Should I buy a Macbook in my case?

Question

macbook

Greetings to all who visit. I'm going to buy a laptop for school, work and just for personal use. I've been looking at macbooks lately. At first, I began to be interested in Air, but the lack of an upgrade option (in my case) repels me. Now I'm looking at the pro version, 13".
So what I ask of you. Give me your opinion, should I blindly take a macbook or should I still take another laptop for the same price? Here is a list of my needs:

• Internet, mail, everything
  
• photoshop
  
• Music
  
• Office
  
• Games are very rare, and not always fresh, and I'm not picky about graphics
  
• Virtual machines
  
• I appreciate design, weight and convenience
  
• OS X is not a problem, I quickly get used to it
  

I will study as a programmer, i.e. I will also do programming.
Here's what's interesting. If you use an SD memory card as a permanent storage device, how convenient will it be and how long will the card last? It will be used only for storing files (i.e. I will not install programs there, even if there is such a possibility at all :)).
Confused in the macbook is not the largest disk capacity within reasonable prices, but it can be increased, so that's also not the biggest problem. There is also no LAN connector, but I have not noticed it in a similar category of laptops, and the problem is also not very big - you can buy a router, sort of.
The price for a 13-inch MacBook Air and about the same screen is about the same, at least in Baku.
I will use the laptop for at least 4 years.
Please state all the arguments for and against the MacBook. Thanks in advance to everyone.

Answer 1

And pro'ha - retinka?
Their price tag is almost the same.
I advise you to take PRO. I took air13 "early 2014 myself, and immediately:
1. Screen .. Well, just a screen ... Picture .... In general, I got used to half a year with grief in half, but only for the sake of this I was ready to run to sell to take pro.
2 The amount of RAM. 8GB seems to be the limit.
3. The difference from the pro - the weight is 300g more for the pro, the thickness seems to be 13mm, and the operating time is 13+ hours (real)
In general, there is not enough retina at all (terribly. coding, photoshop, web design
RAM. Take max. as much as possible. I have 4GB, a wild lack of grip even just in "idle" mode, so to speak. Safari (3-5) vladok, dropbox, and background main processes - already free Mb fluctuate around 200-500.
Virtual machine - we immediately minus 1GB the very minimum, if win8 or more pleasant functioning is 2-3GB. Well, a few - respectively multiply.
Of course, there are no problems even on 4GB, as the window pops up on win, close the application, the memory ran away) But it affects the work as a whole.
ps parallels virtualization is just divine :3 compared to vmware, VMbox, etc
Further SSD, here the question is more individual. If you have an iPhone, iPad and take pictures more than once a month. In my case, in 128 GB for pictures, the backup took 40-60 GB at once. Well, a minimum of programs is a little music + 15GB, xcode - ~ 6GB, a virtual machine + 20GB. + garbage from downloads, python scripts, any software, etc. + 10-15GB
Actually, it's easy to calculate that I make ends meet for 20 free ones)
Regarding file storage. Why flash drives and so on?
Time capsule
Well, of course, even though i5, but in the "mobile" version, nothing surprising should be expected.
I'm all for the Pro version, and I advise you.

Answer 2

I did it a little differently:
I bought a macbook about mid2012 not retina, with i7.
add there if necessary, there is still the possibility of a second screw - an SSD for the system, 16 gigs of RAM.
Few non-apple laptops with similar performance characteristics will cost less.
Although yes - there is no retina and the weight is 400 grams more than the new pro-shki, but if you work under a virtual machine with Windows, do you need a retina now?

Answer 3

You don't have to buy a macbook right away.
Moreover, they are now even very weak from 7000 UAH
. But on the other hand, if for a programmer, then it is better to develop on Mac OS.
Personally, I advise you to buy a regular laptop from UAH 5,000 and put a 120GB ssd into it and install Ubuntu and Windows on it, if you also need a HDD to store files, then buy optibay and put it in place of dvd-rom.

Answer 4

I took air because of mobility, weight, battery, keyboard backlight and performance
iron is almost the same as in my past hp probook, but the performance varies significantly
256 ssd is enough for me to work, you can immediately buy more

Answer 5

A very convenient laptop, the charge is enough for the whole day (charged it up, went to the university, returned and enough for another 1-2 hours), I’m unlikely to switch back to Windows. Why am I doing this, if the price suits you, then take it, your needs will be satisfied. If you are going to do programming, then this is the best option in my opinion, unless you are planning to do Win-development.

Answer 6

It's not entirely clear what is meant by a drive upgrade? is it the SD card? there is a JetDrive (or JetFlash, I don’t remember) from a transcendent
, if it’s not about a 12-year-old MacBook, then the internal drive cannot be replaced (well, or extremely low-budget). Well, the SD card - yes, you can stick it in. at the same transcend, the declared speeds are quite normal - 80-90Mb / s. I don't know about reliability.
if you have money - about 13 "retina - an excellent machine. moderately versatile.

Answer 7

Think about whether it is worth overpaying for this miracle of technology? For your needs, any laptop for 20 tr is quite suitable. rubles, if you buy an SSD drive, then it will generally fly away, and in terms of performance it will not be inferior

Answer 8

I join the previous speaker - 3 years ago I took the youngest PROshka 13 ". There was no retina then, and, in general, it is not critical for ordinary tasks. What is good about this model is that it is Apple, but "traditional", in which you can easily replace the RAM, HDD, it has an Ethernet in the case, a DVD cutter.As the only computer for use at home / in the office, it suits better than the Air. prices), I didn’t upgrade the rest - it’s enough. But it’s not a problem to put an SSD instead of an HDD or a cutter. I’m not going to change it yet - everything suits me. The most critical thing for OS X is RAM, and it’s enough for now. :)
PS This model is still in sale, by the way.