Which MacBook ?

[Tam1314]

Hi, I'm going to be buying a new laptop soon and I am swithering between a MacBook Air and MacBook 12.
Do any of you guys use either and can give me some advice on what one to go for ?

Thanks


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[DigitalLemming]

I don't own either but I do have a Pro that's a few years old now but still going strong.

The one thing I would say about the Air from looking at it a couple of times is it's always felt a bit too light for my liking, I wouldn't be comfortable with that. The other thing I know is that the Air isn't upgradable, not sure about the 12 though, so buy as good a spec as you can.

AppleCare is worth it's weight it gold, saved me over £600 on a failed graphics card once. You don't have to buy this at the same time as you buy the laptop, anytime in the first year from memory will do.

If you know anybody involved in education (teacher, student etc) then you can get a nice discount off both the macbook and applecare as well :thumbs up:

[EcosseGP]

Pete is your man for this info he loves his ... and if memory serves me right he didn't get the light one either. Mark Hutch will also keep you right too he's an Apple guru I'm sure they'll add their views in shortly. I've got an iPad if that's any good for a review lol :)


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[CiderFex]

I've had mine for nearly a year now and I just love it.
I went for the older style 13" MacBook Pro because the newer Retina and Air models can not be upgraded due to everything being glued or soldered into place.
I was lucky enough to have enough spare cash to upgrade it as far as I could and ended up with a 2.9 Ghz dual core i7 processor and 8GB ram which cost me £1,099.
It also comes with an inbuilt disk drive (SuperDrive) that the newer models do not have, it's an extra £50 for an external one for the Retina and Air models.
Mine has HD graphics, not Retina, but after loading up the same pic on two models side by side in the Apple Store I just could not see any difference in quality.
The build quality and feel is beyond reproach and is up to the usual Apple quality.
The disk drive can be removed and replaced at a later date, with a extra HDD if I need more memory, and also the RAM can be upped to 16GB if required.
It does weigh quite a lot at 2.06kg but it's not very often that I do carry it about and if I do its in a quality backpack that takes the strain of the weight.
If you are going to carry it about a lot, don't mind not being able to upgrade it in the future or have eyesight that can see individual pixels from 3-4' away, the Retina or Air may be for you.
The cost difference is also quite hefty for the Retina and Air models.
The Air does have a slower processor as well.

A comparison below:
http://www.apple.com/uk/mac/compare/results/?product1=macbook-air-13&product2=macbook-pro-13

P.S. You will not be able to buy one with the same spec as mine from an Apple Store because they only make them to order which took about 10 days from ordering it to it being delivered to me.

P.P.S. I had never used an Apple computer until I bought this and it is a dream to use. I just will not touch a Windows PC at home now (we have a Windows desktop and two Windows laptops).

I hope this helps.
:)


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[Tam1314]

Thanks for all your advice guys [emoji4]
I'm actually buying the laptop through my employers, they have a deal just now where I can pay the laptop up over two years and pay no vat or interest. It's round about £30 a month.
The two Apple laptops they have are the 13" Air and the new 12" retina MacBook so I'm kinda stuck with that.
I'm mostly going to use it for Photoshop, iTunes, Netflix and YouTube, and of course NMS lol.
The only thing putting me off the 12" Mac is that it only has one port. Means I need to buy a usb lead for my camera.
It has twice the RAM and twice the hard drive space over the MacBook Air tho.


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[CiderFex]

If you're using PS you'll need as much RAM and HDD space as you can get.
I bought Apple TV to mirror my MacBook screen onto the TV.
Using PS on a 55" screen is awesome.
:)


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[Tam1314]

Looks like it will be the MacBook 12 then. It has 8GB RAM and 256 HDD


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[Tam1314]

So is Apple TV quite good. I fancied that as well


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[EcosseGP]

I like Apple TV Tam and it's now even better value for money at around £50.


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[CiderFex]

There is the older version for £50 as Davy has said, which is the one that I also have, but they have just released an updated version which can now use App Store and Siri.

http://www.apple.com/uk/tv/compare/


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[Tam1314]

Well I had a look at the rMB 12 yesterday and the only doubt I have now is the size of the screen for photo editing purposes.
I'm sure it won't be a problem and the Retina display will make up for the one inch difference [emoji1]


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[Tam1314]

Decision made, I'm going with the rMB.
I just need to decide what photo editing programme to go with now


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[Tam1314]

In Space Grey as well to match Monty [emoji4]


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[CiderFex]

Affinity is a decent bit of pic editing software.


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[EcosseGP]

^^ Petes your man for photo editing I think he's got every programme going lol ;)

[CiderFex]

Aye, but I always end up using Snapseed which is free !!!


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[CiderFex]

Check out some of these tutorials Tam to get an idea of what Affinity is capable of.....

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/photo/


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[Tam1314]

Affinity looks ace [emoji4]. I have snapseed on my phone and that's quite good as well


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[CiderFex]

To be honest Tam I have bought a quite few different pic editing softwares but I very rarely use them.
I find them too time consuming to fully get my head around but the little time I have spent with Affinity was enjoyable.
I personally want to try to take good enough pictures without the need to edit them but when I do fancy editing a few I like them to look a bit over the top so I use Snapseed for ease and speed.
Some of the effects with Affinity are awesome but I just can not justify spending a few hours editing one pic which invariably no one will ever see.
Each to their own though.
:)


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[Tam1314]

That is the main reason why I don't want to spend loads of money on a photo editing programme.
The amount of editing I would do on my pics will hopefully be minimal as they will just be great straight from the camera [emoji1]


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[CiderFex]

Affinity is well worth the money Tam.
I bought it for £29.99 as I had been using the beta but at £39.99 it's still cheap enough to buy and not use.
;)


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[Tam1314]

Will definitely give it a look


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[Tam1314]

My new Mac arrived on Thursday and it's the mutts.
Really looking forward to getting back into photography again now that I have somewhere to view the photos


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[CiderFex]

Nice one Tam.
:)


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[EcosseGP]

Looks like there's a NMS group of photographers evolving here ...

[Tam1314]

Pixelmator is looking good.
Away from photography tho, what are your top two apps for the Mac


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[CiderFex]

It all depends on what you use it for Tam.
I've also got Pixelmator but never use it.
:(


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[Tam1314]

Think I'm gonna go for Photoshop.



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