MacBook Pro won over MacBook Air
I was in London on Sunday, met a friend of mine I haven't seen in 2,5 years who was visiting from Chile. While there, I've done some research into whether an Air or a Pro would be a better fit for replacing my 15" Early-2011 MBP.
The Pro won. Here's the incredibly simple explanation: retina display. The Air doesn't have retina displays, and while weight is amazing on those machines, if I can't actually work on the stuff that I want, the computer becomes dead weight instead of useful weight.
Comparison of important bits
Comparing the 13" Air with the 13" Pro bolding the winner.
- Resolution: 1440x900 (Air) vs 2560x1600 (Pro) (this is a must, everything else almost doesn't matter)
- Weight: 1.35kg (Air) vs 1.57kg (Pro)
- Max memory: 8Gb (Air) vs 16Gb (Pro)
- Max disk space: 512Gb (Air) vs 512Gb (Pro) (I can't justify bumping it up to 1Tb)
- Price of max perf: £1,449 (Air) vs £1,709 (Pro)
The weight difference is not that much. Screen real estate is huge however. The only other jarring issue is the price difference. I think I can sell my current setup for about £800-ish, and the difference is about £260 between the two machines. In terms of hourly rates if I freelance, it's only about a day and a half of work. Doable.
However because I'm going to get rid of stuff, and I'm moving towards minimising my inventory, the important bits are: portability and screen size.
Therefore, 13" MBP won.
Read this next: On the thought of digital minimalism
Previously: Mental preparation into minimalism.