MacBook Buying Guide

The year end shopping season is coming up, and perhaps you’re looking to get yourself a shiny new Mac notebook this holiday. Whether you’re new to Mac, or you’ve been using one for years, you probably still want to hear someone’s two-cents on your buying options. With plenty of other PC and Mac buying guides out there, why not do one of my own too?

I’m just going to look at MacBook computers. That means only the notebooks. No iMac desktops or Mac Pro workstations considered in here, although I will mention them in passing at some point. So, in the running are:

• 11″ MacBook Air (MBA11)
• 13″ MacBook Air (MBA13)
• 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display (RMBP13)
• 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display (RMBP15)

There’s also the older generation 13″ MacBook Pro without Retina Display which I’m not considering in this guide. It’s old, heavy, clunky, and looks all set to be terminated from Apple’s product line. For a bit more money, you could get the RMBP13 (S$1588 vs S$1788 for entry model). The only thing going for the old MacBook Pro is you get more storage space, 500GB vs 128GB, albeit on an old spinning hard disk.

So before we move on, take a moment to consider your use case on the notebook. Knowing how you will use your notebook and what you expect out of your notebook will go a long way to help decide what is right for you.

1. Is mobility important to you? Yes, a notebook is meant to be carried around, so of course mobility is important. But to what extent? For some people, they may just carry the notebook between home and office. Maybe for an occasional meeting in a typical day. For others, they may find themselves on-the-go with their notebook for a big part of the day. Students going from class to class will typically have higher mobility requirements. People who take public transport may mind mobility more than others who drive everywhere.
2. Will this be your main work computer? There’s a difference between just using a computer casually, and depending on one for a big part or all of your work. By casually, I mean to do simple tasks like doing email, working on simple documents, etc. If this is going to be your main work computer, you will need it to handle everything you throw at it.
3. What kind of apps will you run or need? For some people, all of your computer needs could simply come down to just email, office applications, listen to music and watch movies. For others, perhaps they need to run Windows in a virtual machine, they do heavy lifting with various Adobe Creative Suite apps, video editing, etc. There is where you need to decide if extra CPU juice is useful to you, or topping up your RAM is good.

You may not have a straight forward answer to these questions. That’s alright. They are intended to help you understand what you need, so that you can think about the compromises you have to make, and what sort of trade offs you’re willing to accept.

If your needs are clear and simple, you may already have arrived at a straight forward conclusion at what MacBook is right for you. The MacBook Air is more portable, and has better battery life. The Retina MacBook Pro is more powerful, has a gorgeous display, and more ports.

	MBA11	MBA13	RMBP13	RMBP15
Display	11.6″ 1366×768	13.3″ 1440×900	13.3″ 2560×1600	15.4″ 2880×1800
Processor	1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5	1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5	2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5	2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Graphics	Intel HD5000	Intel HD5000	Intel Iris Graphics	Intel Iris Pro Graphics
RAM	4GB	4GB	8GB	8GB
Flash Storage	128GB	128GB	256GB	256GB
Ports	1x Thunderbolt, 2x USB3	1x Thunderbolt, 2x USB3, 1x SDXC	2x Thunderbolt, 2x USB3, 1x SDXC	2x Thunderbolt 2x USB3, 1x SDXC
Thickness	0.3cm to 1.7cm thin	0.3cm to 1.7cm thin	1.8cm thin	1.8cm thin
Weight	1.08kg	1.35kg	1.57kg	2.02kg
Battery Life	9 hrs	12 hrs	9 hrs	8 hrs
Price	From S$1348	From S$1488	From $1788	From $2788

The processor, RAM, and flash storage capacity of the MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros can be upgraded to suit your particular needs. The above table reflects a baseline configuration of those respective models.

Briefly: 11″ MacBook Air

The MBA11 is the most portable of the lot in here. Apple even tries to position it as a tablet alternative. The difficulty I have with the MBA11 is the 11″ screen. It is too small, in my opinion, to do serious productive work on.

With a 11″ screen, the MBA11, is excellent for consuming information, but ill-purposed for doing serious work. It’s just like a tablet. I will suggest the MBA11 as something as an upgrade from a tablet. If you need to do more than an iPad can handle, consider the MBA11. You get a proper keyboard, and you can run desktop OS X apps.

An option you can consider with the MBA11 is to use it with an external monitor. If you have a large monitor at your disposal everywhere you need to do serious work at, then the 11″ screen might not be that much of a limitation. For example, if you mainly work at home and at the office, and you have a large monitor at both places, the MBA11 is fine. At other times, such as your commute between home and office, the MBA11 can be used as an awesome tablet.

Briefly: 13″ MacBook Air

The MBA13 is next up on the portability scale. It’s still an awesomely portable ultrabook, although not quite in the same league as the MBA11. But you can’t really complain about its 1.35kg lightness, especially when it buys you a 13″ screen and more battery life.

The 13″ screen is important, because that’s the minimum I’d consider required to do serious work on. This is a big win over the MBA11, and I think it is a fair tradeoff if your intended use case involves way lot more than just consuming information.

Then, the 12 hours battery life means you can work without mains power, and not worry about running out of power. It will last you through more than a typical work day. Just like how you’d expect of a tablet. When was the last time you used a notebook and not worried about remaining battery charge?

The MBA13 represents the best combination of portability, screen size, and battery life for anyone who often needs to work on-the-go, anywhere they go.

I will strongly recommend the baseline configuration be upgraded though, at least to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage. This pushes the price to S$1928. Then at this price, why not consider the RMBP13? I’ll talk about this later.

Briefly: 13″ Retina MacBook Pro

If you are awed by the Retina display, and why not considering that all our tablets and smartphone are already in the same league, the RMBP13 is a good start point.

Is the RMBP13 portable? It’s just 220g heavier than the MBA13. At the thickest point, it’s only 0.1mm thicker. The RMBP13 is definitely still sleek and lightweight.

Another reason to go with the RMBP13 is the slightly faster processor and better integrated graphics processor, compared with the MBA13.

You also get an extra Thunderbolt port. This would actually be more useful on the MBA13 or MBA11, because there isn’t enough ports to accommodate both an external display (which require the Thunderbolt port) and a Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt dongle. The RMBA13, on the other hand, could use the HDMI port instead of Thunderbolt to support and external display.

The RMBP13 and MBA13 are very close, so I’ll discuss them in more details separately.

Briefly: 15″ Retina MacBook Pro

The last contender in here is the RMBP15. You want it either for its big screen (obviously!), or the better processor and graphics configuration options, or both.

Some power users will find this better suits their needs, particularly if they are looking at using this as a main work computer, and double as their desktop replacement. Fully upgraded, you could have yourself a 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Pro Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (2GB of GDDR5 memory), 16GB of RAM and 1TB of flash.

This may not be a Mac Pro, but it’s portable. 2.02kg isn’t anywhere unmovable. If you just need to lug this between your car and office/home, you can’t complain about its heft.

But this is truly a “pro” computer. I hesitate to recommend the RMBP15, because it is costly, and likely won’t meet the budget of many people. If you really need a big screen, its upgraded specs, and cost isn’t a issue, then go for it.

Tough Question: MBA13 vs RMBP13

The main difference between the MBA and the RMBP basically comes down to portability vs display/performance. Indeed, the RMBP fits into Intel’s definition of an Ultrabook (being under 0.8″ thick). At just 220g heavier than the MBA13, the RMBP13 certainly qualifies as lightweight.

Many people are going to struggle choosing between the MBA13 and RMBP13. I suggest at least 8GB of RAM with 256GB of flash. With this configuration, the MBA13 is $1928 and the RMBP13 is S$2088. The difference is just S$160.

	MBA13 w/ 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash	RMBP13 w/ 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash
Portability	Lighter, at 1.35kg.	Heavier by just 220g, at 1.57kg.
Battery	12 hrs of awesomeness.	9 hrs, not so great, but in practice this long enough you don’t need to worry about running out of battery.
Display	Non-Retina. You might be a bit disappointed considering most tablets and smartphones are already “Retina”-like.	Retina, can be scaled to MAB13’s 1440×900 resolution, and still clearly “better”.
Processor	Probably adequate for general use. In processor benchmarks, the MBA13 is not a whole lot slower than the RMBP13.	Integrated GPU is way faster. Overall better suited for above average workloads.
Price	S$1928	S$2088

In summary, the S$160 buys you an awesome Retina display, better integrated GPU, and better overall performance. You’ll lose out slightly on portability an battery life, which may only be a concern if you carry your notebook around all the time most of the day, and need to work without power most of the day.

Configuration Options

MacBooks nowadays come with fixed configurations that pretty much can’t be upgraded. The RAM is soldered onboard, so there is no way to upgrade them. You’ve to decide how much RAM you need, and you’ll have to live with it for as long as you keep the notebook.

Today, 8GB is pretty much the standard that you should go for. Mavericks has made some significant improvements to memory efficiency, so 8GB is really quite comfortable for the near future. This is more than enough even to do web browsing, email, Photoshop, Aperture, and some sort virtualisation like VMware Fusion all at once.

However, if looking forward, you’d keep your notebook for 2 years at least, who knows what memory needs you’ll have then. Considering that the RAM cannot be upgraded, and if your budget permits, go for 16GB RAM on the MBPs. The MBAs max out at 8GB RAM, so there’s no further upgrade to consider for them.

Flash storage can theoretically be replaced, but Apple doesn’t intend for them to be field upgradeable, and no one currently sells the PCIe flash modules. I suggest going for 256GB at least. 128GB is pretty tight. In fact, I find 256GB somewhat of a squeeze to hold my photo library and virtual machine images. However, for storage, you still have options of attaching an external hard disk. If performance is a concern, I’d suggest an external SSD with SATA3 connected via USB3. The setup can give you pretty good performance, certainly faster than any internal spinning hard disk could offer.

Summary

So here’s my take and recommendation:

• Go with the MBA13 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Flash: If you need to carry your notebook around much of the day, and need to work without power most of the day.
• Go with the RMBP13 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Flash: If you are awed by Retina display, don’t carry around your notebook all day, and have slightly above average workloads.
• Go with the RMBP15: If you basically want a portable Mac Pro that you can lug around!

Don’t forget to add in any configuration upgrades that you need.