I have a 2007 white macbook that is on its last legs and want to upgrade. I do not use my personal laptop for anything heavy duty main usage is internet browsing, music, some video streaming and occasional light photo editing. My only real complaint I had on my macbook was the screen sucks, and I want a better one in all areas: resolution, color reproduction and viewing angles. I can live with a 250gb drive if I archive some pictures and move some video to external as my current 250 is basically full and would use an SD card for extra storage on the go with the air.
With this light usage, even a couple year old machine will be plenty fast and a big upgrade from my 07 and I don't want to spend the money on something new. I would like to spend $600-800. The machines I am looking at are 2011 13" macbook airs or 2010 15" pros with the high res, antiglare screen. I did not buy a 15 in 2007 because I don't need the performance, but the bigger, higher res screen would be nice to have. How is the 13" air screen? I am sure it will be an improvement on my 07 but but I want performance at least as good as my work thinkpad w530, will the 13" air be good enough? Would it make more sense to spend more money for a 13" retina? I am hesitant to do that because I hear they don't look great if you use a higher than stock resolution (ie I would want to use 1440x900 min).
With this light usage, even a couple year old machine will be plenty fast and a big upgrade from my 07 and I don't want to spend the money on something new. I would like to spend $600-800. The machines I am looking at are 2011 13" macbook airs or 2010 15" pros with the high res, antiglare screen. I did not buy a 15 in 2007 because I don't need the performance, but the bigger, higher res screen would be nice to have. How is the 13" air screen? I am sure it will be an improvement on my 07 but but I want performance at least as good as my work thinkpad w530, will the 13" air be good enough? Would it make more sense to spend more money for a 13" retina? I am hesitant to do that because I hear they don't look great if you use a higher than stock resolution (ie I would want to use 1440x900 min).