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The Air probably gets better battery life, the keyboard is improved and has TouchID, the display is 100% fine and I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference unless they were side by side, and the performance appears to be supremely similar other than graphics which is worse.

I'd also point out that, while the MSRP is what it is - the Air is often on sale at a far greater discount than the Pro. Microcenter even had $250 off the 256GB model and $200 off the 128GB. The Pro, usually, only gets a flat 10% off for $150. The difference in practice is usually $200 or more. Even in the worse case, if you're price sensitive at all you'll feel that $100.

They're very similar products overall though. To be frank, I don't think I'd buy the nTB Pro at this point even though I had before my 15". In practice the new keyboard is way nicer, TouchID is extremely convenient, and from my test in the Apple store even Final Cut runs fine - at least for the kind of 'intensive' work you'd want to do on a machine like that anyway. It's the people's Mac still. My preference would simply be based on whichever I could find the best deal on and the Air definitely already gets the better discounts. A P3 display and Iris aren't worth the extra money in this case I don't think.
 
The Air probably gets better battery life, the keyboard is improved and has TouchID, the display is 100% fine and I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference unless they were side by side, and the performance appears to be supremely similar other than graphics which is worse.

I'd also point out that, while the MSRP is what it is - the Air is often on sale at a far greater discount than the Pro. Microcenter even had $250 off the 256GB model and $200 off the 128GB. The Pro, usually, only gets a flat 10% off for $150. The difference in practice is usually $200 or more. Even in the worse case, if you're price sensitive at all you'll feel that $100.

They're very similar products overall though. To be frank, I don't think I'd buy the nTB Pro at this point even though I had before my 15". In practice the new keyboard is way nicer, TouchID is extremely convenient, and from my test in the Apple store even Final Cut runs fine - at least for the kind of 'intensive' work you'd want to do on a machine like that anyway. It's the people's Mac still. My preference would simply be based on whichever I could find the best deal on and the Air definitely already gets the better discounts. A P3 display and Iris aren't worth the extra money in this case I don't think.

Exactly. Picked up a MBA yesterday at Best Buy for $899 (open box), the base MBP was $1299. I don't do any processor intensive work on it, and appreciate the better battery life, thinner profile, and TouchID.

Tim
 
Because of Touch ID, has better battery life and people really like the Air. Also not everyone needs a MacBook Pro.

People often over buy when choosing things like computers. Most people will be fine with the new MacBook Air, while a small percentage will need the MacBook Pro. From what I’ve seen online and the reviews I’ve read, the new MacBook Air is quite capable of simple photo editing, video editing at 1080p and in some instance 4K footage (I wouldn’t want to do so very often).


 
The Air probably gets better battery life, the keyboard is improved and has TouchID, the display is 100% fine and I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference unless they were side by side, and the performance appears to be supremely similar other than graphics which is worse.

I'd also point out that, while the MSRP is what it is - the Air is often on sale at a far greater discount than the Pro. Microcenter even had $250 off the 256GB model and $200 off the 128GB. The Pro, usually, only gets a flat 10% off for $150. The difference in practice is usually $200 or more. Even in the worse case, if you're price sensitive at all you'll feel that $100.

They're very similar products overall though. To be frank, I don't think I'd buy the nTB Pro at this point even though I had before my 15". In practice the new keyboard is way nicer, TouchID is extremely convenient, and from my test in the Apple store even Final Cut runs fine - at least for the kind of 'intensive' work you'd want to do on a machine like that anyway. It's the people's Mac still. My preference would simply be based on whichever I could find the best deal on and the Air definitely already gets the better discounts. A P3 display and Iris aren't worth the extra money in this case I don't think.

Sadly this argument is only valid in the US...Here in Europe substantial discounts are very rare, especially on new Apple products. You only get some discounts on the old 2017 MBA, which creates a big difference to the new one.
 
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