Macbook Pro vs Macbook Air for a Secondary School Student

[jj97101]

Hi I am a secondary school student (High School for you Americans) and I was wondering which Macbook I should buy, I really like the Macbook Air's design, light weight and the speed of its SSD however the Macbook Pro has a much larger Hard Drive and seems to be more sturdily built. One of my big questions is whether the Macbook Air can survive everyday School use (Bumping, Scraping, possibly dropping it)?
The specs of the Macbooks are:

Macbook Air 13"
1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
256GB flash storage

Macbook Pro 13"
2.8GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

 

[miles01110]

Both models stand a fair chance of being damaged if you drop them.

 

[Jordnbeats]

Hi I am a secondary school student (High School for you Americans) and I was wondering which Macbook I should buy, I really like the Macbook Air's design, light weight and the speed of its SSD however the Macbook Pro has a much larger Hard Drive and seems to be more sturdily built. One of my big questions is whether the Macbook Air can survive everyday School use (Bumping, Scraping, possibly dropping it)?
The specs of the Macbooks are:

Macbook Air 13"
1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
256GB flash storage

Macbook Pro 13"
2.8GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

I have the MacBook Pro model. I couldn't be more happier with this gift I got. I got mine as a congratulation gift for uni

 

[416049]

It honestly depends on your uses, I have a pro and love it because i can hook up firewire drives and tend to use the disc drive as well as upgradeability.

if you however suffice without the above (built in) than the air is for you.

In terms of everyday school life, both have equal chances of survival.

 

[rockyroad55]

The Pro is better for future proofing because you can upgrade the RAM and replace the hard drive with an SSD for faster capabilities. If weight is a concern, I would go with the Air. It's fast and very capable of a lot of things too.

 

[maflynn]

Both are made of aluminum and both carry the same potential of being damaged, dented, bent if misused. I'd be concerned about them surviving in a backpack full of books. I'd look for a specific backpack that is geared to protecting laptops such as Tom Bihn's Brain Bag

As for which model, it really depends on your needs, I like the MPB because of the ports provided, optical drive and ease of upgrading the ram and drives and of course the CPU is that much better.