I agree that the MBP is the obvious choice since it used to be just a hundred more . The graphics of the 28 W chips rMBP 13 , tb 13 trump those in the 15 W chips nontbMBP , Air , XPS 13 and Stealth , although both are pretty spartan compared with a dGPU 15 . That said , the Air used to have the best battery life out of the range for a few years by several hours which is nice to have in a profession where some might be working away from power outlets on a regular basis . But more importantly , it ' s not always up to you . If the guy in inventory gives your department a lowish budget , you might have to stick with an Air if you want to stay with Apple . <| sep |> Nothing there seemed to helped , but thank you for your input !