New to this forum thing so bear with me.

Looking at upgrading my travel laptop with my 'amateur' photographic needs at the top of the list. Have recently been using a HP Envy 17" which weighs a ton and has a battery life akin to my dogs attention span! so am wanting to significantly downsize in weight without sacrificing performance. I am keen on a MacBook of some type as I am impressed with other Apple products to date (they just seem to work and have great battery life!).

I conducted a side by side comparison of 13" MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro Retina and 15" MacBook Pro Retina. I found the display comparison between Air and Pro to be like chalk and cheese with the Retina display way in front with resolution, colours, brightness and superior off angle viewing. When comparing the 13" Pro with 15" Pro, I found the larger to be lacking some brilliance with bright colours, especially whites. So am seriously thinking of purchasing the 13" Pro with Retina display, upgrading RAM to 16GB, processor to 3.1GHtz.

Planning to run Light Room or similar and I shoot everything in both RAW and JPEG. Upgrading soon to Canon 7D MK II so understand that I will have to buy a CF card reader too. What is the best way to download files - Card reader or USB cable?

Looking for as many pros and cons from users of MacBook Pro Retina before I make my final decision. May sound like I'm an Apple convert - not so. Still open to great advice, and appreciate any given. Keeping the HP for home use with its 17" display, performance and thirst for mains power.


Cheers,