I have a 2.4Ghz 24" iMac and a four-year old PowerBook. I want to get a new laptop, basically to use when I travel (OK and perhaps on the couch, in bed etc.) I travel a lot for work, sometimes for a month at a time, and the laptop would be my only computer then.
My work routine is mostly web, writing, data management (Devonthink, Yep etc.). I do tend to run a lot of apps and a lot of safari tabs at the same time. On the iMac I do more intense photography stuff, mostly with the pics from my DSLR. I don't really use Photoshop, Pixer sometimes, but do play around with Lightroom. I can live with mostly doing that when I'm at the iMac.
So I need a decent laptop that will work well in North Africa (hot in the summer) and where syncing with the iMac will be pretty painless. I like the MBA's weight and looks, but of course the value proposition is a bit steep (my office will pay for a good part of any laptop I get though -- basically the equivalent of a mid-range PC laptop). I do love the 15" (but low-rez) screen on my PB, which still does most stuff surprisingly fast (but it has a horrible fan noise when it gets hot). I will miss firewire a little bit, esp. for sync, but it's not a big deal. My PB lost a USB port two years ago and I've worked around it, even if it's annoying, so I'm used to single USB (although I wish they had a single multi-purpose adaptor/hub rather than separate ones for Ethernet and modem) . Also, I have a lightweight external USB drive that's 320GB, to use for movies, music and maybe syncing with Time Machine.
Should I go ahead and get the MBA (and then which one?) or the MB or MBP?
My work routine is mostly web, writing, data management (Devonthink, Yep etc.). I do tend to run a lot of apps and a lot of safari tabs at the same time. On the iMac I do more intense photography stuff, mostly with the pics from my DSLR. I don't really use Photoshop, Pixer sometimes, but do play around with Lightroom. I can live with mostly doing that when I'm at the iMac.
So I need a decent laptop that will work well in North Africa (hot in the summer) and where syncing with the iMac will be pretty painless. I like the MBA's weight and looks, but of course the value proposition is a bit steep (my office will pay for a good part of any laptop I get though -- basically the equivalent of a mid-range PC laptop). I do love the 15" (but low-rez) screen on my PB, which still does most stuff surprisingly fast (but it has a horrible fan noise when it gets hot). I will miss firewire a little bit, esp. for sync, but it's not a big deal. My PB lost a USB port two years ago and I've worked around it, even if it's annoying, so I'm used to single USB (although I wish they had a single multi-purpose adaptor/hub rather than separate ones for Ethernet and modem) . Also, I have a lightweight external USB drive that's 320GB, to use for movies, music and maybe syncing with Time Machine.
Should I go ahead and get the MBA (and then which one?) or the MB or MBP?