11-inch MacBook Air versus Mac Mini/iPad Mini

[thirtyfivefifty]

Recently sold my Late-2008 MacBook Pro 15". I'm happy to have gotten rid of it because that was just too big and heavy to carry on international flights with glass and a camera body in the bag. Went to the Apple store this afternoon to get a feel of the current product line for when I move to another country next year. Thinking about two possibilities:

Mac Mini (Quad Core i7) with a iPad Mini

-OR

11-inch MacBook Air

Pretty much set on either one of these, as everything else felt really big and heavy. They are roughly the same price for my desired configuration. I plan to buy a Dell U2412M 24" display after I make the move.

Was wondering if anyone had any opinions on which is better to get. The only thing I'm worried about with the Air is so few ports, processing power, and battery life far less than an iPad. Perhaps having a full-featured laptop out weighs those draw backs.

I mainly do teaching related/everyday tasks, and casual Photoshop CS5 for photography (non-professional).

Thanks.

 

[lam]

I own a 13" MacBook Air and find no issue doing photoshop, or indesign or any of the suites.

Infact I even wring the crap out of it on occasion playing games in Windows using Bootcamp.

I can't bring myself to buy an iPad due to the light and thin form factor of the air.. to me it's the perfect laptop for my needs. When i'm home I connect it to my 22" Acer LED monitor to play videos, or extend my desktop for whatever needs. The onboard Intel i5 does just fine, even with the built-in Intel graphics.

To me it's like the same reference size of an iPad with the "luxuries" of a tactile keyboard and large screen (though not retina).

Better yet, if I know i'm going to need to process photos, nothing beats the luxury of taking the thin/small/light laptop out on location...

I've owned the last 2 generations of MacBook Pro's prior to buying this one in the beginning of last year, and frankly don't regret it. I got tired as well, carrying around 8lbs of laptop, and the cost was significantly less, ($1200 at the time vs $1600+)

Don't get me wrong, if people love their processing power and can justify the need go for it, I find myself going for less every time.

 

[Pablito]

I have the 11" air and LOVE it but it's not my primary computer, i use it ONLY for travel. I also have a 17" MacBook Pro, which has a better screen.

The air has no HD. The internal drive is thus very fast and reliable (no moving parts) but relatively small. When I travel, I back up all image files to the internal drive, but then also to an external usb powered HD. Since I only shoot RAW, the internal drive fills up pretty fast so I need to delete everything between trips. but it's still worth it to be able to carry a real computer that's only slightly bigger than in iPad.

I don't know how good the video support is on the 11" air for a 24" monitor - I know I have had no problem running a projector off it.

I suppose to some extent you should consider how much processing power you need. For instance if you are going to be processing D800 RAW files, you want as much muscle as possible.

 

[lam]

Oh I forgot about the SSD! It's my favorite thing about the laptop.
Programs start up effortlessly fast. I don't even think about it. Maybe thats why i didn't bring it up, it feels like it's way faster than it is (specs wise). Putting an SSD in any computer, even a hybrid drive, will make any computer snappier if you put the operating system and or some programs you always use on it.

I do agree with the post above though; it's all about how much processing power you need..

I merely edit 1800dpi scanned images daily, so the turbo mode of the i5 mobile does just fine (clocks up to 2.7ghz when it needs to, even though it's only dual core)

 

[enero]

I would go for the mini/mini if its going to be your primary computer, this current generation mini packs a lot of power for the price (they always did, but more so this time around). Only thing is that it wont be portable, but I guess thats what the iPad would be for. If you want to save some money get both (last gen) refurbished directly from apple, you'll save yourself a lot of money and still have a lot of power. Also you can get a full size ipad that has a lot more power AND a retina display!

*direct from apple refurb offers the same 1 year warranty as their new machines. Been buying refurb from them for over 10 years and never had a problem. Same thing cant be said for buying new from them. Think of it this way, a refurbished machine has been checked twice 😉

 

[lam]

I concur with the refurb, all my pros were refurbs, and if the air I bought would've been available for less as a refurb i'd of done that as well...

 

[enero]

and I concur with SSDs! Amazing lil wonders. Only problem is that Apple charges quite a premium for their SSDs. Thankfully (in the case of the mac minis) they can easily be swopped out by your local mac tech, or yourself if you have the skills. 3rd party SSDs go for a fraction of what Apple's BTO SSDs cost. 256GB SSD from most online dealers go for under $200 whereas 256GB SSD BTO from apple is $300.

Oh, I forgot, Apple's Fusion Drive is a BTO option on the high end Minis for an extra $250. Cant beat that! I heard a lot of good things about those drives!

 

[FrozenInTime]

I'm using the current 11" macbook air more than my main computer, a 2009 mac pro tower, as the air seems faster ! perhaps I should ad a SSD drive to the tower.
If you do get an air get 8GB RAM and beware that it will take a lot of discipline to keep everything on a 128GB SSD or consider the 256GB (I wish I had)
The display on the 11" is no where near as good as the ipad. On the air the colors shift dramatically with viewing angle.

The ipad2 which I have is really slow to handle DNG files but great for jpegs. The newer ones may be better ?
To relieve the monotony of long flights the ipad is a clear winner thanks to the amount magazines, books and newspapers available pre-formatted for it; there is also Angry Birds when your are too tired to think.

I tend to travel with the 11" air and an ipad if I'm taking the M9 ( so much for saving weight).
If it's just my Ricoh GRD, the ipad is more than sufficient and the carry on bag is much less of a burden.

 

[thirtyfivefifty]

Thanks for all the replies thus far. Much appreciated.

More info:

I'm not too worried about internal storage. I'll have 2 x 1TB external portable hard drives. Even when I had my MBP, I only used up 30GB internally.

I use a Canon 5D2, and the MBP I used chewed through those files with 100% efficiency with only 8GB RAM. RAW --> DPP --> .TIF (Photoshop), a few adjustment laters. Done.

Today's MBA are considered far more powerful than the MBP's of yesteryear, but still that Mac mini's power looks tempting. Especially since you can do a lot of upgrading yourself, which I would plan to do myself. $300 for 256GB upgrade on a MBA seems ridiculous and you don't get a free hard drive from a do-it-yourself model. Also, iPad battery life seems wonderful.

The country I'm moving to is Korea, and it seems pretty much reliant on the windows environment. Therefore, I'm leaning towards MacBook Air with 256GB, i7, 8GB RAM dual booted with Windows 8.

Wish I could just have it all. LOL.

 

[majid]

The newest Mac Mini gives the Mac Pro a run for its money for everything except workloads that require a fast video card. It's way faster than the Air (my wife has the top-of-the line 13" Air, and it is not pleasant to use with Lightroom, despite the SSD). My combo is a Mac Pro at home with 30" and 27" monitors for real work, including Lightroom, and 2 iPads for mobility (an iPad 3 for the briefcase, and an iPad Mini I just got for the jacket pocket, where it will essentially replace an iPhone for on-the-go data needs). I don't attempt to edit photos while mobile.

I had a 15" MacBook Pro back when my main rig was a PowerMac G5 with a 23" screen, and I didn't feel cramped on the MBP, at one point I used it for 3 months straight as my main computer while abroad, including Aperture use. Going to a 1st generation Macbook Air in 2008 felt very cramped, on the other hand and I can't imaging photo editing on a 11" display being particularly pleasant, even though the new Airs have higher pixel density than the previous generation. If you are going to use the system as a stationary workstation with an external monitor, you might as well get the Mini. The only Mac laptop I'd consider as a desktop replacement today would be the 15" Retina MBP.

 

[thirtyfivefifty]

I ended up buying a top-of-the-line 13" MacBook Air! It's great, and goes through 25MB .CR2 to 100MB+ tiff files like they were nothing. Also bought an MStand when I need the ergonomics at my desk. Thank you all.