New iPad or Macbook Air?

Hello,

I currently own a black macbook that is 4 years old. It still runs great and that battery still holds a charge pretty well. That being said, I am very interested in buying the new iPad. The only thing holding me back is that I'm not sure how much longer my laptop will last and if the wiser choice would be to replace it with a macbook air. I just figured that the iPad has a lot to offer and it's about half the price of the macbook air, so if I end up buying the iPad I could use that for many tasks instead of using my macbook all the time. Do you think it would be wiser to just purchase an Air, or will my macbook most likely hold up if I take some of the heat off of it by using an iPad? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

The two are very very different devices. The question that you need to ask yourself is "what do I use my computer for on a regular basis?" If you do a lot of typing, gaming or you need access to the filesystem, you should go with a computer. If you don't, and you do simple browsing, maybe some light word processing and consume a lot of media, an iPad might work.

So I pose the question to you: what do you use your computer for?

The thing is, my current macbook works fine. My only concern is that it is a disk hard drive so I just don't know how much longer it will last. Like I said, it's 4 years old. I've used it a good amount but it's definitely in good shape. I just don't know how many more years I should expect it to run. If it were to work fine for a few more years I'd go with an iPad but if it's only got another year or so I'd rather just put the money that I have for the iPad toward an Air.

beefish said:

The thing is, my current macbook works fine. My only concern is that it is a disk hard drive so I just don't know how much longer it will last. Like I said, it's 4 years old. I've used it a good amount but it's definitely in good shape. I just don't know how many more years I should expect it to run. If it were to work fine for a few more years I'd go with an iPad but if it's only got another year or so I'd rather just put the money that I have for the iPad toward an Air.

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If you are just worried about the HDD, back it up. Then get a new HDD. You can install this yourself. Still using my 2008 MB. Works fine except for the yellowish screen. >_<"

If you are just concerned about hard disk - then back up using time machine. If the hard drive goes just get another one and install it - then restore. Hard drives are picky pieces of hardware. Expect it to go out and back up - and test your backup often.

OWC has batteries and hardrives/cages available for your black macbook.
MacBook 13" Black Laptop Battery High Capacity by NewerTech for all MacBook 13" 'Black' models
OWC 2.5" Drive and Enclosure Do It Yourself Bundles with insallation Toolkit

I am using my iPad more and more - but I also have several ways to log into my other computers in case I have to do something that can't run on the iPad. Not as nice as running on a real computer but I can get quite a bit done with teamviewer.
TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings
or vnc
RealVNC - VNC® Viewer for iOS
There are several RDC clients - I like cloudconnect but it is pricey.
App Store - Cloud Connect Pro
But it does VNC and RDC as well as file system "stuff"
Any kind of drawing creation is very good on the iPad. You'd need to get a wacom or inklet or something similar to do any kind of natural drawing on a computer.

I have computers running from 2005 and they work fine for file servers, web browsing, email. Computers can last a long time as long as you aren't trying to run the latest and greatest games. Most Apps don't need that much horsepower anymore. But Vansmith has a good point - the iPad is mainly media consumption, touch input/drawing, and remote access for me. It is a different use model than a regular computer where I generate much more content like powerpoint, org charts, mind maps, engineering design, etc.

Thanks a lot for the input! I'm gonna back up my hard drive and get an iPad. I don't do a ton of heavy computing so my macbook should be good for now.

I still have my just-recently-retired Black MacBook, though I did just replace it with a slightly newer 2009 MacBook Pro (primarily for the better graphics and ability to put 8GB of RAM in it, but really the big problem was the battery was failing after five years and I didn't have time to wait and shop around for the best deal on a replacement battery).

It's very easy to replace the drive on those models, so I think you've found the ideal solution.

I bet the Macbook will hold up for years if you leave it home and just use it as a desktop and use the iPad for your mobile device. You could even get a better display if you wanted and external hard drives.