2011 MacBook Pro vs 2011 MacBook Air: Why I bought both and returned one

I had been waiting for Thursday February 24, 2011 for a very long time.

I was in desperate need to replace my aging MacBook and all signs were pointing to a new MacBook Pro refresh on that date, so I figured just wait and get the latest and greatest laptop Apple has to offer.

I eagerly arrived at the Apple store knowing exactly what I wanted. 17 Inch. 2.3GHz i7. Anitglare Display. 

And that is exactly what I walked out of the store with.

A MONSTER of a laptop. This thing could launch the space shuttle. And the Thunderbolt technology was just icing on the cake. Technically I had just purchased a desktop replacement for my month old 27 inch iMac.

Which therein lies the issue.

On my drive home from the Apple store, with the new MacBook Pro and the "free" printer in the trunk, I realized I had fallen once again for the Apple hype machine. Apparently I do this quite often as the collection of iDevices I have indicates.

This thing was TOO powerful for my needs. In reality I wasn't going to launch a space shuttle. Or edit HD video. Or do any serious photo editing and I certainly didn't need to replace my month old iMac. 

What I needed was a fast, mobile computer to replace my once fast, mobile computer.

I don't think I even shut the car engine down when I got home as I went inside, grabbed two of my three sons, and headed back to the Apple store. I had convinced myself, sight unseen, that I would return the Macbook Pro and "just grab a 13 inch MacBook Air".

I had never touched an Air before. Knew very little of its abilities. Sure I knew it was light and that it had no Superdrive. Maybe that was what kept me away. "How can you have a laptop with no DVD drive?". Crazy I know.

I successfully returned the Pro and bought the Air. Along with the Superdrive, Ethernet Adapter and a 1TB portable harddrive to use for data. My thought here was that since the Air "only" had 128GB flash memory, I would just use a small portable HDD as the main data drive. Sounded logical and so far, this setup is serving me well.

When I got home and opened the Air up, finally seeing it and actually using it for the first time, I was BLOWN AWAY. Almost instant boot (Im talking at least as fast as my iPad). It weights practically nothing. Thin (I am afraid I might snap it in half by accident). And guess what, it runs all the applications I need in my day to day life, extremely fast (faster than my old MacBook - which I am going to miss). Keynote, MS Office 2011, Pages, Mail, Safari, Photoshop,... they all run just as they would on the Pro. Maybe I can't run all at the same time like I could on the Pro but I never do and don't see why I would need to.

Now technically I didn't open the Pro but I am positive I would have been "blown away" as well but there was something about this Air that just made me feel like I made the right decision. I cannot put my finger on it but there is just something "right" about this machine and how it fits my needs perfectly.

I used to have to have the newest, fastest, biggest, bestest of my tech (within reason of course). But something changed in me on that ride home from the Apple store with the Pro in the trunk. 

I gave up.

I realized I didn't need the "newest, fastest, biggest, bestest". That was a race I would never win. 

What I needed was a product that fits my needs.

The MacBook Air is that product.

 

 

 

 

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