[njrealtor]

I'm a mac devotee but my 6 year old macbook has seen better days. I need something small enough to put in a knapsack occasionally. My laptop is my primary computer. All my work is done online and saved in the cloud but - I take photos and have been storing them on my hard drive. I know, I should get an external drive. I use iPhoto to edit and I make some youtube videos with iMovie. Heavy web browsing. That's about it. Will spend what it takes but don't want to pay for unneeded speed/storage/size. Looking at the various options I'm just confused. Would love your reco's for which laptop and which external storage solution for the pics. Use an iphone and ipad too. Thanks!

[Just_Me_D]

Any newer model 13-inch MacBook should suffice, but being that your work is accessed online, the MacBook Air may be the way to go.

[Evilguppy]

I'd go for the Macbook Air.

[Algus]

Performance difference between 11'' Macbook Air, 13'' Macbook Air, and 13'' rMBP is not substantial. All three entry level CPUs should be adequate for you unless you do significant photo editing/rendering in which case you will want to consider the rMBP with a CPU upgrade. Once you pay for the CPU upgrade in the rMBP it becomes a significantly better computer than the MBA.

I recommend purchasing a minimum of 8 GB of RAM. It will add $100 to the cost of the machine but is a smart buy to extend the life of your Macbook. If you used your previous machine for 6 years, than 8 GB will go a long way in letting your new computer last that long as well.

Impossible to recommend a local storage size without knowing how much you plan to store locally. 128 GB is more than adequate for me but I also run a Mac Mini that I have modded aftermarket with additional storage. If you wish to save money, I would personally recommend just sticking with 128 GB of storage and considering an external drive down the road. They are not particularly expensive and you can get a fairly sizable plate drive that is good for data storage quite easily.

IMO pick the screen size you want and go for the rMBP if you like the idea of a retina display (though I think the 13'' MBA's 1440x900 resolution is quite good already). Do keep in mind that the 11'' MBA has the worst display resolution of the MacBooks. The good news is that 768p is not completely terrible on an 11'' screen.

[_YoKolorMeBadd]

I'm a mac devotee but my 6 year old macbook has seen better days. I need something small enough to put in a knapsack occasionally. My laptop is my primary computer. All my work is done online and saved in the cloud but - I take photos and have been storing them on my hard drive. I know, I should get an external drive. I use iPhoto to edit and I make some youtube videos with iMovie. Heavy web browsing. That's about it. Will spend what it takes but don't want to pay for unneeded speed/storage/size. Looking at the various options I'm just confused. Would love your reco's for which laptop and which external storage solution for the pics. Use an iphone and ipad too. Thanks!

I would say get the MBA 13" for your new laptop. It's light, portable and depending on how you configure your mac when/if you buy it from the Apple store, you have the ability to put up to 512GB SSD storage in there (if you buy it from Apple and pay the extra $$), plus 8GB of Ram (Same as SSD have to buy extra). Keep in mind that everything in the newer MBA/MBP are soldered inside the Macs so they can no longer be upgraded after you buy them.