MBP vs MBA | Hacker News Reader

MBP vs MBA

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5 pointswglb13 comments

> And you need something between it and your gonads, because it’s a real toaster when it gets going.

The new Ivy Bridge machines are supposed to run much cooler.

I don't get people who enjoy matte finished screens. The perceived difference in color due to the polarizing effects of the finish is pretty noticeable, in my experience.

Well as it stands, matte screens are:

a) easier on the eyes - you don't have to look through a mirror to be able to see What you want to see.

b) you can actually see something if you are not in your cellar with all lights dimmed (unless your display is really bright, which the mb screens are, or close to, which in exchange burns your battery…)

c) I do not know too much about the polarising effect causing colour shifts, but as far as I can tell, ALL professional monitors use non-glare coating. So I assume that, if anything, matte screens are more colour accurate.

I vastly prefer less glare and reduced eye strain (for me at least) over richer and deeper colors, if I have to choose between the two.

The perceived difference is the point. Matte is different from the glarey oversaturated colors of shiny screens.

I use both (the MBP as a personal laptop) and the MBA at work and I must say that I prefer the MBP. The MBA is a nice enough to do light weight stuff on it but the RAM on it is not enough for today's day and age. Also I find that as a person with rather large fingers, I keep pressing the power key instead of backspace (delete). On the other hand, the 15 " MBP is too big for any sort of meaningful work on a plane.

> The screen has a matte finish. Yes!!!!!! I sneer in the general direction of all non-matte-finish screens.

Really?

You have made your compromises, they have made theirs. Everyone has different needs, personally I'm fine with only 800 high as I'm working in a terminal most of the time. If you are a graphic designer, then it's probably not for you. Each to their own.

It seems that he process lots of his own photographs.

IIRC that MBP can be upgraded to 16GB of RAM max.

This is an unadvertised feature, but yes, the new processor can handle 16GB of RAM. Last time I looked (although not very hard) I was unable to find 2x8GB sticks though. The 8GBs of RAM I have in my MBP (which sounds to be the EXACT same machine as the poster, depending on which SSD he's using) is 2x4GB chips.

I use http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/ and they have been quite satisfactory.

It's always been a peeve of mine that Apple has this obvious gap between the Pro and Air lines that if addressed would result in the perfect machine.

All they have to do is simply get rid of the optical drive on the Pro line to lose some weight or increase the max ram on the Air's.

Do you think Apple might have thought of that, and was just waiting for the optical drive to be completely replaced by network storage and online publishing? iCloud, hmm?

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