Which Mac to buy?

The apple website will explain the differences. They are all laptops with various performance and visual differences. I.e. The air is very thin for example.

http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-mac/macbook-air?afid=p238%7CsPjDwsnPd-dt_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_70579910653_&cid=aos-uk-kwg-mac

Go look at the apple site as it will explain the processors, graphics cards included along with the many other differences. The price is also very different and can be up to £2000 for a MacBook Air.

I have an iMac which is a desktop computer. The operating system is the same as the MacBooks. They don't use windows like a laptop would but you can install alongside. I prefer the apple operating system as it is more user friendly and never crashes. My windows laptop always crashes!

 

The Air is a great machine. I have the MacBook Pro which has a lot of "extras" that I don't really use - like the Superdrive, the ethernet port. At 6 lbs it is not heavy, but it also is not a computer that just toss in a backpack and go. However, I have the 15" screen which is really nice for working with.

My college student son has an 11" Macbook Air, but at 2 lbs, it is extremely portable, and he feels the screen size is more than adequate for his uses. So he is really happy with it.

I think that the way external memory is so readily available, I would probably get your SSD size big enough for programs and data, but all the "junk" we carry around - photos, videos, movies, music, etc would easily be put on a portable external drive. Apple makes OS much different than Windows, and so even though it is nice to have the extra RAM, unless you are an intense user, as time goes by, the newer programs and whatnot still work just fine. My Pro is 5 years old, my son's Air is 4 years old, and neither of us has even thought about getting a new one other than just thoughts about the retina display.

Another consideration is in user modification. I guess the new MacBook Pros are not very modifiable, so it might not matter. The Air for the most part is not going to be user serviceable. Mine, I can change out the battery, and I took out the superdrive and put in SSD drives so it runs fast like the MacBook Air.

There is an excellent web site www.macrumors.com that has some great forums that questions like your are asked and answered all the time, and it has a huge forum population and some very expert people there. As noted above, the Apple website also has excellent information and a robust user forum experience as well. Good luck with your purchase, I think you will be very happy -oh, and my next machine will be an Air - not the MacBook Pro - it is really not much heavier than an iPad and so travel, taking to work, etc is just so easy with the Air, and unless you have the specific needs of the extra features of the Pro, you are mostly purchasing weight... (IMHO)