Trouble trying to decide...input appreciated

I downsized from 15" to 13", and do not regret it. Much more portable, especially if you fly a lot. However, I did get a 13" retina, so my actual screen real estate has not decreased, which may have (probably not) caused me to regret downsizing. I do have several friends who downsized to a cmbp, and they do not regret it.

 

How about a 13" Air with 8GB RAM and the 256GB SSD?

That comes out to $1599. It should easily handle all of the tasks you mentioned, and would probably do them more quickly than the 13" Macbook Pro because of the SSD.

The Air has the same 1440x900 resolution as the 15" MBP so you wouldn't lose any screen real estate.

 

I agree with the MBA 13" suggestion. Your needs aren't that demanding.

I had a 13" cMBP back at the end of Nov 2012, but returned it for the base 15", but my needs are much more demanding than yours (I run, on any given day, an average of 4 VMs at the same time, so I really needed those extra 2 CPU cores you get with the 15".) However, if my needs were the same as yours, I would've kept the 13". It was a nice little machine. If Apple had a quad-core 13" MBP, that's what I'd be using instead of the 15".

 

with 1280x800 the 13'' cMBP doesn't offer much screen space. This is a last decade machine.

The current cMBPs don't offer much in my opinion. The screen resolution is low (unless you get the high-res upgrade on the 15'' machine), and the basic specs are not that impressive.

I agree with others, the 13'' Air is a better deal in my opinion. The only issue is the storage. You really have to figure out whether you need the 750 GB HDD space... while e.g. more RAM gives you a direct benefit, a large HD is only good if you actually use it. And don't forget that not having a SSD slows the system down quite a bit.

I think a 13'' air around $1200 is a good deal today. The 13'' rMBP is also not bad, but I would wait for the next generation of intel CPUs to get better graphics performance.

 

Low-res screen, but superior color reproduction than the Air. This matters for some people. Also, when you get the Air, you sacrifice expandability- you're stuck with the amount of RAM you get out of the box, and you have no optical drive to use or replace with another hard drive, etc. With the cMBP, you can have an SSD for the OS and apps and a large hard drive for everything else. No such option on the Air.

I agree that for most people, the Air is a better bet. But the cMBP is far from a last decade machine, as it provides options that no other MacBook provides at a relatively low price.