Ask HN: New MacBook Air or Windows laptop?

7 points by askar 12 years ago | 12 comments

Don't wanted to sound silly but I'm confused a little bit and thought of clarifying it with the great HN community.

I have a 2008 MacBook Unibody and have upgraded to SSD and bumped up the memory and is doing decently well but after 5 years of usage and the lure of the lightness of MacBook Air and the lightning fast SSD speed I heard on the new beast from Apple I'm on the edge of shelling out some $$$$ but wasn't sure if it's worth it now.

My contention points were, - current MacBook Unibody is running decently fine even though I crave for more speed - had a Windows laptop at home that just got toast with a coffee spill

Don't know if I should be shelling out $$$ on a Windows laptop for now and wait for another MacBook Air update later or just give the current MacBook to the family and move on with the new MacBook Air. I know the later would add one more $ sign to the bottomline.

For those of you who ask what I do with it, I do develop web and mobile apps (2 of them on the AppStore, free apps BTW) with it. So it's putting to good use but not sure if I have to take the Windows route or the MacBook Air route, even though I personally prefer the MacBook Air route but would be nice to have a Windows machine at home too, rite?

vxNsr 12 years ago |

If you do dev for iOS, then you need a Mac, no two ways about it. doing iOS dev on windows is really cumbersome and near impossible, if you're willing to shell out the money get the best mac you can.

I usually recommend Windows because of price-convenience ratio, (meaning that most people don't need the premium offerings of a mac and will be perfectly satisfied with a $400 windows machine). But if your use case forces mac AND you're used to it AND you have the money to spend -- then by all means go for mac.

In terms of specs Mac is only slightly more expensive, so if you need/want those specs once again it makes sense to stick with mac.

kposehn 12 years ago |

Air.

I've found that when it comes down to build quality, responsiveness, portability and sheer joy to use, the Air has always trumped any Windows offering to me.

I went from the 2008 unibody to an Air as well (though I'm on a Retina MbP now) and the difference was stunning. You'll see a huge boost in speed, much better usability and the battery life is fantastic.

Just go try it out in the store, I think you'll be sold pretty quickly :)

tagabek 12 years ago |

Go with the Air.

- You develop for iOS

- If you ever miss Windows, just run a Bootcamp partition

askar 12 years ago | |

I think this make sense since I can always bootcamp it when I need to do something on the Windows side. And that brings a good point, the reason I don't bootcamp now on my 2008 MacBook Unibody is that it's not that responsive when I tried a while ago. That kind of tells me that the new Air is the best option if I can justify shelling out a few hundred more dollars but I think since I'm developing for iOS as well it might be just worth it.

r00fus 12 years ago |

It used to be the case that you would only get a Mac if your customer required you have knowledge of the OS.

Nowadays, given most everything is cross platform, and Windows7 runs great on a VM, if you can afford the kit, it's best to get a Mac, and then bootcamp/VM if you need to run Windows apps.

If you don't have customers who need you to run Windows apps (mostly enterprise .NET stuff or boroque VPN clients), I suggest you get the Mac - you seem to prefer it.

glitch273 12 years ago |

If you're going for a Windows laptop, take a look at the newly released Samsung Book 9 Plus: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/samsung-ativ-book-9-plus-...

Arguably the best looking Windows option today, with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,800. Rumor has it that pricing on the Plus model will start at over $1600+

meerita 12 years ago |

I would go for a Mac. I can have both OS installed and 0 problems. Any other windows laptop may have troubles to install OSX and the hardware quality may be a bit lower than macs in general. It's up to your budget but I think a Macbook Air is really affordable nowadays.

SamReidHughes 12 years ago |

It's generally possible to get Windows laptops of better quality than Apple's, but it's also possible to get worse. It's not a good idea to answer the question of "Windows vs. Mac" without looking at specific alternatives.

infinii 12 years ago |

Why would you "wait for another MacBook Air update"? They just updated it 2 weeks ago with the Haswell chips.

X4 12 years ago |

Is it possible to replace the FN and CTRL key on a Macbook?

It would drive me nuts having it in the wrong order.

cunninghamd 12 years ago | |

Honestly, just use the CAPSLOCK key as a CTRL key.

1) it's more comfortable.

2) Now, the place of the FN key doesn't matter anymore! :)

almostdvs 12 years ago | |

You don't really use either of those keys on OS X.