apple specifically but if anyone has taken a performance cut in order to gain portability…. and was it worth it?

(Please no suggestions for Windows computers… I'm a Mac user…. so save yourself the time   Cheers!)

Thanks guys

[Starlight]

You should take a look at the refurbished models: http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
That way you won't be spending a whole load of money unnecessarily.

I have an 11" air, it's good during uni times in terms of easy portability- You don't need anything too sophisticated for just writing and annotating lecture notes. The only thing that I would have a problem with is screen size when i'm wanting to watch a movie or something, which is why you might want to go with a 13" air.

[Only Cheating Yourself]

I've got a macbook pro and its great.  It's the best educational laptop out there, it's quick and slick.  It's definitely not that heavy compared to other laptops, i wouldn't get the Air though, because it has no ROM.  If your looking at playing games etc, the Mac isn't the one for you then but if its for uni and stuff, i'd take the Mac anyway of the week.  I've had mine for a year and its all good, have had no problems whats so ever!  And yea i prefer the 13 inch screen.

[Kanon]

I've got a Macbook Air 13" high end model, it's great for uni because it's so portable and the battery is great, however it's not great for anything else I do ie, play games 

[Mr Keshy]

The 8GB may be useful if you do multitasking, that is, you have a heap of heavy apps open. Like heaps of tabs on chrome, iphoto, word and other apps you may use. The upgrade from an i5 to an i7 I believe is completely unnecessary for a macbook air, purely because I think that the things you would generally do on a macbook (browsing the web, movies, music etc) wouldn't utilise any of the benefits the i7 CPU's offer. So it's just wasted potential really. If you were doing video editing, or music production, you'd benefit heavily by using i7's, but if you were to do CPU intensive tasks, I'd say you'd be better off with a Macbook pro in the first place.

So basically, consider the RAM upgrade, but I don't think the CPU upgrade is necessary.

With regards to the moving to portable question, I sure have! The stuff I do on my macbook is the general stuff I used to do on my main computer, again, movies, music, that sorta stuff. Add in the fact that Mac OSX just seems faster, I had an overall better experience!

Generally speaking, with computers these days, even getting some of the cheapest ones out there is more than adequate for most peoples uses. It's kind of like cars today. You can get cars with little 1L engines and 5L v8's. But when you do general stop start driving to and from work, you won't be able to really feel the difference!

I think the best upgrade these days is an SSD over an HDD. Speed differences are absolutely insane. My macbook pro boots from touching the power button to opening chrome in 12 seconds!

[LastOfUs]

I recently got a Macbook Air 13" 4GB RAM for the sake of just YR12 this year and throughout the holidays I've been mucking about watching videos and googling, which is the highest extent I've used it.

As far as I can say it is pretty good but I feel Macs are slightly redundant. For the first two weeks they are all fine and dandy and even if you have treated it perfectly, a high percentage of them get extraordinarily hot on the left side.