Help on a decision?

cstjosue said:

Hey guys, I need help making a decision between mac book air or mac book pro? I am a college student I don't really do anything big with my macs other than final cut pro or adobe photoshop every once in awhile. I currently own a imac from 2009.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also any rumors on when next mac book air or mac book pro will be released?


Thank you.

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Hey, I'd like to note that this thread would probably perform better under the 'Buying Tips and Advice' section.

To answer your question:
As a college student, a MacBook Air would be just fine. However, you mentioned that you will be using Final Cut Pro and/or Adobe Photoshop. These can be CPU, GPU (graphics), and RAM intensive (depending on how extensively you use them). I think that in theory, the MacBook Air could handle these, but definitely not as good as a MacBook Pro.

If you were a more serious Final Cut Pro and Adobe Photoshop user, then I'd definitely recommend the MacBook Pro over the MBA (MacBook Air). I guess it depends on your budget, are you willing to pay the extra price for the MacBook Pro, and do you see yourself using intensive apps more commonly in the future.

I would recommend the Macbook Air. The Pro is nice, obviously, but the portability of the air, and being a college student, trumps the gains you're going to get with the pro, IMO. But I say that only since you're considering using the mentioned programs, and not as somebody who will be using those programs all the time. With a solid state drive, and 4gb of ram you'll be just fine running those programs.

cstjosue said:

By any chance is there a rumor on either the Mac book air or Mac book pro being updates soon?

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Absolutely. There's a whole discussion about whether or not the MacBook Pro line will be updated this upcoming summer (as it's rumored). However, nothing is guaranteed and Apple can sometimes be quite unpredictable.

Generally, the common acceptance is: if you need it, buy it. If you can/feel like waiting, then wait. Either way, it's not going to be too much of a difference.