Debating between 13" Macbook Air and 13" Macbook Pro

The "graphics team" that I support for my department have two 13" MacBook Airs (Mid 2011) and they're very pleased with them, both users run CS6 on them. I know one of them will even run their machine on a 27" monitor at 1920x1200 and I've never heard a peep out of them in regards to sluggishness. I suspect the newer machines with 8GB of RAM, a faster SSD and RAM as well as an improved GPU would be even better.

One thing you can also consider doing is trying out Adobe CS6 on the new machines at an Apple Store. I frequently bring external HDs with me to the Apple Store to try programs before I'll make a petition to purchasing for upgraded units. As long as the program can run self-contained on an external drive you should be just fine. I did with with CS5 about 8 months ago.

Lastly, outside of the CPU difference, the MacBook Air has very mostly the same "under the hood" specs. The difference in CPU would be offset by the improved performance of the SSD over the standard HD, at least that's what I've noticed from my own experiences and the feedback of my users.

Check out this article 13-inch MacBook Air vs. 13-inch MacBook Pro: Which should you buy? | Apple - CNET News

Hello. I bought a new 13 inch MBP with an i7 and 8GB RAM and 750 GB HDD. I returned that about 10 days after purchase for an 11 inch MBA with an i7 and 8GB RAM and 128 GB SSD, which I've had for 8 days now. I like the air much better. They are both only dual core CPUs so the SSD in the air makes it quite a bit faster than the MBP. Like I said, after having both I prefer the air by far, the power they've packed in such a portable laptop is amazing. Like said above as long as you can run it on an external drive you're fine, I run Photoshop 6 and games from an external Seagate 3.0 and it's great.

I got my 13" Air about a week ago instead of the Pro. I'm really happy with it and wuld definitly recommend the 13" MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM.

Thanks guys, very helpful!