For those of you who choose Pros over Airs; why does a Pro serve you better than an Air? Is it because it's your only machine, and you need the hardware to be beefy?
Ì'm waiting for the retina iMac/display, because working without external mouse and keyboard never worked for me (and 15" is probably too small for the desktop)
I have mine on a stand, plugged to a large screen, with an external trackpad and a Microsoft Natural keyboard. The next step is to upgrade the display to 4k.
I second that. My MBPr13, while natively having a screen equivalent to the 800x1280 of the old 13, is now configured to the 1050-line display once found on the 17 inch model and it still looks great.
Once you can't see the pixels, the display becomes infinitely flexible.
I chose an air a while back, and it has been fantastic for a lot of things. However, now I'm considering going back to the pro.
The biggest limitation for me is the single thunderbolt port. If I want to connect to ethernet, a display, or other thunderbolt devices (like an audio interface I have), I can only connect to one. Even on the 13" MBP, I can connect all three since there are two thunderbolt connections plus HDMI. The other biggest limitation has been video performance and CPU performance. I've ran into performance issues with virtualized boxes for local development and also with connecting an external display.
As far as retina, I could care less. It's nice, but not a necessity for me. Also, you get more battery life without it. That said, I'll still be moving to a MBP.
Screen estate on the go (specifically the 15inch). And like what seanmcdirmid said, the retina display looks good.
I'm impressed with the the 15inch retina starting specification. All the 15inch models come with 16GB of RAM for a starting price of £1,600. I always tell everybody if your doing graphical work or video production, get a desktop setup. The Intel isis pro GPU is more than enough for the work I do. extra £300 an average discrete mobile GPU on a laptop is not worth it.
I'm still a few years away from replacing this 2012 Air, but when I do it'll be to something with a retina screen because of cramped gross asian characters.
Comparing only the 13" models, you get 2 Thunderbolt ports so you can use an external display and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter at the same time. Actually if you use HDMI for your display you can use a Thunderbolt drive as well. The 13" Retina is only .5 lbs heavier than the 13" Air. It still has integrated video but it's a generation better than the current Air's.
Mostly for GPU needs. Also, my 15" Pro must stay cooler because the fan almost never comes on (except doing something GPU intensive). The AIRs around me always seem to have a fan humming, though the noise isn't nearly as bad as it used to be. (I'm on a non-Retina, but that's not a big deal to me)
It was a simple choice for me, much better screen and high specs generally without a huge compromise on cost or weight.
I went from an 11in Macbook Air to the 13 MBP retina and I've not regretted it once. I carry my laptop around all day and I've not noticed the extra weight.
I asked about this, and it's against the concept of the Air. The reason being that it becomes unportable. Was there a 15" air, I'd have gone for it, but there wasn't, so I went with a 15" MBP.
I like it, but it does get hot, and is quite heavy compared to the airs. I'm happy with it but I think they're missing a trick!
