What to Buy: MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro 13'

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People often ask me wether a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro with Retina Display is a better purchase. In this video I am trying to answer this question by showing some of the major pros and cons for each laptop. While both machines might be very similar at first look, they have big differences. The MacBook Pro with Retina Display not only has an amain resolution of 2560x1440 but also IPS technology for superb viewing angles and color reproduction. Furthermore it is possible to connect up to 2 external displays to the machine. The MacBook Air on the other hand is lighter, has 12 hours of battery life, comes in at a cheaper price and has a better typing experience.

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[cruzden]

This video really helped me make my choice :)! I bought the Macbook Air 13' about 4 months ago. It's been great. I'm using it for simple college tasks like powerpoints and essays. I don't really use iMovie or BandCamp or any of that, so the Air is perfect for anyone else with similar interests. I just browse the web, and use Netflix and Spotify.. small stuff like that.

[creatine]

I just bought a MacBook air and upgraded to the i7 along with 8gigs of ram. I'm starting college in two weeks (been out of school for almost 20yrs but working on another degree) and wanted something easily portable that had a long battery life. I can't wait for it to come in (should be here next week) and looking forward to it. great review and re-enforced my choice! Thanks

[alexthebartman]

Great video! straight to the point. for me it's like that: MacBook Pro is for performance, MacBook Air is for portability.

[PureSolidness]

Great comparison Seb, nice touch mentioning small things like keyboard angle!

[Itsvicu]

i bought the macbook air like 2 weeks ago and its great it can actually handle allot i did school work and  some heavy editing on  iMovie and at the same time having multiple windows open doing allot of things at once and what i found was that it doesn't slow down it can handle allot but it does crank up the fan so you can actually hear it and the left hand corner of the bottom  gets hot  but besides that it does well

[brianshickey]

I scoured the internet for comparisons on these two and your video was by far the most helpful. I ended up choosing the air, brought it home and exchanged it for the pro retina (which is just as portable with an excellent battery life..but a better machine for the extra $200).
Thank you tons.

[gombosandrei]

The video was helpful because i bought a MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch and i am was happy with my choice because i don't need so much portability and i love using 2 display with it and i think that the biggest advantage is the performance which is great especially if you use Final Cut Pro as i do.

[RonitGhosh]

Can you please tell me which of the two will be best suitable for programming purposes.

[kylethekreator]

Great video, it really helped my mother out in which notebook to buy. 

[tarajohnson]

I want to be a photographer, and I want to be able to photoshop photos without the computer slowing but also giving me lots of possibilities on how to edit. What one do I get?

[astridj]

This is a very major dilemma for me lol. So I'm a high school freshman and my parents are buying me a notebook and I was wondering which one to get? I'll be using it for occasional (not frequent) video editing, photoshop and other stuff (Lightroom, Adobe Illustrator, etc.) and essays, research, movies, etc. I know the MacBook Pro is better to handle editing faster but I'm also leaning towards the Air because of the 12 hour battery life. The Pro is only 9. But will the Air (4GB Ram) be able to handle Lightroom, Photoshop, imovie (not final cut :P), etc? HELLPPPP :(

[edwardtang]

after using an i5 2.6GHz Macbook pro retina for the past two months...I would say 8G of ram and 256GB SSD is good enough. I was going for more expensive options but I'll have to say I am glad I didn't. The standard offer is good enough for most things. I even play games on it and it runs smoothly. To go up to 16Gs of ram and an i7 will cost you almost an Macbook air 11", which is stupid. You can add 128G of storage with flash drives . I opted to buy the time capsule. To add 256 more Gigs cost almost a Time Capsule. So why do it?

Transcend can upgrade these machines in both storage and memory. But for most people it wouldn't be necessary. 

Unless you're doing heavy professional HD editing, i7 and 16Gs of ram is over-kill.

[Power_Verse_]

so would the air be good for a college student? im not in anything fancy..just typing essays and using the school website for quizzes or powerpoints. That shouldnt be a hassle with the air right??

[iAnimationProduction]

Great that you point out on the issue of comfort of typing on the macbook air over the macbook pro due to the wedge shape design. However when you said that the macbook air is better to use in a confined space that is untrue as the dimensions of the macbook air is actually larger than the macbook pro (in terms of width and depth).

[carysmacpherson]

In terms of processing speed, is there a hugely noticeable difference? Would the speed of the Air still be suitable for a university student? Also for simple photo editing and general usage as well, is the display of the Pro worth going for over the Air?

[topografer]

Well except for the great battery life on the air i would probably go with a pro either a retina or not. Retina is better but the non retina holds its own with added features and upgradeability.

[burlapse]

display for the air is a killer for me, your going to be staring at the screen the whole time, why not have a beautiful display?

[rumzyindahood]

Which one would be best for a business student? Also to watch movies, browse the web and downloading and using software/apps

[PokePresto]

So i need a mac for school and im on the fence on whitch to buy. I love a ton of fetures on the air but it has such a shitty screen that i am leaning more to the pro any recomendayions.

[mdhamidurrahman]

Which one is the best Laptop for accounting student