Air vs Pro for my work in TV production?

[mynameistom]

Hi all,

I work in TV production and need a laptop to take out on location and to use while travelling and I was wondering what you guys thought would suit my needs best.

Obviously the air has the advantages in terms of portability, and the pro is more powerful.

The main tasks I would be doing are writing up documents, online research, light photo editing and transferring HD footage from SD cards onto external drives. I would also be using it in the office to look through footage with the possibility of doing some basic editing.

My first thought was that an Air (especially sandy bridge) would be able to handle all this and the portability would be a huge bonus, but are there any arguments for the PRO that I haven't considered?

Thanks.

 

[jdechko]

The Air should be able to handle most of those tasks without a problem. Editing HD video isn't something you're really going to want to do on a regular or semi-regular basis though. Sandy Bridge should help a little.

Assuming you'd go 13" whether you bought the Air or the Pro, the increased screen resolution of the 13" Air is definitely a plus. If you don't need it right away, I'd definitely wait a little while to see what the refreshed Air has in terms of specs.

 

[mynameistom]

I hadn't considered the screen res actually. Good point. I would be going for the 13 in both cases and am definitely waiting for the refresh before i take the jump. I've got about 40 GB of music I'd want to stick on there so would I need to spring for more than 128 to keep things from getting laggy?

 

[jdechko]

It depends on what else you've got installed on the machine. Assume 10GB for the system, 40 GB for music, Multiple gigs of High Res Photos and Hi-Def Video, Photoshop and Video editing software and you'll probably be close to the capacity of the 128GB drive. Sounds to me like you might need to get a bigger drive. Or use iCloud .

 

[CHSeifert]

You need the 256 gb SSD in my view.

Wait for updated MBA and see if the MBA 13 won't cut it fir you.
The MBP 13 has pretty low resolution for a pro machine, sort of in between the MBA 11 and MBA 13 resolution wise.

If you get the MBP - definitely get it with 256 SSD and 8 gb ram as well.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Where do you work in production, just curious? It's okay if you don't feel comfortable answering.

 

[mynameistom]

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Thanks for all the advice. I work for Channel Four in the UK. Doing research work in the majority but also on location quite a lot trying to build up my experience in terms of shooting which is where I want to be eventually. Also trying to get my head around FCP to broaden my skills but I've got an iMac at home that can take care of that for the most part.