Mac book air 13 or macbook pro 15/17

[pigletpete]

question for you apple people?

I'm torn between a macbook air or a macbook pro. I was convinced I wanted a macbook pro until I tried the new macbook air. 13", same resolution as the 15" macbook pro. amazingly light and small and very fast because of the solid state drive. I'd be going for the 256GB one.

I do like the larger macbook pros still but I'm starting to wonder why I should bother with the larger ones, I mean I'm not going to video edit or anything like that so perhaps I dont need it

[disneymom]

I saw it in the apple store and it was very cute the thin one

[Keith]

cry! don't give me something ELSE to consider

Actually a load of our customers at work have been buying macbook airs and they all seem to LOVE them. Really fast with the SSD and light. The question really is, would you miss anything you'd get in the macbook pro like faster chips, larger screen, dvd.

[disneymom]

wouldn't you use your desktop for things that needed more power? <

If I'm buying a portable I want it as small as possible

[Keith]

It's a fair question

Yeah I do use a desktop most of the time but sometimes I'm away and I just have the laptop. So the question for me is, is whatever laptop I have powerful enough to do what I need to do without annoying me.

Now prior to this latest set of macbook airs, I didn't think they were good enough. They were mega expensive for what they were but the latest ones with largeish ssds look pretty great.

I never use the DVD on my macbook pro, ethernet isnt a problem with wifi, the cpu is more than fast enough for anything I do since I don't do video editing etc. The lack of a backlit keyboard is a bit of a shame though.

I don't know if I could get used to the smaller screen although the resolution is the same as I use on the 15 which is fine.

Hmmmmmmmm! Perhaps I'll wait and see what Pete thinks of his ;-)

[josh.p.]

Are you actually going to do a lot of travelling or moving about with it? I would just hate the idea of buying one that isn't powerful/big enough and regretting it rather than buying a more powerful laptop you're not going to use to its full potential- if that makes sense?

[catrancher]

Now that I've got my nice, new, shiny 17" MBP (did I mention that it's shiny), I don't think I could go down to an 11" or 13" screen. I guess for me, if I want portable, I'm taking my iPad along. But since I don't have a separate desktop, my MBP functions as my main computer. I wouldn't be without it.

I do like the SSD however. Maybe when the capacity comes up and the price goes down, I might put one in my MBP. But that's a way down the road.

Tom (... owner of a 17" shiny Macbook Pro!)