Art Student: Macbook Air or Macbook Pro with Retina

I'm basically an art and design student, and in the coming months, will purchase a mac for my needs, although I'm unsure which is better suited for my needs

photoshop - editing photos and the like
casual use (Internet,Microsoft Office, Photos+Music)
relatively good display (it matters to me somewhat)
snappy performance
relatively light

Originally, I was edging towards the Macbook air, for it's lightness and it's better suited to casual use, however, as i'll be using photoshop and the macbook pro retina is more lighter now is it a better choice? (No PC alternatives please)

Reply 1

Iqbal007

Original post by Graham 14

The Pro has the better specs...air has the ssd to help its performance. But the Pro is supposed to be more powerful and hence you should see a performance difference.
And take into account the fact Macs are not upgrade friends.

Reply 2

Camoxide

^the Retina pro also has a SSD.

Retina Pro all the way. Much better spec'd than the air and near enough the same weight now a days.

Reply 3

shuaib7860

Hey I don't know if you have had a look at the surface pro 3 but this a real viable alternative to these two for arts students. The surface pro 3 is a full blown laptop in the form of a tablet so it has dual purpose but this best standout feature for an arts student would be the pen surely it's amazing. Also recently Adobe and Microsoft have been partnering quite closely and if you don't believe me have a look at this video to see the possibilities with the surface pro 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlLR9ANGsOo