I have a MacBook Air with a 1.7 Dual Core i7, which turbo boosts to 3.3GHz when required, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD. I wouldnt say that was a machine only designed for surfing the internet and writing documents, would you?[DOUBLEPOST=1376253455,1376253377][/DOUBLEPOST]
The newest MacBook Pros (retina) do not have a CD drive. Nor does the Mac Mini. Or the forthcoming Mac Pro.
I cant remember the last time I used a CD or DVD.[DOUBLEPOST=1376254215][/DOUBLEPOST]To answer the OPs question, is the MacBook Air a capable editing machine? Yes it is. I can use mine (specs in my post above) to edit in Final Cut Pro X perfectly fine. Those who talk about it not having enough internal storage space dont know what they are talking about. You dont edit and render on the same internal drive that runs the program in the first instance. You render files and edit on an external disk, referred to as a scratch disk - preferably not USB at all, since USB sends data in packets. You want a constant stream of data for video editing, hence FireWire800 or ThunderBolt are preferred.
I know plenty of people who use a MacBook Air as their only system. At home its docked with a larger external display, an external keyboard and mouse, external peripherals etc, and it makes a high spec computer setup, and plenty of people I know edit in this way.
So, although the Air is a very cable editing machine, should you get one primarily for editing? No, no you shouldn't.
The MacBook Air is a portable machine. Excellent for on-the-go usage. Great for reviewing footage and basic edits. For larger projects, whether in iMovie or FCPX, the render files are larger, and the time taken to render is higher. This means the CPU works harder for longer periods of time, and what does this cause? HEAT.
Although the Air has good cooling, and the new Haswell CPUs are much more efficient, the tolerances on the Air arent as good as the Pro range.
The MacBook Pros have a better cooling system and can tolerate higher temperatures. Hence the reason why they are 'Pro'. They are built and geared more towards being portable workhorse machines.
Although the MacBook Pro's may have slightly higher specs, its not only the specs in the machines that you need to consider when choosing one as an editing machine - any MacBook Air or Pro you buy from 2012 onwards is more then adequate enough to edit on. Its the cooling system and its heat tolerances.
The MacBook Air is a superbly portable machine. I have one myself - the max spec 11" model. I use it for general surfing, and light edits when I'm out and about. However, I dont feel its built to be a workhorse machine for full on editing. Hence the reason why Im waiting on the new MacBook Pro refresh coming in the next month or two, where I will pick up a 15" max spec retina to use as my main workhorse, my main editing machine.
So in answer to your question between a MBP and a MBA - if its your primary machine, make in the MacBook Pro. If its a secondary machine to supplement your main editing machine, then get the Air.
I have a full review of the new MacBook Air ready for upload, and it'll be live on my channel in the next few days if you're interested in seeing it before you make a decision
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You shouldn't have your project files on the same drive as your editor in the first instance. You need a scratch disk that holds all your project and render files.
You do realise SSD's have a much more limited lifespan then conventional Hard Drives? With the amount of write operations rendering takes, you're drastically shortening the life of your internal SSD. An external Hard Drive is fine for editing, and FireWire800, or Thunderbolt, transfer data more then fast enough for your editor anyway - so its like the drive was internally attached to your system in the first instance.[DOUBLEPOST=1376254897][/DOUBLEPOST]
The Air can do everything that the Pro is able to do. Its just how efficiently its able to do it, and how long its able to do it for before heat becomes an issue, since the cooling systems in the Pro range are better then the Air due to the extra space available within the chassis.
just sheer POWER!!
