[freehunter]

Nonsense. For one, "pro" has always been a marketing label. Nothing inherent to the device excludes "normal" users, and not every "pro" user needs the MacBook Pro. I've seen a lot of professionals using iPads (and not the iPad Pro). I know that shatters your worldview, but a laptop marketed as "pro" has never signified that the user was actually a professional, and not using a laptop with "pro" in the name has never signified that the user wasn't a professional.

Your definition of "pro" is not universal. It is not absolute. Anyone who says "the new MacBook Pro is not a pro device!" needs to get over themselves. You're not the arbiter of what can and cannot be considered "pro".

[true_religion]

The Pro has always been expensive, which means that if you're just buying a laptop because you want to faff about, then you'll get an Air---it is much lighter on your lap and your budget.

Getting a Pro meant you wanted some kind of 'performance'---perhaps for games because of the separate video card, or a better CPU to run some taxing application.

What I have heard is that if you're a person who lived and breathed Excel, or you're a developer, then you'll likely use the function keys.

Personally? I've never used the function row keys for anything anything raising and lowering the volume of my machine.