Going back to college...A MacBook Air 256gb or a MacBook Pro 500gb HDD?

MacBook Pro without Retina display

Get something with an SSD. The experience (on any OS) is way better.

@sheeponmeth I read that SDD provides better performance but Air is 2.2 GHz and Pro is 2.5 ghz so I thought that should balance out.Also, battery on ssd is better but not more than 5%. What is your take?

@KaranJ 0.3Ghz definitely won't make up for it.

Bottlenecks are always HHD.

For comparison I bought a new iMac with HDD recently, my 4 year old laptop with SSD still smoked it in terms of boot up and app launches. I actually had to return the iMac and get one with a hybrid drive.

@KaranJ Yeah, an HDD will read at about 70MB/s and an SSD in the new MacBooks reads at like 1200MB/s. HDDs are massive bottlenecks in performance. Also, HDDs wear out, they die in MacBooks after about two years or so. In addition, the non Retina MacBooks are actually 2012 models, so you're getting a 2012 i5. The 30%-40% increase of performance in the 2015/2016 i5 will way more than make up for the frequency gap.

@sheeponmeth Thanks...seems like Pro is out of question. Finally, how much difference does a 2.2ghz Air does as against 1.6ghz?

@xroad 👍

@KaranJ now that you'll probably notice a difference

@KaranJ depends on what you're doing. Web browsing you probably won't notice anything. But compiling, de/compressing, encrypting, so on, you'll definitely notice a difference. So, it boils down to cost/benefit in your particular use case.

you can always upgrade hd and ram but nt processor. so my take pro.

and if u will wait for a month u will get new version of mbp

@rookiemaverick I don't think you can upgrade anything in the new MBP

@turturtles you can upgrade hd and ram. to be sure plz refer to apple support. the one thing which we cant change is motherboard and processor

@rookiemaverick I thought they soldered the RAM to the logic board in the newer ones since 2013 or so. Sure you can buy them with upgraded RAM and SSD's from Apple but I don't think after a few years they're as upgradable as say my 2010 MPB.

Pro is upgradeable, Pro Retina can only have the storage upgraded.

@turturtles 2010 upgradable. make it sure via amazon and 925 mac

Wait for the new lineup.

@sheeponmeth I would be doing all of that. So , I believe 2.2 is the way to go since a good MBP would be out of budget.

Thanks everyone. 👍