Does a person really need two laptops? I'd like to think not. It seems like such a waste, but I've been thinking about getting a Macbook Air 11" lately despite my 15" Macbook Pro. I've bought a used a Macbook Air 13" (2010) before and it suited me well for the most part. It's actually perfect for university and high school students. The problem came when I wanted to do projects involving professional applications like Final Cut X. I knew the 13 Air would have some trouble, and it won't handle everything I would throw at it. My biggest concern was storage. It was too slow and inelegant to put all your project in an external hard drive. I sold the 13 and bought the 15 Pro from the refurbished section of the Apple store. It would take a couple of weeks for the 15 to arrive, so I bought an 11 Air as my main machine for the meantime. Apple got rid of the restocking fee and also wanted to try out the 11 Air. I just simply loved the portability of the 13 Air, so the 11 would be better for that.
The 15 Pro arrive and I had to return the 11 Air. It was such a big difference going from the two. The 15 is this gargantuan beast of a machine with a large screen and a heavy body while the 11 is this small runt that can do most of what I needed it to do. It's been several months now, and I'm longing for that 11 Air. I've been checking out the Apple store and Craigslist for a good price, and I'm tempted on getting one. Why get one while I have a perfectly awesome Pro? I simply fell in love with the portability. Now that I have school to do, portability is key. I carry the 15 Pro with me everywhere I go, and it just weighs down my backpack so much. I also have a hard time using it on the bus because I'm too paranoid about the spinning hard drive, and it makes me a big target for theft.
How would the logistics work though? Would I carry both laptops at the same time? That would make my backpack even heavier. I'd end up using the 11 Air 90% of the time when school is in session, and then the pro would be used during the summer or winter breaks. In that case, won't it make sense to get a iMac and an 11 Air? I'll have plenty or real estate with the iMac, and I can be mobile with the Air. I've thought about this before i bought my 15 Pro. I consider myself a digital nomad. I don't spend a whole lot of waking time at home. The iMac would hardly be used. At least I can bring the pro with me and then use it.
The most elegant solution is thunderbolt. I could connect an external monitor for editing and a fast external hard drive for storage and backup. The weakest link to this setup is the computing power of the laptop. The most decked out 11 Air is just not powerful enough. The best 13 Air is getting there though, and I'm sure the 15" Macbook Air would be the best compromise to power and portability, but how portable could a 15 air really be? I liked the 11 because of it's small footprint. The 15 Air would still have a large footprint but small weight. It would solve my "backpack too heavy" problem, but I won't consider it portable. And how would the storage work with the 15 Pro? I expect it to be SSD with 256GB as a reasonable option, but that's still not reasonably large enough.
I still haven't made my decision. I might just end up getting an Air for school purposes and using the 15 Pro for larger projects. It just seems like a shame that my Pro would be under-utilized while I have school. That's really the main thing that's stoping me. I don't like inefficiencies, and a Pro and Air combo would be inefficient.