macbook air or macbook pro 13in?

[fuyuki]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, and this is my first time buying mac. I am deciding between 2 laptop, macbook pro 13in or macbook air 13in.

Primary Task to use:
-typing word documents in chinese. "Going to use the Chinese character input on multi touchtrack pad."
-watching youtube streaming and hd videos.
-using parallel desktop to run window program from http://www.econsoft.com/ HCFA form manager 4"unless there are alternative program in mac that does the same thing"
-Browsing internet

secondary task - perform these task less often
-photoshop cs5 "primary once a month or so"
-casual gaming "plant vs zombie", "starcraft 2" -once every few months
-dreamweaver CS5
-traveling with laptop around two times a years internationally.
based on my needs, which laptop would suit me more, macbook pro 13in or macbook air 13in.
edit: cost difference is 1199 vs 1299. Is macbook air worth the $100 extra?
Thanks,

 

[JKK photography]

I think the air would work out pretty well for you, but if you think that you'll be using the Adobe products very often I'd say to get the MBP.

 

[Mike84]

The Air is the right choice for you.

 

[Mac Composer]

You're comparing apples and oranges. I think you're looking at the base model 13" Air, right? It only has 2 GBs of RAM. For your Adobe apps, you'll need 4 GBs. It'll work with 2, but you'll soon be wishing that you had 4. Not sure, but I think running parallels works better with 4GB. So figure you'll need to add another $100 to get 4 GBs in the Air. Now there's a $200 difference.

My advice, get the MBP. It's not as light and sexy as the Air, but you'll have more options available to you. The MBP comes with 4 GBs standard. You can upgrade that to 8 GBs really cheap now, about $100 from companies like Newegg. You can add an aftermarket SSD that will make that machine fly. The MBP has a firewire connection too.

I have an MBP, my wife has the ultimate Air. Both great machines. But with the Air you're paying a premium for the light weight. You'll get more bang for your buck with the MBP.

 

[fuyuki]

yeah, if the cost difference is more than $100, I would rather go with macbook pro instead of macbook air.
I have a few questions:

Does macbook air lag while running photoshop or something?
Does the window software lag in parallel desktop for base model macbook air 13in?

 

[Bulldog3777]

MBA or MBP

I have both and I would only go with the Air if portability was the most important consideration. The Air is more portable but the Pro is a better computer. Now I am not saying the Pro isn't portable, it's just the Air is more portable.

 

[Thiol]

yeah, if the cost difference is more than $100, I would rather go with macbook pro instead of macbook air.
I have a few questions:

Does macbook air lag while running photoshop or something?
Does the window software lag in parallel desktop for base model macbook air 13in?

The air will lag depending on what kind/size files you are processing in Photoshop. It will lag most likely because you would have only 2 GB RAM.

The same answer is true for Windows software. It depends on how much RAM you give your virtual machine, and whether or not that is enough for the program you are using. Also, don't forget that more virtual machine RAM means less RAM for the Mac OS.

If you want the Macbook Air for whatever reason, I would highly suggest getting 4 GB of RAM based on what you have told us.

 

[ABG]

For the adobe stuff I'd have thought the higher resolution screen on the 13" Air would be much more useful than the lower res 13" MBP.

The MBP is more upgradable, but if you go that way I'd hold off to see what happens at the next refresh.