

Retina 13" MBP v.s. 13" Air as dev machine - zensavona

I'm tossing up between the two and I am hoping someone who owns one can shed some light.<p>Right now I have a '10 15" MBP (1400x900).<p>Here are my pros vs cons.<p>rMBP pros:
- hdmi out
- 2x thunderbolt
- retina
- more CPU<p>rMBP cons:
- lower 'native' resolution (screen space)
- bigger/less aesthetic
- more expensive (not a major concern)<p>Air pros:
- thinner/lighter, more aesthetic
- higher 'native' resolution
- cheaper<p>Air cons:
- less cpu
- no hdmi
- only one thunderbolt<p>It's primary uses are development and music production, for what I do and the difference we are talking of, the power difference isn't a dealbreaker - here are some questions/concerns:<p>- with the MBP, if I run at a scaled resolution (maybe 1440x900) for more screen real estate, will it lag? I am thinking of the 2.5GHz model.
- is there any noticeable battery difference between them?
- I do a fair amount of travel so weight is a consideration, but afaik the difference is less than 400g between them - the Air just /feels/ so much smaller because of the thickness
- is there anything I have no considered?<p>Another unrelated thing: are thunderbolt hard drives /that/ much faster in real usage than USB 3.0?<p>Thanks, and if I've missed anything let me know
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27182818284
Honestly I have the MBP Pro Retina and it isn't like "ZOMG!" compared to the
Air. It is a great overall machine, and I chose it because I was able to get
it at a slight discount, but I'm pretty sure I would have been fine with the
similarly sized Air. If I did get the Air, I'd get the 8GB ram model.

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baconhigh
.. isn't WWDC soon?

Wait for the product refresh, if you can!

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jyu
What type of development do you do? Is it memory intensive enough that MBP vs
Air would make a difference? For me it did, so MBP + ram upgrade helped a lot.

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zensavona
Both choices would have 8GB anyway (not memory intensive enough to warrant
16GB, anyway)

Mainly Ruby/Go development.

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X4
I do audio production too and 16GB RAM are honestly not enough.. Soundfonts
take many many Gigabytes of RAM. I don't know how much memory is optimal for
Logic though, I use Cubase.

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zensavona
Interesting point to note, thanks (I use Ableton/Logic primarily) I've never
had issue with my current pro (8GB)

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X4
Only music production and general development?

What kind of development?

Example: Do you work on experiments that sucks up all resources of a computer?
Like for example benchmarking, OpenCL/Cuda, CG, Game-Development or running a
Network of many Virtual Machines?

If you don't do such work, then go with the Air 8GB. Otherwise wait for the
next Pro, I heard rumors that it's going to be lighter.

Why does it need to be a Mac? Can't it be a high-end Ultrabook whose CPU and
GPU are compatible with Hackintosh.

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zensavona
It doesn't /have/ to be a Mac, but the only ultrabooks I've seen which compare
to Apple hardware are the Lenovo X1 Carbon and the Chromebook Pixel, both are
comparatively priced anyway.

Mainly Ruby/Go (web/server) development. If I'm doing anything super intensive
it will probably be remote anyway

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X4
The Lenovo Helix looks quite awesome. Which screen size do you prefer? I can
do a quick look for you.

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X4
Or you do it yourself :)

Here are some Toplists for Notebooks/Ultrabooks. Chip.de and Notebookcheck are
actually testing the notebooks.

1) <http://ultrabooknews.com/product-databank/>

2) [http://www.chip.de/bestenlisten/Bestenliste-Ultrabooks-
Co.-b...](http://www.chip.de/bestenlisten/Bestenliste-Ultrabooks-
Co.-bis-13-3-Zoll--index/index/id/1067/)

3) <http://blog.laptopmag.com/top-10-ultrabooks>

4) [http://www.notebookcheck.com/Notebook-
Kaufberatung.12901.0.h...](http://www.notebookcheck.com/Notebook-
Kaufberatung.12901.0.html)

Notebookcheck is very cool, because it pre-filters Notebooks based on many
criteria. I'm sorry it's german, couldn't find a good US site. You can use
google-translate :)

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phaus
You can also click the little American flag in the top right.

Notebookcheck is one of the first places I go when I'm looking for a new
laptop.

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X4
If you're a student you get rebates! = more SDD/RAM

