Which Macbook Air should I buy?

Hi. I'm a student looking to buy a Macbook Air using the 15% discount.

I'm torn between the 11 inch, 256GB (£772.80) and the 13 inch 128GB (£729.60).

For about £40 more I can get the one that has double the memory but it is smaller. I like the portability of the Macbook Air but I'm wondering whether 11" is too small- I used to have a 10" netbook, but that kind of size is not suitable for what I plan to use it for (internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

13" is the perfect size but I'm not sure if the storage is enough. I want it to last me throughout uni (six year degree) and hopefully afterwards too. I mostly store music, a few films, videos, and photos- but I back the photos up to dropbox anyway so photo storage isn't really a problem.

Which should I get? Do you think 128GB storage is enough? I'm not a professional user (I'm not into advanced video editing etc) and I'm not a gamer, so do you think it would do?

Thanks in advance

Reply 1

username612415

21

The first thing to do is try both for yourself in a store. The 11" Air will be a very different experience from your netbook simply because of the keyboard and trackpad quality, so you may find it perfectly usable. Conversely you may find the screen is sill too small and want a 13" model. 128GB is plenty for a lot of people for storing the essentials like applications and key documents- media libraries and less important documents can all be stored and accessed from an external USB drive without issue, and a small portable 1TB drive can cost as little as £50.

Reply 2

Alfissti

20

13" and get an external storage.

11" is good for portability but beyond that it isn't the best thing in the world.

Reply 3

rickfloss

17

Original post by Ferris Bueller

Hi. I'm a student looking to buy a Macbook Air using the 15% discount.

I'm torn between the 11 inch, 256GB (£772.80) and the 13 inch 128GB (£729.60).

For about £40 more I can get the one that has double the memory but it is smaller. I like the portability of the Macbook Air but I'm wondering whether 11" is too small- I used to have a 10" netbook, but that kind of size is not suitable for what I plan to use it for (internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

13" is the perfect size but I'm not sure if the storage is enough. I want it to last me throughout uni (six year degree) and hopefully afterwards too. I mostly store music, a few films, videos, and photos- but I back the photos up to dropbox anyway so photo storage isn't really a problem.

Which should I get? Do you think 128GB storage is enough? I'm not a professional user (I'm not into advanced video editing etc) and I'm not a gamer, so do you think it would do?

Thanks in advance

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-13-inch-Laptop-1-4GHz/dp/B00K1VXLPY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1404054374&sr=8-4&keywords=macbook+air

£769.00 for 13 inch 256gb

problem sorted

Reply 4

ihavemooedtoday

17

+1 for trying it out in store. It's free to try!

Before I bought mine, I spent couple hours playing with one in an Apple store, and they didn't mind at all.

I personally can't stand a 11" screen (scroll scroll scroll scroll), but that is obviously just personal preference.

Though note that most Macbooks (except for the 11" I believe unfortunately) use 16:10 instead of the more common 16:9. So their 13" has a screen area that's somewhere between 13.3" and 14" on most other laptops.

If you only do internet browsing, watching movies, presentations and documents, etc, 128GB should be enough. You won't be able to carry your entire movie collection with you though (unless your collection is incredibly small). Like Gofre said, a USB 3.0 HDD for movies will solve that for cheap.

Reply 5

Trihawk7

21

Original post by rickfloss

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-13-inch-Laptop-1-4GHz/dp/B00K1VXLPY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1404054374&sr=8-4&keywords=macbook+air

£769.00 for 13 inch 256gb

problem sorted

I think you mean this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-13-inch-Laptop-1-4GHz/dp/B00K1VXLHW/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1404077853&sr=8-5&keywords=macbook+air

Reply 6

Sayonara

11

Original post by Ferris Bueller

Hi. I'm a student looking to buy a Macbook Air using the 15% discount.

I'm torn between the 11 inch, 256GB (£772.80) and the 13 inch 128GB (£729.60).

For about £40 more I can get the one that has double the memory but it is smaller. I like the portability of the Macbook Air but I'm wondering whether 11" is too small- I used to have a 10" netbook, but that kind of size is not suitable for what I plan to use it for (internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

13" is the perfect size but I'm not sure if the storage is enough. I want it to last me throughout uni (six year degree) and hopefully afterwards too. I mostly store music, a few films, videos, and photos- but I back the photos up to dropbox anyway so photo storage isn't really a problem.

Which should I get? Do you think 128GB storage is enough? I'm not a professional user (I'm not into advanced video editing etc) and I'm not a gamer, so do you think it would do?

Thanks in advance

Get Windows. You can get a better Windows laptop with better specifications than a Mac with the same price (i.e. more storage space, better processor).

128GB is probably not enough. But that's your choice.
I recommend at least 500GB up to 1TB since you are planning to use it for 6 years.

I have both an Apple Macbook Air (for development purposes) and a Windows 7 PC.

But, that's your choice. You might like the interface of Macs (but I really don't like them, I've used Apple Macs quite a lot for programming, making videos in school and writing documents, but that's just me).

Windows is also more likely to support programs and files that you will come across.

Reply 7

username234673

17

Original post by Ferris Bueller

(internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

Original post by Sayonara

Get Windows.

Normally I think posts like this in a Mac thread are ridiculous - blatantly not listening to what the OP wants.

However, this time I totally agree. Even the most simple video editing task will be a nightmare on such low resolution screens.

The Dell XPS 11 range have massive 1440p resolution on their tiny 11" screen and are much cheaper than the Macs. Hell, there's an XPS 11 on the Dell outlet page for circa £500. Might be worth looking in to if the software you need isn't OSX exclusive.

Reply 8

Camoxide

14

Original post by Ferris Bueller

Hi. I'm a student looking to buy a Macbook Air using the 15% discount.

I'm torn between the 11 inch, 256GB (£772.80) and the 13 inch 128GB (£729.60).

For about £40 more I can get the one that has double the memory but it is smaller. I like the portability of the Macbook Air but I'm wondering whether 11" is too small- I used to have a 10" netbook, but that kind of size is not suitable for what I plan to use it for (internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

13" is the perfect size but I'm not sure if the storage is enough. I want it to last me throughout uni (six year degree) and hopefully afterwards too. I mostly store music, a few films, videos, and photos- but I back the photos up to dropbox anyway so photo storage isn't really a problem.

Which should I get? Do you think 128GB storage is enough? I'm not a professional user (I'm not into advanced video editing etc) and I'm not a gamer, so do you think it would do?

Thanks in advance

The air is not suitable for this. Especially the 128GB version. I'd recommend the mid spec retina Pro.
256GB SSD and 8GB RAM is a minimum else you'll really regret it later.

11 inch is too small for your main machine. It's more suitable as buying a side laptop you take on journeys.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 9

Mike_123

18

Original post by Ferris Bueller

Hi. I'm a student looking to buy a Macbook Air using the 15% discount.

I'm torn between the 11 inch, 256GB (£772.80) and the 13 inch 128GB (£729.60).

For about £40 more I can get the one that has double the memory but it is smaller. I like the portability of the Macbook Air but I'm wondering whether 11" is too small- I used to have a 10" netbook, but that kind of size is not suitable for what I plan to use it for (internet browsing, creating presentations and documents, watching films & editing basic videos and photos).

13" is the perfect size but I'm not sure if the storage is enough. I want it to last me throughout uni (six year degree) and hopefully afterwards too. I mostly store music, a few films, videos, and photos- but I back the photos up to dropbox anyway so photo storage isn't really a problem.

Which should I get? Do you think 128GB storage is enough? I'm not a professional user (I'm not into advanced video editing etc) and I'm not a gamer, so do you think it would do?

Thanks in advance

Definitely get the 13". I've seen both and the 11" looks unusable because the screen is so small and the keyboard. Also I'm on 128GB and as long as you're not downloading a lot it's fine. I have school work and games saved on it and if you run out you can either use cloud storage or an external drive.

Reply 10

Jammy Duel

21

Original post by Sayonara

Get Windows. You can get a better Windows laptop with better specifications than a Mac with the same price (i.e. more storage space, better processor).

128GB is probably not enough. But that's your choice.
I recommend at least 500GB up to 1TB since you are planning to use it for 6 years.

I have both an Apple Macbook Air (for development purposes) and a Windows 7 PC.

But, that's your choice. You might like the interface of Macs (but I really don't like them, I've used Apple Macs quite a lot for programming, making videos in school and writing documents, but that's just me).

Windows is also more likely to support programs and files that you will come across.

+1
A mac really is overkill (price wise) for what you want, and as Mickey said, on the one thing that it is generally regarded to be better for than windows that is on your list, you're stuffed anyway.

Which Macbook Air should I buy?

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