switching from Asus UX31E to Macbook Air mid 2013?

[RockOn_23]

Hi,

because I am gonna to program for iOS 7 I have to switch my machine to an (portable) machine running natively Mac OS X. I though about switching completely to an Macbook Air (mid 2013, 13'', i5, 256 GB SSD), working 90% on Windows 7 (bootcamp) and just for Apple SDK etc. on Mac OS X.

I am currently very happy with a Asus UX31E (i7, ADATA SSD). I am not really able to compare the information (tests, benchmarks) I found for both machines. Can maybe someone assist me comparing three things (in order of importance)

i) acoustics (UX31E is almost silent)
ii) battery life (that's the main reason for considering the i5 MBA)
iii) performance (mainly for standard task like MS Office, internet etc.; only 5% things like larger MATLAB calculations)

I hope to find out if the MBA would be a kind of downgrade or almost comparable

thanks a lot
RockOn

 

[amyklai]

i) Sound is ok, but not great. Definitely wouldn't call it "almost silent", though.
ii) battery life is absolutely great. 10+ hrs is no problem, but this depends on the apps you're using playing nice. Battery life w/ bootcamp and Win 8 is in the 7-8hrs range: http://www.digitalversus.com/laptop/apple-13-macbook-air-2013-running-windows-8-p16624/test.html
iii) Performance is definitely sufficient for stuff like MS Office and internet browsing

However, I'd wait till June and see what the new MBAs (probably retina) bring to the table and then either buy one of the new ones or get the 2013 edition at a lower price. It's probably only two months...