I know I've previously claimed I'd stop bothering this fine community over whether or not I should get a Macbook Pro, which one to get, etc but this is the final post as I'm ordering the system within a week and my situation has somewhat changed in a unforeseen way.

My intended use and requirements for the system is the following:

• Use on Computer Science degree (programming, etc.)
• Dual-booting the OS / use of VM and all that stuff, etc.
• Some game development projects in my spare time
• Intended to last until the final year of my 4 year degree when I may upgrade

The two I'm considering for purchase are:

1. Macbook Air (13-inch, i7, 8GB RAM)
2. Macbook Pro (15-inch, i7, 16GB RAM)

The kicker is that due to certain events I'll only be £150 worse off if I go for the Macbook Pro.

Is the £150 worth it in the long run?

I honestly couldn't imagine doing any real work or anything even slightly productive on such a small screen, so I guess that tips my vote towards the 15 inch one?

If you want to do anything other than surf the web, then you should be going pro.

Air is pretty much a tablet with no touchscreen and a great keyboard attached.

@freezyfrog: If those are the only two choices, you should go with the MacBook Pro indefinitely. The extra memory will likely not be that useful, but the larger screen certainly will. It's rare these days for software to use over 8GB of memory. The extra 8GB (16GB total) could be useful though for certain situations in software development. It's good you're aware that dual booting MacOS and Windows on it is important for Computer Science. You will learn to have a broad experience with languages, and VB will likely be one.

Should also note, I work in an Enterprise environment and fix MacBooks all the time. The Airs tend to overheat much more than the Pros.

Sounds like the Pro is the way to go for you. I have a mid-2012 Air and it's a fantastic ultrabook but you seem to need more a workstation than a compact package.

My MacBook Pro lasted me 7 and a half years. I couldn't imagine using a 13 inch screen for that long.

I love my 13" mid-2012 MacBook Air. It's really not that small of a screen! It would work great for everything you've described EXCEPT dual-booting. I'm using my Air for my comp engr degree and it works great, but I have a windows PC at home, so I've never tried dual-booting on the air. Somehow I feel it may overwhelm the poor guy. VMs work fine though.

Overall - up to you! I like the slimness and lower weight. I happen to value that and the lower price more than the performance difference since I have my PC at home for when performance is needed. So, ultimately, it depends mostly on your situation. Helpful answer, I know!

The 15" Pro by far. I went from a 13" Pro to a 15" Pro and it is night and day in terms of productivity. You can fit significantly more stuff on screen on the 15" (especially if you use scaling on those Retina models. You can make your screen scale to have the space of a 1920x1200 screen, but even on the default resolution setting it will help). Especially with how light the new retina models are, the difference in weight will not be a huge deal but the extra screen real estate will be hugely useful, especially for CS (which is what I do too).

The small difference in price you mention is worth it for the retina display alone, let alone the extra RAM. I would not recommend getting less than 16GB of RAM on a machine you will be using for development. On my Mac, I use around 11GB in my average workload under OS X 10.10. 10.10 is a bit of a memory eater too. It is really nice to use though and a nice step up from Mavericks (10.9). The full public release for it should be pretty soon. I am using a beta version.

Also, I just remembered that PM you sent me like two months back that I read and then forgot to respond to. You're very welcome. Just shoot me a PM if you have any questions with setting things up once you get a machine.

I've done a lot of web dev with an air, it is actually a very popular machine among professional developers. You don't need a gigantic screen for programming.

You can always plug a second monitor at home.

Coming from a guy with a CS degree and a macbook pro: If you only plan to get a single machine, get the pro ;) Programming in an IDE benefits from some screen real estate.

@ben_h: Aside from his macbook it seems that he needs to get a sesame street character as avatar. The secret sign of all CS guys it seems :D

I am a CS major and I use a 13" Air. It's more practical than the 11" and more portable than the 15". The power difference doesn't affect me much for most scenarios. If you're leaning towards graphics/game dev stuff though you prob want the MBP.

@ben_h: @jgf: It's a good thing Kermit the Frog made appearances in sesame street.

I just got a 13" MacBook Air a week or two ago ($750 for students at Best Buy!), and I've really been loving it for word processing, using the Internet, and playing WoW. For the stuff you mentioned, though, you'll want a more powerful machine.

I have the last 17 inch MBP, blah blah, wanted CD drive and blah blah. That was two years ago.

I'm betting you're talking about the newer 15 inch Retina which Apple JUST brought out with an hour longer battery life and better Haswell processor.

The Macbook Air just got a refresh as well.

Roumors are cool and all, but while I don't know what's coming out - I know that having 16 Gigs, more space and a quad core is great.

I doubt you were looking into having those in the 13 inch - and if you were, go for it! especially for the windows duel booting. I use Parallels myself, as my CS friend, but I have 16 gigs in my macbook, eight gigs could suffice if you wanted to dual boot though.

The Retina is the best bang for your buck - especially if you're not planning on traveling.

Are you planning on traveling any time soon?

Bought the 15'' Pro with dedicated graphics card a few weeks ago (2560 USD). Upgraded from a 2012 Air. There isn't much I miss about the air. The weight difference is not noticeable when I'm carrying the laptop in a backpack.

My vote goes toward the 15'' pro just because the extra screen is wonderful. However, not all apps are compatible with the high-res screen (Hearthstone, I'm looking at you).

Honestly, even using photoshop or large scale image editting (raws for cameras, etc), the Air has enough gusto. The fan in my Air rarely turned on unless I was multitasking with a flash/html5 video running in the background while using photoshop. If you have the money, go with the pro.

Just because no one else have suggested it, why not get a Windows laptop? I know the Macs are shiny and stylish and you know that you get a decent computer but you do pay a premium for it.

I got a 15 inch, 1.6ghz, 512MB RAM, 40GB harddrive, Radon Mobility 9700 laptop when I started university, but that was a while ago...between the Macs I would pick a pro if you intend to use it for 4 years. An Air is nice but it will more quickly feel old I think.

@freezyfrog: lol, now you're set to go.

@dagas: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-windows-ultrabook/

Let's compare that to a Macbook Air. Sounds pretty comparable to me in price and specs.

I have an 11" Air, 13" Air, and a new 15" Pro Retina. The one I wouldn't want to give up is the 15", the display is just too good...spring for the Retina model if you can, there is a vast difference between the low resolution screen and 2880x1800. It's especially nice when using Windows in Boot Camp for 3DS Max, there is so much space for activities.

So I went for the 15-inch for anyone who is curious.

Now I'll probably ask you for advice as to what to do next but I'll leave that for another day and a separate topic.

@FreezyFrog On the subject of what to do next: before you spend a bunch of money on a copy of Windows and a copy of Office for Mac be sure to check to see if you can get them cheaply through the university. The bookstore at the college I attended offered them to students at an incredible discount (~$10 discounted vs ~$300 retail for the version offered). There is even a chance you may be able to get an education discount on the Mac either directly through the university or through the Apple website.

@colorbrandon: It's just too bad the trackpad is awful.

@horseman6: Agreed, every windows track pad I've used is terrible and has lack-luster palm detection (see "how to turn off trackpad gestures" in google and you will see what I'm going on about). All jokes aside, people often mistaken bad track pad on a mac with the lack of clickthrough, which I will admit is a problem and is holding the OS back from reaching economical, click parity with a windows laptop.

What an unusual percentage of Muppets/Sesame Street avatars in this thread.

@horseman6: Yup. As a diehard Windows guy who also does Mac stuff for work, the track pads on Apple laptops alone are worth the premium. I've never had a straight up Windows laptop that had a track pad I'd consider good enough to not want a portable mouse.