Howdy!
I went through the same gyrations over the past couple of weeks. We had decided on a Mac for the Wife's next notebook, but I wasn't 100% sure on the MBP 13" vs. the MBA. Though the screen is stellar, I pretty much wrote off the 11", it's just a little too little screen real estate for us, so that left comparing the two 13" machines.
The MBA is a bit more portable, though the X/Y dimensions are close enough, and a bag/backpack kind of normalizes the carry weight. Certainly the MBA is lighter-on-the-lap! I also dug the SSD/solid state drive setup in the MBA, and the improved screen resolution (which almost completely sold me).
We wound up with the MBP 13" (just got it in this week, Merry Christmas to us
). I'd say for me/us, these were the driving reasons:
Less expensive (MBP discounts are easy to find). We got a 4GB, 250GB HDD, 2.4 Ghz model to our door - if you back out the rebate - for $1049. That's $150 off via a rebate, no tax, free shipping. The MBA 128GB with 4GB was ~$350 more, though there was a point where there were a few discounts around $80 or so. I'd also add this is our first entry (since the mid 90's) back into the Mac market, so I wanted to be kind of frugal, though, I also wanted what I consider defines the Mac (aluminum chassis, etc., so no MB).
Faster CPU. I believe we'd be more CPU limited vs. storage speed limited. I could be off, but for "light" photo/video, web, and some development work (at some point), I felt the faster CPU trumped the SSD (see next item).
More expandable. While we got 4GB up front, we may eventually want more and with the swappable HDD bay, we could go SSD later if we'd like. The MBP also has a Firewire 800 port, though that may be of no consequence to you.
CD/DVD drive. I know people say this has become a very dated peripheral, but I love having drive. We're still sharing data between family/friends via CD/DVD, and while we could carry a drive with the MBA, that dilutes from of the portability. Her previous netbook was driveless, and I said the next machine would have an optical drive again. YMMV
Backlit keyboard. I can tell you, if the MBA had this, it would have been a really tough decision. I LOVE this as an option on a notebook. It was one of the things a potential Windows machine keep lacking (was considering the Acer Timeline X, Asus U-series, etc.) It's my understand the previous Airs had this, but I guess space constraints prevented it.
I believe there will be a Pro, with a backlit KB, integrated SSD, and higher res display as part of the refresh, at which point I'd probably seriously consider an upgrade (if the RAM was user upgradeable, etc.).
So in the end, for us, the backlit KB, CPU speed, price, optical drive, expandability carried more weight (er, pun kind of intended
), than slightly better portability, SSD, higher res display.
Either machine is pretty awesome, since they both come with the total Apple experience
Have a terrific holiday!
DT
![[DT]](/data/avatars/m/183/183332.jpg?1592580544){kind=avatar}
