Considering a new buy

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So a while ago I had bought a Macbook Pro, early 2012. Didn't have a real need for it so I sold it.

Dumb idea, but also good opportunity.

I'm looking into getting a Macbook Air, but wanted some input.

This will mainly be for portable study, sermon/paper writing, etc. Probably no gaming or anything of that nature.

What I'm wondering is if I were to buy a fully spec'd out Macbook Air, am I at least a little future proofed?

I would be bumping to the i7 and 8gb of ram as well as the 512gb drive. And I think that is the most I can bump that up.

Fully spec'd is about $1800.

Is that a good machine? I have to be honest, I really don't do a lot of research about the differences in these machines so don't really know the advantages of the Macbook Pro over the Air. Although I see a pretty big price difference.

Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all.

***EDIT***

I wanted to add something here since no one had answered just yet before I go to bed for the evening. Once again, I'm concerned about future proofing. I don't want to have to buy a new machine for quite some time in the future (on top of the fact that my wife won't let me :) )

So I was also looking at the 15 inch rMBP with a 2.3 quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHZ. 512gb PCIe Flash drive. 16gb ram. That machine is $2600.

Therefore my question is, is that machine really $800 better than the Air I referenced earlier?

Are there advantages/disadvantages to them other than price?

Thanks again,

Steve
 
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Anyone? Thoughts? Opinions?
 
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The MBA is more geared to those looking for portability without sacrificing a desktop. Its ultra thin, fairly good build and can perform most task that a MBP can, just at a slower speed. My wife and I have one with13" screen, 4GB RAM, Dual Core i5 and 128GB SSD. She loves it. I have even used it for a month solid when we first got it. They can do a lot more then you think. I think after the NetBook craze the past few years, everyone thinks small=slow. This is just not the case with the MBA. Even though its on the lower end of the Mac line, it is still more power then you need for what you asked about. I wouldn't do heavy video editing on the thing. But anything less, it is more then powerful enough.

The MBP line is for those looking for multimedia editing, graphics, heavy photo editing, music production, video editing and still have portability. While its no Mac Pro, its about as good as you can get in a laptop and still remain portable.

So to answer your question in a shorter answer. The MBA will do all your asking about without any issues.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Trying to future proof yourself is, IMHO, a losing proposition.

Rather think about your budget, your needs and use cases (and how they may grow/evolve) and get the machine that meets those needs.

There are those who are perfectly happy with their first generation iMacs with 512MB or 1GB of RAM and 80GB of HD space. I would probably end up throwing out the window from the nearest highrise since it definitely wouldn't meet my needs..:)

Having said that, the MBA upgraded to the fastest processor, most RAM and biggest SSD you can afford will definitely (based on your needs/uses) give you quite a long time of use..
 

RavingMac

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My 2007 MBP that I just replaced will still easily handle the usage you've listed. I wouldn't worry about 'future proofing' as much as the physical configuration.
Any stock Apple laptop ought to meet your needs for several years to come.
 
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Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. Based on all of your thoughts and insights I decided to get the fully loaded Air with AppleCare. I think this will meet my needs for the foreseeable future. As well as saved me over a $1000 for the rMBP I was looking at.

Would have been nice to get the 1TB flash drive offered in the Pro, but hey, I haven't even used 500gb on my iMac that I've had for over 2 years. So I'll keep my Air trimmed down to necessary stuff only.

You guys are fantastic! Thank you very much for your assistance.
 

dbm


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Just to give you a little more comfort - my wife has been using her basic MBA for about 3 years now and it still does everything she asks of it (mostly web and email with a little word processing).
 

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