Macbook Pro vs Macbook Air vs Lenovo Thinkpad

[Aaron McCotton]

Hello people of the internet.

 

Let's cut to the chase. I need some recommendation. I am currently using Lenovo Thinkpad E431 (Upgraded to 8 GB of RAM and SSD), and I have a plan to switch to Apple's macbook lineup. But I can't decide which macbook should I buy? I am a university student. And I spend most of my day doing coding (web, java, also android studio), teaching, doing assignments, and sometimes editing photos in my free time. With that said, which macbook lineup should I buy? But, keep in mind I don't have a lot of money in my pocket. My plan is to get Macbook Pro mid-2012 (MD101) or Macbook Air 2014, which in my country both have relatively the same price. Or should I just keep using my Lenovo Thinkpad?

 

So any answer and/or recommendation is highly appreciated.

Thank you and have a good day to you all!

Cheers!

 

P.S. the reason why I want to change is because I need the performance and the portability of the Macbook, and also the software support.

 

[NelizMastr]

The 2012 MBP is old, has a bad display (both the 13" and 15" non-retina) and same goes for the 2014 air. Your E431 is faster or equally fast . If you want a Mac that's light and fast, you'll need to step up to the current 13" MBPr with the 8th gen quad core i5. It's close to 2 grand outside of the US, though, so it's not exactly cheap.

[LukeSavenije]

if you really need apple os support, just run a vm, or use hackingtosh

[Aaron McCotton]

59 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

The 2012 MBP is old, has a bad display (both the 13" and 15" non-retina) and same goes for the 2014 air. Your E431 is faster or equally fast . If you want a Mac that's light and fast, you'll need to step up to the current 13" MBPr with the 8th gen quad core i5. It's close to 2 grand outside of the US, though, so it's not exactly cheap.

That's the thing. I don't have that much money. I'm targeting Macbook Pro 2012 or Macbook Pro 2013

[Aaron McCotton]

55 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

if you really need apple os support, just run a vm, or use hackingtosh

isn't hackintosh is not that good?

[NelizMastr]

1 minute ago, Aaron McCotton said:

That's the thing. I don't have that much money. I'm targeting Macbook Pro 2012 or Macbook Pro 2013

The 2013 is a Retina MBP already, so that's a MUCH nicer device overall and SSD as standard. That's a no brainer.

[LukeSavenije]

3 minutes ago, Aaron McCotton said:

isn't hackintosh is not that good?

hackingtosh is just fine if you do it right, apple just doesn't like it

[NeuesTestament]

Windows laptops are a way better value across the borad, so I would think hard about wether you really need that "software support". Because it will cost you a hefty premium.

[79wjd]

4 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

hackingtosh is just fine if you do it right, apple just doesn't like it

It's really not 'just fine'. It's unstable and unpredictable -- far from anything I would be willing to use as something I need to rely on. And that's when you're running ideal, carefully chosen, hardware, which is going to be far from reality when dealing with a laptop.

[LukeSavenije]

14 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

It's really not 'just fine'. It's unstable and unpredictable -- far from anything I would be willing to use as something I need to rely on. And that's when you're running ideal, carefully chosen, hardware, which is going to be far from reality when dealing with a laptop.

Well, we disagree here. And that's fine. Hackingtosh is a weird thing. But as far as I've done it (with some vms) I got it all working as long as I wasn't installing updates. But your not wrong, hackingtosh does need specific hardware. But the community behind it is big enough to do a lot

[CrowDazzle]

Based on processor speed alone the 2012 Macbook Pro is going to be slightly faster than the 2014 Air.

Are you able to jump up to the 2013 or 2014 Macbook Pro? This will give you a huge processor bump, retina screen, and thunderbolt 2.

 

The 2012 Macbook Pro is at the very bottom of macOS Mojave's support list so you run the risk of being on an unsupported system by the next OS update...if that matters.