See, I feel the key advantage of an Air is its portability. A device that will rarely ever see your computer desk at home.
Your emphasis should be on mobility and durability over performance when it comes to the Air.
The Haswell MBPs are going to come with serious fire power, and an Apple Exclusive Iris Pro 5200.
IMO if you're going to need performance capabilities, you need the pro.
Rumors are that Apple might phase traditional MBPs altogether and leave only Retina MBPs.
Even upgrading to 8gb alone is defeating the purpose of Apple's MBA. That's why Apple set the default to 4gb. They know what they are doing.
It is cost-effective, highly portable, and is plenty enough to serve any daily requirements.
Bumping up to i7/8 costs at least $250, and depending on where you live it could cost more.
So now, for businessmen like me who do not get the special privilege of enjoying student discounts, an i7/8/256 will cost around $1650.
That's already more than what a Retina 13" costs.
So now you're losing 2-3 hours of the advertised 12 hour supply of battery, and don't really have a good performance notebook either. This, while paying more than a Retina MBP which is a more modern design, has a way superior screen, and of course in September it will come with a better graphics than the Air, and a much more powerful CPU. Oh, and also comes with 8GB ram on default which means better resale value.
The only justifiable scenario for getting an i7/8 is if you REALLY cannot wait for the MBP refresh in September, and need as much performance available on a current Haswell Mac.
Just my .02
I myself got the $100 up to 8GB for my 13" Haswell. It was impulsive and automatic at that point. I regret it now.
Your emphasis should be on mobility and durability over performance when it comes to the Air.
The Haswell MBPs are going to come with serious fire power, and an Apple Exclusive Iris Pro 5200.
IMO if you're going to need performance capabilities, you need the pro.
Rumors are that Apple might phase traditional MBPs altogether and leave only Retina MBPs.
Even upgrading to 8gb alone is defeating the purpose of Apple's MBA. That's why Apple set the default to 4gb. They know what they are doing.
It is cost-effective, highly portable, and is plenty enough to serve any daily requirements.
Bumping up to i7/8 costs at least $250, and depending on where you live it could cost more.
So now, for businessmen like me who do not get the special privilege of enjoying student discounts, an i7/8/256 will cost around $1650.
That's already more than what a Retina 13" costs.
So now you're losing 2-3 hours of the advertised 12 hour supply of battery, and don't really have a good performance notebook either. This, while paying more than a Retina MBP which is a more modern design, has a way superior screen, and of course in September it will come with a better graphics than the Air, and a much more powerful CPU. Oh, and also comes with 8GB ram on default which means better resale value.
The only justifiable scenario for getting an i7/8 is if you REALLY cannot wait for the MBP refresh in September, and need as much performance available on a current Haswell Mac.
Just my .02
I myself got the $100 up to 8GB for my 13" Haswell. It was impulsive and automatic at that point. I regret it now.