macbook air or macbook pro

So did I. The mba was nice, but the mb pro works perfectly.

There is a lot of pros and cons for having each, it comes back to what you want. Personally I will wait for the next MBP or MBA and go from there.

The screen resolution is higher on the MBA, battery life is longer on the MBP, MBA has solid state Drive where the MBP has an HDD, MBA is lighter and thinner while the MBP has a lot more options and so on. List goes on

apple4444 wrote:
I am still not sure which one to get. And i will also add that i am going to bringing this back and forth to school everyday. I would get the mbp but why do I need the extra ram and ghz when I am just surfing the web, email, ichat, microsoft word, etc.?

Honestly, no one here can tell you what you need. There's been some great suggestions and feedback in this thread and there's even more if you search through the first couple pages of the appropriate sub-forum. At this point, the only person that can best answer that question is you. Going somewhere, like an Apple Store, to try out both machines with some hands on time is really the next best step.

go with the mb pro. the better choice all around. no bugs out of the box. 2 pounds heavier. you won't regret it. why wait? Stores like Microcenter are selling it for $999.00 now. Lots of good deals on them out there.

I am looking to go Mac!
I would like to use it to:
1) Program for the iOS.
2) Do minor movie editing with iMovie
3) Use Photoshop CS5
4) Program using netbeans or eclipse

Will the mba be good enough to handle these tasks?

I'm a user of both, 15" MBP and 13" new MBA. Hard to directly compare them. Overall the MBP is more capable machine (proven design), BUT it no matter how it's configured, doesn't fly like this MBA - even if equipped with an aftermarket SSD. Then again, I'm using the MBA not as a primary machine - but small, light, fast internet and basic use station. I've already got Parallels loaded with WinXP and Windows 7 for support reasons (it's what I do). If I was running full bore with heavy apps, (Final Cut, Aperture, etc) I might think otherwise, but I like this MBA. It's the fastest machine I've ever used.

Sounds great! Well I guess I will be buying the MBA. Any one else have any other opinion? Thanks alot hawleyrw.

Just to let you know I have had both the Air and the Pro. I really like this new macbook air. Battery life is fantastic. They say 7 hours on the 13" air, but I get close to 8 - 9 hours when turning down the brightness. It is super fast with the new Flash drive. It is really amazing. But you have to decide. Good luck.

Thanks BROTIM even more conviction now to get the Air 8-9 hrs!!! Fantastic! True Road Warrior. 🙂

I purchased a 13in Macbook Air in Mid-December 2010. I travel frequently (2-4 days a week) and the reason for buying this was mainly the size. I was also growing tired of Windows!

One of the exceptions you listed is incorrect, the other is easily fixed.

True, the keyboard is not backlit. However, the label on the keys ARE white....at least on mine and the ones I have seen in stores. I have no problem seeing the keys in a dark room, using just the light reflecting from the screen.

There is a USB ethernet adapter that works perfectly well for times when there is no WiFi.

Good stuff Air Newbie. Did you take the stock 2GB Ram and 64Gb harddrive?
How is the performance?

I got the Stock Mac Air 11 inch for $999 on Monday and I must say I have turned to the Mac side....lol.

Learning my way around was not hard at all and the keyboard short cuts are great. I highly recommend it. I you want to use it as your primary computer and you love installing apps then I suggest getting the 128gb hard drive. If it is only for general stuff the by all means stick with the 64gb.

I just bought it for iOS development and this suited my needs perfectly. However, the experience has me wanting to replace my development pc with the Air which may be possible but I must resist the temptation...lol.

5 Stars!!!!

Traded in a 15" current generation mbp for an 11" mba. No regrets. Yes the screen is small, but the resolution is great. The light weight and easy carry factor is wonderful. The speed of the drive and fast boot time is great. Downside is I have to put my aperture library on a secondary hard drive, but I don't use that daily. The mba is great for what I need it for, word processing, surfing, keynote presentations. Love it and the form factor. It is clearly a secondary computer though - relatively small storage size and screen size dictates this. Multiple windows open at the same time isn't going to work on an 11" screen (or a 13 or 15 for that matter).

As previous posters have said no one can say what is right for you! from my perspective I moved from a 2006 macbook (still in full working order but now sold to help fund air purchase) and bought the 13in 128gb Air with 4g ram. My usage is for internet, email, youtube, iplayer etc also for remote access to my work PC for support the speed is awesome and very impressed with the build quality and screed resolution. Battery life for me is over 8 hours with brightness turned down just under half so Apple seem bang on with the advertised battery performance. I have an imac for my itunes and other storage needs so 128gb is going to be plenty for me lack of optical drive is not a problem can't even remember the last software I installed from disc! and for an external drive I would be happy with the speed over usb so lack of firewire not an issue. Icing on the cake would have been a backlit keyboard however I did not have this on my macbook and have tried using in the dark and the screen brightness is more than enough to pick up the white markings on the keys. I really can see my poor imac gathering a bit of dust as my air just performs so well at all the things I need, I would suggest if I may that you think about the RAM upgrade as after parting with a big wedge of cash it really will make it a bit more future proof (and keep the re-sale value up).

Either way you go just enjoy your Apple experience I would never go back............well apart from work lol