Ask HN: New MacBook Air or Windows laptop?

7 pointsaskar12y ago12 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?

12 comments

vxNsr12y 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.

kposehn12y 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 :)

tagabek12y ago

Go with the Air.

- You develop for iOS

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

askarOP12y 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.

r00fus12y 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.

glitch27312y 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+

meerita12y 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.

SamReidHughes12y 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.

infinii12y ago

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

X412y 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.

cunninghamd12y 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! :)

almostdvs12y ago

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

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