Retina MBP or Fully upgraded Air?

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I'm a developer, and my boss is buying me a new laptop. Our original plan was to get the stock higher end stock retina MBP, but I'm seriously considering asking for the fully upgraded Macbook Air instead.

The Air fully upgraded has 512Gb SSD, 8Gb Ram, Dual Core i7 2.0Ghz processor and the intel built in graphics.

The Pro has same specs but a 2.6Mhz Quad Core processor and the GeForce 650m 1Gb graphics card.

Our back end is in .Net, but I'm also working on our iPhone aps, so I constantly have XCode running as well as Windows in Parallels with Visual Studio, so I definitely need the 8Gb of ram, and with two operating systems and everything else the full 512Gb HD is a must.

I'm not so hot on the retina display, but the processor is quite a bit beefier. On the Air I really like the portability and lightness of it, but wonder if the processor will be enough.
 
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I'm a developer, and my boss is buying me a new laptop. Our original plan was to get the stock higher end stock retina MBP, but I'm seriously considering asking for the fully upgraded Macbook Air instead.

The Air fully upgraded has 512Gb SSD, 8Gb Ram, Dual Core i7 2.0Ghz processor and the intel built in graphics.

The Pro has same specs but a 2.6Mhz Quad Core processor and the GeForce 650m 1Gb graphics card.

Our back end is in .Net, but I'm also working on our iPhone aps, so I constantly have XCode running as well as Windows in Parallels with Visual Studio, so I definitely need the 8Gb of ram, and with two operating systems and everything else the full 512Gb HD is a must.

I'm not so hot on the retina display, but the processor is quite a bit beefier. On the Air I really like the portability and lightness of it, but wonder if the processor will be enough.

You can't compare between these two computers because other than the "portability." the new macbook Pro is MUCH better at everything.
It's a Quad-Core Processors, where the air is a Dual core and has 6MB of Cache on the processors, where the air only has 3MB
It's a retina display, which isn't even comparable to the MacBook Air
You can get 512 GB Flash on both the air and the new MBP. I didn't understand why you think 512 GB is a "MUST" for two operating systems, but if you choose to it's not an issue.
The MBP has an additional graphics card GT650 and has an HDMI out output!
Better speakers and mic

Anyways...you can't even compare. If you want a strong machine get the MBP if you want a pretty machine get the MBA
 

pigoo3

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
A fully upgraded 13" MBA (8gig ram, 2.0ghz cpu) will cost $2199 (with a 512gig SSD). Personally I think that a 512gig SSD is overkill...but on the other hand...MBA's are hard to upgrade...so you sort of have to buy as much as you can afford up front.

A 13" MBA with a 256gig SSD, 8 gig ram, and 2.0ghz cpu would cost a lot less at $1699. A base model MBP with the retina display will cost $2199...and fully upgraded will cost $2799.

$2199 for a 13" MBA or $2799 for a 15" MBP with a retina display is a [size=+1]lot of money[/size]!!!

Personally I wouldn't go with either if these choices. If I had the budget that you have...I would go with the:

- 2.6ghz 15" MBP (without the retina display) for $2199
- or the 2.3ghz 15" MBP with the retina display for $2199

Performance-wise...the MBA just doesn't compare (cpu or gpu) to the MBP's.

- Nick
 
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Your Mac's Specs
mbp 15 2009, mbp 13 2010
You can't compare between these two computers because other than the "portability." the new macbook Pro is MUCH better at everything.
It's a Quad-Core Processors, where the air is a Dual core and has 6MB of Cache on the processors, where the air only has 3MB
It's a retina display, which isn't even comparable to the MacBook Air
You can get 512 GB Flash on both the air and the new MBP. I didn't understand why you think 512 GB is a "MUST" for two operating systems, but if you choose to it's not an issue.
The MBP has an additional graphics card GT650 and has an HDMI out output!
Better speakers and mic

Anyways...you can't even compare. If you want a strong machine get the MBP if you want a pretty machine get the MBA
what is the reason behind HDMI output on mbp ? with mountain lion connect to apple tv module. What is the point of having the HDMI wiring ? can someone please explain ?
 

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