Apple MacBook Pro vs Air

Hmmm...sejak aku bertekad utk buat blog ni, makin berkobar pulak semangat nak membeli MacBook. Tapi persoalannya yg mana yg lagi berbaloi? Pro atau Air? MacBook ni bukan calang2 harganya. Karang silap buat percaturan menyesal. Malaysia bukan macam US. US kalau beli tak suka boleh nak return. Sini haram...

Anyway first thing yang aku buat adalah decide nak beli dekat mana - Malaysia vs US? And to my surprise (aku pun dah lama tak usha2 perkembangan Apple), harga dekat Malaysia and US is actually almost the same. Beza pun Malaysia mahal tak lebih 10 hinggit. Tapi ni considering harga base US tak termasuk GST diorang. Kalau masuk GST kat US tu (which is maybe around 5%), definitely beli dekat Malaysia lagi murah. Then campo shipping lagi?!??! Hah, kalau tak percaya sila refer screenshot bawah ni (currency conversion tu buat la sendiri ye). Time2 macam ni la baru rasa best pulak dok Malaysia ni ehehe...

Apple Store US

Apple Store Malaysia

Ok...let's see who's the winner for the battle between MacBook Pro vs Air. In terms of technical specification, MacBook Pro is winning hands down. For the same amount of money that you pay, you are definitely getting better spec out of Pro - better processor speed, larger screen, optical drive, bigger HDD capacity albeit SATA. For Air to compete or at least to get par with what Pro is offering, you need to fork out another USD100 or USD400...even that, the highest specification of Air still can't beat Pro on paper in terms of processor speed, HDD capacity, and optical drive. But lucky enough both Air and Pro has the same graphic card. Comparison as below...

Now if you are looking best bang for your bucks, the answer will definitely be Pro. Spend less and get more. But Air offers something that is irresistible - which is, it offers an advancement in technology. Solid state disk (SSD) and its form factor as small and as light as that is definitely undeniably attractive. That is why this entry exist in the first place.

So the big question here will be --> what are you looking for in a laptop? My purpose for owning a laptop is to complement my 6 years old iMac (or rather my iMac will be the complementary). That means primarily used for blogging, facebook, surfing, online banking, youtube - hmm mostly internet (nothing that Air cannot handle) and most probably some amateur video editing and graphic designing. This is what keeps me from buying Air and contemplating on Pro - those extra GB and faster processor speed will be really helpful.

But if you are just looking to buy a secondary computer to be used when you are on the go, travelling, balik kampung etc...then Air would be sufficient. But since I need it for some heavy work, I am more inclined to Pro...and trying to convince myself the form factor of Air is not as attractive as it looks :P

Btw...words of caution - my gut feeling is that it will be way way more difficult to upgrade or service your Air should something happens vs Pro. I have no experience in using SSD, so not sure how long the lifespan is. But my last iBook's HDD died on me and thank God it could be replaced. This seems something impossible for Air...but who knows? I have never really looked into this area yet. And my iMac is having issue with graphic card overheat - due to its form factor. So this is another thing that put me in the dilemma...

Anyway...I guess now it's time to start reading on what are the issues and experiences by others on both  platform. Will update if I find something interesting.