Need help deciding. MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

[steveh552]

Windows is starting to annoy me, hate the latest versions. I bought an iPhone 5s and love the ease of use and how it just works.

So having said that I am looking at getting a MacBook. First off it will be my first Mac and I'm sure I will eventually have hundreds of questions. But the point of this post is that I'm not sure what to get, the air or pro, heck I admit I really don't know the difference between the two.

I have decided I want the flash memory instead of a standard hdd. It will mainly be used to surf the web, watch videos and if I ever get back into it photo editing.

I understand I'm going to be very limited on my hard disk (flash disk?) size which is going to be difficult, I currently have over 300gb of music and movies alone. Photos will be put into the cloud via Dropbox and google drive.

Also what software should I look into investing in? How difficult will it to get my music and videos to transfer over?

I'm sure these are all noob questions but any advice will be appreciated.

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[steveh552]

Also is it suggested to buy at the apple store or is best buy suitable? Any difference to note?


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[rayz336]

Best Buy or the Apple Store is suitable, you may even find better prices in Best Buy. If you have an external hard drive it'll be very easy to get your music and videos transferred over. As far as software iPhoto may handle what you'd like to do if you're only doing basic editing. If you're doing more advanced editing you should probably pick up Photoshop or one its alternatives.

 

[Algus]

The Air offers portability and tremendous battery life at the expense of raw horsepower. The 13'' Air's 1440x900 resolution is beautiful and by no means a laughing matter. It is simply inferior to the retina Macbook Pro's display. If you constantly travel with your Air, you will appreciate the extended battery life and the lightweight form factor. If you see yourself docking your laptop to a home office setup mostly, the Pro's superior performance will probably work for you.

Without knowing exactly what you plan to do, I would guess the Air will be sufficient for your photo editing needs as it is fine for casual/hobbyist work.

If you have several other computers in your home, it would be well worth your time and money to get a NAS setup so that all of your systems can access your music and photos. 128 GB of storage is still fairly substantial and should be adequate for any programs you need on your system as well as a selection of media.

Depending on your budget and so forth, you could get something like this from Other World Computing and it would address your optical drive and storage needs.

 

[steveh552]

Thank you everyone for the comments. No matter what I get battery life will be better than I get with my dell and I usually never am away from a power port very long. Only travel is when I drive to Memphis, Dallas or fly to Vegas, and obviously I wont be using it while driving (although may at a rest area with wifi which I have started to find). I am not sure I will do much with photography, most of my photos now days are with my Iphone, but I am looking at picking up a new camera, not sure yet.

Does the Apple stores stock more than just the basic configurations (which I can find at Best Buy)? I am not huge on ordering, I like to try before I buy.

 

[Algus]

Apple Store and Best Buy will both have demo units and kiosks set up. Apple store can be rough if you're on a budget cuz they like to throw all their computers up with those nice 27'' Thunderbolt displays and full wireless input setups. Ever since my trip, I've been slowly piecemealing a desktop together as I've gotten the money!

If you buy from the Apple web store, you can configure options like the processor, onboard memory, storage, etc. This is very helpful and not something you will find if you purchase for instance at Best Buy. Apple retail stores and the online web store are kind of integrated and buying from the store is a lot like buying from the website. You can even use the Apple Store app on your iPhone while you are in the store to ring yourself out if you want.

Since you have not experienced the machines first hand, it will definitely be worth a trip down to the store to have a look at the display models and play with them a bit.

 

[steveh552]

Good food for thought.


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[Aanya]

Both MacBook Air or MacBook Pro are good for me. But I would suggest MacBook Air, because of lightness and as you mentioned you have minimum travel time. But pro graphic quality is best. Better you just go to apple store and compare both features by own.

 

[MacGeekAZ]

For casual use (watching movies, searching the web, light photo editing and organizing), I'd go with the MacBook Air. It is lighter than the Pro, and gets amazing battery life.

Do stop by an Apple store or Best Buy and try the different models. To get a good deal, consider buying a refurbished one from Apple's online store. I just ordered a refurbished MacBook Air for about $300 less than the retail price. It's the latest model, too, not an older one. (If you do go with refurbished, remember that there was a big upgrade of the MacBook Air in 2013 - don't get the 2012.)