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The new 13" MacBook Pro with Retina does not have a CD/DVD "Superdrive" installed. They do offer a USB Superdrive under accessories for Mac (sorry, I can't put a link in here). The MacBook Pro laptops in 13" and 15" WITHOUT Retina display still have Superdrives built-in.

• Answered by Robert C from Glendale
• 10 25, 12
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I just purchased the 13" for the fiancé based on the fact that her work boss has the 15" and she said that thing is a beast. So, I talked to him and he said, "I wish I had bought the 13" this one is just a bit to large to travel". With the retina display you can pack more onto the screen because everything is so darn clear. Go 13-retina for sure.

• Answered by Timothy N from Monkton
• 11 1, 12
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The main advantage of the 256 GB flash drive, sometimes called a SSD drive, is it's super fast. Applications will open with barely one bounce in the Dock. It's also smaller and lighter. This is important to some power users that have disk intensive programs like some video editing software or if someone wants peak performance from their computer. For the typical user, it's not that much better for everyday use to justify triple the cost of a regular hard drive. If you have several movies and a big iTunes music collection and a bunch of games, you'll quickly fill up a 256 GB drive, where the 500 GB gives you more breathing room. You'll be able to have a couple of seasons of your favorite TV shows, a some HD movies and a lot of music and still have room for games.

As far as the difference between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro., the Air is smaller, thinner, and lighter, but this comes at a cost. The processor is slower and you won't have a SuperDrive to load CDs and DVDs. The low end MacBook Pro has a faster processor, more hard drive space, a SuperDrive (except for the new Retina model), with double the USB slots, a SDXC slot, and a better video card, and it's cheaper than the comparable MacBook Air.

For the everyday student user, look seriously at the 13" MacBook Pro. It will give you the power and flexibility to use for years to come. This model is the best selling of all Apple computers for a reason.

• Answered by William W from Hesperus
• 10 31, 12
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mac book pro is a little fatter but the air is thinner but the pro has a disk drive and air does not

• Answered by Leonid B from Staten Island
• 05 18, 12
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I just got my macbook air 13 inch... I was wondering about the pro as well, money wasn't a issue for me, but the matter of how convenient and its functionality for me. I'm so glad I got the air over the pro simply because it's so freaking light and the battery life is so awesome. Solid state drive is definitely a must... you would think it's not much and storage space is more important, but trust me..booting up OS in less than 30 seconds is absolutely fascinating... and going to sleep-wake takes less than 1 second. transferring files back and forth is effortless.. I upgraded mine to a 8 gb ram so i can run multiple programs without lag. I bought the air to do daily tasks like blogging, reading news, writing up stuff, surf the web, and casually play light flash based games. I even tried diablo 3 last night and it worked pretty well with medium settings... but i uninstalled it soon after because i have low storage. I intend to buy SDXC card online 64gb SDXC for 70$ or so, or another SSD to attach to my external casing on the go.

choice is yours... performance vs convenience...

IMHO, a college student = convenience.

I also did music editing a few days ago with my Air without problems ;)

• Answered by Youseok K from 해운대구
• 07 5, 12
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Hi Connor,

You say that:

"The only things that I will use my laptop for is writing papers, editing photos, downloading music/apps, and surfing the web (YouTube, Facebook, etc.). "

In which case you probably do not need a high performance laptop like the Macbook Pro.

The MacBook Pro does have a lot more storage space than the Air. However, that's because it uses a much slower spinning hard drive. The Air uses a more modern type of storage instead that is quieter, has no moving parts (making it harder to damage), and is much faster. But it is a lot smaller.

You can configure the MacBook Air to have quite a lot of data storage (up to 512 GB), but to be honest, you may be better off buying a default configuration. You may find that 128 or 256 GB is plenty.

If it turns out that the storage space is too small, you can always buy an external hard drive, which are available cheaply at most electronics stores. In fact, I suggest you buy one anyway and use it to set up a backup using Time Machine, especially if you're using your mac for assignments. Time Machine is very easy to use and it will protect your schoolwork from being lost if your computer were to break down.

The other notable difference difference is that the MacBook Pro has a CD/DVD drive while the Air does not. If you use your computer to play DVDs or music CDs this may be a problem. But when you buy an Air you can also buy an external "SuperDrive" that plugs into a USB port. It's not an ideal solution, but it works.

In summary: the choice basically comes down to the size and speed of your hard drive. The air is small and fast, while the pro is slow but large. But whichever one you choose, I suggest you buy a large external hard drive anyway.


I hope this helps!

- Liam

• Answered by Liam H
• 06 14, 12
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No, It does not. Apple does offer a CD Drive in the Regular 15 inch Macbook Pro.

• Answered by Nikhil S P from Poway
• 10 7, 12
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You can't! The ram is soldered to the board. I wanted to get this laptop as well, but this is a deal breaker for me. If the ram ever goes bad on you, it would have to be serviced by apple so make sure to get apple care if you get it to at least extend the warranty by 2 years

• Answered by Radoslav R from Toronto
• 06 14, 12
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It is the best decision you would ever make in your life...your life productivity will increase multi-fold using Apple MacBook Pro Retina. I recommend the following:
1. Buy the max hard disk space available if you plan to download your pictures and videos from your iPhone and iPad AND old emails. I bought a 256GB hard disk and have only 16GB left. FIrst analysis is how much space you will occupy in the new MacBook and decide accordingly. You cannot upgrade later.
2. You don't have to install Parallels at all.
3. iWork is great, but you don't have Access. If you need Access, then I suggest you install NeoOffice. Cost is US$ 10 per year. It has everything and more than Office Professional and it will work flawlessly on Retina Display. I evaluated all the other Free Office softwares and chose NeoOffice.
4. I have Parallels and my old Office 2003 Professional, but seldom use it. I use NeoOffice everyday, but miss the feature that iWork would offer me to upload all iWork files automatically on iCloud! I already have bought Keynote and plan to buy Pages and Numbers soon. Unfortunately Apple has stopped trial versions of iLife. I wish they would allow trial before purchase.
5. I do miss Outlook and the ease of emails in Outlook. Mail in Apple is not great. Other than Outlook, you can give up Office.
6. Of course you have one more choice - you can choose Office for Mac including Outlook - NO Access -, over iWork.
I hope this helps.

• Answered by Ruumi D
• 05 21, 13
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Hi

Flash storage is essentially a really big USB memory stick instead of using a standard Hard Drive which stores information on disks inside the drive. here are the Pros/cons to flash:-

Faster to access information from the drive
More realiable as they have a lower failure rate
Even more reliable as if the mac is dropped beyond repair you stand a very good chance of recovering your information without issue as their are no disks inside which are usually shattered/scratched resulting in a loss of information
help to make a unit lighter and more portable due to small size

Expensive
Small sizes

hope this helps

• Answered by Simon F from Darwen
• 10 9, 12
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