Best Mac for a writer who also does photography

Hamburger said:

writergirl, looks like i am too late to recommend a base mba 11/imac combo.
if you only need 20-30% portability, a base model could be enough for you. and the saved money could go into the fusion drive for the imac.

i am considering this route. have a base late 2010 mba with 128 ssd hooked up to a 24" acd, from which the minidisplayport appears to be broken (flickering).
and with 2 gigs ram possibly no longer good enough when maverick is released, i may just use the mba when i need portability (10-20%), not repair the acd, and get a 21.5" imac with fusion or 256 ssd (enough for my needs).
repairing the acd and getting a new mba with 8 gigs ram/256 ssd would probably be as expensive as an imac.

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Thanks, Hamburger.
I can see the logic in your approach . I did think of getting a refurb Air and an iMac but the longer battery life of the new Airs seduced me! And I needed something now.
I was in two minds over the specs. In the end I went for the 256GB SSD because I realised I may want to run Bootcamp and Windows later and the reports I'd read said 128GB may not be enough space. As a writer I crave word processor stability for my longer projects and I didn't know if I'd need to run the windows version of Office. I chose 8GB RAM because I want to keep the machine for at least 3 years and I want the option of doing some photography stuff on it when on holiday. If finances don't stretch I will just use an external monitor with the Air for a while but I will view the iMac refresh with interest. I'm hoping that they make the fusion drive standard or maybe include higher RAM with the base model. I will probably get at least 16GB RAM on the iMac plus either fusion or 256 SSD.

Took back the Air!

Alas the MacBook Air played havoc with my eyes. Sent it back and have now bought a 13" Retina MBP. Still getting a bit of eye strain when I use it for a full day though but not like the Air which made my vision swirl and I had trouble focusing on the page. The rMBP is much better but still tiring to use all day so I will need to take the plunge and get an external monitor.

I'm still not sure what to do there though. I can't really afford a NEC or an Eizo at the moment. The ones I looked at on line were quite expensive. I've heard different reports about the Dell Ultra sharp - some peple were very happy with them but others didn't like them. The antiglare coating can be annoying and make colour reproduction tricky and I also heard their display of small text can be fuzzy. As a writer I don't need my eyes to be straining to see things. I also read elsewhere on this forum that sometimes people with rMBPs have trouble getting the Dells to display correctly. So, my mind is a mishmash of pros and cons and I would like advice on what monitors anyone would recommend under say, $500, where the display gives ease of reading text plus good colour reproduction.

MajkJaro said:

So your happy with the retina? I have similar needs as you have so I'm interersted in your opinion.

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The retina is great. All these computers are beautifully made and do their job well but I think the 13" retina pro is lovely and much better for me than the MBA. The text is crisp - even when magnified and it is a very sleek machine. The only problem is that the 13" screen tires my eyes after a while (but not to the extent the MBA did) So I'm on the lookout for a good monitor. I'm still setting up some stuff and haven't done any photo editing yet but all the reports say it is great for that. I wouldn't use it for high end video editing however. If you are into that get the 15". I wouldn't mind the 15" just for screen real estate but I don't like the big gap between the front of the computer and the keyboard. The 13" seemed more ergonomic for me (my hands aren't that big). I have the rMBP set up at my desk with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard but it is so light I don't think twice about taking it with me if I want to work outside the house (or even use it while watching telly). If I could have waited for the Haswell refresh I would have but you can't put your life on hold for tech updates. I needed it now and am happy I bought it.