Ditching 2009 17" MacBook Pro for 2011 13" MacBook Air. Good or bad?

[NiroshanMan]

So I've lived with my beast of a MBP for 3 years now and I think I'm due an upgrade. I'm in the middle of college and the past two years have been fine with the 17" except for lugging a 6lb computer around... I've recently needed been doing more design/video editing and the 09' model just wasn't doing it.

I was really interested with the Retina MacBook Pro 15" but the price point is way too high and for a considerable amount of SSD space you'd have to pony up an extra $500-600 :/. I decided my money is better spent rather than selling my 17" (for $1100-1200) and using that money plus an extra $1200-1500 for a Retina MBP to get a 13" 2011 MBA (i7 4GB 256SSD for $1000) and spending the other money on building a desktop rig. I want portability, but I also want power and space. I think having a light laptop that although isn't a pro, is quite the computer and building my own desktop rig (with a G5 case ) could get the best of both worlds.

Questions I have are, will my MBA be fine for video editing and photoshop work. I understand it won't be a beast, but considering i'm using using a 17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo with a 5400RPM 500gb drive... I hope it will be a somewhat significant upgrade.

Any other suggestions or advice?

 

[MacDawg]

I run Final Cut Pro X for some video editing on my 13" MBA 2011
While it isn't the ideal setup, it is certainly functional and capable for me

I too, went from a 17" MBP Core 2 Duo and I have found my Air to be a huge upgrade in speed

 

[NiroshanMan]

I run Final Cut Pro X for some video editing on my 13" MBA 2011
While it isn't the ideal setup, it is certainly functional and capable for me

I too, went from a 17" MBP Core 2 Duo and I have found my Air to be a huge upgrade in speed

Awesome! I'm glad. Seeing the new MacBook Pros (both normal and retina) with quad core i7s are tempting and Im sure would be powerful, but if i let myself use one I know there is no turning back. I want a considerable upgrade, but at a decent price and i think the 2011 MacBook Air with i7 processor will do the job especially coming from a 2009 MBP.