Thank you everyone.

Some excellent information, though it largely confirms what I suspected -- that there are as many opinions as there are users.

The value for me has been to turn my head away from the original thought -- iPad + desktop, and more towards the MacBook Air (11 inch) + big display.

The other useful thing has been the view that the Air might be in line for an upgrade soon.

So I reckon I'm going for the MBA. I need to decide whether to bite now, or wait for a possible imminent 'refresh'.

Once again, thank you to everyone.

As with all things IT, you may as well buy now, if you need it.

If you're waiting in fear that your purchase will be obsolete within a matter months - worry no more. It will be. Within a year, when it's replaced by a new model.

Apple tend to be quite good at supporting their legacy gear (though it's not a perfect record), and any purchase you make today should last you at least 3-5 years. Especially with the use of intel chips - it means you're geared to Intel's "Tick Tock" cycle for x86, which has many years left to run. It also means the pending refresh will be an "optimisation" step, rather than a performance jump step.

THe only worry is OSX...Apple are running out of predator cats to use...

On the macbook air, a word of caution, you say you do video editing among other things, the MBA only has an integrated grpahics card, a pro has a dedicated card, gving a huge boost in performance for graphics and video.

I use some forums with VJs, and most say the MBAs don't really cut it for video work, if that's your thing, it might be a good idea to try the MBA out with some video editing first, and see if it performs up to standard.

I am going through the same dilemma and have decided to wait for the new MBP 13" or even 15" (as it will be thinner and lighter). It should come out in 3 weeks (announcement expected at WWDC) and the upgrades that are envisioned seem worth the wait. The MBA upgrades don't seem to add much and should take longer time to market.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Pro

I disagree on that one, rather strongly actually. Unlike other IT vendors, Apple doesn't do incremental updates - so you're buying processors that were available more than a year ago, hard drives with capacities that were normal more than a year ago, etc. all at prices that were set a year ago (with some exceptions, as I've seen Apple update their prices once in a while).

Waiting a period of months would be silly, for the reasons you stated - but since it's highly likely that you just have to wait till June 11th for the refreshed products, it really makese sense to wait at this time.

Otherwise, get a refurb model direct from Apple and at least save yourself some cash!


Nah.

I would also strongly recommend waiting until 11th june, when apple has their major annual presentation at their WWDC (world wide developers conference). It is highly likely that the macbook or imac will be getting some refresh... most likely, the macbook pro will be revamped into something more closely resembling a macbook air (incicentally, mac products normally appear in the shops just days after release, so you wont have to wait too long after any announcements).

i would then suggest you look at one of those, along with apples own dedicated display... called an Apple Thunderbolt Display. they play really nicely with the macbooks, even having a dedicated power suppy for them.

heres the link...

http://www.apple.com/chde/displays/


Its a little over your budget probably... but you do say you can stretch if worth it. I have used this exact kind of combination for years.

However, you also need to be honest with yourself about how much you need an actual laptop on the move. Personally, since I bought my ipad... my macbook rarely if ever leaves the house. This because when I am on the road, I am predominantly a consumer of media... watching movies and surfing the internet. ipads are perfect for consuming media.

If you dont really need a laptop, then an Imac is the answer as it has all the power and storage requirements that even demanding users are likely to need. then an ipad for out of the house!

I'd like see OS called 'Moggie'...

I'm sure Mac OSX Kitteh edition would sell a boat load, where every app features a comical cat that pops up and gives whimsical and sometimes slightly annoying badly spelt advice, a-la clippy.

Thanks again.

Went into an electronics store the other day just to get my hands on a MBA 11 and liked it a lot -- but I can wait. Agree with the poster said it's all about need, and in that respect I can afford to wait.

Also agree, of course, that everything gets obsolete rapidly, but most of us hate that feeling of buying a new bit of kit, only to see it being sold off cheap the next month and replaced by the later model!

Just be careful with your screen choice. The MBA doesn't play nicely with some manufacturers. I tried Samsung and Acer screens and they didn't work because the MBA's output power on the mini display port wasn't high enough. I now have a Dell which works nicely. The Apple Cinema Display also is an option, of course - I tried that, too. It was way too big for me, causing eye-strain. It was actually my eye doctor who recommended I get rid of it.

4gb is the max on the MBA, which can be an issue if you're planning on doing even a minimal amount of video editing on it.

I've had both an MBA and a MacBook Pro. There are pros and cons for both:

MBP 13": faster processor, more ports, RAM and drive are upgradable. Cons: slightly higher weight, really sucky screen resolution, very glossy screen.

MBA: Cons: slightly slower (uses a CULV processor), can be annoyingly loud, even during mundane tasks such as watching YouTube videos or making Skype video calls, doesn't have a gigabit ethernet port available, not upgradable, RAM limit is 4gb, drive limit is 256gb. Pros: much better screen - both resolution-wise and in terms of glossyness. Much lower weight. thinner. Perhaps slightly prettier.

As for pending updates: it's highly likely that the MBPs will get a substantial upgrade in a couple of weeks. Better screen, lower weight, probably at the cost of losing the optical drive and the upgrade capability. The MBA, however, is unlikely to get upgraded until later this year. Because a retina display needs a much bigger battery and produces much more heat, it'll take Apple a while to implement these improvements. Reportedly, apple isn't yet able to fit a larger size battery into the MBA. It might get the new Ivy Bridge processors - that's not going to make a noticeable difference, however.

my bigger concern is that they're essentially turning it into iOS.

coming soon....

http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/04/apple-...ories-at-wwdc/

The best time to buy a new computer is always yesterday or tomorrow

As many have said, definitely go for the macbook, it seems to have the versatility you're looking for. The iPad might be nice if you enjoy reading electronically

But wait until tomorrow. The current Macbook's screen is hideous (both resolution-wise and in terms of glossyness) . The MacBook Air has a drastically nicer screen. I really hope Apple will up the ante on the resolution front tomorrow.

and the new ones ship today

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/11/...tarts-at-2199/

They look pretty awesome. I'm just feeling cheated a bit again, considering that they charge 2449 Fr. here for the thing.

Also, I'm not sure how well "old" apps scale on the new screen res. Cook said something about pixelation in older apps. It'll take quite a while until upgrades become available and those more than likely won't be free. They got rid of the non-glossy screen option as well.

Anyway - the rest of the line received rather insignificant updates (except for USB 3, for those who need it). The 13" MBP still has a fairly sucky screen.

...and the new iMacs??

I was thinking about buying a Macbook Pro, but they only appear to have released two models, with no way to customise the amount of storage.

I'll wait until people get them and open them up. I've already read that the RAM isn't upgradeable (must be soldered to the motherboard like the Air, which is a turn off) so let's see what the SSDs are like.

Pricing in Sterling (approx) as that's how I think:

xx 250GB 512GB

UK £1,800 £2,300
US £1,400 £1,800
CH £1,650 £2,100

Big difference in pricing; I thouht Apple stuff was meant to be consistently priced?