MacBook Air or Pro?

For some of the things you mention, the thing that would deter me from the MBA is the absolute limitation of 4Gb RAM max, and some of that is shared for video. Not my idea of a good machine for photo or video editing. I'd want at least 8Gb of RAM and a dedicated video card with onboard VRAM.

The current MBP's can even be upgraded to 16Gb RAM if desired

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_133 3MHz_SDRAM

One possible reason from amongst your intended uses that would mitigate against a MacBook Air is YouTube, where there remains a considerable proportion of content in Flash format - Flash will work on the MBA of course, but pushes the processor hard enough to ramp up the fan to rather noisy proportion. A MacBook Pro will also labour a bit when playing Flash content, but as a more spacious interior allows better cooling, the fan doesn't spin up quite so high, or quite so readily.

In all other respects, there's not a whole lot in performance terms to choose between the two, and there are certainly benefits to either: The Pro is more powerful, had a wider variety of ports and an optical drive, the Air is the ultimate in portability, and has a screen with higher pixel density, meaning higher resolution - which would certainly be beneficial for photo editing work.

When faced with the same choice myself, lofic told me to buy a MacBook Pro, but I walked out of the store with a MacBook Air. I tell myself that it was because the Air suited my need for ultra-portability, but the truth is (and I suspect this is also true for many of those who have advised you in that direction) that I just liked it more!

And I haven't regretted the choice one bit!

For Elements, be aware that you will have some limitations if you go with the smaller MBA. In order for the raw converter to appear, for example, your screen must be at least 800 pixels tall. There are other features not available on short screens in PSE.

Barbara,

I have the 11" MBA and just tried Raw. I don't use it very often on the MBA, but I had no problems after filling the screen. Initially the bottom edge of the Raw pane was slightly cut off, although I could still see the four lower-margin buttons and could use them easily. However by clicking of the expand button, the entire Raw pane filled the screen and everything was completely exposed for use. So I would beg to differ with what you refer to as "limitations." Your mileage may vary, but my system works great on the 11" MBA (I use PS not PSE, but Raw shouldn't work any differently - My version is Raw 6.3).

Tom

AndyO,

I think you have just explained why the iPad can't run Flash! Thanks!

Yes, but you have what, PSE 8, maybe? This is a problem with newer versions of PSE. For PSE 8 and earlier, 768 was the minimum needed. I'm not even sure that PSE 9 needs 800 px.

EDIT: Nope, just checked and PSE 9 is okay with 768, so it's just PSE 10.

Having owned both the 2011 MacBook Pro 15" and currently owning the 2011 13" MacBook Air, I can assure you that the MacBook Air is the proper choice for your needs. Photoshop Elements is an extremely light weight editing application. I use Photoshop CS5 on my MBA without any hitches, as well as Fireworks, Illustrator and InDesign. I also watch a lot of movies through Netflix and iTunes, all without any issues what-so-ever.

The bottom line is -- the SSD (Flash) drive compensates heavily for any other performance shortcomings of the MBA. Yes, it's that significant of an improvement. The reality is, the single biggest bottleneck of all modern computers were in fact the 7200RPM SATA spindle drives (or even worse, 5400RPM which is the standard on the MacBook Pro). Only if you choose to run external displays and use heavy video-related applications and games such as Final Cut Pro or StarCraft 2, a dedicated video card provides no notable advantage in every day usage of even more demanding applications.

Good luck!

AndyO,

I think you have just explained why the iPad can't run Flash! Thanks!

Ah, if only it were that simple! Apple don't support Flash on an iOS device because (in their view) it is resource hungry, proprietary, inefficient and insecure. Instead they are pushing for open standards based on HTML5 - which Adobe themselves seem to be now getting behind.

The upshot is that Flash won't run at all on iPhones, iPod Touch or iPad models, will run adequately on MBA models, albeit with fan noise, and will run reasonably (with elevated fan speed) on MBP models. In essence, this rather reflects the relative 'power' of these devices, but is also an important factor in purchase choice for anyone for whom Flash content is important. This is one area of performance in which the SSD in MBA models does not help, though in most other respects as smkied says, it does significantly lift performance of the MBA in comparison to a traditional hard drive!

Raw files are pretty large, so you need to focus on maximising storage in order to handle them. That would mean that as much as a MBA might be the system you personally prefer, unless you only need to handle raw files in one place and don't mind working with an external drive, a Pro is really the only sensible choice. A MBA would cope with the processing load without any prolems, but not the space you need.

The raw files that I work with can approach 25MB each, and I don't usually work with them on the Air (but rather my 16GB-RAM iMac w/1TB hard drive and 4TB of external desktop hard drive). I am hoping to use the Air to do some of that processing, but only on a very limited basis - like at the shoot-site, or on the road.

Good luck with your decision Scrapper.

Tom

Can I ask people's views in relation to making and editing sound files ? I really want a MBA for the portabiity but I do want to be able to edit sound - any views