A couple questions about the 2015 MBA

[Chairman Honeycrisp]

Hey guys,

I'm looking into getting a Mac for school. Right now my top two options are a 2015 MacBook Air and a refurbished 2012 MacBook Pro. I'm currently leaning towards the Air for a few reasons, including the portability, battery life, and better out of the box config with 8 GB RAM for the Air, 4 GB Ram for the Pro. Pro has more storage and is upgradeable but I don't feel like I need that much GBs. I definitely need the RAM though as one of our MBPs only has 4 GB Ram and tends to struggle performance wise. DVD drive is not a factor.

Anyways, here were the questions that I had:
-How do the screens compare? The 2015 Air seems to get quite a bit of flak for its viewing angles. We have a 2012 Pro at home, and I find it to be just fine for how I use it, would the Air's display be around that neighbourhood quality-wise?
-Probably not a question for this forum, but I'd like to be able to install Linux, although it wouldn't be a deal breaker if I can't. Is either model easier or more or a pain to run Linux on?
-Would anyone know if the Air would run any hotter than the Pro? Not a big deal but just curious.

Thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: Additionally, is there anyone out there with 4 GB RAM Airs or Pros? I want to know how you guys get along with that much RAM, the Pro we have at home is an i5 with 4 GB RAM and I find it struggles on Mavericks (although why it's only on Mavericks I don't know, it's not my Mac). I'm planning to use GarageBand and possibly MuseScore + Finale on it. Thanks!

 

[Just_Me_D]

The MBA you mentioned is 3 years newer than the MBP. Get the MBA. Period! The screen is great.

 

[Tech198]

The MBA you mentioned is 3 years newer than the MBP. Get the MBA. Period! The screen is great.

Not just that, but the Air perfect for school

 

[Matty]

Would have to Agree with "Just_Me_D" . I would always go with the newer laptop. Newer processor, newer graphics ect.

If the Macbook Air has 8GB RAM you should be fine. Storage isn't the biggest issue because you can always get an external drive of 1TB and stick everything on there. My 2012 Macbook Pro uses 4.1 GB of RAM when nothing has been opened and a fresh boot up. After a couple hours it's up to 7GB of RAM. So the 8GB is definitely needed.

The Macbook Air screen is fine. I wouldn't say it's anything to write home about and the Retina MBP are definitely a huge upgrade but you should be happy with it.

 

[Chairman Honeycrisp]

Ended up going for the refurb Air 2015. No regrets so far, thanks for the advice!

 

[NeilWhitear]

I've just done exactly the same thing and purchased an early MBA, now just waiting delivery.

My MBP is nearly 6yrs old, whist its been upgraded to SSD and 8GB RAM, it's fine for use around the house but far to heavy for my daily driver out and about.