i have the dilemma of picking between 15" MBP ultimate 2011 and 13" MB AIR i5 128gb. i just recently sold my 2008 MBP unibody for 950 and I'm kinda stuck between if i should keep the air or go buy a new MBP.
mb air : 1) the sound quality is horrible and so low
2) the display is NOTHING compared to the 15" MBP
3) the hd on the air is 128gb which really blows. 750gb on the MBP.
4) no cd rom built in so you gotta lug another hardware around
5) possibly another wd passport external HD 1TB to meet the needs of a download junkie.
i feel like I'm giving up so much just to have the portability..... i don't know if its worth it.
i don't know if its relevant to this thread. oh well
steve
1) Yes, the speakers are terrible when compared to the Macbook Pro 15", but that is one of the things you give up as speakers need to move air, and there isn't much room for air in the MBA.
2) I wouldn't say nothing...looking purely at specs from anandtech the 2010 MBP screen isn't that much better. Both are still TN panels, so it is not like comparing them to an iMac screen. I have them both sitting next to each other right now and honestly, unless you are doing color correction on photo and video you won't really notice the difference in normal use.
3) Yes, you sacrifice storage, but you gain enormous speed. The 750GB HDD on the pro's default config is 5400RPM, which I have on my Pro. After using the air it seems like the pro takes an eternity to open finder and search for a file. Of course, the pro does have the advantage of being upgradable later, so with an SSD in the MBP it will be screaming along, but right now it will cost you quite a bit.
4) CD/DVD isn't that important to me, and I find that if I need to read a CD or DVD I am usually at home, where I can share it from another machine. (Or just keep a drive on my desk, but I don't need it so I don't waste the space).
Of course, some people value some things over others so I can understand if you think the air isn't for you. I would be keeping my MBP if it was a 2011 model as the Sandy Bridge quad cores are quite powerful, but it is not and so in terms of CPU performance the tiny air is comparable.