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Can I get MacBook Air 13" quality but for less?


Wasso

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Going to finally upgrade my custom Dell 9300 Inspiron now that its 7 years old :lol:

 

Want to spend around £500-800 but love the look of the 13" Air maybe used?

 

But is there anything else I should consider that works just as well but for less and maybe new?

 

Spec:

 

Browsing

Picture editing

Maybe the odd video edit

etc...

 

I am using Ableton music software on the Dell and maybe use that on the potential laptop also?

 

 

Fire me your recommendations!!

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Thanks Mr G, very helpful.

 

In interested to know though if any comparable laptops out there get even with Mac? Especially the phone market now which is highly competitive with Apple.

 

 

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Nope, nothing I have seen comes near to the quilaty that Apple stuff has.

 

That's not to say that it won't in the future and I've not seen everything, but what I have, Apple stuff still comes in first.

 

I have an iMac & MBP all bought with the same University discount card, saved me just over £400 IIRC.

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Why do you want a laptop, either get a desktop (more power) or a tablet (more mobile) or both :shrug:

 

But that's the point isn't it? That you want something more powerful than a tablet, but is mobile - hence the laptop? Not a fan of the keyboards on tablets, and to get accurate tracking you need a mouse or track pad. The fundamental flaw with touch screen is that you can't see under your finger :lol:

 

I think Ian is still in awe of how my macbook worked at speed with the pictures we took when detailing my car last year ;)

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I made the move from PC to Mac in 2008 and I'll never go back. They just work and keep on working, which is why a 3 year old laptop or desktop mac sells for about 65%+ of its original value.

 

I'm only on my second MacBook in 5 years and the only reason I got a new one was because I smashed the first ones screen to bits and house insurance got me a new one. I know people and from my own experience, after 2 years max of decent usage you need to either upgrade 60% of the internals of a PC desktop or buy a new laptop, however not heard of anyone "having" to upgrade their Mac due to it slowing down.

 

I guess it's kind of like tyres, buy falkens/kumho etc and change them every 18 month - 2 years, or spend the extra at the start and buy Michelin PSS and they'll last longer as well giving you the extra grip.

 

So basically what I'm trying to say is -

 

DO IT NICE, OR DO IT TWICE!! :D

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Bought my macbook pro in 2009 and I still have it and its going great guns. Have Office, Photoshop, and all the other main bits of software installed along with it storing about 50gb of photos and it still goes really well. Glad I gave it a go and really prefer the whole operating system over PC.

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I contract a fair bit for Apple and have been a fanboy since the early days so definitely vote for going the air route, the only thing i would say is dependant of the level of video editing you do you may find yourself needing something with a bit more juice, I tend to use my pro for fcpx and logic x whilst the air is used more for imovie, garageband etc :)

 

As others have said once you go mac you wont go back

 

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I was a mac user back in 90s as our school had 'em. Was forced into PC at Uni but have since returned. Love my iMac, ridiculously fast with an SSD. Love it's small footprint and being able to remote in from my iPhone and iPad so easily. With a Windows 7 VM I have a "PC" which runs better than any PC I've ever owned!

 

Quite fancy a MB Pro or Air, but I can't think of a good reason to buy one except that it's FIT. :)

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Some good comments to approve of Apple and yet none to promote the laptop/windows. Really interesting.

 

I think I'm going to plunge for the Mac. Originally my budget was £500 say for a lappy, and increase to accommodate a Mac to say £700. Problem is I've now seen one at £900 used (i7 13")

 

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=181195463244

 

That budget has now gone right out the window.

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Hayd

Can you install Linux on a mac book air/pro? I love the hardware but couldn't live without running Linux.

 

Yep, Ubuntu, etc :)

 

You can run Mac OS X 10.9, Windows 8 and Ubuntu on the same Mac, either booting through EFI or in virtual machines: Parallels, VMWare

Edited by octet
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Another thing to add since your budget has escalated :p I personally wouldn't got he MB Air route, simple because there is no CD/DVD drive. The rest of the Air is awesome and I love how slim and light it is, but the lack of a built in drive is annoying.

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Why do you want a laptop, either get a desktop (more power) or a tablet (more mobile) or both :shrug:

 

But that's the point isn't it? That you want something more powerful than a tablet, but is mobile - hence the laptop? Not a fan of the keyboards on tablets, and to get accurate tracking you need a mouse or track pad. The fundamental flaw with touch screen is that you can't see under your finger :lol:

 

I think Ian is still in awe of how my macbook worked at speed with the pictures we took when detailing my car last year ;)

 

Laptops are old hat though...

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Another thing to add since your budget has escalated :p I personally wouldn't got he MB Air route, simple because there is no CD/DVD drive. The rest of the Air is awesome and I love how slim and light it is, but the lack of a built in drive is annoying.

 

But how often do you use a drive these days, I have had my mac mini over a year and never connected it to a CD/DVD drive, I have a 32GB memory stick for moving files :shrug:

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Another thing to add since your budget has escalated :p I personally wouldn't got he MB Air route, simple because there is no CD/DVD drive. The rest of the Air is awesome and I love how slim and light it is, but the lack of a built in drive is annoying.

 

But how often do you use a drive these days, I have had my mac mini over a year and never connected it to a CD/DVD drive, I have a 32GB memory stick for moving files :shrug:

 

I have to agree with Mr Wafter here - nothing comes on DVDs or CDs anymore, you can stream anything and it far safer to have backups software stored via cloud/USBs which are very large in capacity size.

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