Recently chose the 2014 13" Air over the 13" MBP. Used them both side by side so I get the goodness of retina. I have a Samsung panel on my Air, it is almost the same as the Samsung panel on my Thinkpad T430s, it is by no means bad. There are no comparable laptops (other than the rMBP of course) that offer a 16:10 screen with the form factor, build quality, battery life, and touch pad of the Air. None. I am not counting the Surface Pro 3, which is still better than the typical 16:9 crap found in most laptops today. I have no need for HiDPI on a laptop and would buy the Air all over again today.