Air vs Pro

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

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I am looking at getting a mac laptop which will mainly be web browsing but will also include some photoshop and web development.

What are the pro's and con's for such tasks on these?

(I would most likely get the 13inch model for either and not necessarily the 2012/13 models)
 
It's just down to power and portability to be honest. Are you going to do much photoshop and web development? If you are then go for the Pro.
 
sounds like you'd benefit for the pro, especially photoshop and such. also, hard drive instead of flash in 2011 and earlier if im correct? more space cheaply for storing high quality images?
 
What will you be doing with photoshop? I have the i7 2011 air and its fine for dealing with 16mp RAW images. The resolution of the Air is superior to the pro and that should sway you even if the reduced size doesn't.
 
millsd44 said:
sounds like you'd benefit for the pro, especially photoshop and such. also, hard drive instead of flash in 2011 and earlier if im correct? more space cheaply for storing high quality images?
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If your going to go for a pre 2011 model, I'd go with the pro.

I recently replaced my MBP with a 2012 13" MBA and it is amazing and I do web development as a profession and use it daily for photoshop/fireworks/lightroom etc which it is more than capable of handling.

4gig ram is ample enough with the flash storage, things open immediately, no beach balls etc.
 
Stretch and try to get the 2012 MBA 13" with 8GB memory, whether this be new or through Apple's refurb store.

Unless you absolutely need an optical drive, there is little point in purchasing a 2012 MBP (though 2011 MBPs need to be weighed against 2011 MBAs). The MBA is pretty much as powerful, so buy what you need from the get-go, and you'll have no problems.
 
+1 for the Air, the CPU power difference isnt enough between the two to make up for the lack of SSD in the Pro (and if your spending extra for the SSD in the pro then why on earth not just get the Air?)
 
Basically I loved my 15" pro, that was a dream computer and at 3 and a half years old its still huggable (and doing good service for my mum now), my 13" pro is great but not the same sadly (partly as I hardly use it now and partly as the 15" was a nicer form to use).

Need to sell the 13" as a result but if it was the 13" air I could have thought up more uses, my pro now is just a £600 DVD player which is a shame as someone will love it. Get the air, biggest screen and biggest ssd, with the pros it's impossible not to crack them open, whip in the ssd and max ram to get a heavy version of the air, which is what makes them great...
 
Have the 13" air and use it as my main machine. Do the occasional photoshop and web work. Have never had any issues with speed and capability of the machine. I do sometimes miss a bigger screen though but will be hooking it up to an external monitor very soon.
 
The Air beats the non-Retina 13" Pro hands down for a number of reasons (which have been done to death on here), but for me the single biggest reason I'd want to replace my Pro with an Air is the 1440x900 resolution vs. the 1280x800 on my current MBP.
 
It would only be little Photoshopping nothing major, mainly web and app development.

It would also be a complete replacement for my laptop where I just use the web and music (football manager is the only gaming)
 
Skyboat said:
The Air beats the non-Retina 13" Pro hands down for a number of reasons (which have been done to death on here), but for me the single biggest reason I'd want to replace my Pro with an Air is the 1440x900 resolution vs. the 1280x800 on my current MBP.
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I've been weighing up buying one of these for a few months now, and just ordered the Air 13 today, based on the screen resolution. Even the MBP Retina 13 is scaled to equivalent of 1280, which just doesnt feel wide enough to me.

looking forward to receiving it tomorrow :)
 
Mac Air 13" arrived yesterday and I'm very very happy with it. So much faster than my work desktop (2010 mini) and snappier than my home iMac, which is a similar spec but the SSD just makes it feel so responsive.
 
I recently bought an 11inch top spec Air, and it's great.

I was going between that and a 13inch pro but went for the Air (for many reasons) and it's performing just as well as my top spec iMac (2011), feels snappier mainly due to the drive.

I use FCP, Illustrator/InDesign/Photoshop etc and it's absolutely fine with all.

I went with the 11' because it's mainly for travel and for taking for anywhere I need to show/do work. At home I have Mac + extra screen so it's all good and works well as a combo.

I was worried about performance but using it and it's an absolute dream and I'm glad I went 11' over 13'.
 
Another web developer here with a bog standard 2012 macbook air and I haven't had any issues. The only time it isn't quite as quick as my old MBP is when un-raring large files.

I usually have 2-3 browsers open, a couple of text editors, sequel browser, terminal, mail, ftp client, imessage, photoshop, firework and a load of other stuff open and there is never an issue.
 
fez said:
Another web developer here with a bog standard 2012 macbook air and I haven't had any issues. The only time it isn't quite as quick as my old MBP is when un-raring large files.

I usually have 2-3 browsers open, a couple of text editors, sequel browser, terminal, mail, ftp client, imessage, photoshop, firework and a load of other stuff open and there is never an issue.
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Do you have it hooked up to an external monitor?
 
I have a 13" 2012 base model Air with 8GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. It's amazing.

Just got a wireless keyboard and trackpad and going to set it up as my main computer to use when not playing PC games. Hooked it up to my 27" 1440p monitor and it's awesome.

I don't miss the DVD drive and the SD card reader is really useful for importing photos. I'd certainly recommend the air.
 
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