Is the Air powerful enough to use as a development platform?

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Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (mid 2011)

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wrlee January 17, 2012

Is the Air powerful enough to use as a development platform?

I am wondering whether the Air, with its limited memory and storage, is powerful enough to use as an iOS developer machine? I would also run VMware Fusion, occasionally, and Firefox or Chrome with dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of tabs open. I also use PhotoShop, occasionally, and use it as my portable photo repository (my primary photo archive is at home).

I have an '08 White MacBook, now, that is able to handle the load (not great, but passably). Others who have an Air love it and say that it should handle my needs. It is hard to believe. Someone at the Apple Store suggested that I should probably go with a Pro.

What do other owners think?

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Jgstew 1 year ago

I think the Macbook Air is a very convenient device, and it should handle your needs. My concern with the Macbook Air as your sole computer is lack of upgradablility. It is fairly trivial to upgrade the RAM and Hard Drive on a Macbook Pro. You can even replace the Optical Drive with a traditional hard drive for large storage, and use a SSD for the main drive for the OS & Programs. If this is going to be your only computer, the ability to upgrade, especially storage, is important for the long term use of the device. If however you had a iMac or other computer that you used as your main system, and wanted something to use when traveling, then I think nothing beats the Macbook Air.

I think the Macbook Air as someone's sole computer makes much more sense for those who do not want to run fusion, developer apps, etc... for some users, the Macbook Air makes even more sense.

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lemketron 2012-01-18 15:39:36

I am also trying to decide between Air and a MBPro for my wife, to replace her aging white MacBook. The MacBook is maxxed out at 2GB of RAM, and she has a 120GB drive which is full. The white MacBook CPU is frequently brought to its knees by the multi-layer artwork she does in Photoshop.

As others have mentioned, I think the limited expandability of the Air is the biggest potential drawback: 4GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD (assuming you're willing to pop for that rather than the cheaper 128GB).

The 13" MBPro offers more (MHz, RAM, and disk) though it's frustrating that the 13" MBPro has lower screen resolution (1280 by 800) than the 13" Air (1440 by 900). To match the MBAir's screen resolution requires going to the 15" MBPro ($700 more than the 13" MBPro, plus another pound).

It really depends on how long you intend to use the machine, and whether you have to max it out from day one to get what you need, or get yourself room (and time) before it doesn't really work for you.

Currently, we're trying to hold off a little while longer, hoping the spring will bring some new choices (likely just to complicate things even more)...

Jgstew 2012-01-18 16:01:46

I did not realize the 13" Macbook pro had a lower res screen than the 13" air, that is odd.

captronchron 2012-01-18 16:19:25

If your paying for the full power and storage of the MBPro why not get the 15" anyway? You're going to carry around the extra pounds. I've always had a 15" Pro till the new i7 Air took over for me. The 15" never weighed me down that I noticed. But now the Air WOW it is a full computer that's only slightly more than an iPad. I don't need more than 256GB to carry. And I keep a 16GB SD card in it for scratch memory. 32GB SDs aren't that much now ether. Then 64s will drop and so on and on.

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MtnSloth 2012-01-18 00:07:42

What would you be doing with VMware Fusion? Fusion does benefit from RAM. Up to a point, you can't have too much RAM . . . or hard drive space if you use snapshots or complete system copies to test different application/OS versions. However, I'm thinking that your needs on the VMware front are probably modest; but you would have to max RAM to have the minimum to run one or maybe two VMs with what I consider reasonable performance. Drive space would be the other issue, but I'm assuming you would use a fast external drive (FW800 or Thunderbolt) for guest OS storage.

Seems like a tougher call is screen size. Can't imagine coding on a single monitor . . . never mind one that is only 13" in size; but then I'm avowed two monitor person. And your heavy browser usage makes even 4GB look a little iffy. However, if a Macbook has been getting the job done, then I don't see why a an Air would be a fail. YMMV. Maybe try a rental or borrowed system?

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wrlee 2012-01-18 04:00:27

Thanks for your response. I'm a long time Windows user, so there are still some Windows apps that I'm used to. I tend to run apps like my favorite text editor (Notepad++), Quicken, some image and (less and less often) MS-Office. If I get back into MS OS programming, then I'd want to run Developer Studio.

The laptop screen, on it's own would not be my preferred development environment. At home, I plug it into my keyboard, mouse, and 24" monitor (for a dual-screen setup). But a laptop is for portability, so, away from home, I like to be sure I'm able to do any development I need to (in spite of the small screen).

I forgot to mention that my MacBook is maxed out at 4GB and has a comfortable 500GB hard drive.

wrlee 2012-01-18 04:04:39

PS—good idea about renting one. I'll do that befor buying one.

lemketron 2012-01-18 15:28:18

Another option I've heard suggested is putting your stuff on a USB thumb drive, and take it with you to the store so you can try (your) stuff there. You probably can't run Fusion that way, but you might be able to try Photoshop and other stuff.

adrieltan1 2012-01-20 10:08:15

From personal experience, It should be good enough for a development platform, but the MBP may be a better choice because you can upgrade the RAM to more then 6GB. Something that you will want since you are such a heavy user. Also HDD Space seems quite important for all your photos and VMWare. If you can afford it, look out for the 15 MBP Hi-res screen, looks very nice and super powerful. :)

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derekpunsalan 2012-01-31 12:49:22

The i7 / 256GB version I have is my sole computer. I pair it with a 27" Cinema Display at work. I came from a fully loaded 15" MacBook Pro + SSD upgrade. I don't miss the MBP. My work is mostly front end but I do have to run a java dev environment when I work with the rest of the team. On a typical day I'll run just the basics like Photoshop, Espresso 2, Illustrator and a database. I've ran Parallels a few times for browser tests. The fans will kick in and I'll see the spinning beach ball which is a good indicator to quit Adobe apps. The few times I've worked in Xcode for mobile the Air worked as expected.

Bottom line. I don't regret the 13" Air as my sole computer. Now if Apple releases a 15" Air / MBP model sans drive and all solid state - I'm upgrading.

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captronchron 2012-01-18 11:04:11

The Air is powerful and can be fast enough for what you describe with the i7 Proc., but the limit of 256BG can only be increased lightly by an SD card or an external USB Drive.

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