Macbook air or iPad 3

[felface]

I've been wrestling with this for some time and did some researching and apparently apple are majorly upgrading next to everything (presumably for IOS X 1 or something like that) and was wondering wether to wait for the iPad 3 or wait for macbook air here are my needs:
Gaming(light/not so light)
Word Proccesing (will get more often soon)
I don't need ultraportability but i will need to take it places (the more the merrier)
All day battery life
Video
Mail
Web
Oh and one last thing this has to last me a long time (four years min.)
So what do you think?,any input is much apprecated

 

[mistabritt]

Just bought an iPad 2 last week. Currently using a Mac Mini (Spring 2010) and I'm ready for a MacBook Air. Gonna Apple-ize my entire apartment. Next up will be the AppleTV.

 

[jakeless.123]

Based on your needs...if I were you, I would get the MacBook air, also seeing as u need it to last for at least 4 years(iOS devices seem to slow down quicker than the Macs). The kicker would be, what kind of gaming. Bc both devices offer a lot of nice games, but whichever ones you place most would be the deciding factor for me.


Sent from my iPhone communication device using Tapatalk

 

[felface]

Yes i bet by IOS 5.1/2 the iPhone 4s won't be any faster than the four. It doesn't matter what type of gaming a mixture of light and heavier would be nice i guess my needs in order of what i do most
All day battery life
Games
web
Video
Word
Mail
I don't know what i do the most is also my needs but soon i will need more word processing

 

[felface]

What do you mean whichever you place you place the most? I'd like a mix of light and heavy games

 

[Calebswag7]

well its mostly going to depend on like they said above what type of games your looking to play. iPad will only run mobile apps where the air you can download just about anything and even run windows in boot camp which opens up nearly any game for the air. But for the all day battery life the iPad will have that. i can sometimes get almost a day and a half of using my iPad nonstop (depending on what I'm doing of course) with the brightness halfway down. air will be around 5-11 hours. both are absolutely phenomenal machines though in which you couldn't go wrong at all.

 

[volsfan0911]

Had an original iPad, ended up selling it, passing on iPad2 and bought a 13" MBA as soon as the last generation came out last July. Rationale:

• Frequent business traveler - size matters. First time I opened it up, half the folks up front with me asked if that was the new chipset and all of them probably drooled over it. You don't know the joy of having a real computer that light, fast, portable and very durable so far.
• full size keyboard - for a while I tried the BT keyboard/iPad combo as a substitute. Not a very good one. THANK YOU Apple for making this one backlight. Mandatory for the frequent flier.
• MS Office - not a compatible program - the actual deal and I like it better than the Windows version in some regards.
• battery life - 11" version only has 5 hours rated, 13" up to 7 hours, iPad to 10. Best compromise
• 46 year old eyes - bigger screen wins. Even with progressive bifocals. Did I mention getting old sucks?

Overall, I love the thing. It's almost as portable for me as an iPad and I carry a mini-iPad with me everywhere anyway. YMMV.........

 

[BrindawithanI]

Had an original iPad, ended up selling it, passing on iPad2 and bought a 13" MBA as soon as the last generation came out last July. Rationale:

• Frequent business traveler - size matters. First time I opened it up, half the folks up front with me asked if that was the new chipset and all of them probably drooled over it. You don't know the joy of having a real computer that light, fast, portable and very durable so far.
• full size keyboard - for a while I tried the BT keyboard/iPad combo as a substitute. Not a very good one. THANK YOU Apple for making this one backlight. Mandatory for the frequent flier.
• MS Office - not a compatible program - the actual deal and I like it better than the Windows version in some regards.
• battery life - 11" version only has 5 hours rated, 13" up to 7 hours, iPad to 10. Best compromise
• 46 year old eyes - bigger screen wins. Even with progressive bifocals. Did I mention getting old sucks?

Overall, I love the thing. It's almost as portable for me as an iPad and I carry a mini-iPad with me everywhere anyway. YMMV.........

^^These are ALL of the reasons why I picked up an original iPad cheap last year.... So I could get an iMac and MBA as well. I want it all!

 

[emirozmen]

Looking at your needs iPad 2/3 is just the device for you. One thing I am not sure is that if it will last for 4 years.

 

[CG68]

Had an original iPad, ended up selling it, passing on iPad2 and bought a 13" MBA as soon as the last generation came out last July. Rationale:

• Frequent business traveler - size matters. First time I opened it up, half the folks up front with me asked if that was the new chipset and all of them probably drooled over it. You don't know the joy of having a real computer that light, fast, portable and very durable so far.
• full size keyboard - for a while I tried the BT keyboard/iPad combo as a substitute. Not a very good one. THANK YOU Apple for making this one backlight. Mandatory for the frequent flier.
• MS Office - not a compatible program - the actual deal and I like it better than the Windows version in some regards.
• battery life - 11" version only has 5 hours rated, 13" up to 7 hours, iPad to 10. Best compromise
• 46 year old eyes - bigger screen wins. Even with progressive bifocals. Did I mention getting old sucks?

Overall, I love the thing. It's almost as portable for me as an iPad and I carry a mini-iPad with me everywhere anyway. YMMV.........

Excellent points!

 

[cardfan]

Sounds like you want the MBA. But you could get a light windows notebook and ipad for about the same cost. Even buying an ipad 3 and later selling and buying a later ipad would be cheaper than the MBA. It depends on how much word processing you'll be doing.

 

[superblooddrainer]

ipad is ipad and mba is mba. They are on different worlds. Best to have both.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I'm 48, but will be 49 in a few months so I know about the eye issue..(laughing). There is still a place in this world for laptop computers, be it Mac or Windows. I have both a MacBook '09 and the iPad 2 and I use them both for different reasons. When I want to do serious computing, I grab my MacBook, but for browsing and reading and games, I grab the iPad or my iPhone. If *I* had to choose between a MacBook Air and an iPad 3, the MacBook Air wins hands down.


Just Me, D

 

[anon(4698833)]

The Macbook Air is going to be much more relevant in 4 years than an iPad...because the Macbook Air will be capable of upgrades to newer OS's when they arrive over the years, where as the iPad, after a couple of years of iOS updates, will start becoming obsolete (like you've seen with the iPhones since 2007).

The Macbook Air will probably deteriorate faster over that time when it comes to battery life and over all performance, but another great part about the Macbook is the ability to continually upgrade the internals with newer and better stuff (especially since technology continues to get smaller and smaller...in a few years the current Macbook Airs will probably seem bulky, lol). The downside to the Macbook is that for the initial price, you'll pretty much be able to buy two iPads, so replacing an aging iPad wouldn't hurt your wallet when comparing the two.

Then there is always the features argument...the Macbook Air can do EVERYTHING the iPad can, but that does not go the other way. For now the Macbook is still capable of having a disc drive/DVD drive added (via USB), more storage (and native ability TO store things on it via hard drive), ability to add more SSD storage space, USB connectivity PERIOD and the ability to use software like Office, Creative Suite, etc. These things may find their way to the iPad eventually, but as it sits now, they are not readily available (or the ability to use them requires a jailbreak).

The iPad to me is pretty similar in replacement time frames as the iPhone...every 2 or so years you'll need a new one (as history as showed us thus far) to stay relevant and to be able to properly use the new iOS features as they arrive.

Longevity and Features = Macbook Air

Price and Convenience = iPad

 

[Wildo6882]

I've actually been trying to decide this for myself. I've been debating on getting the refurbished 2010 MBA at the Apple Store and then waiting until my birthday this summer to see if I can con my family and in-laws to get me an iPad 3. I mainly want one for word processing, emails, surfing, and maybe some picture/video editing down the line. Cost-wise right now, the iPad is the cheaper way to go. But I think the added functionality is worth the extra few hundred.

 

[Eileen89]

Looking at your needs iPad 2/3 is just the device for you. One thing I am not sure is that if it will last for 4 years.

There is no reason why any iPad version couldn't last for 4 years provided that one takes good care of it.


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[wiggy1]

Get the MBA. I have the iPad first Ten and have run out of space with it. I have it for sale in the marketplace, but need to get the 64 GB iPad since I like to load videos on it while traveling. Also, I am running into limitations when I open Image intensive PDF's. There just isn't enough memory to properly support large PDF's (greater than 25MB). with lots of pictures. Else, you can get a netbook so you have the traditional computing capability on hand. Otherwise, the iPad is a very enjoyable device to have.

 

[ultrapped]

Had an original iPad, ended up selling it, passing on iPad2 and bought a 13" MBA as soon as the last generation came out last July. Rationale:

• Frequent business traveler - size matters. First time I opened it up, half the folks up front with me asked if that was the new chipset and all of them probably drooled over it. You don't know the joy of having a real computer that light, fast, portable and very durable so far.
• full size keyboard - for a while I tried the BT keyboard/iPad combo as a substitute. Not a very good one. THANK YOU Apple for making this one backlight. Mandatory for the frequent flier.
• MS Office - not a compatible program - the actual deal and I like it better than the Windows version in some regards.
• battery life - 11" version only has 5 hours rated, 13" up to 7 hours, iPad to 10. Best compromise
• 46 year old eyes - bigger screen wins. Even with progressive bifocals. Did I mention getting old sucks?

Overall, I love the thing. It's almost as portable for me as an iPad and I carry a mini-iPad with me everywhere anyway. YMMV.........

Thats exactly what i thought about when i bought my macbook air a week ago, good advice bro.

 

[leharris22]

If I had the money, I'd get the MacBook Air. Currently my 2009 MacBook is still working flawlessly, so I can't justify the upgrade

 

[bag of kittens]

Haha get both! I <3 Apple!!!!