MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air - help me decide!

Cameron · October 22, 2011

Ok, I'm ready to jump into the world of Mac as I replace my current Dell laptop. I've played with both the MacBook Pros and MacBook Air and am torn. I like the portability of the 13" MBA and the power/upgradability of the 15" MBP..

I'm certain that the MBA could handle just about anything I do on a daily basis - and in a perfectly portable form-factor. However, for the times I want to work on photos away from my desktop I worry that the 13" screen and 4GB RAM limit will bother me. The non-upgradable SSD drive may be too small over time as well. However, the Thunderbolt connectivity may prove to make that less of an issue.

The 15" MBP offers better performance (but no SSD by default), a larger/higher resolution screen (if I went with the upgraded screen), larger HD with the possibility of adding a SSD down the road, and double the RAM capacity. Oh, it also comes with an extra 2.6lbs of heft... :wink

Reviews also suggest that the LCD in the MBP line is superior to those in the MBA. Anyone had enough experience with both to weigh in on that?

Neither machine would be my primary photo-editing machine. I'll likely keep using my i7 based desktop I built last year.. at least until I can afford to change everything to Mac (assuming I have a good experience with this laptop). I also have an iPad 2 which I use frequently and may make the portability of the MBA less of a selling point.

Thoughts? I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has faced this decision.

DavidTO · October 22, 2011

I LOVE my MBA, but I do little photo work on it. I'll point Marc to this thread, as he just returned from the African safari with his newly purchased MBA. I'm sure he'll have some good input.

The thing for me is: do you worry about the 1% of the time that you'll wish you had more power or the 99% of the time that you'll be so grateful for its smaller size and weight and overall awesomeness? It really does most of what you want to do better. The small minority of what you'll be doing on it may be a touch more painful. But that's OK with me.

Cameron · October 22, 2011

DavidTO wrote: »

I LOVE my MBA, but I do little photo work on it. I'll point Marc to this thread, as he just returned from the African safari with his newly purchased MBA. I'm sure he'll have some good input.

The thing for me is: do you worry about the 1% of the time that you'll wish you had more power or the 99% of the time that you'll be so grateful for its smaller size and weight and overall awesomeness? It really does most of what you want to do better. The small minority of what you'll be doing on it may be a touch more painful. But that's OK with me.

David - thanks for the thoughts. I agree that the smaller size will ALWAYS be a plus to the MBA... I'm just on the fence about whether that's worth more to me than the rest. I don't travel extensively or expect to have to use it on an airplane more than several times/year...

I sort of feel like if I'm investing in a nice new machine and making the switch to Mac, I'd like to be able to enjoy working on photos on the machine as well, rather than have to load up my Windows desktop every time I want to do that. Perhaps it might make sense to get the MBA and then add an iMac down the road rather than try to make the laptop the do-it-all machine.

Andy · October 23, 2011

I have had the 13" and now have the 11" MBA - I have PS CS5 and LR3 on it - works fine. Used it in Africa for 3 weeks and it performed flawlessly. Never had any issues. To me, it's the perfect field machine - light and easy and did I say it's light?

Cameron · October 23, 2011

Andy - welcome back! I can see how the MBA would make the perfect field machine! I'd love to take it to Africa...

If my primary use were field photo / travel computing I think it would be a no-brainier. Would it still be your first choice for an everyday machine where portability wasn't absolutely essential (still nice though)?

pmaxwell · October 23, 2011

I have a 15 MBP and my wife a 13 MBA. The air is a wonderful machine and fully capable, she runs LR3 and CS5 as well. The MBA works for us because we love the size and speed of the flash, but at 128gb it is very light on storage. We have a couple of terabytes of external storage on our desk at home so that isn't a big deal, but if we didn't have the extra storage (thunderbolt fast) I would lean towards a MBP.

I MBA with LaCie's thunderbolt external drive makes a great combo.

Pupator · October 23, 2011

I love my 13" Macbook Air, and I'm a hard-core PC guy. I set the newest model next to the newest model Macbook Pro and I could not tell a difference in screen quality. Like Andy, I have Lightroom on my Air and run it when I want to without problems. I still do the bulk of my photo editing on my desktop (dual 23" IPS monitors) but when I travel I have no problem using the Macbook Air for the task. With so many good cloud options I don't worry about space and the 128GB is plenty.

Sam · October 24, 2011

I just bought a 15" Mac Book Pro. I chose this over the 17" because of the size, and over the MBA because of HD storage, RAM, screen resolution and over all performance.

When away from home my system is to download images from the CF cards to the computer and then back them up to an external HD. That way I have two copies of each image. Wouldn't be happy if I spent a lot of $$ and time on a great photography trip and then lost the images.

The anti glare high res screen ti very nice. Just what I wanted.

Still trying to get used to the touch pad. Lots of cool little ways to swipe, tap etc.

Sam

DavidTO · October 24, 2011

I can't imagine that the 256GB drive in the MBA wouldn't enough for field work, even keeping two copies like Sam does. And if it weren't, I'd still prefer to bring two small external drives for the rare occasion that I'd need it.

Marc Muench · October 24, 2011

I too was a bit tentative about switching to something less than a MBP. However, I am very pleased with the Air after owning/using and abusing one for about 4 weeks! I have used 5 different versions of the MBP for the past 6 or so years while on shoots and doing lectures. The only issue I ever had was the upgrades came within 2 years and the Apple care was only available for 3 years. Actually, they were always too slow about a month after I owned one! I must tell you that with the SSD and new OS some magic is working, cus I am very satisfied with running LR Photomatix Pro and CS5. I stitched a 3 scene HDR pano in reasonable time, in other words I did not have enough down time to get more coffee

I used two 500gig Toshiba USB 3/2 external drives while on safari. I downloaded strait to one external, than backed up to the other later. I look forward to the Belkin TB "Taco" hub which I will use to attach all my FW800 peripherals.
There is one issue, but I think it is with LION. The brush in PS and LR disappears at certain pixel sizes ? I am glad I chose the 13" except when watching Andy cradle his dinner and computer in one lap

Snowgirl · October 24, 2011

I also have the 15" MBP and it is a workhorse. I have a 27" iMAC at home on my desk, but when traveling, the MBP is great. That said, IF I had it to do again, I'd go MPA with external drives for storage. My system is to always run 2 external drives when downloading photos - both at home and on the road. Originals go to one drive, backups to another and none are ever stored on my computer itself.

I've been a MAC person for a long time and love my techy toys. And yes, Marc, there are still weirdness issues with Lion but overall it's quite a cool system.

Cameron · October 25, 2011

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I went back to the Apple store yesterday to play with them again at length - just like with cameras, staring at specs is only helpful to a point. After playing with the various models again, I was struck at how much of a difference a couple of pounds can make! The MacBook Air is really amazing in its portability. I don't take my laptop with me many times when it may be convenient to have it simply because it's a bit on the heavy side. The MacBook Pro would be a lateral move in the portability area (an upgrade in every other sense though). I think David summed it up nicely earlier:

The thing for me is: do you worry about the 1% of the time that you'll wish you had more power or the 99% of the time that you'll be so grateful for its smaller size and weight and overall awesomeness?

I know I'll eventually want a Mac with more power, but I have still have a Windows desktop that is in its prime (i7, 12GB RAM, SSD, dual monitors, etc). For everything that doesn't require that kind of power, I think the MacBook Air will be the most enjoyable machine to use and take with me. When the Windows machine is showing its age, or when I can afford to put it out to pasture, I'll add a new Mac to fill that niche.

Marc (or anyone else) - which portable drives do you use? I have a 500GB Western Digital Passport drive that I've used extensively for backup when traveling for the past couple of years but might want to get a second to give me another safe copy while away...

pmaxwell · October 25, 2011

for your portable drive, give thunderbolt a SERIOUS look, they are extremely fast, much faster than firewire and USB 2.0 isn't even in the same ball park. I moved all my pictures to a thunderbolt drive and I don't notice any lag when editing vs when they were on my internal SSD. The 1tb lacie is pricey at $399, but is so fast that I would opt for the 128gb internal drive instead of the 256.

Marc Muench · October 26, 2011

I use the Toshiba 500GB drives for now only because they are USB 2 and 3. ( Maybe there will be a TB hub that can utilize all my external perifs soon ) The current TB LaCie drive is just to clunky to bring along in the field and it requires a additional power source. For the past 13 years I have purchased most of my hard drives and RAID's from Fantom Drives. I know these guys and their equipment has "never" failed me. They say they will have portable TB drives soon, which I am waiting for...........

jonh68 · October 28, 2011

Something to consider is down the road getting an Apple Cinema Display. Earlier this year I bought a 13"MBP and 27" Display. With this setup I don't ever see myself getting another desktop. Even the base 13" does everything I need and most of the time it is hooked up to the monitor. Time Machine runs a daily backup. If I need portability, I just unplug from the monitor and go. I feel like I have the best of both worlds now. Large screen editing and portable computing in one unit. From here on out, the MBA line is only going to get better and I imagine the MBA and MBP lines will eventually merge into one.

With thunderbolt technology, I think the size of the HD becomes a nonfactor.

mjordanphoto · October 28, 2011

Just chiming in here - I've currently got a 13" MBA and absolutely love it! I'm running Aperture 3 on it, and I bring individual projects over on a WD Passport drive (or my old LaCie 160GB Rugged drive, I love that drive). I've got a 24" iMac at home with about 8TB of externals hooked up to it that I use as my main storage computer and media center. When I just had the iMac (and a 17" MBP that I borrowed from my full-time job) I got significantly less done - the Air has been fantastic in letting me get out with a single project (or download to as soon as I'm done with a shoot) and edit on the go. The combo of weight and portability is unbelievable - I can't imagine working without one now!

Marc Muench · November 2, 2011

Looks like I'll have to wait for new drives

It's been raining in Thailand and they say HDs are backed up for 4 to 6 months

Cameron · November 2, 2011

Marc Muench wrote: »

Looks like I'll have to wait for new drives It's been raining in Thailand and they say HDs are backed up for 4 to 6 months

I was in MicroCenter (computer store) the other day and they had a sign up saying due to shortages, only 1 hard drive purchase was allowed per customer.

Oh, and I ended up buying the 13" MacBook Air - I LOVE IT

It's already my favorite laptop I've ever owned, and I've had a lot over the years.

mjordanphoto · November 2, 2011

Cameron wrote: »

Oh, and I ended up buying the 13" MacBook Air - I LOVE IT It's already my favorite laptop I've ever owned, and I've had a lot over the years.

So glad to heat it! I feel the same way about mine... welcome to the club!

MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air - help me decide!

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