The MacBook Air vs the iPad Pro: Which one will be the best portable Apple device?

Tomorrow, Apple will release the redesigned MacBook Air and iPad Pro and I’ll be trying to get my hands on them both.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how both machines function. After my initial reaction to the announcement last week, I’m surprised by my feelings towards both machines.

I think it will be interesting which device I end up favoring more as I get to spend time with them. I’ll keep you posted on my feelings with each device so check back.

I’m not a Pro

I need to make one thing clear before I get into what I’m expecting from each machine: I’m not a Pro.

My “pro” use is writing, a small amount of photo editing, and casual video editing.

Writing doesn’t take a powerful machine to do.  It just takes a machine that’s capable of writing on it, the iPad has grown in that department through the years.

I hope that one day I will get deeper into photo and video editing, but right now I don’t use it much.

On my site roadmap, I plan to get into videos and podcasting.  Both of which will require a more intense system than one for writing. Still, both of those things I could currently do just as well on the systems I own now.

But it’s new tech and I’m excited.

I’m looking for the best system to portably do my writing, run the website, start photo and video editing, and which one excites me enough to keep it.

So will the new iPad Pro sway me or will it be the MacBook Air?

MacBook Air

I’ve really surprised myself with my sudden desire for this machine.  When it was announced, I felt like it was overpriced and not a machine that would really fit in my workflow any better than my current MacBook Pro from 2013 does.

But since then, I’m finding myself using my Mac more.  It is just much easier to run this website on a Mac than an iOS device.  So the machine started to draw me in.

Then reviews started to come out as well.  While none of the reviews are glowing reviews, everyone seems to think that this revision is pretty good.  I’d recommend checking out John Gruber’s or Jason Snell’s take on it.  They have great points of view on the machine.

Comparing the specs of my MacBook Pro 2013 and the MacBook Air, I would see some performance gains.

The MacBook Pro would offer me more of an increase, but it would also cost me more money as well.  I would love a MacBook Pro, but I think I could get by with a MacBook Air just fine as well based on what I do right now.

The slim design is also pleasing as well.  I’m just not sure if a laptop can pull me away from the new shiny.

iPad Pro

The iPad Pro, on the other hand, is the new hot thing on the streets.  For the price of the MacBook Air, I could get MacBook Pro performance.

I actually prefer to cut movies (I’ve only made vacation videos really) on my iPad anyway.  It just feels better, but I will concede that it’s not always easy to get everything done.

However, it’s not as easy to write my posts and use all the plug-ins that my site offers me on the iPad.  I haven’t found the right app to take the place of the browser (hit me up on twitter if you have a suggestion) either.

In my post yesterday about what it would take for the iPad to really be considered Pro I left out a better safari web browser.  The iPad version is more feature rich compared to the iOS, but it can’t hang with the desktop version either. I know that I could try out something like Chrome, but I had everything set up to my liking before the website.  So I wish that in iOS 13, Apple pushed Safari further.

Still, I can do lots of writing where ever I need to on the iPad.  I feel like the iPad can do so much, but it doesn’t do something as well as a Mac can.  Plus you can read, draw, surf, and take videos.  It can do so much that a Mac can’t.  (I know you can read and draw on a mac, but it is different).

I am more excited about the iPad Pro in regards to technology too.  The MacBook Air doesn’t really excite me the way Apple has crafted this iPad Pro.  I just wish I could run this damn site easier on one.

There Can Be Only One

iPad Pro vs MacBook Air, which one will win in the end?  Ultimately, I can’t afford both of these devices.  One will have to go back, but which one will it be?

My plan tomorrow is to get both and try them out.  I just hope that I can get to the Apple store before they run out of these things.

Check back tomorrow to see if I was able to get them both, and unboxing videos (I hope!) and first impressions.

Until then, make sure you’re following the site on Twitter and Facebook.  There’s also a Facebook Group I’m trying to get going, so join us over there as well

You can also sign up for our mailing list and get the weekly update sent directly to your e-mail so that you don’t miss any of the important things happening during the week.

[mc4wp_form id=”806″]

 

Update: Lots of grammar errors that some how snuck by me.  Sorry about that everyone.