Need Help Deciding between 13" Air and 13" Pro

[MikaelSmoot]

Looking to buy my new mac sat.

Currently I use a white macbook with 4gb ram, and 500 gb hdd.

the 13 inch Air seems like it would be perfect except storage space. I have a ton of HD video from iTunes. Do those with the 13 Air just store there video to external drive as they download it?

IS it annoying or am I better off getting the 500gb Pro?

Does anyone have screen comparison Ive been reading on here that the screen on the Air is the best out there?

 

[kdoug]

Looking to buy my new mac sat.

Currently I use a white macbook with 4gb ram, and 500 gb hdd.

the 13 inch Air seems like it would be perfect except storage space. I have a ton of HD video from iTunes. Do those with the 13 Air just store there video to external drive as they download it?

IS it annoying or am I better off getting the 500gb Pro?

Does anyone have screen comparison Ive been reading on here that the screen on the Air is the best out there?

I own both, the MBP 2.66 and the MBA 2.13. The resolution on the MBP is only 1280x800 but there seems to be more color saturation on the Pro. I never get the spinning wheel of thought on my Air, it's constant on the Pro. The Pro feels and looks old compared to the Air. The glass bezel that surrounds the screen on the Pro is pretty. The extra ports and the CD drive are of little use to me. Did I mention the Air is fast, I mean really fast!
Keep in mind the Pro is still very portable and can be had for much less than the Air. There's a reason why the MBP is Apple's best selling computer.

 

[gwsat]

The OP's quandary serves to illustrate that deciding on a laptop always requires compromise. The laudably powerful entry level 2.4Ghz 13 inch MBP sells for $1,199.00 but a more or less comparably equipped 13 inch MBA costs much more, $1,799. For the extra money the MBA provides lightning fast flash storage instead of a middle of the road hard drive. Also, the MBA is less than half as thick and weighs less that two-thirds as much as the 13 inch MBP. Whether you pick the MBP or the MBA turns on your priorities and your budget. There is no right or wrong answer.

 

[OSMac]

Screen on the Air looks better side by side, darker blacks, less reflections etc...

I was quite surprised.

 

[rockyroad55]

You could always buy the low end pro and buy your own SSD.

 

[KPOM]

The OP's quandary serves to illustrate that deciding on a laptop always requires compromise.

You mean I can't have an 11.6" MacBook Air with a Core i7, discrete NVidia GT 330M, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and Firewire 800 for $999?

 

[Truffy]

The laudably powerful entry level 2.4Ghz 13 inch MBP sells for $1,199.00 but a more or less comparably equipped 13 inch MBA costs much more, $1,799.

But that's the point, it's not. For sure, the MBA drops the optical drive, but the SSD makes a big difference to the price delta. You could get away without one in the MBP, but adding one, for whatever the reason, would close that gap quite considerably.