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With tax season right around the corner and my work moving more towards Apple devices I've decided I need to learn more about Apple's. I'm aiming for the 13" styles but I'm unsure of going with a Macbook Pro or the Air. I was perusing the Apple refurb site and figured I could save some money going that route which I could use the money saved on the apple care plan. I've played around with both the Pro and Air but they both have the pros and cons. As much as I like the Macbook Pro for the feel the Air comes with an SSD. If replacing the HDD with an SSD didn't void the warranty I would go right for the Pro! Have any of you had experiences with the Apple refurbs straight from Apple? Possible pros and cons about the models I should know about?

To be honest, it all depends on budget, preference, and needs. The air would certainly require an external hard drive because of it's measly storage. I would go with the pro, just because it seems more office friendly, as the air seems like something to tote around a Starbucks looking for free wifi.

Black Applesauce wrote:

To be honest, it all depends on budget, preference, and needs. The air would certainly require an external hard drive because of it's measly storage. I would go with the pro, just because it seems more office friendly, as the air seems like something to tote around a Starbucks looking for free wifi.

True! I saw they had refurbs for both the Pro and Air for a little over 1,000 which is my price range so that's why I wanted to inquire upon it.

Personally, in spite of the fact that I'm in deep lust of the retina display, I would get a non-retina MacBook Pro for the ability upgrade various components. It's not that much bigger or heavier, and the ability to change components is a big win, IMHO.

For what it's worth, it's trivial to change the hard drive, memory, and battery with a little dexterity. There's even a site that has excellent guildes for every model (http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac).

I've had a Macbook Air since last year (when they finally put a decent processor in them) and would recommend it over the Macbook Pro if you plan to use the laptop as a secondary computer.

I only use the Air when away from my desktop and for this purpose it's very good. I used it for about two months while living away from home and it was fine for day to day tasks. I definitely missed my desktop by my Air was able to handle almost all the same tasks (minus gaming) as my desktop with reduced speed.

Choosing the Air would result in some compromises, but I think its an overall better value than the Pro.

Isn't an HDD upgrade in the non-retina Macbook Pro OK? It used to be back in the Arrandale days, but I admit the design might have changed.

Edit: looks really easy to get at in the current-gen non-Retina devices too: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+ ... nt/10761/1